Can we make the sprites shake and jiggle in the same way that is done in Dungeon Squad? Is it possible in rpg-maker?
Examples:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1669536618863271936
https://twitter.com/i/status/1668527045046046720
I have zero knowledge on sprite creation so please have patience while bearing with me.
That depends on how many different sprite frames an artist for a project is willing and able to draw for a single character.
Sprites essentially work like making a bunch of flip-note books for each action. This can be as many or as few sheets long as the artist wants, give or take how many frames is required to complete the action cycle. For instance, this is what a (very) basic (and poorly-drawn) walking cycle would look for a character walking to the right:
Since it’s only two frames in a loop, there isn’t much room for jiggle animation while walking, but that can be fixed by adding more frames. The issue with this, however, is that then you’d have to make as many frames for walking in each cardinal direction as well (plus diagonal directions if the game engine allows for such movement), though some work strain could be reduced by mirroring left and right sprites.
That isn’t to mention all the other flipbooks you’d have to make for other actions. That isn’t even mentioning potential software limitations in engines such as RPGmaker, which may or may not allow for sprite animations with a ton of frames (I don’t use RPGmaker so idk).
TLDR: Yes*, but it puts a huge strain on development teams, especially for solo projects.
*Assuming the engine a game is on allows it.
If you have a character in a few similar stances, like standing facing forward but the legs are in different positions, then some animations (like breast jiggling or hair waving) could be the same. In that case, you wouldn’t have to re-do the animation for those parts for each of those related stances - you could copy-paste, or make a sprite for just that part and layer it on top. Of course, someone who’s bouncing side to side is going to have different jiggle physics that someone standing still.