The first month of the year is always a month of great news and great new features here in CREY. Today, we’re improving our platform by introducing new Animated NPCs – In this article we’ll explain how to implement them in your games.
(PS: If you are a newbie take a look at the end of this post to know a little more about NPCs´ world)
How to create an animated NPCs on CREY Platform
Here’s a quick guide on how to use Animated NPCs. You just need to follow this simple step:
- Open the library and search for “Character”. Find the Animated NPC you want to use in the game.
- Place the character in the scene and double click them to open the settings window.
- There’s 3 settings for the character’s animation;
- A dropdown list of all possible animations.
- Current Animation, an index value you can use to change the currently used animation. In game you could use this with a Variable-based setup. The value relates to the order of animations in the dropdown list, between 0 (Idle) and 10 (Run).
- Play Speed, which adjusts the speed of the current animation.
By default, animations will loop. So if you want an animation to play just once, or stop playing after a certain point, consider creating a system to change the Current Animation back to 0, which is the Idle pose.
The Animated NPC can be affected by all other Gameplay Props like a normal prop – You could set it up with a Directional Mover so you have your NPC walking around, spin around on the spot with a Rotator, and so on.
You can also check out this demonstration of what can be done with the NPC system to get some inspiration!
What are NPCs and why are they important?
NPCs, or non-player characters, are characters in a videogame that are controlled by the game’s AI rather than by the player. They can serve a variety of roles in a game, such as providing information, offering quests or missions, or serving as enemies to be defeated.
Their presence is important because they help to create a rich and immersive game world by providing characters for the player to interact with and helping to advance the game’s story and objectives. Additionally, NPCs can provide a sense of realism and depth to a game by creating the illusion of a living, breathing world with inhabitants who have their own motivations and agendas.