I love games and music, and one of my favourite game genres is RTS. I don’t know which led to the other, but one thing’s for sure: RTS music slaps. I would argue that it is one of the best genres for awesome, listenable music that you can put in your playlist. For example, RPGs have great music too but their soundtracks are too eclectic, as they are strongly themed to specific levels or characters. Action games can also have great music but they are very situational, with a mix of stealth, action and boss tracks. RTS games have a perfect blend of strong yet consistent themes, and the gameplay gives the music plenty of space to develop itself, not being dictated by the action onscreen.

In this post we’ll review great RTS music from its golden age, from the mid-90’s to early-mid-00’s. We’ll see how diverse studios and composers take different approaches to what style of music to use, and how they serve the game.

A brief history of golden age RTS music

The start of the RTS golden age (variously reckoned to be somewhere between Dune II and Command and Conquer) coincided with the wide availability of CD technology, and RTS music rode this technological wave and showcased high-fidelity soundtracks. The genre is perfect for music, its 10-30 minute gameplay sessions allowing uninterrupted, extended play. While Dune II had to use limited chiptune, by the time games like Command and Conquer came around, everyone jumped onto the CD audio bandwagon, since music is so key to RTS games.

The golden age is often characterized by the fierce rivalry between Westwood (Command and Conquer) and Blizzard (Warcraft, Starcraft), but was by no means a two-horse race, with quality releases from many other studios such as Ensemble (Age of Empires), Relic (Homeworld, later Dawn of War and Company of Heroes), Cavedog (Total Annihilation), and not to mention the numerous clones and contenders. The best of these entries also had fantastic music.

Great RTS games continued being released into the 2000’s but the genre tapered off in prominence. The 2010’s saw a brief resurgence with Starcraft II and various Age of Empires remasters, but new titles became rare. Nevertheless, the genre is healthier than it seems, with dedicated followings and titles like Age of Empires 2 and Total War occasionally appearing in top-50 most played charts. And throughout the years, great music remained a hallmark of the genre.

Let’s look at a few prominent composers/studios and how their music evolved.

Frank Klepacki / Westwood

Frank Klepacki, Westwood’s main composer for most of their RTS titles, started early with the studio, at 17 years of age. His early work included that of Dune II, which adapted music from the Dune movie. The music recreates the orchestral, synth-heavy and bleak soundscapes, but is very much constrained by the chiptune technology of its time. The advent of CD audio definitely expanded the capabilities of the music, and its remake, Dune 2000, showcases the musical lineage much more clearly.

The two Dune game tracks are not direct remakes but contain a lot of common elements. You can clearly identify the influence of the film score in the Dune 2000 version.

Klepacki’s most notable work came with Command and Conquer and its spinoff Red Alert. These games established his signature style, mixing electronic sounds and samples with rock and metal riffs, styles that are difficult to achieve if not for high-fidelity CD audio. Hell March is the breakout hit, wonderfully blending sounds of soldiers marching into a heavy metal beat, but Act on Instinct is a better example of this signature style. Its mix of newscaster-style voice clips and industrial metal perfectly evokes the game’s modern, techno-thriller setting.

Compared to its contemporary strategy games, which were slow-paced and had staid or somewhat dorky fantasy settings, Command and Conquer was fast, fresh and hip, thanks in no small part to its soundtrack.

Tiberian Sun shifted the series to a darker, apocalyptic, and slower-paced setting, and this is reflected in its soundtrack. Gone are the pumping beats and voice samples, replaced by moody synths and lots of ambient sounds.

What Lurks

In this soundtrack Klepacki collaborated with Jarrid Mendelson, who really came into his own in Emperor: Battle for Dune. An underrated game overshadowed by its contemporaries, Emperor represented many firsts for Westwood’s RTS games: a truly 3D engine, 3 radically different factions, and the use of different musical themes for each faction. Klepacki returns to the series for House Atreides, giving them a Dune-conventional theme, and prolific studio veteran David Arkenstone contributes an excellent heavy metal soundtrack for House Harkonnen. Mendelson’s dark synth House Ordos soundtrack was a standout, perfectly capturing the faction’s cold, ever-scheming personality.

Not An Option

This per-faction soundtrack approach culminated with Generals, which - owing to being made by a studio that had just a small part of Westwood lineage - was created by a different, yet very capable team: industry veteran Bill Brown and occasional collaborator Mikael Sandgren. Brown’s experience with past award-winning soundtracks like Rainbow Six is on full display in the USA faction’s orchestral-electronic tracks, evoking the techno-thriller themes of the USA being the good guys fighting international terrorists using high tech. The bigger surprise is in the excellent tracks for the China and Global Liberation Army factions, which feature tastefully-used ethnic samples and styles. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a game whose factions have big, bombastic personalities.

Post-golden-age, Westwood’s franchises enjoyed further quality releases in Command & Conquer 3 and Red Alert 3. For genre and music fans, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is particularly worth getting, with original and remixed versions of classic tracks. Meanwhile the fanbase continues to hope for a continuation of Generals.

Cavedog, Relic

In the late 90’s, during the peak of the RTS golden age, two studios emerged with stunning RTS releases and a dramatic approach to its music: Cavedog and Relic. Both debuted with award-winning titles, and were lauded for their atmospheric music, which set new bars for video game music.

Cavedog’s Total Annihilation, a 3D game featuring vast robot battles, had an unusual musical direction. Composer Jeremy Soule took the unprecedented approach of using a real orchestra to perform the epic, sweeping themes, evoking imagery such as crashing waves, verdant forests and sombre wastelands. This helped the soundtrack stand out from its rivals, and paid off well, winning best music awards, and some reviews even singled out the music as a highlight of the game.

Relic’s Homeworld set new benchmarks for atmospheric gameplay. With a space opera story that deals with heavy themes like genocide and cosmic horror, and remarkable visuals made with the assistance of astronomist consultants, it is indeed high praise when many reviewers said that Paul Ruskay’s music was on par with the rest of the game’s quality. In addition to ambient space drones and a prominent use of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Ruskay effectively uses the desert metaphor to describe space nomads, using Arabic and South Asian musical elements to evoke the utter isolation and desolation of space.

Although Cavedog met an untimely demise, Soule’s critically acclaimed works made him one of the most highly sought-after composers in the industry. His signature style of moving orchestral pieces brings some much needed colour to Relic’s next RTS franchise, Dawn of War. The game takes place on an otherwise conventional ground-based battlefield with small unit numbers, and it’s the haunting choirs in the soundtrack that remind the player that this was 40k, the grand, grimdark universe spanning millions of worlds. The Space Marine themes in particular give the faction its unique dignitas.

Post-golden-age, Relic reached newer heights with the Company of Heroes franchise, leaving the Dawn of War and Homeworld franchises in relative neglect with sporadic new releases. The creators of Total Annihilation resurfaced to create the Supreme Commander series, which had its moment in the sun. Looking back, these were two studios who proved that RTS - and video games in general - can evoke dark, powerful emotions, through the power of music.

Blizzard

The early golden age of RTS was dominated by Westwood and Blizzard’s rivalry. For a time the two studios released frequently, with each outdoing the other in rapid succession. The two studios also had very different philosophies, which engendered fierce loyalty among fans, and endless debates on which was superior. At least in terms of music, Blizzard started out behind - while Warcraft II had a well-crafted, medieval-orchestral soundtrack, it was notably shorter and less varied than Westwood’s similar offerings. The belated release of StarCraft saw a marked improvement. Here the composing team turned out a fantastic soundtrack, with distinct styles per faction. The Terran space cowboy themes were a standout, but the Zerg themes also deserve praise for the way dark synths and screaming guitars give a sinister, insect-like feel. One shortcoming is that the soundtrack is still rather short, at only 3 tracks per faction.

Blizzard took a big step up with Warcraft III’s soundtrack, taking the winning formula from StarCraft and notching it up to 4 unique faction themes. This time round the faction themes were done by different composers - like Westwood did earlier with Emperor: Battle for Dune - with each composer putting their personal touch on the outstanding themes. The Undead themes were my favourite, with catchy beats yet creepy atonal riffs, reminiscent to music from Diablo.

Blizzard were known for quality yet infrequent releases, which is both a blessing and a curse. The only notable RTS contribution post Warcraft III was StarCraft II, which featured an overall greatly enhanced soundtrack, especially the Terran faction’s more faithful rendition of the space cowboy theme. With Wings of Liberty being free to play, it is well worth checking out for RTS music fans.

Ensemble Studios

Ensemble’s Age of Empires series took a unique approach to RTS games. By leaning heavily into historical accuracy, they carved out a strong niche, starting with the great yet somewhat janky Age of Empires, and perfected with Age of Empires II, a game so compelling that its remakes continue strong to this day. This was followed by the interesting spinoff Age of Mythology towards the end of the golden age.

The games span thousands of years of human history, and this vast scope represented a big challenge for its music. How do you represent music from a time so distant and alien, and across dozens of different cultures around the globe, while still functioning well as game music for modern players? The music team headed by Stephen Rippy seems to have chosen a middle path, combining the sounds and styles of ancient instruments with a modern sensibility to create unique soundtracks.

Without being familiar with historical music, I cannot fairly judge the success of this approach, but the quality of the music definitely advanced by leaps and bounds with every iteration; AoE’s music was passable yet interesting, AoE2 had some bangers mixed in with average ones, but AoM’s soundtrack was exceptional, with some reviewers stating it was one of the best of the year. It had diverse period instruments like the ney flute and tabla drums mixed with modern electric basses, guitars and keyboards, with high production values that feature some live orchestral pieces.

Ensemble would go on to release Age of Empires III before fizzling out, but the franchise lived on stubbornly, enjoying remakes and expansions to this day. The Definitive Editions of the classic games are well worth checking out especially if you missed the originals, and look out for the same treatment for Age of Mythology.

Tech Race

The golden age of RTS saw rapid innovation as virtually every studio brought new features to the table. This was the case for music too; studios got better and better at creating good music, with new techniques and higher fidelity.

Audio Tech

Early RTS games like Dune II and Warcraft used MIDI or AdLib-style chiptune music, but by Warcraft II, released just two years later, Blizzard went with a SoundFont-rendered orchestral soundtrack, with much more realistic instrument sounds. Westwood leap-frogged Blizzard in this regard, releasing Command and Conquer earlier in the same year, but with high fidelity CD music with a mix of recorded and electronic instruments and samples, albeit in a totally different style. Total Annihilation released the following year blew everything out of the water with a real orchestral score, and this represented a tech pinnacle: soon almost every studio followed suit, using real instruments and high quality digital alternatives and high fidelity audio.

Dune II (1992)

Warcraft (1994)

Warcraft II (1996)

Command and Conquer (1996)

Total Annihilation (1997)

If you consider that OPL was first released in the mid-80’s and gaming consoles did not get universal CD-quality audio until the 6th generation around 2000, RTS games managed to do in 3 years (Warcraft to Total Annihilation) what it took 15 years for the rest of the industry to do, for audio tech, which is simply astounding.

Production Values

The RTS golden age coincided with tremendous growth in the gaming industry. At the dawn of this time, studios were small and plucky, but by the early 00’s and the end of the golden age, staff and budgets ballooned to rival that of large Hollywood blockbuster productions. Music production value tracked this, going from a single in-house composer to multi-person teams producing high quality, multi-theme soundtracks, sometimes enlisting veteran composers that also worked in TV and film.

The earliest RTS games like Dune II, Warcraft and Command and Conquer featured a single in-house composer, producing music in a way that’s more or less the same as any other game project - a single, multi-track soundtrack, reflecting the theme of the whole game. Warcraft II pioneered, and StarCraft exemplified a new approach: per-faction soundtrack, that reflected the unique factions and their character. RTS games have always had different factions, but before StarCraft, their differences tended to be minor, with a few unique units, abilities, or stat differences. StarCraft showed how factions could be mechanically distinct, changing the entire play-style, and this was complemented perfectly by the soundtrack. Of course multiple soundtracks also multiplies the music budget, and StarCraft had two more composers assisting, yet had to make do with a smaller soundtrack per-faction. Other games with unique faction soundtracks followed, like Westwood’s Emperor: Battle for Dune and Generals, as well as Blizzard’s Warcraft III, to great effect. Each required multiple composers to manage the load. You might think that Ensemble’s Age of Empires series could also benefit with per-faction soundtracks, given the unique flavours of the civilisations, but the sheer number of factions made this unfeasible, and those games remained with the single-soundtrack approach.

Ensemble experimented with other music techniques in Age of Mythology. The excellent soundtrack also includes mellow versions of most of its in-game tracks, which are used in certain cutscenes and custom scenarios. This technique works quite well, to add variety to the game’s pacing, given the narrative-heavy nature of its campaign. The game also has another dynamic music technique: when a town centre is under attack, the music switches to a dramatic one, and fades away to the usual, chill soundtrack once the attack is over. This technique is somewhat less successful, given the jarring transition and how difficult it is to properly follow the tension of an RTS game - sometimes the most crucial moments are small skirmishes during key moments rather than large battles. Nevertheless it is interesting to see attempts at dynamic music in RTS.

Further Listening

Music, like many other aspects of RTS games, have matured after its golden age, as the genre stagnated. But by examining its history, its key titles and soundtracks, we can learn a lot about how to make and enjoy great music for games. Many of the best soundtracks are highly listenable and can easily go into your playlist. For those who want to (re)visit some great soundtracks, here are my top recommendations:

• Command and Conquer: this series is all about Frank Klepacki’s signature “rocktronic” style, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, definitely find a copy of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. Many tracks in this and the Red Alert series were good from even the earliest games, but if for some reason you want more, check out some of Klepacki’s non-game work too.
• StarCraft: the Terran faction’s space cowboy soundtrack is so iconic, and Glenn Stafford’s prog-rock background keeps it fresh with the tracks constantly evolving. StarCraft II is generally the better version, although StarCraft is still very enjoyable. Same goes with the factions, although Terran music is the most well regarded, the Zerg faction is pretty cool too, but in a dark-synth kind of way.
• Dune: for dark sci-fi this franchise’s unique setting offers the perfect thematic backdrop for some unique tunes. Empire: Battle for Dune’s Ordos and Harkonnen soundtracks are top-notch, but Dune 2000 remains my favourite rendition of the kind of epic desert sci-fi war that exemplifies this setting. If only there was a new Dune RTS…
• And last but not least, here are some of my single-title favourites: Age of Mythology (looking forward to the remake), KKND2, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, Total Annihilation, Command & Conquer: Generals (sorely needs a sequel or remake)…

[Most] games are awful for about 80 percent of the process—there’s no fun in the game until the very end.

David “Dr. Doak” Doak, excerpt From GoldenEye 007 by Alyse Knorr

I recently read Goldeneye 007, a terrific book covering the making of that classic game, and came across the above quote. I could not help but strongly agree with this observation, as I’ve seen it first hand countless times. Whether it’s making a game, or writing music, drawing art, or any creative activity, it always seems like the first 80% of the project is a slog. It feels like working on something that seems like utter crap and somehow refuses to come together, until the very end. It happens regardless of the type of project, the length, or even how challenging it is.

So it was very heartening to learn how ubiquitous this problem is. Apart from knowing and accepting that most creative work will feel like crap, what other things can we take away?

Things will suck, until they don’t

Even my most successful projects did not break this first-80%-is-crap rule. When making Dunkman for Ludum Dare, about half way through the jam, I posted this progress update:

This project had a very successful process - from the start I had a clear vision of what the game would be about: a silly send-up/homage to shonen sports anime. The game mechanics were simple so I could focus on polish: story, art, effects. But truth be told, until all the pieces were together, I was not sure if it would work, if the stylistic elements would overcome and elevate the simplistic gameplay. But they did come together - the upbeat music, anime speed lines, silly elbow IK animation, the chunibyo dialogue, all made for a ridiculously compelling narrative, like you were playing an anime protagonist.

So if you are a creator in that first 80% of the process, and everything seems to suck and it feels hopeless, take heart! Chances are you haven’t reached the last mile where things come together, like magic.

Finish Strong

When a project is near completion, things are coming together rapidly. The bang-for-buck of putting in work at the end is very high, given that the groundwork has already been put in place. This is where many make the mistake of racing to the finish line: they quickly put the missing pieces together, fix as many issues as they can, and ship the project as soon as possible. But so much value is being added during this last 20%, it often pays big to take your time adding polish and final touches, and you may reap unexpected rewards.

Goldeneye 007 was a cultural phenomenon because of its multiplayer, giving it incredible replayability and contributed massively to its success. And yet, “…GoldenEye’s multiplayer mode almost never got made.” On account of the project being a year behind schedule, Nintendo forbid working on a multiplayer mode, but the dev team, who were given incredible autonomy, did so anyway, furiously hacking it together in just 6 weeks. The rest is history - Goldeneye 007’s multiplayer was so good it overshadowed the already great single player campaign, and the game became one of the top-selling N64 games, revolutionising console FPS games.

On the other hand, I worked on a jam game, Lasso Lassie, which turned out much less well than I had hoped. The process of making the game itself went extremely well. I spent a week researching music and made a pretty cool western-themed chiptune track. I had a clear vision for the game from the get-go, choosing to remake the criminally underrated early NES game Field Combat. I made a solid plan and budget for all the dev tasks, such as implementing the gameplay, enemy logic, spawning waves, and finished on time having implemented everything I planned for. And yet the game just wasn’t that fun.

In retrospect I believe I neglected to spend time fine tuning the gameplay. I had falsely assumed that since I was recreating an already fun game, all I had to do was tick all the checkboxes, put the game together, and it would just work. But things like game feel or “fun” can often be fickle and elusive. Sometimes the difference between a fun game and a boring one is a 20% difference in player speed, or slightly increased enemy density, or a clever level layout, who knows. You really have to sit down and play around with the game, tinker with it until it is just right.

So here’s the take-away: if you have a deadline, or are planning out the phases of your project, don’t keep adding features up to the end. Plan for a feature freeze, and leave ample time at the end for playtesting and polish. It will often pay off in spades. Personally, for jams I leave as much as a third of the time available for polish at the end, and it has worked out extremely well for me.

Finish Your Projects

This is very old and evergreen advice for amateur creators: stop starting new projects and finish more of them. The temptation to abandon your current project and start over is strong, especially when you are in the first 80%. All the sweet ideas you have for new projects will feel infinitely sexier than your current project, which sucks more than ever, even though when you started it it probably seemed like the coolest idea out of them all.

Well now that you know, that’s more reason to stop the foolish cycle of abandoning old projects, starting over, only to abandon them mid-way again. If you start over, the new project will become the next awful project and you are back where you started. But if you persevere with the current project, when you finally reach that last 20% things will be awesome. Not to mention all the benefits of finishing - having good projects to show off, proving that you can deliver, gaining crucial experience in those finishing steps.

This is why I strongly advocate doing game jams. The tight schedule encourages people to finish games, limitations like secret themes encourage creativity, and feedback from fellow creators helps us learn what it takes to make a successful game project. Finishing games in such a short time puts you through that first 80% quickly, making it easy to power through and reap the fruits of that last 20%.

Non-creators will suck at providing early feedback, and that’s OK

When working on our craft - often a lonely endeavour - it’s tempting to seek out approval for our work from friends and family, to share progress or something cool we just made. But the response is rarely positive or helpful, since this rough work is from that first 80% when everything is awful, but this has little to do with skill or artistry. If even creators have trouble seeing past the expected roughness of early work, how can we expect non-creators to do better?

In most cases we should accept that feedback from lay people is not that useful. But what if we really do want to share something, if we’re proud of something we’ve done, how do we help them see it in the same light? My advice is to show finished work. Show stuff that has already made it past the first 80%, and has been polished and put together. This doesn’t mean you have to put in lots of work before being able to show it off, it could be something small, but packaged well. This could be:

• An art study
• Music loops
• A small, completed gameplay prototype or demo

In fact, being good at sharing work, even to non-creators, is a great skill to have and hone. Getting good at creating and sharing little bits of finished work comes in really handy if you want to market your work, build a following, or put together a portfolio.

Getting better at judging early work

What if you’re working on a big project, going on for months (or years 😰), how do you judge how the project is going? The simple answer is to practice and gain experience. A master will be able to look at a piece of work, at any stage of progress, see past the whole and into the components that make it up, and judge the quality of craftsmanship. Drawing from their years of experience, they can tell whether the project shows promise, or if it is fundamentally flawed. But this answer isn’t useful for the rest of us. Is there anything we can do besides, without the benefit of being an expert? Here are my tips:

Make vertical slices, then iterate

A vertical slice is a usable, completed yet very small part of the project. If you’re making an action game, it could be having the player character run around and perform one interaction, with one win and one lose condition. If you’re making music, it could be one looping bar (say the chorus) with full instrumentation. If you’re making a video or animation, it could be one fully developed scene, with sound and special effects.

The point of doing this is to get all the components together as quickly as possible, to see how they work together. By front loading this, you get to that last 20% part sooner, and reap the benefits. Once this vertical slice is done, it’s easier to iteratively expand upon it, which can be done very flexibly, without compromising the feel or the vision of the project, since it’s already put together.

One of the worst game jams I’ve done failed because we didn’t do this. I was on a new and inexperienced team, who did not know how to work well together. We scoped out the project and assigned separate tasks to everybody - art, music, level design, gameplay - hoping that we can just put it all together at the end. Unfortunately this is where things failed miserably. Not only were there technical issues integrating everyone’s work, it turns out everyone had a different idea of what the game would be, so that the work we did separately did not fit together, and lots of adjustments and cutting had to be done. For example, our 3D artist made really awesome character models and animations, but because the gameplay wasn’t ready, almost all that work had to be left out of the game.

These days one of my mantras for game jams is to get a runnable prototype up as quick as possible - preferably in the first day. Get everyone working off this prototype, so they can independently add to it. Audio guys can add partial music and SFX in to get the mixing right. Gameplay designers can get the game feel right at the start, and add things like levels and enemies that fit with the game feel. Artists can gradually replace placeholder art and see how everything looks in game and not just in their concept art. This way even a large team can work towards a cohesive vision.

This example schedule for a 7-day jam from 7 Tips to 7-Day Game Jams gives similar advice: core game mechanics done at 1/3rd, feature complete at 2/3rd, and the last 1/3rd for testing and polish.

Finish More Projects

When you’re in the first 80%, good and bad projects will both seem awful. How can you get better at telling? By finishing more projects! Only by finishing will you get a complete retrospective on what went well and what didn’t, and you’ll get better at what makes or breaks a project. But if you abandon projects half-way, then there’s no way to be sure.

One example: things often go wrong during a project, but they are not always fatal. Sometimes they can be worked around at the end. How can you tell? By sticking with the project until the end, and trying to overcome earlier mistakes. Another example is that projects can often fail because of a feature kept in, rather than a feature left out. A troubled feature can suck up development resources and jeopardise the project itself, but you won’t know this unless you let the project take its course.

When making PepperTown, an RPG-style idle game where characters auto-battle enemies and you buy upgrades for them, I had no experience making idle games, so I wasn’t sure what features would be key vs nice-to-have. I thought that, being RPG themed, I would need at least some sort of interesting combat mechanics, such as magic spells, or at least different types of enemies, but it turns out that was unnecessary. The final game just has characters battling one type of enemy - a slime monster - and with basic attacks, bashing each other repeatedly. But what makes idle games such as this is the visceral sensations of hearing the hit sounds and the coins trickling in, and the satisfaction of waiting and buying upgrades and sensing them affect the game. Thus I learned more about a new genre of game and what makes it work.

To make better games, I’m a big believer in the value of learning the fundamentals, even if they aren’t directly related to game dev. You can elevate your game dev skills using the principles of design and art. Go beyond the amateurish, to something that is professional and powerful.

Take animation, which is more than a century old. My go-to bible is The Animator’s Survival Kit, an absolute classic by an award-winning veteran. When people ask for quick tips, I also recommend Disney’s 12 Principles of Animation. Even though these guides were written before computer animation became ubiquitous, their principles apply regardless of the tools you use.

I often see people making games, putting a lot of love and effort into it, but the animation is lifeless and basic. If only they applied some basic animation principles, this could look so much better! Well, now I’d like to show how to do this, using a basic, side-scrolling platformer character example.

Let’s take a basic, pixel-art side scrolling character. This is Ticcy, the mascot for the TIC-80 fantasy console:

Giving Ticcy a basic walk and run animation might look something like this:

…and Ticcy has a hat, just because

And this is fine, to be honest. But let’s apply some of the animation principles, and see how much this can change.

Squash and Stretch

If something is accelerating, it should stretch out in that direction. If slowing down, it should squash. This helps highlight the motion and give objects a sense of weight as they move. Here we apply squash and stretch to Ticcy’s jump:

It’s cartoony when applied to something that should be rigid, but it highlights the jumping movement. And it’s dead-simple to apply - scale the character in the direction of the movement.

One thing to note, for realism, it is important to preserve the volume of the object. When we stretch Ticcy vertically, we also squash horizontally, so the total area of the sprite stays the same.

Anticipation

Also known as antic, this is the addition of an anticipatory action before a big action, so the action feels even bigger and impactful. A common example is a character winding back before taking a swing with a weapon. Here we apply an antic by making Ticcy do a squat before jumping:

The squat is very basic as we are just using a squash, but we could make it look better by animating frames for it. It makes the jump seem bigger by making it feel effortful.

Antics are hard to use on player characters because it slows down the animation. They are great for enemies though, letting the player read their actions, so it’s a key technique.

Staging

Staging is the idea of setting up the stage, or scene, to better focus the most important action. An exaggerated example is speed stripes, common in anime, which focuses the action on the character.

This is not something we can easily control in games, but there’s still a lot we can do. We can use environment art, shadows, and use camera follow techniques, to put the player character in clear focus. We apply this principle by adding an attractive background, making Ticcy stand out:

We’ve also added a ground layer, so Ticcy is no longer floating in a void.

Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Objects in the real world have inertia. When they start or stop moving, parts of that object will lag behind or continue along the previous trajectory. Think about hair or clothes on a moving character, which will flutter and bob around independent of the character. This makes things look more realistic or lively when exaggerated. Here we apply by making the hat move separately, following physical laws:

By adding a hat that is precariously bouncing up and down as Ticcy moves, it adds to the comical character.

Slow In and Slow Out

Objects in the real world don’t start and stop moving on a dime; it takes time to accelerate and stop. So when an object starts moving, it should slowly speed up, and so on. We can use this principle to show the weight of the object - the more we apply this principle, the heavier the object will seem. An object with no acceleration time will seem weightless. Here we apply by having Ticcy’s run start at a slow pace, and gradually speed up:

This example is exaggerated, but when applied to games, the effect is keenly felt.

Arc

When objects in the real world move, they do so in a well-defined arc following the laws of physics. Something flying through the air will follow a ballistic arc due to inertia and gravity. When objects don’t move in such a natural arc, it will feel out of place. Humans are great at spotting such discrepancies. We are trained to do so to perform challenging tasks like catching a ball, but this is subconscious.

Animators need to be aware of such motion arcs, but in game dev it is often the opposite case: it is easy to produce natural arcs in games. Take the platformer jump arc for example. One of the simplest ways to implement a jump is to add a y-velocity to the character, and apply gravity. This naturally creates parabolic arcs. But let’s step back and consider how we can be more intentional about jump physics. What kind of jump arc should we go for? How should it look, and feel? What is appropriate for the kind of game being made?

Take Mario for example. The games have non-trivial jump physics. You can jump higher the longer you hold the jump button. You have limited air control, and the falling speed also feels a bit floaty. Even different games within the Mario series have subtly different jump arcs:

This is totally something you can and should control in your games. You can design a unique jump arc to achieve a specific game feel. We may create a non-natural arc, but intentionally, and for a specific effect:

Instead of the basic parabolic arc, we make Ticcy reach the top of the arc faster, hold a bit, before falling down rapidly. This creates a squared-out arc, and it seems like Ticcy’s cartoonishly trying to stay in midair. The antic and squash effects we added earlier enhances the effect. This has gameplay effects too; you could imagine this makes it easier to jump over obstacles, for example.

Secondary Action

This is where we add actions to the character, in addition to the main one (like running/jumping). For example, a character talking or making facial expressions as they are moving about. This adds to the personality of the characters, and makes them seem more alive. They are no longer dumb automata that can only do one thing at a time, or what the player controls them to do.

We see this a lot in games already. Consider run-and-guns, where - as the name says - characters can shoot while running around. This requires animating the upper and lower bodies separately, so it’s a familiar technique for game devs. I would encourage adding more secondary actions, to make characters even more alive. Here we apply this principle by adding a blink animation, and also a mouth open facial expression when Ticcy is in the air:

This example is incredibly subtle, and you may not even notice it if it wasn’t pointed out. But it definitely adds to Ticcy’s character. You might consider adding things like idle animations, which are great for giving lots of personality.

Timing

Timing refers to how many frames an animation should have, to make it seem faster or slower. Slower moving objects, especially when reacting to forces, will seem heavier. This is something that game devs don’t have to worry about, since computers handle timing for us. There is however one thing that game devs often neglect, but is incredibly powerful for animation: easing.

Easing refers to functions that change the rate at which a property changes. We can apply it to motion among many other things. In the context of motion, most games just use a constant motion, or simple acceleration. But we can go so much further than that, to achieve cool effects, like make things look bouncy, wobbly, or feel floaty or aggressive. One simple way we apply it here is to add an elastic skew animation when Ticcy suddenly stops:

I mentioned earlier that objects starting and stopping on a dime is unrealistic. Here with an elastic easing function, we can stop Ticcy on a dime, but give the illusion of inertia. The body bends forward, before snapping back and forth. It’s a cheap way to make something that should be unnatural feel natural, as well as add more character to Ticcy. Perhaps Ticcy is made of rubber?

Exaggeration

In animation and games, we have the luxury of making things unrealistic and larger than life. We can exaggerate motion and go big for emphasis and effect. You’ve seen this in particularly comical animations from Warner Bros or Japanese anime. Think of eyebrows popping outside the face, comically enlarged body parts and so on. Here we do just that, by giving Ticcy a really big, disproportionate thumbs-up gesture:

This is a great way to give characters big personality and highlight their actions. In game dev it is a technique that is underutilised. 3D animators avoid it because it’s hard to deform models. 2D animators also avoid it as it can be expensive to apply. But because it makes characters so memorable, it’s definitely something you should consider, as animators Johnathan Kim (Skullgirls) and Paul Robertson (TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge) write in this great article.

Appeal

Appeal is a hard principle to describe; some say it’s analogous to charisma in an actor. We make protagonists likeable by giving them symmetrical features. Or we make villains terrifying with sharp, harsh angles. Beyond how a character looks, appeal can also apply to the way they move.

Ticcy’s character design is already very appealing. It has simple features and a very enlarged face that is almost the size of the body. This reads cute and pleasant, exactly how making games on the TIC-80 should feel. Can we take it even further?

Final Thoughts

I hope these techniques have inspired you to spice up your game characters. Every demo shown here is available in this interactive page: https://cxong.github.io/tic-80-examples/character-animation

Let’s see your cool animations!