Huge update!
MOMENTUM.
That's the word that best fits whats going on here at BrashMonkey.
First, as promised, the long wait for a new Spriter build is over. While not yet ready for production use, this new version is definitely something you don't want to miss. From this day forward, not only does Spriter run on PC, Mac, and Linux, but this build also introduces the foundation for Spriter's tweening support. Spriter's revolutionary interface for controlling what's tweened, and when, and it's asset usage tracking allows for an exquisite workflow that simply must be seen to be understood:
Expect more innovation that makes animation and game design exciting and easy as Spriter continues to develop from this early state.
Spriter is now officially cross-platform!
More good news? Now that the foundation for this new cross-platform Spriter is finished, update builds with new features, tweaks and bug-fixes will be drastically more frequent, with an official update build at least once every two weeks.
For those already using the previous beta of Spriter, don't uninstall it just yet, as this new alpha is not yet ready to take its place. Because this release is so completely new under the hood we've left out the ability to save to avoid potential loss of work. But fear not, with your help reporting any bugs, we should have this new Spriter running stable by our next release at which point we'll unlock the saving features. After that, top priority will be to add in the remaining features to make this new Spriter the ultimate game animating tool as quickly as possible. Skeletal Animation, you're next to be revolutionized!
(image property of Code 'n' Web)
Texture Packer Integration
And just when it seems Spriter news can't get any better, we're proud to announce that BrashMonkey will be collaborating with Andreas Löw, creator of the industry standard texture-atlas(sprite-sheet) generation tool, TexturePacker. The plan is to have texture-packer be able to export to a Spriter-specific format that can be embedded into your SCML file, and for those of you whose platform of choice already has excellent support for one of the many texture atlas formats Texture Packer uses, you'll be able to keep the atlas files separate, and Spriter will provide the necessary information in the output file to reference your TexturePack'd textures.
(image property of Code 'n' Web)
And Spriter itself is not the only thing picking up steam. With the final default data format revealed, all Spriter plug-in developers can get to work creating fully featured Spriter plug-ins for any and all game authoring systems and game engines starting immediately..meaning its highly likely fully features Spriter plug-ins will be ready for several game authoring systems even before the release of Spriter 1.0. So far it looks like we've reached a workable final file format and I encourage all developers to get going so we can all take the 2d world by storm. We'll leave this unmarked as final until the next release 2 weeks from now, so anyone can ring in with last minute suggestions, and we'll have a little more time to explain/discuss some of the new stuff, but any changes made in this final stretch should be insignificant to development time.
http://brashmonkeygames.com/spriter/FinalSpecCandidate.pdf
Top notch spriters signed on to do Art Packs!
But that's not the last of the good news. Art Pack production is also about to get turbocharged! Several great artists have signed on with us to insure that not only will several art packs will be ready for the release of Spriter 1.0. but they will contain even more premium quality content. One of those great artists is a professional game artist you might know by the alias StOven. For years the visual quality of his sprite-work and his exceptional animating skills earned the respect and admiration of the entire game making community and his fellow game artists. We couldn't be happier to be working with him to make superior game art available to all game developers, no matter how small their budget. You can see his online portfolio here: http://spriteart.com/ (best viewed with Safari or Firefox)
And here are a few samples of some of his past works:
(past work by Stoven.. all characters are the sole property of their respective copyright holders)
Successful Kickstarter animated with Spriter!
And finally, in closing : of the many developers who've come to us with their secret Spriter animated game projects, one project that's not so secret is an interesting 2d moddable sandbox game about to get funded on Kickstarter: Crea! By http://siegegames.com/
(image property of Siege Games)
We chose to use Spriter to help push our mod support to the next level. Spriter has enabled Crea to have fully customizable playable characters. Through the mod-friendly content scripts there is a mapping to the character images, which makes it possible to easily swap out images, such as changing the hair style of characters, or the clothing color, or even their entire equipment set. Character creation is completely dynamic meaning new character customizations (parts) can be added. This also means entirely new playable races are very possible. Modders will use Spriter to create their own races and animations. Thanks to Spriter, all of the assets and animations only have to be made once - not dozens of frames for every single piece of armor. We plan to use Spriter beyond just their characters; for our bosses and other animation intensive creatures.
(image property of Siege Games)
Check them out at Kickstarter and spread the word if you like what you see.
Thanks everyone for your extraordinary patience while we caught up this version rebuilt from the ground up. You can all now look forward to regular updates, and we can all look forward to our impending 2d revolution!
Oh yeah, and about those new versions:
Windows
OS X
Linux
OS X and Linux users, please let me know if there's an ideal way you'd like your releases packed from here on out, and we'll do our best to make it happen.
Edit: Here's a short video to help you get started:
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Funding period
Mar 29, 2012 -
Apr 28, 2012
(30 days)
- First created · 5 backed
- Has not connected Facebook
- Website: brashmonkey.com
Pledge $10 or more
11 backers
Our undying gratitude permanently etched on every electronic Spriter manual and on the acknowledgements section of our website, from here until the end of time.
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $25 or more
1203 backers
All of the above, and the full pro version of Spriter, starting with the original version immediately available for download, which comes with the free Construct Classic plug-in for easily loading your Spriter character into Construct based directx games - Plus! One additional plugin of your choice upon it's release. The Construct 2 plugin for making games that run in browsers, with optional Facebook, and Kongregate integration, is guaranteed to be available within our 6 month development cycle, but if you choose to, you may wait for any plugin of your choice. We cannot guarantee their eventual availability, or a timeframe for development, because both are in most cases dependent on our ability to recruit a capable third developer, however, we will make every effort to have plugins available for Torque2d, Unity, Gamemaker, DarkBasic, MultimediaFusion 2, as well as a general C++ API for integration into your own engines written from scratch. If you have already purchased a previous version of Spriter, you may choose 2 plugins of your choice.
Estimated delivery: Sep 2012Pledge $40 or more
317 backers
All of the above, and a free art pack created by professional game artist Mike Parent, that you can use to get a head start on making your amazing looking game. Replace a handful of images, and you have completely original art, already professionally animated. If you wish to you may also tweak the animations to give your characters even more unique personality. The first art pack estimated for August will be a Platform-Adventure art pack. You may choose to hold on to your claim and wait for another pack. As of yet, we don't have time estimates for future art packs beyond the first.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2012Pledge $60 or more
180 backers
All of the above, plus membership to the private Spriter forums, where you will have access to daily builds, and test new features the same day we begin testing them. You will be free to use these features in your own titles, including commercial titles, the moment they are available to you. This private forum will give you a direct line to feature suggestions and shaping workflow, while features are still being developed.
Estimated delivery: Apr 2012Pledge $75 or more
23 backers
Everything above, plus membership to the private Prophecies of N'nar forums. Prophecies of Nnar will be a game developed by Brashmonkey using the amazing Spriter technology. You will have access to beta versions of the game, playing levels, and giving gameplay feedback, before the rest of the world even has a screenshot of the levels you're playing.
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $99 or more
21 backers
This is a Unity specific reward. Everything above, and participation in the Unity alpha, once it's far along enough. Delivery date estimation is the same as Spriter 1.0 to give us some breathing room, but we expect you'll be alpha testing long before this.
Estimated delivery: Sep 2012Pledge $100 or more
17 backers Limited (3 of 20 left)
Everything above PLUS a 30 minute live portfolio review via Skype or Messenger between Mike Parent and any aspiring game artist of your choice(or two aspiring artists of your choice). If you aren't an artist or don't know artists, we're open to alternate reward ideas. :) Individual sessions will need to be scheduled, but will begin as soon as we are funded. You will also get a signed original concept sketch by Mike Parent for the upcoming adventure game, Prophecies of N'nar.
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $200 or more
13 backers Limited (7 of 20 left)
Everything above, except the portfolio review, PLUS ALL future 1st party plugins for Spriter across all game engines and platforms, beginning with the first at the estimated date.
Estimated delivery: Sep 2012Pledge $300 or more
20 backers Limited (10 of 30 left)
Everything above, except the portfolio review, PLUS ALL future 1st party art packs for Spriter, beginning with the first at the estimated date.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2012Pledge $500 or more
6 backers Limited (6 of 12 left)
Wow!!! Thank you! Everything above, including the portfolio review, AND you get to choose between a custom character made to your specifications for your own game, by professional game artist Mike Parent, OR a Spriter character version of yourself making a cameo appearance in Brashmonkey's in house title, Prophecies of N'nar. You will also get the original files to be able to load your character into Spriter, and do....whatever with. You won't have partial ownership over that character, or a share of profits from N'nar, but you can put you in your own game, or make animated greeting cards or whatever. The time estimate below is a rough estimate for N'nar's release, a custom Sprite for your own game could be delivered much sooner. Custom character for your game will include one idle animation, and a close up dialogue portrait.
Estimated delivery: Apr 2014Pledge $1,000 or more
0 backers Limited (4 of 4 left)
Everything above AND have a town in BrashMonkey's Prophecies of N'nar named after you WITH a statue of you in your honor in the town square!
Estimated delivery: Apr 2014Pledge $2,000 or more
0 backers Limited (4 of 4 left)
Woohoo!!! You rock! You can have everything above AND a full version of ALL future Brashmonkey software, for the extent that Mike Parent and Lucid are running the show. This includes all future development tools, games, plugins, artpacks, you name it. We don't intend to stop with Spriter or N'nar. The potential value for this is staggering, if not earthshattering, or life-altering. Estimated delivery date starts with the release of Spriter 1.0.
Estimated delivery: Sep 2012
Comments
Creator Boxbot on August 8, 2012
Is there a 32-bit executable for Linux? I can't get 64-bit to run on my (32) machine without installing a virtualization.
Creator edgar muniz on August 7, 2012
Hi William, we fixed several bugs with symptoms similar to what you're describing, and these fixes will appear in the next version scheduled for the 15th
Creator William on August 6, 2012
@edgar Yes after using it more I found I would get crashes mainly from changing the zorder. But I did find a strange bug where as I was making an animation and changing things in the main window, then playing my animation the pieces would just fly off randomly then pop back where they were supposed to be when it hit the key frame. I plan on playing with it more to see if i can recreate it.
Creator edgar muniz on August 5, 2012
Thanks TapSkill and William.
@william, So far the reported crashes have been dragging on the gray area before there's a file loaded, and also dragging things around in the zorder in the Current Frame window, dropping below the lowest entry was causing a crash. The second one was what people have been pinpointing after originally saying it crashes frequently. Both of these crashes are fixed in the next version, as well as a few bugs that have been pointed out. If you can pinpoint what causes it to crash there's a good chance I can fix it for the next release in 10 days.
Thanks again!
Creator William on August 5, 2012
Very awesome so far and cant wait for more, my only problem is that it is crashing on my quite frequently.
Creator TapSkill on August 3, 2012
I love the interface updates. I wasn't going to use Spriter until it was a 1.0 release, but I think this version has changed my mind. I will use it with my rpg engine. :)
Creator edgar muniz on August 3, 2012
and 32 or 64?
Creator edgar muniz on August 3, 2012
also, mythidiot, is your mac PowerPC?
Creator edgar muniz on August 3, 2012
Hi MythIdiot. It should work fine on OSX Lion(64), and OSX Snow Leopard(64 and most likely 32). What version do you have? Also, anyone else who did or didn't get it to load on any other OSX versions, please let me know. I only have my one OSX Lion mac to test on.
Creator mythidiot on August 3, 2012
What are the minimum system requirements for Mac? I'm on OSX 10.6.8 and its telling me "you can't open the application Spriter_r1a_preview because it is not supported on this type of Mac."
Creator Boxbot on August 2, 2012
.debs would be absolutely perfect for Ubuntu, if that's an option!
Creator Nick Salonen on August 2, 2012
Please package the Mac OS version in a dmg file, as the MacOS/Spriter binary, when unzipped, doesn't always retain the executable permission, so clicking on the .app does nothing until this is added.
Creator Logan Stevenson on August 2, 2012
Just select keep instead of discard for the not commonly downloaded issue..
Creator Carl Douglas | Animator | ArgyleBox.com on August 1, 2012
It let me download it on Firefox no problems.
Creator GEOFF on August 1, 2012
Thanks for the fix, can finally try out the OSX version :)
Creator Zózimo on August 1, 2012
Same problem here with the windows version"... is not commonly downloaded..."
I'm eager to try this version, looks great!
Creator Joseph on August 1, 2012
I can't download the 'Windows' versions it said "Spriter_r1a_preview.exe is not commonly downloaded and could be dangerous."
Creator edgar muniz on August 1, 2012
ok, I fixed the OSX link real good this time. http://www.brashmonkeygames.com/spriter/8-1-2012/Spriter_r1a_preview.app.zip ,and thanks for the guide johannes. I'm gonna need a quicker way of doing this so we can proceed with our biweekly updates
Creator Jackson Smith on August 1, 2012
Yeah, OSX link is 404
Creator Jasson McMorris on August 1, 2012
Excited to use this new version! Also huge thanks for working with me and mentioning us in your update. It is great to get support from others in the community.
Creator Johannes on August 1, 2012
I would recommend distributing mac apps either in zip files or dmg (disk image) files.
Here's a good guide for creating and even automating the build process of the disk image: http://el-tramo.be/guides/fancy-dmg/
Creator Code Inversion on August 1, 2012
I think the OSX link is busted.
Creator edgar muniz on August 1, 2012
gotcha e zachary knight and justin walsh. I'll need to brush up some more on the packing ways of mac and linux. it was a lot to learn.
mrwonko. no hierarchy yet, but there was no tweening or asset self management just a week ago. but definitely when hierarchy arrives, we'll make sure it's awesome
Creator Willi Schinmeyer on August 1, 2012
No hierarchy yet? Having to move the arms to match the chests new position seems painful, somewhat distracts from the video's point.
Creator Justin Walsh on August 1, 2012
On OS X an application is simply a special folder structure. If you uploaded the .app to the HTTP server, then we are geting 403 because we most likely do not have the permissions to browse directories on your server.
For these types of alpha/beta builds I would recommend a zip of the app, however when you do go into full production it is common practice to use a dmg, like mwchase detailed above.
Creator E. Zachary Knight on August 1, 2012
If you can release the Linux version as a .deb, that would be great.
Creator edgar muniz on August 1, 2012
here you go. I'll update the other links too: http://www.brashmonkeygames.com/spriter/8-1-2012/Spriter_r1a_preview.app.zip
Creator Christiaan Kras on August 1, 2012
Windows 7 tries to prevent you from downloading it by warning that "this file is not often downloaded". This happened for me with Google Chrome using Microsoft Security Essentials. It's still possible to download it though.
Creator Sean Monahan on August 1, 2012
I'd prefer a DMG on Mac but a tarballed and gzipped file is okay too.
Creator edgar muniz on August 1, 2012
k, I'm zipping the mac version now. should be up in 10 minutes
Creator Nikita Dudnik on August 1, 2012
Hmm... I can download windows version but the os x ver. is broken.
Please upload a proper os x app (preferably zipped). As mwchase already mentioned you are giving a link to the folder at the moment.
Creator Nikita Dudnik on August 1, 2012
Looks like your site is down :(
You should keep a mirror of downloads on some file sharing site. It will save a lot of your site's traffic and a lot of supporters' nerves.
Creator mwchase on August 1, 2012
The two typical things I see for OS X are zipping it (tarballing, etc), or making it a DMG. Short-term, zipping is better than what's there right now (which is trying to download a folder by pointing at the root), and DMG is the way to go if you want to make it look fancy. I have a minor preference for DMG, since then there's no question of multiple parties trying to be "clever" in how they handle it, but, as I said, a zip will actually work, as opposed to just throwing the .app up.
Creator Chris Wilson on August 1, 2012
OS X link giving a 403 :( Can't wait to give this a try :)
Creator GEOFF on August 1, 2012
OSX link is not working :(
Creator Vinzius on August 1, 2012
Hi ! Please do a .zip (or anything else) of the .app for OS X :-) (else can't download it). Thanks !