As we’ve touched upon before, we’ve made a switch from having a 3D tutor to 2D. This change was among other things for optimization reasons—we are making a mobile game after all! Initially, I started creating a 2D skeleton in Godot but took a break. Honestly, the idea of diving into 2D animation scared me a bit. We had a well-defined workflow for 3D animations, and switching to 2D felt like it would require a lot more manual work—particularly in animation, which isn’t exactly my strong suit.

After a few days working on other content and core features for the game, I had a realization. With a bit of help from ChatGPT, we came to the conclusion that using 2D images with a 3D skeleton (2.5D) would be the best approach. This way, I can keep the benefits of 2D while maintaining the workflow we initially planned—smooth and efficient.

To make this happen, I needed to dive into Blender. I haven’t touched 3D modeling software in 15 years, so I’ll be honest—it scared me at first. Still, I jumped in and tested out Rigify, and to my surprise, everything has been going smoothly so far. The bones move exactly how I think they should. This is a refreshing change from my experience in Godot, where I found the rigging process more cumbersome.

Of course, I still have to do the weights to ensure the polygons deform correctly when the skeleton animates, but so far, I’m excited about the progress. However, my 14 years as a developer have taught me to be cautious—after all, as we say in Sweden, “Ropa inte hej förrän du är över bäcken” (“Don’t shout hooray until you are over the brook,” or as the English say, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”). But hey, sometimes you just have to be thrilled in advance, right? It’s Friday, I’ve had a beer, and I’m feeling hopeful.

Cheers! 🍻