I've been busy animating for the past couple of months and the result is 20 new units to add to my Magic: The Gathering / Heroes of Might and Magic Hybrid. Here is a small sampling:

Carnal Vine

The carnal vine is a generic middle of the road wood creature with regeneration capabilities. Regeneration means that at renewal (a new round) the unit regains a certain number of life points. I have also created a brown version called the "corporal vine" that is similar but a different hue. I used to think it was lazy to reuse the same model with different colors, but when you're the sole animator / developer it is somewhat of a necessity. I also like doing variations on a theme.

Achromic Minotaur

When I started animating the minotaur, I asked myself what makes the minotaur interesting? Well its the fact that he is associated with a maze, of course. So the 3 minotaur variations all have similar abilities: They can create and destroy walls. Wall creation works by having the last tile that the minotaur occupied become a wall when he leaves it. I haven't decided whether this is a voluntary or involuntary ability. The involuntary ability tends to describe why you always find minotaurs in mazes. It also makes the game mechanic somewhat easier to manage. If you watch this animation, you will notice that the minotaur's horns get larger at a certain frame. Mistakes like this is what makes animation so tedious...

Emerald Asp

A snake of the wood element. There are 3 variations of snakes. All of the snakes are poisonous to varying levels. The poison attribute is a percent. Poisonous comes into play when this unit attacks another unit, a percent of the time it becomes poisoned. When a unit becomes poisoned, it receives additional damage at renewal until the poisoned attribute is removed naturally or by some other means. Mechanical and Undead units cannot be poisoned.

Goblin Brigand

A generic goblin unit of the fire element. What makes this unit interesting is that the card can be used a lot of times before it fades away. This is one of the cool things about making a computer game versus a card game: there is nothing that ties units to physical cards. I can use a card once or twenty times, it makes no difference. It also helps you avoid disappointment when you draw a goblin late in the game. Early in the game, you can only afford to cast a single goblin. Later in the game you can summon a whole army.

Goblin Bomber

But what makes goblins a lot of fun is that they're wacky and dumb enough to carry bombs. The goblin, of course dies when the bomb detonates because he's not smart enough to throw the bomb.

Goblin Taskmaster

A goblin that makes other goblins stronger. As you will notice, the whip animation isn't the greatest. I am somewhat limited to the size of the frame as my engine doesn't allow for various size frames. You will also notice that this goblin's model is different than the others. I don't think this makes too much of a difference, but I may change this unit to a Kobold at some point.

Sandstone Hulk

A large, lumbering tank of a unit. I haven't decided on all of his abilities yet but he will most likely be "Mechanical" and possess the "Might Shield" that reduces the damage that is dealt to him by opponents.

Scourge Zombie

A zombie unit. I had a lot of fun animating this one. This unit has the "Zombify" attribute. Zombify is a percent chance that a unit this unit destroys will be resurrected as a zombie under your control. This unit may also have "Fear" meaning that other units will refuse to attack it.

Time Elemental

A unit that has "reverse time" and "unsummon". When this unit attacks another unit, there is a percent chance that the unit recieving damage will be returned to the previous position it occupied. I haven't decided if this could result in a telefrag or will simply not work if the previous position is occupied. "Unsummon" returns the attacked unit to its controller's hand and is also percent based. Only a single use spell is returned to its controller's hand, so if you unsummon a single goblin, you aren't giving your opponent an opportunity to summon an entire army. The Time Elemental may also have the ability to slow units down in the initiative queue or permanently cause units to lose movement points.

Note: The animated characters tend to be scaled about 75% smaller in the actual game. Also the frame rate isn't accurate and full animation sets are not displayed. This is only a sampling to give you an idea.

I am returning to programming for a while. What I am currently working on is simplifying the game code by removing custom cases. The objective is to get all units loading from a single monster class and XML files. More about this and the unit editor next time. I hope you enjoyed the animations.