As with the rest of the graphics, the first walk cycles and other animations were originally made with Amiga’s Deluxe Paint II. When the project was picked up again several years later, Amiga’s .iff image format was well on its way to becoming obsolete. I was relieved to find that some image viewers still supported it, so I could bring the old work files on 3½-inch floppy disks back to life, this time saved as .gifs.

After some initial tinkering I concluded that a full walk cycle can be done with six frames, without the end result being too choppy (by 1993 standards). Once the hero’s frames were finished, they could be used as a base for all the other characters. Naturally each individual character still needed their own specific touches to make them walk with their own natural gait.

I’m especially happy with how the shopkeeper character turned out. His body is practically a heavy wobbling sack, and all the other body parts are frantically working together to move the mass.