Banner Rush – Devlog #2

Buildings Come Alive: Animations, Particles & Waving Banners

Hey everyone! Welcome back to another Banner Rush devlog.

This week I focused on something that might sound small, but makes a huge difference in how the game feels: bringing the buildings to life.

Every building on the battlefield – now animated, alive, and waving their banners.

Two Layers of Animation: Idle & Event

Every building now has two distinct animation layers working together.

Idle Animations keep things visually active at all times. Ambient particles, subtle movements, glowing effects – the battlefield never feels static or dead, even between actions.

Event Animations are triggered by what you actually do in the game. The best example: when you play a unit card and a soldier spawns from the Barracks, the door physically opens. The whole building does a satisfying scale pulse it grows slightly and snaps back giving you that tactile "yes, something just happened" confirmation.

This works across all three upgrade tiers of every building. Each tier has its own animations that match its visual scale and importance on the field.

The Barracks (Kaserne) – Lv1 to Lv3

Left to right: Barracks Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 – idle animations running, deploy animation triggered.

The Barracks is where your melee units spawn. Watch the door swing open when a unit is deployed and notice how the building pulses to confirm the action.

The Factory (Fabrik) – Lv1 to Lv3

Factory Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 – with idle particles and deploy animation.

The Factory produces ranged units and has a more industrial feel. Smoke particles, mechanical movements – it reads as a working forge even when you're not actively using it.

The Oracle – Lv1 to Lv3

Oracle Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 – the glowing blue crystal bowl pulses with magical energy.

The Oracle is the magical resource building of the three. It glows, pulses, and feels distinctly different from the military structures. The blue particle effects make it immediately recognizable on the battlefield at a glance.

Smart Proximity Triggering

Here's a detail I'm particularly happy with: the nearest building gets triggered, not a random one.

If you have two Barracks on the field and spawn a unit, the game calculates which Barracks is closest to the spawn position and triggers that one's animation. It sounds simple, but it makes the feedback feel intentional and grounded rather than arbitrary. The game reacts to where you're playing, not just what you're playing.

Waving Banners – More Than Just a Shader

Every building proudly waves its banner – but getting it to look good took more work than expected.

Steam post image The custom wave shader in action, up close.

I added a custom wave shader to the banner mesh. The catch? The original banner mesh didn't have enough vertices for a convincing wave effect. Too few vertices means the shader has nothing to deform, and you get a stiff, ugly result.

So I went back into the mesh, added more vertices, and now the banners wave smoothly and naturally. It's one of those invisible technical fixes where the groundwork is hidden, but the end result just feels right.

Your Banner. Your Identity on the Battlefield.

Each building displays the banner of its owner, so your opponent always knows exactly whose army they're facing. Community member @CamaradeOurs said it best:

"Everyone recognizes you with horror when they see it"— CamaradeOurs 😎

That's exactly the feeling we're going for. Your banner is your signature on the battlefield. That's why it's called Banner Rush.

What's Next

With all buildings now animated and alive, the battlefield has so much more personality and visual feedback. More updates coming next week on the road to Early Access.

If you haven't already, add Banner Rush to your wishlist! It means a lot to me as a solo dev and makes sure you don't miss the launch.

Until next week, Tommy @ HexLeaf Studio 🐦