Devlog #8. How coals and sparks work

In our previous devlog we told you how bellows animation was created, but there was another important aspect we needed to think over in order to make the usage of bellows really responsive, and that was the fire under the cauldron.

When the coals are heated they first turn hot and red, then begin to spark and glow.

Each coal can be animated separately as we wanted to imitate the response to a current of air from the bellows. If you never noticed it, please, take a closer look: they got hot from left to right!

Before settling on the current glow appearance, we tried other visuals, but they fit poorly with the game style and drew too much attention.

To gaze at fast intertwining spark tracers might be the most absorbing aspect of looking at fire. We wanted to catch this feeling with our sparks, but it was not so easy to find the right approach when it came time to animate it.

Finally, we created 5 spark trajectories for each of the three levels of coal heat intensity. Additionally, the pivot point and the angle of each spark is randomized, which makes each whirl of sparks unique.

Stay tuned

While it is not easy to take your eyes off the fire, do not forget to grind, stir, brew and also follow our Steam Page and make sure to join our Discord, so you don't miss other upcoming devlogs!