LogInThe developer of The Milk Lake shared the process behind creating the game's impressive character movement.
A couple of years ago, we shared some insights into the development of The Milk Lake, an upcoming atmospheric sword-combat action RPG with horror and stealth elements created by Boltzmann Games with Unity. It features character animation synthesized in real-time by a deep neural network, resulting in fluid, realistic human motion that helps the player connect with the protagonist and maintain their immersion in the game world.
Recently, the developer shared insights into how the impressive character movement was created, focusing on making it precise, realistic, and responsive to serve as a core game mechanic. Boltzmann Games described it as a motion matching system that utilizes a neural network to select the next frame rather than relying on a traditional database search. Next, IK is applied for environmental interactions, and after that, the post-IK configuration is fed back into the model to generate the next frame.
"The trick I'm using to get some decent-looking balancing is to model the upper and lower spine separately. My thinking is that the lower spine is where all the balance happens (since it's entirely manipulated by the abdomen muscles), and the upper spine we kind of use to try to keep a vibe of uprightness. The upper spine has slower critical damping, while the lower spine anticipates and overshoots.
Black is the predicted orientation, magenta is the predicted velocity, and cyan is just the normal at each of the points in the predicted trajectory."
Boltzmann Games
The developer also showcased the "guiding arrows" getting longer when running:
Boltzmann Games plans to release a detailed write-up on the entire system once they complete the demo. In the meantime, check out some recent The Milk Lake updates and follow the game's page on X/Twitter for more development insights:
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