Animations and character skill sets are among the most important elements that keep players engaged with specific characters or classes. They are also some of the most challenging aspects of game development, especially when a lack of variety or personality can significantly impact the overall experience.
If you’re curious about how these systems are designed and want to discuss animations, characters, and development challenges directly with the team, join the conversation with us on Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/nightholme
In Nightholme, animation plays a far greater role than simple locomotion.
As a third-person horror experience without traditional weapons, our characters rely almost entirely on their bodies to express tension, danger, and personality. Every movement, from just walking down a corridor, an action attack, to reacting to the unknown, carries the weight of the horror itself. Small, often subconscious motions define the atmosphere. Subtle details like posture, breathing, or shifts in weight can change how a scene feels.
Because of this, we can’t rely on standard animation sets. Each Grimspawn archetype—be it the savage Voorbeast, the imposing Nameless, or the chilling Seer—must feel distinct.
Archetypes in Nightholme function much like classes. They represent the transformation you choose during the first phase in the lobby, when you select the team you want to join. This choice is made by picking a specific Nocturn drink, which determines the transformation you will undergo. Archetypes are not tied to any specific character, allowing you to freely combine your favorite archetype with your favorite character.
Motion capture actors are an important reference in our animation process, but they’re only one part of the overall workflow. Before an animation makes it into the game, we often start by studying real performances to understand weight, timing, and emotional intent. The goal isn’t to copy movements one-to-one, but to capture the feeling behind them. Fear, tension, or aggression, and translate that into gameplay-driven animation.
From there, the team relies heavily on classic keyframe animation to shape, exaggerate, and refine the motion so it fits both the character and the needs of the game.
These performances provide a rich foundation for our animation team. They help capture instincts and reactions that are difficult to create purely through keyframing, especially in a horror context where authenticity is crucial.
Once performances are captured, our lead animator translates them into gameplay-ready animations. This step involves refining timing, exaggerating or restraining motion to fit the game’s mechanics, and ensuring smooth transitions between states.
The challenge is to preserve the authenticity of the original performance while making it responsive and readable in an interactive environment. The end goal is animation that feels alive, believable, and terrifying, without ever breaking player immersion.
Nightholme features a stylized visual language, and that extends to animation too. Body mechanics are intentionally pushed beyond strict realism, with exaggerated poses and silhouettes that emphasize mood and intent.
We aim to combine the best of both worlds. For realistic motion, we rely heavily on motion capture, but we always blend it with hand-crafted animation. Even when using mocap, we keep the work feeling handmade by using real actors as reference and carefully sculpting the final result.
Animating for a horror game differs mainly in behavior. Movements tend to be more animalistic and unpredictable. While the technical approach may be similar to other genres, the focus shifts toward acting and personality rather than clean or heroic motion.
When keyframing animations, we intentionally push them toward discomfort. Inspiration often comes from animals or specific character traits. While the mechanics remain grounded in realistic body movement, each creature and archetype is infused with the personality of a horror entity. Credibility is always essential, even when exaggerating.
For example, with the Void Shepherd (enemy in the image), we aimed for movements that feel erratic and difficult to read, enhancing its disconcerting presence.
Each archetype in Nightholme is defined first and foremost by its inspiration.
The Voorbeast draws heavily from wolves and dogs, focusing on raw, animalistic behavior.
The Seer is not defined simply as a female character, but by elegance, control, and deliberate movement.
The Nameless explores octopus-like, alien, and ghostly qualities. One key reference was an octopus that can move outside of water, pulling itself forward, an idea that directly inspired the Void Shepherd enemy.
One of the studio’s greatest strengths is the animation team’s confidence and experience working directly inside the engine. In some studios, animators focus solely on animation and pass their work to other departments. At Studio Ellipsis, our animator-artists are involved throughout the entire pipeline.
Everyone is capable of covering multiple areas rather than working in isolation. Being a small studio also allows us to communicate closely with our programmers and other departments, which improves iteration speed and quality.
Animation is always a collaborative process. While the ideas can originate with the animation director, the entire team contributes with approaches for integration and execution.
Sometimes a design may appear simple on paper but prove complex to implement. Other times, the opposite happens. Boss characters are a great example, our team invested significant effort to make their animations feel powerful, memorable, and threatening.
The Nameless was particularly challenging, requiring careful blending and management of its tentacles within the engine.
One unique challenge with motion capture is handling non-human elements for instance like tentacles. We capture the core body motion using mocap, then keyframe the tentacles by hand. Once the base animation is in place, layering the tentacle movement becomes a creative and rewarding process.
Anticipation is a key component of our combat system. Nightholme features a robust combo system with multiple attack types: light, special, and combo attacks, that can all be chained together.
Each attack follows the same core phases:
Anticipation
Commit
Input window for the next attack
Recovery
These phases apply consistently across all attacks, allowing different animations to blend seamlessly. For example, a heavy attack features a longer anticipation phase and a much longer recovery, reinforcing its weight and power.
Being an online multiplayer introduces certain technical challenges. Latency, player synchronization, and enemy synchronization all require careful handling. While the animation content itself remains largely unchanged, implementation becomes more complex to ensure everything feels responsive and consistent for all players.
Modern motion capture technology is highly flexible and can be used in a variety of locations, from gyms to smaller spaces.
There are two main approaches:
Optical systems, which require large, dedicated spaces
Markerless motion capture, which is more flexible while delivering comparable results
In our case, we used the latter. This flexibility allows us to capture high-quality performances without being constrained by location.
We’re excited to share how Nightholme is brought to life through animation, and we hope this care and attention translates into hours of immersive horror for you, our community.
Speaking of community, why not join us on Discord and be part of the development process? We have a ton of exciting plans ahead. Share your ideas, give feedback, and connect with other players so you’ll have allies waiting when Nightholme launches.
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/nightholme
Stay vigilant, Grimrunners,
— Studio Ellipsis Team