Despite anything resembling better judgment, and this not going into any demos, I decided to implement a swinging mechanic.

I got it working. You can control the swing (loosely), and can stretch and retract the arm. It even adds a bit of momentum.

I don't know if I went too far, or not far enough. The hand-clamps work, but that's not being demonstrated here.

Two-level demo for Robot Maid P-NA-4 is here!

...but the game's still not in active development right now.

First you draw parts, then program a rig for animation.

I need to work on the "What does this guy actually do" part.

As a writer, you learn to just make stuff up. As a science-fiction writer, you justify the stuff you just make up.

"Derma" is related to "skin", and "myo" is related to "myoelectric prosthesis".

Why, yes, programming an elephant IS hard. Making its eyes blue is a lot easier, but I'm not doing that.

I also had to make sure it's a robot elephant, specifically, because this is a robot circus, and it's unethical to use real elephants.

Possible default protagonists, Charlie (guy with hat) and Bonnie (girl with dress). Using a similar palette, because I can.

I would alter the faces, but I like appeal, and without the pixel-noses, they'd look like chibis at that size.

What a bunch of clowns.

This should help speed up the process.

...no guarantees, but until I have an official level-select menu, this'll do.

I figured out an easier way to program arranging angles on a rig.

It involves choosing which body part to move, then using the mouse to calculate an angle.

Namely, angle= point_direction(x, y, mouse_x, mouse_y).