The Best Game Animation of 2022

A LOT of good game animation happened last year.

Support New Frame Plus on Patreon!

------- ▼PLAYLIST▼-------

-------- ▼LINKS▼--------

-------- ▼CREDITS▼--------

Written and produced by Daniel Floyd

Special thanks to:
-Carrie Floyd

-------- ▼MUSIC▼--------

♪ "Dopamine Road" by RoBKTA

♪ "Dragon Roost Island" by arthur x medic

♪ ...and selections from a variety of relevant official game soundtracks.

-------- ▼CHAPTERS▼--------

0:00 - Intro

0:21 - 2D Animation

3:22 - Pixel Animation

7:11 - Hybrids

8:40 - Naturalistic 3D Animation

20:43 - Stylized 3D Animation

30:13 - Wrapping Up

#2022 #animation

[Yudouu]

Heya! I was one of the animators on River City Girls 2! I love your content and I'm so glad you enjoyed the game! Big shout-out to the art director too! They're a force of animating nature lmao

[Gilbot]

These are not only an incredible celebration of fine animation work, but also an amazing place to go grab recommendations for games I missed (which is to say, all of them). Thank you Dan!

[TBSkyen]

These are my absolute highlight videos of the year, Dan, I enjoy this so much!

[joaocardoletto]

Let's also remember that many of those beautiful 2d intros seen in Indy games nowadays are done by smaller animation companies. They also deserve to be mentioned and praised.

[danielcatlett]

The amount of polish in Trombone Champ that only a huge band nerd would pick up on was a huge delight for me. Like when I saw that they animated the Trombone to be in accurate slide positions for each note. Absolutely fantastic

[goldglovegrappler]

A quick correction in regards to DNF Duel: ArcSys actually gave the development team at 8ing (who did the large majority of the work on the game) the tools and a tutorial on the techniques they use, rather than send an of their animators over to this project. It's a really great testament to the talent present at 8ing that you can't tell, although they also did Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the Bloody Roar series which had great animation in their own right. It also shows that this technique is actually teachable and not just ArcSys exclusive magic.

[HaunterM]

Potionomics feels alot like a 3d Ace attourney game, with the looping, expresive poses, just lovely

[yentried]

Classic Dan, saying everything is pretty /s

Also Classic Dan, delivering a superbly edited, extremely funny, and just plain delightful commentary on the work of tons of talented people. Love every video you do, the effort is abundantly clear and by gosh does it work!

[sleepy_cricket]

absolutely loved splatoon 3’s remodel and reanimation of all the player characters. that and the addition of hair physics make them feel so alive, even though they’re nearly all identical. they also really pushed the animation of shiver and frye specifically to make them feel distinct from each other and from past idols. really good stuff

[robofistsrevenge]

The _second_ you brought up the pixel animation category, I knew/was excited that River City Girls 2 was gonna take home some gold.It's a hell of a gorgeous game, WayForward just doesn't miss. What I did _not_ know was that the animation director on RCG2 is the individual behind Holocure?! That's...huh. Worlds colliding in unexpected but beautiful ways.

[DannyHancuff]

Something about the outright positivity that you exude not only makes these videos enjoyable, but almost downright emotional. When you started talking about the mouse in Moss, I couldn't help feeling happy (and I haven't even played either Moss!) Keep making these excellent videos Dan!

[SupermassiveGamesOfficial]

Thanks for including us in your list! 🙌

[paulohtobias]

The quality of your script is incredible. You covered several games and it all feels like one long connected line of dialog. Also the sense of humor is on point.

Really one of my favorite channels and one of the very few exceptions where I actually have notifications on and I watch every single video.

[shiwakao]

love the kay yu shoutout. dude grinds so hard n works on so many projects simultaneously. he goes between making games n working on seasonal anime so often it almost makes u worry for him LOL.

[GeminiTasiri]

Not sure about the Animation itself, but I feel like the Live A Live Remake definitely deserves a shoutout for the biggest glow up a remake has ever gotten. Just some amazing visual design going on in that.

[davidcolby]

I know that Pentiment's animation was fairly simple, but the style and the way it used text was so charming and clever!

[Zeldafan]

Signalis and Pentiment are 2 more games with very stylized presentations that are well worth checking out.

[AlexSwinton]

I'm surprised Pentiment didn't get a shout out! I absolutely love the tapestry-esque style Obsidian went for, while managing to keep their characters expressive

[Kriss_ch.]

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined was the tightest pixel art animations this year for my money. I really appreciate Tengo Project taking the art style of those older titles(Ninja Warriors and Wild Guns as well) but massively improving it from the SNES originals. It's the sort of thing that looks like you remember the old games, but side by side the difference is staggering. Awesome work.

[The_Blazelighter]

Dan's love and enthusiasm for each of these games sells me on them more than any commercial ever could.