Idle animations

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Idle animations refer to animations that happen when the player does not do any action (hence being idle). These sorts of animations are largely popular with action games, where players may rarely be idle and thus serve as easter eggs. Probably the first game ever to introduce idle animations on a mainstream basis was Mega Man, which was a simple blink. It would later spread to many other action genre games and would get more complex when the hardware allowed. For example, in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest, Diddy Kong would juggle a few balls if the player left the controller alone for a few seconds.

Today in 3D games, idle animations are a staple part of the game to keep it realistic. For example in Super Mario 64, Mario would occasionally look around, and eventually fall asleep. For most games, the up/down motion of breathing suffices as an idle animation.

[edit] Examples

• In StarCraft the images for the units will look around after a given time.
• In Battlefield 2, if one has the vehicle mine selected but takes no action, the player flips the circular mine several times. Each weapon in Battlefield 2 has an animation.
• In Half-Life if one is holding a Snark, it will attempt to bite the hand holding it. Gordon will point at it with his left index finger in a "No, bad Snark" fashion, almost getting bitten.
• In Rayman 2, Ray man will take his body, and bounce it like a basketball. He will spin it on his finger, then put it back.
• In Command and Conquer: Red Alert infantry do pushups when left idle for a short period.
• In Kirby: Squeak Squad he will fall asleep and dream of Strawberry Cake until he wakes up, when he swallows the dream cloud.