The Stop Motion videogames list

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Walky

Guest
I've always be interested in stop motion animation and thought it would be nice to make a list of games that use this type of animation. There's a notably low number of games that fit this category, surprisingly (although perhaps not really when considering production costs) even during the 90's when capture devices were more affordable and real time 3D could not yet offer matching visual fidelity.

I know I'm missing a lot of games so it'd be nice to get suggestions from you so I can add them to the list! ;)
Please specify if it's a full game or not, and its development status.

It's ok to include games using 3D models captured from real puppets using photogrammetry.

It's not ok to include games based on other stop motion media but not using stop motion themselves (e.g. The Nightmare Before Christmas videogames).

Special cases (such as games using captured miniature environments but no stop motion characters/animation) can be discussed on a case-by-case basis.

Important: The list can include games that feature stop motion to any degree (even if only one character in the game is made this way).

Games tagged as "unconfirmed" are those which I'm almost sure use stop motion, but are pending confirmation. Please let me know if you find a source.

Full games:
- The Neverhood
- Skullmonkeys
- Armikrog
- Harold Halibut (in development)
- Vokabulantis (in development)
- The Dream Machine
- Doom
- Doom II
- Mortal Kombat
- Mortal Kombat 2
- Mortal Kombat 3
- Primal Rage
- Primal Rage 2 (cancelled)
- Trog
- Claymates
- Harley's Humongous Adventure
- ClayFighter
- ClayFighter 2
- ClayFighter 63 1/3 / Sculptor's Cut
- Lumino City
- Nux
- Platypus
- Platypus 2
- Cletus Clay (not sure if this was released, cancelled or still in development)
- Clodhoppers (in development)
- Don't open the doors!
- Floogen (in development)
- Disdoored (in development, early access)
- Genius Greedy Mouse
- Tiny Money (in development)
- Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!"
- Dominique Pamplemousse & Dominique Pamplemousse in "Combinatorial Explosion"
- World Rally Championship
- World Rally 2: Twin Racing (unconfirmed)
- PC Rally (unconfirmed)
- Mille Miglia: Great 1000 Miles Rally (unconfirmed)
- Mille Miglia 2: Great 1000 Miles Rally (unconfirmed)
- Baldies
- Droidscape: Basilica

Jam entries:
- https://itch.io/jam/stop-motion-game-jam-2017/entries
- https://itch.io/jam/stop-motion-game-jam-2018/entries
- https://itch.io/jam/stop-motion-game-jam-2019/entries

Others (not enough info, may update later):
- Transplanted
 
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L

Lonewolff

Guest
I don't think 'stop motion' means what you think it does. Mortal Kombat certainly didn't use it, that's for sure.
 
L

Lonewolff

Guest
I humbly stand corrected. I was thinking along the lines of the filmed human characters.

Interesting read and good find! :cool:
 
W

Walky

Guest
No problem, it's probably not such a well known fact as compared to the actors' footage most have seen.

I'll update the first post a little to clarify that it refers to games that use stop motion to any degree, not just games that are "100% stop motion" (so to speak), and will also try to find some time to update each entry from the list with an image of the puppets on set or something similar (if available, otherwise a game screenshot should do).
 
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pixeltroid

Member
Donkey Kong Country series has pre-rendered 3D models animated in a stop-motion-esque fashion. At the very least, it's more "stop motion" than Doom.
The rare SNES game "Rendering Ranger" also had pre-rendered 3D models animated in a stop-motion fashion. It looked really cool.
 
W

Walky

Guest
Well, it seems each post is limited to 10 images so I'll just leave the first post alone and add the images in new ones, let's begin!

- The Neverhood


- Skullmonkeys


- Armikrog


- Harold Halibut (in development)


- Vokabulantis (in development)


- The Dream Machine


- Doom


- Doom II


- Mortal Kombat


- Mortal Kombat 2
 
W

Walky

Guest
- Cletus Clay (not sure if this was released, cancelled or still in development)


- Clodhoppers (in development)


- Don't open the doors!


- Disdoored (in development, early access)


- Floogen (in development)


- Genius Greedy Mouse


- Tiny Money (in development)


- Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!"


- Dominique Pamplemousse & Dominique Pamplemousse in "Combinatorial Explosion"


- Transplanted
 
The team that made the Clayfighter series (which I hadn't thought about for years until I read this post. If that's not a random memory.) made a platformer for the SNES called Claymates. I never played it myself, but I remember reading about it in Nintendo Power back in the day. You either played as a group of animals or as someone that morphed into animals. Either way, the characters were created in the same way as the Clayfighter games. I want to say that Interplay had another claymation game out around the same time, too. They definitely went through a phase with that.
 
W

Walky

Guest
The team that made the Clayfighter series (which I hadn't thought about for years until I read this post. If that's not a random memory.) made a platformer for the SNES called Claymates. I never played it myself, but I remember reading about it in Nintendo Power back in the day. You either played as a group of animals or as someone that morphed into animals. Either way, the characters were created in the same way as the Clayfighter games. I want to say that Interplay had another claymation game out around the same time, too. They definitely went through a phase with that.
Nice! I think I remember seeing it some time ago, but had completely forgotten about it. I'll add it to the list, thanks!

I also found another one called Harley's Humongous Adventure (SNES), which I had never heard of, and by looking at its Wikipedia article it seems to be the other game you were referring to.

Nice finds, Walky!
Thanks! It took a while to find all the images!
 
W

Walky

Guest
- Trog


- Claymates


- Harley's Humongous Adventure


- World Rally Championship (additional info, page in spanish)
Original car model shown at the 20:00 mark

- World Rally 2: Twin Racing (unconfirmed)


- PC Rally (unconfirmed)


- Mille Miglia: Great 1000 Miles Rally (unconfirmed)


- Mille Miglia 2: Great 1000 Miles Rally (unconfirmed)
 
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KaiStayPosi

Guest
I recently just got interested in this type of games too, one interesting one I found is called The Dark Eye (1995) based around Edgar Allan Poe stories!
 
Battle Monsters - at least one of the characters, Strawbelly Jam (yes, that is the actual name)
Reikai Doushi
Dino Rex
Star Control 3
Quest for Glory (remake) - most of the monsters, character portraits
NARC - the final boss, but it's a marginal case because it only has a few frames of animation
Wario Ware - a handful of the microgames are in stop motion. I'm sure at least one of the sequels too.
 
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