57STICKBASH · KILL ANIMATIONS · SPEED SABRE
Page 57 · cinematic kill animations · live on real DARK VIVID arenas

15 NEW KILLS FOR THESPEED SABRE

The sabre has no distance at all, so nothing from the guns transfers. Its camera language is the pass and the delay: the killer goes through the man rather than stopping at him, the cut is invisible for a long beat afterwards, and it is the clack of the guard going home that finally takes him apart — in the cut area, along the exact line the blade took. Every kill here runs as long as its own story needs, up to 15 s, built on its own from its first frame to its last, with the gore at full.

YOU SAID“Even if we are building 1000 kill animations, each one should be very well designed and crafted.”
YOU SAID“From start frame to end frame everything should be very very different.”
1PLAY THEMTap any kill card. Nothing plays by itself. 2THE LANGUAGEWhat makes a kill a sabre kill. 3HOW THEY PLAYRarity order, what a kill needs, the stage. 4THE BOARDAll 35 weapons and what is ready.
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TAP A CARD TO PLAY IT

THE SPEED SABRE KILLS

Tap any card and it plays in the phone above, on a real arena, at full gore. PLAY AGAIN restarts it, SLOW drops it to a third speed, and the track under the phone carries that kill’s own beats — drag it to stop anywhere. Nothing plays until you ask for it. Tap CHANGE on any kill you want rebuilt.

THE ROTATIONMost epic first, then the next
1Your owned kills for this gun play in rarity order, the biggest first. › 2If the spot can’t host one, it is skipped and comes back later. › 3Once they have all played, it starts again from the top.
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WHY THESE LOOK LIKE RIFLE KILLS

THE CAMERA LANGUAGE

Each weapon family has its own way of being filmed, so a kill reads as that weapon’s even before you see it. The pistol films arm’s reach, the assault rifle films volume, the sniper films distance. The sabre films one movement, and the second of silence after it.

THROUGH, NOT ATThe killer never stops in front of the man. He passes through the space the man is standing in and finishes somewhere behind him, facing the other way.
SLASH, SHEATHE, THEN FALLYour sequence, by name. The cut lands, the body stands there whole, the blade goes away — and only on the clack does the body find out.
IN THE CUT AREAYour note. A cut is not a line drawn over a body. The body comes apart where the blade actually went through it, along that angle, pushed apart square to it.
THE BLADE IS THE ONLY LIGHTA cyan trail that hangs in the air after the arm has finished moving, so you read the shape of the cut from what it left behind.
NOTHING BLEEDS AT FIRSTA speed cut is too fast to bleed. There is a thin bright line, a held breath, and then all of it at once.
IT ENDS ON THE KILLER’S BACKSabre kills end facing away, blade down or already away, with the falling happening behind him where he is not looking.
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DECIDED 23 OCT

HOW THEY PLAY IN THE GAME

These are the cinematic kills, on top of the 238 skin kills that already exist. Nothing is replaced.

ROUND-ENDING ONLYAnd the match-winning kill, exactly as the kill cam works today.
THE APPROACH STAYSWalk-up, dash or ranged as now — the kill itself is the next animation in the rotation.
WHAT A KILL NEEDSA wall, a ledge, a second foe, room. If the spot can’t host it, the next one that fits plays instead.
THE CINEMATIC STAGEA mini map built only for kill animations. The kill cam cuts to it so a set piece is never lost.
ANY TAP SKIPSSame as today. Up to 15 s, as long as the kill's own story needs, never padded.
EVERYTHING IS OWNEDFor now. Kills are sold on their own as well as inside a skin.
‹ THE BOARD · ALL 35 WEAPONS PAGE 40 · THE SKIN KILLS PAGE 56 · THE FOUR VISUAL CALLS