Creating an intro sequence gets complicated really fast. There are so many sprites involved and all the animation points for position, scale, opacity, etc. But it is finally done to a level that I pleased with. There might be a few additional tweaks to it later on but for now it is complete.
The above screenshot shows the entire dope sheet for the intro animation broken down in to 5 scenes. The first scene is used to move the camera away from the main menu state and to bring in the enemy craft that attacks the planet. The second scene is for the atmospheric burn on the capsules. Scene 3 returns to the planet view to show the change to the environment. Scene 4 is where things get complicated as I want to show off some of the Reflex missiles skills but unlike in game everything has to be hand animated. And finally scene 5 shows the world 1 station in orbit around the planet.
Once the animation completes it transitions directly to the world 1 level select.
If the player has started the game previously and begins a new run the intro works slightly differently as the main menu background is designed to show the highest world achieved by the player(s). So in this instance the screen wipes to the intro instead of integrating directly.
And so without further waffling. Here is the game from a first load through to the end of the intro.
