Yeah, but you might not like it

I've decided to not create the back and front directional facings for the characters. My game is an overhead style rpg, so the characters are pretty small compared to what else is on the screen.

Instead, I've got art that is made facing somewhere close to the southeast facing on a compass. This direction looks good for going southeast, east, and northeast. Using the spine flipping I can get the left facing for that to go southwest, west, and northwest.

The only movements that are not ideal is the north and south movements ... but with the right art style it doesn't detract too much.

It's a trade off. In my case, less than ideal north and south movements far outweigh the complexity and art time required to make not only additional compass facings, but additional animations for those facings as well.

Colin