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Improving Your Game's Movement and Feel
Have you ever noticed that your game doesn’t quite feel as good as the classic games? That is because those classic games are fudging their movement and physics to help the player.
These tricks are not meant to coddle the player, but they make the game feel a bit more forgiving and responsive to the player’s intent. Ironically, they have the effect of making the game seem more realistic even thought their effect is the opposite.
One of the most popular and storied game genres of all time is the 2D platformer, starting with the original Mario games and moving all the way up to Celeste in present day. At some point or another, nearly every game developer has attempted to create their own take on the 2D platformer.
We have seen a wide variety of platformers with different styles emerge over the years, but despite their differences, there are a few things that all the best platformers have in common; they are a few simple tricks that all the best platformers use.
This article focuses on 2D platformers, but you can use these tricks in a variety of genres: top down games, metroidvanias, 3D games, and narrative-driven RPGs. It is important to have good movement and game feel, regardless of the type of game you are making.
Jump Buffering:
Input buffering is present in tons of game genres, particularly fighting games. For example, if you make an input within a certain window of time or frames, the move associated with that input will be executed at the first possible moment in the game.
Jump buffering allows you to jump even if you made your jump input slightly before your character has touched the ground. This is great for precise jumps on the fly. Often the player will be in a situation where they need to get a jump off quickly and they press the button a frame too early. If the player tries to jump a frame early and nothing happens, it will look to them like their jump was eaten, and they will become frustrated.
From a design perspective, a challenge that was supposed to be about executing inputs on the fly, becomes about hitting a very precise frame window. This moment in the game was probably supposed to be challenging, but not for this reason. If we give the player a few frames where they can buffer a jump, all we are doing is widening the timing window ever so slightly, but it makes a world of difference to the player. Here is an article that should help you implement this into your game.
Coyote Time:
Named after the Looney Tunes character, this is similar to jump buffering. Basically, you create a frame window in which you can input a jump even after you have already walked off a ledge. As with jump buffering, we are tweaking the game in the player’s favor. Recently I was playing Nintendo’s remake of Link’s Awakening, and I found myself missing jumps and walking off ledges a lot. It felt like I had to press the jump button ages before I reached the edge. This is because that game does not have Coyote Time!
I am used to playing games where you jump right as you get to the edge of a surface. In fact, this is naturally when the player wants to jump. Without Coyote Time, the game feels unnatural. Here is another article that details how to script both coyote time and jump buffering.
Non-Parabolic Jumping:
Have you ever noticed that in Mario, your jump feels both floaty and snappy at the same time? This is because Mario’s jump does not obey the laws of physics. In real life, if you were to jump in place on a level surface, it would take you the same time to reach the peak of your jump as it would for you to return from your peak to the ground.
In video games, it is common for developers to enhance the player character’s gravity when they are falling. When the player jumps, their ascent will be floaty (perfect for controlling aerial drift), and their fall will be crisp and snappy (perfect for precise landings). Here is a video that will help you implement this functionality in your game.
These tricks are pretty painless to implement, but they will definitely take your game to the next level. For more insight into the character movement, check out this video by Game Maker’s Toolkit.
Game on,
PBJ, Jox Digital Educator
info@jox.digital
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