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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperDesignSimple Platformer
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JasonPickering
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« on: December 06, 2016, 09:50:52 AM »

So it seems most of my games end up being Roguelikes for Mobile. well a new game came out called

. This has got me thinking about Mobile platformers again. It has an interesting control scheme but didn't work for me. It seems most people go straight for the virtual controls on the screen and I just don't think that ever works. I have to say one of the one that works the best in my opinion has been the Rayman Jungle run series. so as I have figured out so far. I think the screen can have two "buttons". basically the left side of the screen and also the right side of the screen. some of the concepts I came up with are:

Frog game
- touching the left side of the screen makes you jump left, and right makes you jump right. game is all about jumping. holding right would have the player doing a series of jumps continually. Also I could do variable jumping, so the player could make small hops or large jumps.

Auto running
- this seems to work the best for most places. by having the player auto run I could pair the game down into one or two controls. going with a two button idea the player has up to 4 different things they could do. A/B on ground. A/B in Air. this is more along the lines of what the Rayman games have done on iOS.

Gas
- this would be one button would propel the character forward and the other button would cause the player to jump. I tried this as a control scheme but never really felt right and I always felt my hand just constantly held down to run and never stop.

I want the game to focus on one or two mechanics and then build all gameplay around that. I know i want jumping to be a main part, but most of the problems I have though of are solved by jumping. I was also thinking that perhaps the other button could be "Run" so the player would always move at a certain speed, but by holding the left side the player could sprint, this would add several new mechanics as well as allow the player to have greater controls over their jumps. Similar to original mario and how holding B would let you run faster to clear large gaps. some of the inspiration I have taken from are here




The Language of Mario
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lobstersteve
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« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2016, 11:04:17 AM »

i don't now if you already mean this control scheme in "gas", but what about:

hold right to go right and if you press left while holding right, you jump
hold left to go left and if you press right while holding left, you jump

i actually made a game with the control scheme once, that way you can even make wall-jumping platformers.
you can also watch it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neatmess/bits-a-twitch-platformer-for-ios-android-and-pc?ref=discovery
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JasonPickering
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« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2016, 11:40:29 AM »

I was worried that control scheme would be to confusing. Do you find the person. Switching a lot? Or does the game involve long stretches of running right with long stretches of left.
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lobstersteve
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« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2016, 01:10:44 PM »

oh..well let me correct myself. i made a PROTOTYPE with that control scheme  Smiley
i think with that kind of control scheme, every kind of movement would be possible. correcting your jumping direction in mid air, stopping, etc..
one thing that bothered me was, that if you were running right and wanted to stop and run left, there was a brief moment of course, where you were still pressing right, but pressed left to go in the other direcion, which made you jump. so you had to completly release "right" and press "left", which felt unnatural.
so yeah, i think that's the one thing, that made running from left to right not that great. but maybe a more mario-ish platformer, where you mostly run right, and a lot of gameplay is about timing (stopping, jumping in the right moment) could work well Smiley
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JasonPickering
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« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2016, 01:33:59 PM »

this was the test I made. Its only jump. I tried to think about how the world would work so i was thinking if you jumped on maybe a certain enemy it might give you a higher jump, forcing the player to hit the right enemy.

Test
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valrus
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« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2016, 05:20:48 PM »

Random ideas:

Auto-run right, right button is jump, left button is retreat (like in, say, Symphony of the Night, where you suddenly back up by an appreciable fraction of the screen).  So the character can go left, but it's asymmetrical with the rightward movement.

Auto-run right, left button is jump, right button launches you like a Yoshi's Island egg.

Auto-run right, right button is jump, left button switches you between worlds.  (Maybe you run left in the other world.)

No auto run, left button is jump and right button is run right, but the world itself conspires to push you leftward (like you're on a conveyor belt, in an avalanche, etc.).

Auto-run right, right button is jump, left button is crouch (which slows you down, but you can get under obstacles and a jump from crouch is higher).
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JasonPickering
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« Reply #6 on: December 11, 2016, 07:33:57 PM »

Another idea I had today was perhaps the left button stops you. This wouldn't be better for timing based jumps, but in air it could also lead the player into a ground pound and allow them to navigate tricky obstacles like ground pounding between spikes to get lower.

I  saw a thing in the new super Mario run that has the player stopping when they hit certain blocks and that made me think about that.
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JasonPickering
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« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2016, 10:12:31 AM »

the little hop back could be a fun little mechanic actually. I keep thinking about mechanics like that, but I just keep adding them as bad guys, which doesnt actually do anything to the overall mechanics of the game. I added two blocks so far for testing the prototype. one makes you bounce higher, and one makes you stop.
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JasonPickering
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« Reply #8 on: December 27, 2016, 06:53:25 AM »

I still dont have a good second mechanic, which is really stopping me from taking this any farther. right now the player just has a jump. if the player is holding jump when they land on an enemy they will bounce off, you can see I did this on the snake. I think I will zoom out even more to show more of the screen.

Test2

I have been looking at the design of Downwell and its making me think more about multiple uses. for example you can kill an enemy, but also use that enemy to get to a higher platform. I am also thinking about maybe giving a player a reason to not jump, like perhaps after running for a certain amount of time the player will gain speed and just go into a charge automatically. jumps after this charge are farther and they can break through blocks. I also might just add a headbutt animation, similar to a punch (haven't figured out how to do this yet) and then if done in air I could do two different ways. an in air headbutt gives the player a boost, like the mario air spin. or maybe its works as a ground pound and the player just plummets straight down into the ground.
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