Level Up.pdf

102 LEVEL 5 The Three Cs, Part 1—Character
What if your game takes place in space? Or occurs on a planet with low or
high gravity? Or you can make exceptionally powerful jumps like Jumping
Flash? You ’ ll need to work all of this out ahead of time to make sure your
metrics match your physics. Tackle this early and don ’ t change it, or you will
cause huge problems.
OK, let ’ s jump back to jumping. As platform games were the most
popular game genre in the 16 - bit days, you can understand how the art
of jumping has been taken to its furthest limits; more than any other
player character movement. By my count, there are five major ways to
jump:
• Single jump: The player jumps once — either vertically or horizontally.
• Double jump: a second vertical or horizontal jump that is chained after
the initial jump.
• Triple jump: a third jump that can be done after the second jump,
usually requiring something for the player to bounce off of and most
often horizontal.
• Contextual jump: an “ automatic ” jump that happens when the player
approaches a pre - tagged area such as a ledge.
• Wall jump: a special case jump that is performed after the player
jumps “ into ” or towards a wall. If the player presses a button as they
collide with the wall, they will jump off of the wall in the opposite
direction. The player can gain altitude by chaining wall jumps which
allows them to “ climb walls ” by wall jumping between two opposite
facing surfaces. A wall jump can be treated as either a “ natural move ”
that the player has from the beginning of the game (like in Prince of
Persia) or it can derive from an earned skill or equipment (as in Ratchet
and Clank).
Even as the player hurtles through the air, there are design decisions to be
made. Some games treat jumping realistically and don ’ t allow the player to
change their trajectory after they jump, while others allow the player to
course correct the character. Other games will allow the player to jump
higher and further depending on the amount of time the button is
depressed.
After years of making “ hoppy- skippy ” games (as I call them) I have
discovered some curious things about jumping. Players usually do not jump
from the edge of a ledge, but from a little way back. Edges make players
nervous. They leap from an area I call the “jump zone” , which can be up to
half a jump ’ s distance to the very edge of the platform.