Murtaza Hashwani | What is the essence to capture in platformer/ action games?

Published January 11, 2023
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Hello Folks Myself Murtaza Hashwani, I am working on a story action platformer hybrid game where the player gets the choice to engage in a fight or retreat when he wants to or based on his resources, and his choice matters because the enemies would behave differently based on the player's to enemie's hp.

I think I got the basic concepts on the action side. A novel way to fight mobs, AI that knows what to do and reacts to the player (Just the concept, I have yet to program it down) and other things.

I have decided to make the evade mechanic a dodge rather than a parry. However; I have no clue about how to reward the player for dodging near/ on time. I have thought of bayonetta's witch time, but I thought I would feel like I am copying a game, I am not grading the player based on his whiffs/ hits and the weapon of choice would really make the character chain stun the enemies by channelling perfect dodge after the next, which can look cool but pretty annoying for me who designed the bosses and have a mechanic to make said boss vulnerable and for the player who have mastered it. Does anyone know of a good way to reward the player for a dodge without making it busted?

Edit: I AM NOT making a power fantasy game, I hope that clears stuff up

Now to another question, what defines a good platformer? I heard from some ppl saying it was the speed where you traverse the map, channeling a high jump and all that Mario speedrun talk to get to point A to point B as fast as you can. Others told me that the movement needs to be fun on its own and everything else is extra, but what makes a movement system fun? That's my second question.

Thanks

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JoeJ

Now to another question, what defines a good platformer? I heard from some ppl saying it was the speed where you traverse the map, channeling a high jump and all that Mario speedrun talk to get to point A to point B as fast as you can. Others told me that the movement needs to be fun on its own and everything else is extra, but what makes a movement system fun? That's my second question.

Playing a lot of Mario myself, the recipe seems a predictable environment (enemies and dynamic platforms moving at constant velocity, with predictable patterns and behavior), vs. physically plausible player controls (player controls acceleration, velocity is not constant).
This combination makes moment to moment gameplay interesting, challenging, fun and and varied.

Besides it's the extremely rich interaction options, unmatched by any other game. We can turn enemies into weapons, e.g. pick up a shell, carry it along as a shield, throw it at multiple angles as a projectile.
We can build a stack of boxes to reach higher places. We can even glitch through walls by croutching in a narrow passage and then standing up. Etc.
Levels can be entirely about agility, or just puzzles, or exploration, or all of them combined.

That's the things i expect from a good action game. I'm not so much interested in combat mechanics, so can't comment on the first question.

January 11, 2023 11:24 AM
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