I kept hitting a wall in terms of what I want Sara to be. How does the character look like? Does she have a signature piece of clothing? Where does she store most of her stuff? A backpack? A Belt? A Messenger Bag? I was struggling to really solidify all of the looks let alone nailing the art style of the game. So instead of spinning my wheels getting little done, I decided to shift my focus this week. I decided to focus on actually getting something playable. I started working on player movement.
Movement Goals
The goal with the movement within this game in particular is to be out-of-the-way. It isn’t the center of attention or the primary reason as to why this game was made. Neon Ritual was that. It was a way to test my chops in an 2D action platformer. Moving around, positioning, and shooting (in other words, the controls) were one of the main focuses of the game and is commonly a reason why people came back to it again and again.
For this current project, I am trying to not do that. Yes, I want the controls to feel responsive, fluid, and overall good. But that isn’t what I want the player to focus on. The environments, the visuals, and the interactions the players have are what I want to emphasize. There is only one planned part of the game where the controls of the game will be more of the focus. Other than that, it should be those things that I previously mentioned.
Moving On
There are only a handful of things that Sara will do:
- Walk/Run
- Jump
- Slide
And that’s it. Again, they are only there to serve the purpose of exploring the environment not to call attention to itself. So I set out to carry out those mechanics. I created a very simple version of the controls where it is just functional. It doesn’t “feel” nice, it just works. Which is fine for a first pass and as I work on more I will refine it to where I want it.
An example of a jump that I want to test out would be a variation from Ori and the Blind Forest. This is more so because of the fluid animations of each transition. It doesn’t look as much of a game as it does look natural to the character. So I want to experiment with that.
Also I think these are some of the cutest placeholder graphics that I have made to date. They are all just simple geometric shapes, but the character in the circle!
Smooth Camera Flow
On top of the basic movement in the game, I also was able to get some camera controls in. Cameras in video games are notorious for being difficult to manage. There are so many things that you don’t think about when you first start out. There is an awesome talk on the many different camera systems in 2D games alone and the breakdown of each. Definitely give it a watch if you have the time or interest.
As with the movement, this is still very experimental. I am testing out what works best with the feel and tone of the game right now. Trying out lots of different settings and styles to nail down what exactly is the best option for the game.
This is helped in large part by a plugin that I am utilizing called ProCamera2D. It is an excellent camera plugin that executes a lot of the things mentioned in that talk. Here’s what I came up with:
A Long Road Ahead
There’s still a ton of work to be done on the movement and camera systems, let alone the entire game itself. I plan on exploring more camera styles, movement options, and even character designs in the near future. So if you want to follow along with up to the minute previews, follow me on Twitter @DarkaysTG. And if you have any questions free to tweet at me or leave a comment below!