If you are here, you are probably either making a platform game, or planning on making one. Either way, this is something for you.

First of all, I'm going to tell you to scrap the standard platform engine included in any Clickteam project. Some of you might wonder "Why? It's the quickest way! It gets the job done!". While true, this definately is not the best method. Creating your own custom engine using a bouncing ball object, or even modifying the existing engine definately helps. The major flaw with the Click Platform Engine is that unless a character is moving, it cannot jump. If you are making a Mario-esque game, this means trouble. There will be times where your player wants to wait for the enemy to come near so he can time his jump. This is of great importance. If a gamer sees a major flaw like this in a came, they will instantly become uninterested in your game.

So once you have that figured out, we want to move onto planning. A traditional platform game has good planning. You should have an idea in your mind of what style of platformer you will follow. Will it be like Mario, where you adventure around an area, filled with secrets, killing enemies by jumping on their heads or picking up powerups? Or will it be a Megaman style game, where you have a gun, or another weapon of that sort. This is a key decision. The next decision is a theme to your game, a plot. Platform games don't need a deep plot like an RPG, but you want to have something, it helps you in the making of the game, and the gamers in playing the game.

The main thing a plot does is tie together the game. A player wants to understand why you went from your frosty ice-filled level to an underwater sea world. Even a text page between worlds is a good start. Which brings us to our next point, Worlds. Most every platform game consists of Worlds. You want to have a wide variety of worlds. Seeing the same rolling hills in the backdrop level, after level, after level gets repetitive. The gamer wants something new. Standard platform levels include: The Grassy level; The Ice/Snow Level; The Castle/Dungeon. These are just ideas, but gamers get excited if they see you go into new interesting levels. When you buy a game, do you want an hour of grass levels, with an ice level thrown in there? No. Treat it like an SNES classic. What you would've wanted, you put in.

A world is not complete without it's enemies. Enemies work best if they are characters that have some sort of relationship with the enviroment. If you are in outer space, give them an alien. If you are in SnowLand, throw in a Snowman, or eskimo. These make the games more believable, and overall give a better impression.

Though not necessary, something that goes well at the end of a world is a boss. A boss is a very hard thing to make for most clickers. It requires a large sprite, good animation, and 2+ attacks. A boss with only one attack is boring. A Good boss is one that has at LEAST 2 attacks. There must be the "Vulnerable attack". In this attack, he still can hit you, but you have the chance to attack him as well. He is vulnerable in this attack, and this attack only. A good example is something lunging at you. If he hits you, you get hurt, but if you jump up and land on it, it gets hurt, not you. Then there is the "invulnerable attack". This works best if the player can't even touch it, like if it is flying. Something like a plane dropping bombs from the sky is a good invulnerable attack.

And so, if you put this together, you most likely have an above-average platformer. However, above-average isn't always enough, is it? No... it's not. That's why you have to throw in extras. A famous quote is "Variety is the spice of life", and it also applies to games. They don't just want different backgrounds, they want different styles of play. A good example is the classic "Spiked Wall" level. You've got a spiked wall closing in on you... the intensity level is much higher than your usual level. This keeps gamers interested, and on edge as to what you will throw in next.

Collectable items are also something easy to add in, but add so much. Even if it's something simple like coins, there are gamers that will search and try to find every last thing. Throw in something for some replay value.

And for the finale, you can't forget secrets. The original Super Mario Bros wasn't just great because of it's characters, or engine, or enemies. It had some of the world's most famous gaming secrets ever. I've never met a gamer who didn't know about the warp zone in level 1-2. There are even less obvious ones, where a 1-Up block appears in thin air if you jump up at just the right spot. Add some of these. A Click game that did this right was Gunner 3. The secret passageways to find new guns were great. I remember checking every wall for a fake one, just to get another weapon.

So to summarize the editorial, here are the things you need:

1)A solid engine
2)Planning
3)Variety
4)Effort

Utilizing these four things, any clicker can make a "Click Classic". I didn't mention effort in the body of this article, because it is common sense. If you want a good game, you need effort. In my opinion, effort is the most important thing up there. Use effort. With it, anything is possible.