What do you feel makes a good platformer game? Is the the look and feel of the levels, or the things the character can do (eg Is a game with Wall Jumping better than a game without?) or what?
I think that being ablet o perfectly control your character is the key. If you miss that jump or hit that flame-thrower thing, then it should be your fault, not the controls. Does anyone agree with me? Anything I've missed out on? Do you think that I'm not making any sense? Please, disuss!
Yes control is very important on a platform game. I for some reason, always look forward to the bosses. I just love them. Also good music helps alot too. I like hidden passages, things you find by accident or you have to look around in order to.
Interaction and originality, themeing and character-design for me mainly though. Story is important I suppose but then I dont always think about the story during gameplay.
Ohhh aNd I like useless things like little animals that cant hurt you, but hop around looking cute, and also in Rayman advance, theres like little toadstools that dance and stuff
The point about it always being the player's fault rather than the game's is exactly what I was going to say (especially as I've been playing Prince of Persia 2 quite a lot recently).
Music does seem to enhance platform games quite a lot, in particular.
Theres a tune Andyuk sent me from Sonic rush and I cant stop listening to it
Also, I just had a shower and realised Locoroco is probably one of the best platfomer/puzzle games ive ever played. The physics engines amazed me and the style is certainly original and also, they do pointless things if you leave them alone, like sing and play together so cute
Well, I guess I like lots of weapons and plenty of action. Also, atmosphere and a certain style and feel to the design of the levels instead of them being all the same.
Has anyone here played Astal? A platform game for the Sega Saturn. It was such a simple engine/game but I loved every minute of it! There were no weapons, just some attacks like grab to throw objects, jump punch, super blow, and smash ground...oh, and he could grab really heavy objects and through against foes...That's 5 attacks...I think that was plenty.... in my opinion...
While it might be against the rules, I don't really know, but an excellent platforming game, made in Game Maker, named "Jumper 2" is friggin amazing.
The graphics are not excllent and the midi will make you slightly frustrated. But. there's the pinpoint exactness, the obvious solution, the small special tricks and the abselutely awesome controls that makes Jumper 2 addicting.
It might not be a result of a clickteam product, but it really shows, how good platforming can be.
A question under Penguin's question...how many attacks do you guys think are enough for a platformer. I'm making a platformer right now, and right now it has 6 attacks, you start off with 2 but as you go along you 'level up' and learn the remaining 4, the latter one being the strongest (obviously).
It all depends on how you use your weaponry. Having a single weapon works just fine as long as your combat system is deeper than Megaman. That's actually the route I'm taking currently; one gun; lots of ways to use it.
You could have one attack, really. It all depends how well executed they are, but I think 6 attacks is allright, as long you can switch inbetween them.
Right now I'm working on a Zone Runner type of game with some extra moves (Wall Jumping ) where you have to get coins to open a door that you have to get through and then at the end of the zone you fight a boss. Is this too simple? I want the focus to be on making your way through the zones without much fighting.
I loved the lost vikings. Did anyone play this? OH and save my pizza! With a squirrel that ran along roof tops. It was a really simple platformer but I remember being addicted to it
There isn't really a secret formula to make a good platformer.
Consider this,
Rayman has incredible 2d hand drawn artwork and great music which makes it one of the most beautiful games ever (i have on the psone and i love it)
But utlimately it's really frustrating to play, that should in theory make it a bad game. But this time around the presentation is enough for me to continue despite the gameplay being it's worst aspect. (i have rayman 2 too which is great fun)
Also
Sonic the hedgehog and Mario bros are the opposite ends of the platforming spectrum, but take almost any one of the Mario or Sonic games, and you'll see they're really rather good, but they don't really share a lot in common.
So i can't say because lots of things make a game good, but sometimes even that wont work as planned,
Sorry for this example, but Buzz the squirrel 2. Most people say it's average, but it's got all the qualities you'd want from a platformer. yes?
Take Fishhead 2, bad control (built in platform movement) repetitive gameplay formula (collect 3 keys and open door) but it's still a very fun game to play? why? i don't know either. I love it.
I'd say the secret is to have very simple movements (move, jump, and maybe an attack) and have multiple objects in the levels. If you just jump through a bunch of levels with nothing but springs and coins and just have the level look different it will be boring. If you play mario or sonic, every level has some new object to interact with. And not just items.
Sonic 1
First level - loops, breakable walls, spinning spike things
Also, I have astal, it's pretty fun, nice graphics and everything. I found the controls to not be too good though. He just seems to move too slow and clunky.
And btw, great platforming games:
Sonic and Mario (Obviously)
Dynamite Headdy
Sparkster
Donkey Kong Country
Crash Bandicoot, the first one when it was still simple
Ristar
Just play those and pay attention to what makes them so good.
When it comes down to it, obviously what makes all games fun is the sense of achievement the player gets.
Make the challenges difficultly juuust right, the player should lose to a boss a few times before they win so when they do they are all like: 'YEAH!!!' when they do instead of: 'uh, that was easy'.
Eg: 'W00T I beat the giant pink turtle monster on level 6!!!'
Giving the player rewards is very important. So, after they beat that difficult giant turtle monster, you could give the player some kind of awesome upgrade or NEW ABILLITY.
Upgrades. These are really great(in certain types of games), there is nothing like having the player character who couldn’t jump for sh1t before, being able to jump higher and reach that previously inaccessible ledge which leads to who knows what.
Another thing is to give the player something to look forward to, such as after they complete 3 levels they know they'll go to another completely different world with 3 more levels. Or even a boss after every whatever number of levels to look forward to.
The things you (penguin) mentioned are really important
Other stuffs to consider are:
A simple platformer is a fun one. I hate clutter, I'd rather have 1 cool, creative weapon than 5 boring crap ones. Did mario bros have a crapload of different items to pick up? Nope
As you said, control can make or break a game. Even if everything else about the game is awesome, i'm not going to to play past level 1 if making a jump is a quest unto itself. fine tune the controls to be responsive. It's a big mistake that newbs always make that distracts from what fun bits their game has.
Level design can also make a fun game. Make each level/area very different to the last and like Justin said, include some new hazard or feature that wasn't in the previous levels, or there will be nothing to look forward to and nothing to make you want beat it and go on to the next level.
All i can think of right now..
These are all pretty obvious and most don't really apply to a zone runner kinda game,
heh.
thinking is like pong, it's easy, but you miss sometimes.
Deleted User
21st July, 2006 at 11:57:15 -
I don't know what makes a good platformer game but what ever it is Tomba has it so check out tomba and try to find what makes it worth while, It may be jumping but Im not sure.
I love platformers. I've always tried to instill a "just one more go" factor, meaning easy to pick up and play. I don't like overly complicated platformers with loads of moves/weapons. I just want to pick up a game, play it, beat it, and play it again. Not even things like high scores particularly interest me, neither do really long levels. It all boils down to a single persons preference - and I'm trying to replicate all these factors regarding Mr Stumps Dentures 2.
A good, working engine is important, but it doesn't have to be overcomplicated. Good level design is important, as well as fair enemy placement. Risk vs reward, that kind of thing. You take a chance to reach a bonus item, it could cost you, but the reward is well worth it.
A platformer in my opinion MUST have boss battles as well. Graphics don't really bother me, it's how the game plays that counts.
What I like is when platformers have a reasonly balanced depth. It should feature an at least moderatly complex control scheme, though you wouldn't need to know every last technique or move there is to learn to complete the game. Then again, the level of complexity 'needed' varies depending on the type of platformer you're playing/making.
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