On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 12:11 PM, Kris Schnee <[email protected]> wrote:
> <http://kschnee.xepher.net/code/squirrelgame/>I'd appreciate thoughts on > making the movement more satisfying. > > Animation can actually make a huge difference on the feel, but there are a few things I think would help that are just mechanical. You have decceleration on stopping, which is nice, but you don't have acceleration on starting movement, which makes it very hard to make fine adjustments on landing and such, you should probably pretty much mirror the decceleration you have, meaning something with a fast response. Also, you might want to consider having a little bit of acceleration that only fully kicks in after a few seconds of movement - with that you have a higher top-speed for longer distance runs, without sacrificing control for smaller movements, which are good things. Also, it would feel a lot more satisfying if the squirrel felt smarter when it came to edges of platforms. In particular, if it was a little harder to fall off the edge of a platform, and a little easier to jump when running off the edge of a platform. In prince of persia (the original and sequel) for instance, the character would go all the way to the edge when you asked him to move, then hesitate for a moment before falling off (and if you stopped asking for movement in the hesitation, he'd draw back on the platform). Also, when running to the edge of a platform, if you jumped early, he'd take an extra step to jump from the very edge instead. To feel more squirrely, I'd suggest that the squirrel sort of "grabs" on to the ledge edge and kind of rolls down around it a touch just a little bit before he falls, and then if you jumped at that time, he'd spring off. part of that would be a kind of aesthetic thing to match how squirrels actually move - but also right now it's way too easy to jump too late and fall off a platform for me. Finally, it might be nice to do a little action on jump landing - in particular, detect whether I am asking for movement when I land. If I am, push right into that movement with no loss in forward movement - however if I am not asking for movement when I land, instead have the landing kill the motion faster, maybe even pulling me back to the landing spot a little. This will make the squirrel feel move alive and squirrely, and will also make it easier to land on a platform and more satisfying to hop around.
