What makes a good 2d platformer?

We optimize the Player Movement Controls in our Indie 2D Platformer and make the input feel responsive and precise.

Other great videos:

If you want to play around with different values by yourself:

[NowKnownMAWO]

Nice player controller :)

A few suggestions to make the game feel even better:
- Camera Controller (smooth follow and directional preview)
- Stretch & Squeeze Animations (jumpstart, groundhit)
- Random Audio Pitch (for sound which gets repeated often like jumping (I often use between: 0.9-1.1))

Have fun with developing :)

[jero_villada]

the movement improved a lot. I'd suggest you tweak the camera's behavior a bit. A good example you can base this on is Hollow knight's camera or Celeste obviously.

[titus]

I like how the movement turned out! Though I think the camera could deserve some love. This way the movement won't feel as rigid :D

[REVYMofficial]

Well done! A great developer really puts some consideration into designing the game's controls, and you've done that wonderfully! 😊

[orangelimesky]

You missed out on tweaking the camera as well. Player should always be slightly off center of the camera, camera should be less snappy, and the most important of all movements, there should be dead zones for the player so the camera isn't moving instantaneously with the player's slightest movement.

[ctxperience]

I play this forgotten indie game called Legend of Dark Witch 3. Truth is I played them all, but this one in particular hits the nail perfectly when it comes to the feel of the controls. Although there are some things you may not agree with I'll still would recommend you play it to know how good it feels. The only probably is though is that it's not very accessable like the other entries.

[Poetax]

This is such a great video! I love that you showed all the improvements one by one.

[ctxperience]

In Dark Witch 3 I not sure if this was a mechanic but I remember calling it magnet boots.

The way it works is that there are platforms you can jump onto from below. If you jump a little too short often you fall back down to the previous platform, but with magnet boots you are considered to have made it onto that top platform.

Another thing with this is that while falling if you were a few inches away from the ground you will immediately snap to it instead of fall the rest of the way. The way they did it made it very helpful to jump quickly after.

Lastly, this isn't something about the mechanic but you can short hop. REALLY short hop like in the game in your vid quickly pressing the jump will still make you jump a curtain height, but doing that in this game will barely get you of the ground. In other words you have more control of how short you want your jumps to be.

[Aqua-Ash]

One thing would to have the camera follow the player more smoothly. And maybe zoom it out a bit. This allows the player to more easily see what's going on and where they need to go.

Also great improvements!

[jarrettonions]

Very nice. Great tips, i have previously incorporated most, but the one about deceleration on land is a new one, i have felt the issue, but havent addressed it yet.

[theclimbto]

"It's not just one thing, it's two..."

Crafty and clever, okay I'm prepared, here comes the 'Like and Subscribe' and actually, it was a good one.

"Actual information on more things we fixed."

Well played, guy making video. Well played.

[contentatogames]

Very solid advice. Took notes. Thanks! :D

[platano]

Great work! One piece of feedback: with the camera being attached to the character, you can't see where you are falling.

[dbweb.creative]

Mimic controls of Felix The Cat 1992 on NES. Excellent feel for parkouring 2D. One of the best, if not The best feeling 2D platformer controls.

[backyy]

Cool game, I really like when games are smooth like this

[myrrysmiasi]

That's a lot of improvement!
Have you considered making it possible to jump up through the smallest platforms? I think that would feel pretty correct and make getting up the "chimney" after the fall a lot less janky.

[naggvu]

If its still relevant, you can fix camera, it's feeling too much shaking

[foreducation]

really helpful tips gonna use them if I ever make a platformer game.

[Selrisitai]

The only thing I'd suggest after seeing the final version in this video, which is dramatically improved from the beginning of the video, is to add a couple of newly drawn frames to various animations. I know that tweening is easy, but it also looks and feels worse, and specifically stiffer, than frame-by-frame animation. You don't need to add 10 frames of animation to everything, but adding just two to three fully new frames could be the difference between decent and excellent.

[BadPizza_]

I love it when the controls are good because it makes me feel like I’m in control. (And every mistake or death is my fault 😂)