I chased the fun!

Introduction

This is a follow-up post to Forgetting the gimmick.

In the last post I ended by saying I had 2 options; Remove the original gimmick and lean into the new one. Go all in on clarity and keep the original gimmick.

But this was wrong. There are more options, there always are. 
Instead I decided on the "chasing the fun" principle. Where you allow your original idea to transform based on new discoveries during prototyping. This does not mean you have to remove the original gimmick, but instead you adapt it.

This post is about why I chased the fun and how that changed the mechanic.

The Original Mechanic

I started with a jump that the players controlled using their camera angle, looking up meant jumping higher and looking down was jumping lower.

However there was a single action that I really enjoyed doing; running around and flicking your mouse right before jumping. This made the experience feel powerful, like there was a real power behind your jump.

And this feeling is what I chased after when designing the rest of the core gameplay, adding a lunge, adding enemies, particles etc...

But this deviated from the original gimmick, the actual jump power mechanic no longer felt like the primary focus of the game, which is when I made my post about losing sight of the gimmick.

Since then I've realized I can evolve the mechanic instead of staying stuck.

The fun

So I chased the fun!

I was able to keep the original gimmick while leaning into the new fantasy. You still determine your jump power with your camera, but you aim to kill.

Adding a slam mechanic alongside a momentum mechanic makes the jumping more intentional, you aim based on multiple processes (enemies, momentum, camera) and using particles/sounds you remain feeling powerful.

Add a dash onto the jumping and you create a combo movement attack system that can be used for multiple game types.

Personally I aimed for a supervillain/hack and slash type fantasy.

Technical Details

The system itself is complicated, it was suggested I do a technical breakdown of it, instead of making a breakdown, I decided to add it onto here :D

The main complexity is not the momentum as one might assume, it's actually the state machine that controls the player. The way I set it up allows for an easy momentum calculation inside of it.

This is the graph I used when making the states, the player is able to dynamically switch between different jump and dash points and has simple movement states on top of that which can all go back and forth between the attack states.

The player is able to dash, they can then jump while in the dash to keep their momentum (and vice versa). The player can slam once in the air, but the player can also dash in the air which keep their current momentum on top of the dash charge.

If you want to see the math related to the states, I have attached the full player script for you to look through.