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Introducing... The Platformer Toolkit (Patreon)

Published:
2022-06-14 15:08:45
Edited:
2022-06-14 15:08:53
Imported:
2022-06

Content

Hello! I've just come back from a very fun and relaxing break in Denmark and Sweden. And I'm rolling back into work with an exciting secret reveal for Patrons.

Over the past month I've been working on a new project... a video essay that you can play.

A few years back I made a rather popular video on Celeste, and platformer controls. I show you how different acceleration speeds, jump arcs, and juicy tricks can change the way a platformer feels.

But why should I just show you? Why not let you try it for yourself?

That's the idea behind Platformer Toolkit - a sort of "game design playground" where you can tweak and edit all the stats of a cute video game hero.

In the game I introduce you to Kit - a platformer character with rubbish controls. And then I unleash "The Toolkit" - a powerful overlay where you can change over 30 variables on the character, from acceleration to jump height to coyote time to the number of particles that spill out when you run.

I introduce you to each panel of features with my typical GMTK narration. But you can then play for yourself, and really get a feel for how these options change the way the game works. And then, I let you loose in an extended platformer level, and ask you to make controls that suit this environment.

The whole thing is made in Unity, and I hope you'll enjoy the cute art (courtesy of Kenney.nl), juicy UI, and educational content. The whole thing should take around 20-30 minutes.

I'm planning to release it to the world later this month, but as supporters of the channel you get a first look. I'd also really appreciate any feedback, bug reports, suggestions, or improvements.

You can play it at Itch.io here - using the password "gmtk2022". Right now it's only playable in browsers as a Web GL game, but I will release downloadable versions for Windows and Mac in the near future.

Cheers!

Mark


Files

Comments

Anonymous

Mark, hot damn this is fantastic! It's so intuitive and easy to follow, plus there's things I hadn't thought of. This is just such an exemplary example of good content for learning. When my kids are a bit older, I'll definitely be using this as a resource for building platformers. Thanks for everything you do!

Anonymous

This is such an inspired idea. Being able to adjust things like coyote time and jump height on the fly allows for plenty of experimentation and tangential learning. It's also quite visually clean and appealing, making it both approachable and engaging. Thank you for making this. Feedback: - The trail is hard to see against the grey background in the first environment. - The end of the red checkpoint area looks like a bottomless pit; almost didn't know there was more past that. - Bouncy pads can't be adjusted like the player. Feels counter intuitive to the experimental nature of this. - Landing sound effect sometimes wouldn't play. I get the impression it wouldn't fire if the jumping sfx wasn't finished? - Consider adding some metrics to the variables; it can be confusing on what exactly they were adjusting. For example, I thought movement sliders adjusted time to reach max/min speed, and was confused when a shorter acceleration time had a higher number. - Consider making sliders more granular. Variables like the jump height can be adjusted considerably before the value in the little knob updates. As it is, making precise adjustments is a little awkward.

Christopher Cowley

Was waiting for a similar sort of kit to popup here. Will give it a try when able and get some feedback submitted. Thanks Mark

Anonymous

Firstly, this is amazing! Practical simple way of letting a viewer/player see how the values effect gameplay. Some feedback. A way to press the continue, the toolkit etc button with a controller would be nice. Continue could be right bumper/R1 or another face button to keep it simple. Toolkit cound be Options/start like others have suggested. I agree with comments to be able to replay the last 'batch' of audio. Bug - If I swap from left to right quickly (or vice versa) while moving, the deacceration seems to be default no matter where the slidder is. The game also then waits for me to fully deaccelerate before registering my new direction, using the default deaccleration it seems. Feels a bit weird for the game not to have an end, even if its just a flag(s) with the option to take you back to the start of the game or to the start of Mario/Sonic/Super Meat Boy etc sections. Would be a cool hidden collectable or end reward to unlock triple jump (or a slider with how many consecutive jumps you can do) or even an advanced slider that determines where in the jump arc you can still do a double jump. Some games don't allow the double jump anytime just after the apex of the first jump for example. The corners of the spring pads can give some very fast sideways movement with rounded corners on the player hitbox, maybe not a bug, maybe just something for people to discover about how rounded corners interact with things.

Anonymous

This is really impressive

Anonymous

Wow. I am in agreement with everyone. That was an awesome short game

Anonymous

wow, amazing idea and great implementation. However, I got some visual bugs covering almost the whole screen, making the game basically unplayable. And I accidentally exited the game when it was presumably almost done by clicking on an itch.io overlay instead of an options panel.

Hummeldon

What a fantastic game. I'm not surprised my ideal setup is a bit of a blend of super meat boy and celeste. I think it'd be cool to see a proper puzzle platformer where you need to tweak mechanics like this to solve levels.

BasicIncomePlz

Kind of annoying the dialogue can't be skip, other than that it's great

Anonymous

HI Mark, I don't know if it's too late to ask/suggest this, but have you considered adding a run button to this demo? I understand that you wanted to teach just the basics of the movement, but I feel like the run button could really add an extra level of depth and understanding to the game development process. For example, I ended up aligning my character's controls with characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, slow windup, but a high overall speed, and after I completed the demo (great job btw), I couldn't help but wonder what factors could have led me to choosing a different playstyle? Immediately I realized that the run button would probably make the biggest difference of all and if it were included, I would probably end up with controls more in line with Super Meat Boy or Mario Bros. What do you think? Do you believe that adding a run button would make a substantial difference in the mindset of the developer, or do you think that the results would be the same?

Anonymous

This is unbeliveably cool! well done! my one gripe would be no saving, got to near the end and accidently clicked a link overlayed on itch that meant i had to restart.

Anonymous

This is my favorite GMTK content yet, very well done! The one issue that I ran into was that until I saw the change direction speed modifier, my character could stop running very quickly (maximum deceleration), but if I tried to turn around while running, suddenly it was as if I was sliding on ice!