as a developer ghost-jumping was a legitimate revelation to me, once I noticed it I started seeing it everywhere. nearly every good platformer has it. another thing you forgot to mention in this video is jump buffering, where if you press and hold the jump button a few frames before landing you will execute the jump the frame you land.
great video man, you need more recognition. one complaint that i have would be that maybe the background music was too loud, but apart from that great video man
+[game array] I want you to know I vehemently disagree with Mr. Sanchez here, and I think both the volume and selection of music was absolutely perfect. The Runner 2 soundtracks were amazing choices. I think you did a dang-good job, man. I'll be sharing this with my design-savvy friends, for sure :)
Less cynically stated, there are no formulas for making the game feel right. Every unique game experience requires a unique combination of mechanics. This is a great channel!
The term is used by devs is "variable jump height", ie stopping the ascent when the jump button is released. Now there are all kinds of words used for the specificities, such as attack and decay to describe the rate of ascent versus the falloff provided by gravity but if Nintendo is the gold standard, here's the feeling they instill; In tight jumps, players hold the jump button far past it's window of efficacy because it *feels* like if the press just a little harder, hold just a little longer, they can make that jump.
Wonderfully informative. I recently quit my office job to go the solo indie gamedev route and this kinda stuff is crazy interesting. I look forward to the rest of this series. Keep up the good work.
Really enjoyed this video. You've got a new subscriber. The frame data and technical information really sets these videos apart, and I really appreciate it.
Great video!! The technical depth that you went into, and the pace that you delivered it with, was just perfect. It wasn't so heavy that the video got bogged down, nor so light that I felt patronised; it was just right in that sweet-spot. You've also got a great narrative tone: It's smooth, clear, and concise. I could listen to you ramble on about game design for days :) Please, please, please make more of this series. Lots more. Oh, and If you're taking requests, how about a video on inventory systems?
It's also interesting to compare platformer jump physics with, say, fighting game jump physics. With only a small handful of exceptions, the vast majority of fighting games still use fixed jump height and arcs, though jumping in fighting games serves a vastly different role than jumping in platformers. It isn't used to clear obstacles or move through the stage - it's used to either evade attacks, quickly get away from the opponent, or as an aggressive maneuver. These actions - especially the latter - are meant to carry a high degree of risk to counteract the potential reward (your jump-in attacks are often your best combo starters). Giving players control over the arc of the jump would defeat the point. Some games, however, do expand on what sort of jumps you can perform. Some games have super jumps that give you extra height at the cost of increased air time, double jumps that let you change your arc mid-air, or air dashes that give you a burst of forward or backwards momentum. The King of Fighters games also have super jumps, though theirs work differently. rather than increased height, they have longer horizontal arcs, and as such you can't super jump straight up and down. The series also has variable jump heights, though it's simplified to two possible heights - either a short hop or a full jump. Super Smash Bros, being rooted more in platformers like Kirby or Metroid than in traditional fighting games, grants players full control over jump arcs (referred to as "aerial drift" by pro players), though to what extent varies between characters.
Great work, man! I love the tone and video/music editing of this video. I hope this series continues, because it's not only informative, but very entertaining and interesting to watch. I hope you gain some more recognition for the quality of your work :)
This looks like it's going to be a really awesome series! I'm an aspiring game designer so this was very interesting and educational, beyond just entertaining. This is the first video I'm seeing on this channel and if this is what most of your videos are like it's an easy subscribe!
The actual reason that the take long to fall in gravity simulation the velocity of the jump doesnt get higher in the beginning it just gets set and gravity takes away from the velocity until its neagtive meaning that the velocity going down is not instant like going up. For example If the player jumps Set the velocity (10) Each frame (-1 velocity) Eventually the velocity will be negative and it will start going down Usally some games may have a max velocity. But dont take things like mass ( same constant for all objects ) or terminal velocity ( depedent on mass) because the difference is so low. Gravity isnt a constant at all heights so basically thats my point. Also im not 100 sure this is just a common practice.
Nice! I love game mechanic analysis videos. :D I think the reason for the descent of small jumps being slower is less by design than you think, though... It's most likely due to how the gravity systems work. All jumps have to start with the same velocity, as the game doesn't know how long you're going to hold down the jump button. But the descent will always have the same equation for how much downward speed to add per frame. This means that a full jump will have a fast beginning, slow down at the top, and since there's a large distance to fall, the player's fall will speed up until they hit the ground. With a small hop, however, there isn't enough room for the player to fall to get all that downward speed. Of course, most games have a cap on how fast the player can fall so that long drops don't cause you to fall as fast as a bullet. But now I'm rambling... Looking forward to more videos! :D
Interesting video. There's another thing which can affect the feel of jumping mechanics - momentum after landing. Ie, if you do a forwards jump, do you continue going forwards when you land? Or do you lose all horizontal speed? This feature can make it feel like you're landing on ice and thus it's hard to control. However, it gives a sense of speed. This also combines into the whole friction/running mechanic of the game, so it'll probably be in a later episode. Good luck with the series and I hope to see more soon
Very cool video. I love video game design principles (teach computer science at the college level and like to throw these ideas in when talking about the difficulty of design). Looking forward to the rest of your stuff!
Please continue making these! As some have mentioned, I think the volume of the music (primarily in the beginning of the episode) was a bit too loud and muffled your voice. You have some great editing in this video and its some great analysis. Although jumping has been covered before (like in Egoraptor(?)s video), this was a great addition. I am looking forward to seeing more!
Thank you for pointing out a game-feel flaw my game has regarding to jumping. And it's probably the last thing that bothered me and didn't occured to me.
Good thesis. The music got very, VERY busy especially in the megaman part especially the storm eagle stage part of the video. Turn that volume down, and double check that the music isnt jumping around so frequently, and id recommend staying away from music that has lyrics in them. good work, cant wait for more.
Love the video, only thing is I feel like there might have been the implication that what SMB and so on was better than what Castlevania and so on did. In terms of feel and technically I would say they are better. Like you said there is more possibilities. But I feel like limiting control is some times preferable and using Castlevania as an example I feel like it suits that really well. For two reasons. One you know exactly what will happen when you press the button. If you're holding forward you'll make a long jump, if you're not you'll jump straight up. It's limited, but you know down to the pixel what will happen. It also allows for the level design to be more controlled and test your skill a bit more. If you fuck up, you'll know about it. The developers know exactly what you can do and can build levels around that.
Hey man, my friend Chadunda actually already has a show called Mechanically Speaking. There aren't many episodes, but the first one came out around nine months ago and he put out one of them just a couple of weeks ago as well, so it's safe to say he hasn't abandoned it. This was a good video (music was a little loud, but that's an easy fix in the future), but you should definitely pick another title. I know, I know, you've already put a lot of work into this--that's absolutely clear--but that doesn't change the fact that the title's already taken. Anyway, have a good one, dude.
How far are you taking this? I mean how complex game mechanics are you going to talk about? I like this idea because the average gamer/consumer isn't conscious of how game mechanics can make a game good or bad. Informing them is the first step to making them realize.
For a look at the history of jumping mechanics and -why- it's so popular, check out this research paper I published back in 2010: www.jasonbegy.com/uploads/5/0/7/7/50772065/begy_jumping.pdf
I guess this is explains why Super Mario Land for Game boy is the Black Sheep of the Franchise because of the jumping mechanic. I still like it more then New Super Bros 2 for 3DS
+likenem NSMB2 is a good game. They're all good games. They're not original and they all just do the same thing more levels. But fuck it, they're tightly controlled and the levels are fun. What's the problem?
likenem Yeah, I agree. It's still a well made and enjoyable game regardless. It's not a work of art, or innovative. So? I enjoyed it. I wouldn't put it on the same level as Super Mario World as an example. But very few games are on that level anyway.
hey enjoyed the video a lot, but the music made it rather difficult to listen to the commentary. could be better if you tone it down a little and maybe not change the music so often. Keep up the great work!
Great video, but watch out for using copyrighted works as background music (like city escape at the end credits). Companies are likely to claim your monetization.
I've subbed and I'm looking forward to more. A bit of constructive criticism...it was hard for me to focus on your words when the background music was overlapping with the music from games you were demoing in the video. I would suggest that you reduce the background music volume just a tad so your voice will pop more, and not play the video game's track while you have background music...it makes for a very distracting experience.
![Mechanically Speaking: Shooting in First Person - [game array]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/13iMO9s-q0c/mqdefault.jpg)
![Mechanically Speaking: Shooting in First Person - [game array]](/img/tr.png)
as a developer ghost-jumping was a legitimate revelation to me, once I noticed it I started seeing it everywhere. nearly every good platformer has it. another thing you forgot to mention in this video is jump buffering, where if you press and hold the jump button a few frames before landing you will execute the jump the frame you land.
Mechanically Speaking is going to be a fantastic series!
great video man, you need more recognition. one complaint that i have would be that maybe the background music was too loud, but apart from that great video man
+Alejandro Sanchez The music volume seemed fine for me, guess its different for everyone.
+Roozi489 It wasn't too loud in every segment.
+Alejandro Sanchez Sorry about the background music guys. I will be more careful in the future :)
+[game array] I want you to know I vehemently disagree with Mr. Sanchez here, and I think both the volume and selection of music was absolutely perfect. The Runner 2 soundtracks were amazing choices. I think you did a dang-good job, man. I'll be sharing this with my design-savvy friends, for sure :)
+[game array] the music was too loud and a bit too messy for being so loud sorry but again great video and neat animations
Less cynically stated, there are no formulas for making the game feel right. Every unique game experience requires a unique combination of mechanics. This is a great channel!
Oh damn dude, you just began the very sort of show I've been looking for. Keep this going dude.
The term is used by devs is "variable jump height", ie stopping the ascent when the jump button is released. Now there are all kinds of words used for the specificities, such as attack and decay to describe the rate of ascent versus the falloff provided by gravity but if Nintendo is the gold standard, here's the feeling they instill;
In tight jumps, players hold the jump button far past it's window of efficacy because it *feels* like if the press just a little harder, hold just a little longer, they can make that jump.
This is fantastic, deep analysis you don't often see in these game design videos. Keep it up.
Wonderfully informative. I recently quit my office job to go the solo indie gamedev route and this kinda stuff is crazy interesting. I look forward to the rest of this series. Keep up the good work.
Really enjoyed this video. You've got a new subscriber. The frame data and technical information really sets these videos apart, and I really appreciate it.
Great work man. So much research and work!
Imo, Thomas Was Alone has one of the most satisfying jump mechanics. Great video. Please make more of these.
This video just earned you a sub! I hope you make more for this series. You're research is phenomenal!
Great video!! The technical depth that you went into, and the pace that you delivered it with, was just perfect. It wasn't so heavy that the video got bogged down, nor so light that I felt patronised; it was just right in that sweet-spot.
You've also got a great narrative tone: It's smooth, clear, and concise. I could listen to you ramble on about game design for days :) Please, please, please make more of this series. Lots more.
Oh, and If you're taking requests, how about a video on inventory systems?
It's also interesting to compare platformer jump physics with, say, fighting game jump physics.
With only a small handful of exceptions, the vast majority of fighting games still use fixed jump height and arcs, though jumping in fighting games serves a vastly different role than jumping in platformers. It isn't used to clear obstacles or move through the stage - it's used to either evade attacks, quickly get away from the opponent, or as an aggressive maneuver. These actions - especially the latter - are meant to carry a high degree of risk to counteract the potential reward (your jump-in attacks are often your best combo starters). Giving players control over the arc of the jump would defeat the point.
Some games, however, do expand on what sort of jumps you can perform. Some games have super jumps that give you extra height at the cost of increased air time, double jumps that let you change your arc mid-air, or air dashes that give you a burst of forward or backwards momentum.
The King of Fighters games also have super jumps, though theirs work differently. rather than increased height, they have longer horizontal arcs, and as such you can't super jump straight up and down. The series also has variable jump heights, though it's simplified to two possible heights - either a short hop or a full jump.
Super Smash Bros, being rooted more in platformers like Kirby or Metroid than in traditional fighting games, grants players full control over jump arcs (referred to as "aerial drift" by pro players), though to what extent varies between characters.
Great work, man! I love the tone and video/music editing of this video. I hope this series continues, because it's not only informative, but very entertaining and interesting to watch. I hope you gain some more recognition for the quality of your work :)
You're a Professor of 2-D mechanics. Very well done!
Great video dude! Hope this is a series you continue.
Really looking forward to the rest of this series. Fantastic.
Awesome video! I can't wait for more episodes of Mechanically Speaking! :-)
This was great man keep it up, this actually seems like it would actually be able to help designers making platformers it's that good.
This looks like it's going to be a really awesome series! I'm an aspiring game designer so this was very interesting and educational, beyond just entertaining. This is the first video I'm seeing on this channel and if this is what most of your videos are like it's an easy subscribe!
Awesome video! Looking forward to more entries of this series.
Excellent concept, and great execution. Congrats!
This was really well produced. Looking forward to more content!
Extremely informative.Now I won't see platformers (or any 2D jumping) the same way again.
The actual reason that the take long to fall in gravity simulation the velocity of the jump doesnt get higher in the beginning it just gets set and gravity takes away from the velocity until its neagtive meaning that the velocity going down is not instant like going up.
For example
If the player jumps
Set the velocity (10)
Each frame (-1 velocity)
Eventually the velocity will be negative and it will start going down
Usally some games may have a max velocity.
But dont take things like mass ( same constant for all objects ) or terminal velocity ( depedent on mass) because the difference is so low.
Gravity isnt a constant at all heights so basically thats my point.
Also im not 100 sure this is just a common practice.
The audio editing in this is top notch, fantastic job. The music led the pacing of the essay perfectly.
Great video! As a game design student, this helps a lot! Hope to see more
Awesome video! Can tell a lot of effort went into it and the soundtrack choice is on point. You should post the soundtrack lists
Really good video and very interesting! waiting to see you doing more vids of "mechanically speaking"!!
Nice! I love game mechanic analysis videos. :D
I think the reason for the descent of small jumps being slower is less by design than you think, though... It's most likely due to how the gravity systems work. All jumps have to start with the same velocity, as the game doesn't know how long you're going to hold down the jump button. But the descent will always have the same equation for how much downward speed to add per frame. This means that a full jump will have a fast beginning, slow down at the top, and since there's a large distance to fall, the player's fall will speed up until they hit the ground. With a small hop, however, there isn't enough room for the player to fall to get all that downward speed.
Of course, most games have a cap on how fast the player can fall so that long drops don't cause you to fall as fast as a bullet. But now I'm rambling... Looking forward to more videos! :D
Really well done, this sounds like it's going to be a great series.
You got yourself a subscriber! Mechanically Speaking was very informative, and made me want to play some platformers, lol.
Thanks for the interesting well paced video and for introducing me to the sick Bit Trip Runner 2 OST.
Man I really love your videos, keep up the good work :D
Interesting video. There's another thing which can affect the feel of jumping mechanics - momentum after landing. Ie, if you do a forwards jump, do you continue going forwards when you land? Or do you lose all horizontal speed? This feature can make it feel like you're landing on ice and thus it's hard to control. However, it gives a sense of speed. This also combines into the whole friction/running mechanic of the game, so it'll probably be in a later episode.
Good luck with the series and I hope to see more soon
This was amazing, keep up the good work!
7:20 Ghost jumping isn't present in SoTN. That's the double jump that was just shown.
Very cool video. I love video game design principles (teach computer science at the college level and like to throw these ideas in when talking about the difficulty of design). Looking forward to the rest of your stuff!
Fantastic video man! Subscribed!
Totally love this Series, please keep them coming, amazing and insightful episode, thank you
Awesome video. Super interesting. Hope to see more in the future.
Please continue making these! As some have mentioned, I think the volume of the music (primarily in the beginning of the episode) was a bit too loud and muffled your voice. You have some great editing in this video and its some great analysis. Although jumping has been covered before (like in Egoraptor(?)s video), this was a great addition. I am looking forward to seeing more!
I loved this video. Well done chap.
Thank you for pointing out a game-feel flaw my game has regarding to jumping.
And it's probably the last thing that bothered me and didn't occured to me.
Great work. Subscribed and waiting for more
damn this video was badass!! Subscribed!!
Great video, but as other comments have mentioned already, the background music is competing your voice. Looking forward to seeing more from you!
Great video. Loved your presentation. Subscribed.
Really well-spoken and insightful video, thank you for sharing.
That was very interesting, please make more videos like this one !
Can't wait for more!
Great video!! Subscribed. Keep it up homie
Hope to see more soon!
Good thesis. The music got very, VERY busy especially in the megaman part especially the storm eagle stage part of the video. Turn that volume down, and double check that the music isnt jumping around so frequently, and id recommend staying away from music that has lyrics in them. good work, cant wait for more.
It was interesting. I was making mini flash games and tinkered a lot with jumping. If the descent is slow it feels like the character is gliding.
Forgot to crop the frame at 3:28
Really enjoyed this. Keep it up :)
Great video,thanks for upload!
Nice video and dug the sonic adventure 2 music at the end.
Yo, there's already a guy named Chadunda with a show called "Mechanically Speaking." Might want to think about a different title.
Love the video, only thing is I feel like there might have been the implication that what SMB and so on was better than what Castlevania and so on did.
In terms of feel and technically I would say they are better. Like you said there is more possibilities. But I feel like limiting control is some times preferable and using Castlevania as an example I feel like it suits that really well.
For two reasons. One you know exactly what will happen when you press the button. If you're holding forward you'll make a long jump, if you're not you'll jump straight up. It's limited, but you know down to the pixel what will happen. It also allows for the level design to be more controlled and test your skill a bit more. If you fuck up, you'll know about it. The developers know exactly what you can do and can build levels around that.
Im happy that ghost jumping isnt a norm. Is great that some games have it a others dont.
Hey man, my friend Chadunda actually already has a show called Mechanically Speaking. There aren't many episodes, but the first one came out around nine months ago and he put out one of them just a couple of weeks ago as well, so it's safe to say he hasn't abandoned it. This was a good video (music was a little loud, but that's an easy fix in the future), but you should definitely pick another title. I know, I know, you've already put a lot of work into this--that's absolutely clear--but that doesn't change the fact that the title's already taken. Anyway, have a good one, dude.
Holy shit dude you make great videos. Subbed.
this is good, very polished
That's informative. Subscribed.
great work, please make more :)
Please make many more of these videos.
Good stuff. Remember to put all the credits info into the youtube description including the games mentioned. Thanks.
+Richard Terrell oh snap! You beat me to this video. I was going to share it with you.
Awesome video.
Very interesting and well explained study
Excellent video, looking forward to the next episode. Turn down the background music somewhat, though.
super interesting, subbed
Excellent video! Just, you *had* to mention double jumping. Everything is better with double jumping. :)
Love this video.
I was expecting a little discussion on maximizing the double jump
Amazing! Thanks :)
Your video's are really great
How far are you taking this? I mean how complex game mechanics are you going to talk about?
I like this idea because the average gamer/consumer isn't conscious of how game mechanics can make a game good or bad. Informing them is the first step to making them realize.
excelent,really interesting
Hey man, good video. Like a few mentioned below that there's a guy Chadunda who has a show of the same title...maybe try a different name?
Episode 2 never :(
whats the game called at 5:43 ??
Be more careful about letting the music you add clash with the music from your gameplay clips. Otherwise pretty good video.
What, no mention of the excellent N games? The game is designed around its very floaty jump arc and it's beautiful.
Loving this, but please tone down the BG music in future videos. Use volume control as spikes of emphasis between thoughts.
I tweaked some movement variables on my game, after this video, and it feels so much better now :P It is all a big hack!
more... make more of these...
For a look at the history of jumping mechanics and -why- it's so popular, check out this research paper I published back in 2010: www.jasonbegy.com/uploads/5/0/7/7/50772065/begy_jumping.pdf
What is the game at 4:24 ?
+Leonis C. OK I remembered it when he said Games like FEZ :P
I guess this is explains why Super Mario Land for Game boy is the Black Sheep of the Franchise because of the jumping mechanic. I still like it more then New Super Bros 2 for 3DS
+likenem NSMB2 is a good game.
They're all good games. They're not original and they all just do the same thing more levels. But fuck it, they're tightly controlled and the levels are fun. What's the problem?
Johnny Torpedo
It didn't feel Like a new game. Like When SM3 went to to Super Mario World, or Super Mario land 1 to Super Mario Land 2.
likenem Yeah, I agree.
It's still a well made and enjoyable game regardless.
It's not a work of art, or innovative. So? I enjoyed it.
I wouldn't put it on the same level as Super Mario World as an example. But very few games are on that level anyway.
nice font!, can you drop me a link? :)
hey enjoyed the video a lot, but the music made it rather difficult to listen to the commentary. could be better if you tone it down a little and maybe not change the music so often. Keep up the great work!
Great video, but the background music is very distracting.
Cool series, looking forward to more but you really need to tone down the bg music; it's really hard to hear you clearly over it
Oi mate Chadunda already has a show with this name.
Great video, but watch out for using copyrighted works as background music (like city escape at the end credits). Companies are likely to claim your monetization.
I've subbed and I'm looking forward to more. A bit of constructive criticism...it was hard for me to focus on your words when the background music was overlapping with the music from games you were demoing in the video. I would suggest that you reduce the background music volume just a tad so your voice will pop more, and not play the video game's track while you have background music...it makes for a very distracting experience.
--Ghost-- pleb jump