Springs and curves
Learning paths through this topic
Make party members follow the hero's footsteps without cutting corners or piling up
Companions that chase the leader's position cut across walls and pile up the moment the hero stops. Companions that copy old positions by time bunch up differently at every speed. Here is a way to keep a neat line with fixed gaps that follows the exact route walked.
Show "+3 wood" pickup texts that merge, rise and never overlap
Chopping a tree throws out a dozen pickups in a second, and the text piles up into an unreadable smear. Here is how repeated pickups of the same thing add up in one line, how different things stack neatly, and how old lines fade out on time.
Keep a crafting or smelting bar moving smoothly when updates arrive rarely
When the game only reports progress a few times a second, the bar steps and stutters, and guessing ahead can make it run past the real value or slide backwards. Here is how to fill the gaps so it looks continuous and still tells the truth.
Let trees and rocks grow into view outward from the player, finishing in time
When a new area loads, trees and rocks that appear all in one frame look like a glitch, and giving each a random delay can leave the last ones popping in long after you have walked on. Here is a staggered appearance that always finishes within a set time.
Let a pushed door swing, slow down by itself and stop at the frame without going through
A door that opens with a fixed animation feels the same whether you walk, run or are thrown against it, and one driven by a physics engine can wobble at its limit or fly through the wall. Here is a door that reacts to the push and always stops right.
Point a quest compass at the goal without wild spinning when you stand on it
A needle that points at the next objective is a great guide, until you reach it: the direction flips with every step and the needle whirls. It can also take the long way round when the goal passes behind you. Here is how to keep it calm and sensible.
Make a quest log glide after a flick and come to rest on an entry
A long journal that stops half-way through a quest title looks broken. Players want a flick to carry on a little and then settle with an entry neatly at the top, even when entries differ in height and the end of the list cannot reach the top.
Draw a quest route on the map as if a pen traces it at an even pace
When a route appears on the map in one go it is easy to miss, and when it is drawn corner by corner, short stretches flash by and long ones drag. Here is how to trace it at a steady pace, with a moving dotted look, and long routes taking longer.
Fly the camera from the place of death to the respawn point in a sensible time
After dying far from home, a fixed-length camera flight either crawls across a huge map or races past a short distance in a blink. Here is how the flight time grows with the distance without becoming boring, how it arcs, and when to skip it.
Draw a rope or cable between two posts that sags the right amount for its length
A rope drawn as a simple curve looks right at one length and wrong at others, and a rope that gets longer without hanging lower looks stretched. Here is how to find the real hang from the length of rope and the distance between the posts.
Let a rope bridge dip under the hero and bounce back when they leave
A bridge that stays rigid feels like a floor; a bridge that bends like a smooth bowl feels like jelly. A taut rope bends in a specific shape under a weight, deepest where you stand. Here is that shape, how deep it goes, and how to give it a lively bounce.
Walk a villager along a road of waypoints with rounded corners
Characters that march to a corner, stop turning on the spot and march on look like toys. This shows how to cut each corner into a gentle curve that never swallows a short stretch of road, so the walker flows from one waypoint to the next.