Jumping
Learning paths through this topic
Spikes that kill when they should, not when they merely touch the picture
Dying to a spike you clearly missed is the fastest way to make a player angry. Dying while standing safely on top of it is just as bad. Here is how to shrink the deadly zone of a hazard and of the character without making the game feel loose.
Hold jump in the air to glide slowly down, but only for a while
A glide that starts at the wrong moment turns every jump into a float, or stops with a jerk when the energy runs out. The start condition, the braking and the refill rule decide how it feels. Here they are with numbers.
A grappling hook that pulls you in and flings you when released
Hooking onto a ceiling and reeling in is a joy when the pull feels like a real rope. If the pull teleports the hero, or the speed vanishes at the moment of letting go, the move feels fake. Here is a rope that holds its length, tightens smoothly and passes on the swing.
A ground pound: freeze in the air, slam down, shake the floor
Pressing down in the air should feel heavy: a pause, then a plunge that nothing can steer. Get the order wrong and the character hovers an inch above the floor, drifts sideways while slamming, or makes the same tiny shockwave from any height. Here is the sequence.
Make the top of the jump float a little so landing is easier
A jump that is a perfect arc feels mechanical and makes precise landings hard. Players expect a brief hesitation at the top. Here is where to soften the pull and where it must stay strong, so the jump still feels crisp.
Hitting a ceiling mid-jump should drop you, not hang you there
Jump under a low ceiling and the hero sometimes floats along it for a moment, slides sideways stuck to it, or gets shoved down too hard. It comes from what happens to the upward push at the instant of the bump. Here is the small fix that makes the bump feel solid.
A heavy backpack should make the jump lower, and too heavy no jump
Carrying more should feel heavier in the legs. The obvious fix, shaving some percent off the jump, shrinks the height far more than the player expects and makes small loads feel broken. Here is how to turn weight into a believable jump, and where jumping should stop altogether.
Getting hit in mid-air should throw you away from the attacker
A hit can feel like nothing, can pull the hero toward the attacker, or can cancel a jump that was already going up. And a second hit one frame later should not double the throw. Here is a knockback that points the right way and ends cleanly.
Freeze frames on a hit should not swallow the jump the player pressed
A short freeze when a blow lands makes fights punchy. But players press jump during the freeze and nothing happens afterwards, or the forgiving moments for jumping silently run out while everything stands still. Here is which clocks stop and which keep listening.
Jumping or falling into terrain that has not loaded yet
In a big world the ground ahead is built as you approach, and a fast run or a long leap can outrun it. The character then drops through empty space, dies far below, or lands with a huge fall after a hitch. Here is how to pause the fall safely and resume without a lurch.
Holding the jump key should not make the character hop forever
Some games jump again the instant you land if the key is still down, others never jump at all after the first press. The right behaviour needs one small memory of what the key did last. Here is the rule and the case where it goes wrong.
A mid-air lunge that picks the right enemy, once per jump
Pressing attack in the air and flying at the nearest enemy sounds easy. In practice it picks a foe behind a wall, one behind your back, or the closest instead of the one you are looking at. Here is how to choose the target and how to keep the move from being a free flight.