How to make a good platforming character (Developing 6)
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- Опубликовано: 11 май 2024
- 🧲 Wishlist Mind Over Magnet on Steam! - store.steampowered.com/app/26... 🧲
Developing is an on-going RUclips series, where I share the step-by-step process of making my first video game: Mind Over Magnet!
In this episode... my character controller sucks. So let’s make a better one.
=== Links ====
Try the demo - / 64579299
Video Game Animation Study - / danrootvideogameanimation
Character controllers:
A Perfect Jump in Unity - A Complete Guide | Press Start
• A Perfect Jump in Unit...
Ultimate 2D Platformer Controller in Unity (source code provided) | Tarodev
• Ultimate 2D Platformer...
Celeste's Movement | Mix and Jam
• Recreating Celeste's M...
The ULTIMATE 2D Character MOVEMENT in UNITY (2021) | Shinjingi
• The ULTIMATE 2D Charac...
Unity Award Nominees:
Jelle Vermandere
/ @jellevermandere
Wannibe Manisha
/ @wannibemanisha
Zyger
/ @zygergfx
Jonas Tyroller
• Will You Snail? - Laun...
=== Chapters ===
00:00 - Intro
00:55 - Character Controller Goals
01:34 - Tuning the Character
02:59 - Additional Features
04:56 - Juice and Animations
05:52 - More Platforms
06:56 - Throwing the Magnet
07:49 - Magnet Juice
08:45 - Accessibility
11:01 - Getting Feedback
11:48 - Burning Out
13:26 - Conclusion
=== Credits ===
Music By:
LAKEY INSPIRED @ / lakeyinspired
License for commercial use: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported "Share Alike" (CC BY-SA 3.0) License.
RUclips Audio Library
Epidemic Sound - www.epidemicsound.com/referra... (Referral Link)
=== Subtitles ===
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/en-gb/videos/30fDuK... 
Игры
![T.I., & YoungBoy Never Broke Again - LLOGCLAY [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3sqqBjGByXI/mqdefault.jpg)
You deserve the break! Congrats on the Unity Award. Waiting on that Basics of Unity video now 👀
Passed by your studio on the way to school. Nice building. Enjoy the snow in Brighton
Pretty cool y'all take the time to comment
Unity actually comments! 👍
Oh my god
its them its the guys
@@crispysocksss I dislike this comment
Burnout after just two months is not a sign that you need to take a month off, it's a sign that you need to develop a more sustainable working pattern. This advice is more for working game developers (Mark Brown's situation is different), but flipping between sprints and lengthy breaks is not healthy, as you're bound to lose both momentum and actual working knowledge doing it that way, making each sprint that much harder as you need to re-familiarize yourself with not just skills, but your project itself, more and more each time.
Agreed
This is so fcking true! I wish this had been taught at uni instead of some bullsh... "management"-stuff that didnt actually teach any time or resource management skills at all.
That's a good point, I wonder how Mark could make this more sustainable. He must feel under a lot of pressure to get out the next episode of "Developing"
Another thought: Where he is right now is actually a really bad point to take a break. He's just done a *lot* of work, for no 'real' reward: All of it was important, all of it was needed, but at the end of the day he still has the same 'ok' proof of concept, and not much else to show for it.
Now, that 'not much else' is a lot of *really* good tools which which will make the game better (and will likely make it easier to progress in the future), but to the developer himself they can't see any results of the tools *yet*. Worse, while he's made it look/feel better and made it so a lot more people could enjoy the game, the developer themselves is to close to the issue to see any of that: They'll stick to the default color choices (because if they didn't like them, they wouldn't be the default) and the game probably felt 'fine' to them before all that polish.
What he really needs to do before taking a break is plug all that into his proof of concept, and make one more level. *Then* he'll be able to see all the work he's done has had an effect, and he'll have the visceral feeling of seeing the game actually advance.
@@DanStaal He said that he has plugged it all into a test level available to patrons, so he has left it at the point where he can get feedback on the work he's just done.
8:40 Ah yes! Neglecting audio to an after thought is THE moment you truly became a game dev.
(speaking as an audio guy lol)
Reminds me of GC Reddit Stories
this is it boys the biggest mood
This moment was far too relatable lmao
there's some valid reasons behind it ig, it's more of a polish thing for later on.
Audio is actually far too important to be thought of just as polish. It can make or break a game *at least* as much as the art and animation can. It's more subconscious and generally not a well explored subject. Good audio pushes buttons that visuals simply can't reach.
Audio can make the scenery feel more immersive (e.g. a subtle distinct hum added to the background rumble when the player is near a certain machine), support animation (sound of stone grinding on a floor when pushed reinforces that it's heavy), build anticipation (player hears monster noises similar to cries of a mini boss defeated two levels earlier while walking through an empty area) and do many other things.
Listen to the sound when the player fails and falls from a skyscraper rooftop in Mirror's Edge. How does that make you feel? What did you imagine in your head? What's your impression of that sequence with audio muted?
This series continues to be a delight. The exhaustion dripping from your face in this episode is further evidence of why you deserved the award. Your openness and vulnerability are beautiful. Thank you for sharing. And please go take an actual break
redditor
Hey cool seeing you here!
Regarding burnout: You are basically one person doing EVERYTHING! Not a studio (even a several-person indie team) who can distribute out the work and the specific problem solving for each element. It's impressive what you have done already, you deserve the break to recharge the energy for development.
He's not even remotely close to doing everything, starting with the fact that he's using an engine. And it shows how he's clueless about a lot of things and getting frustrated because of it.
@@Nors2Ka the absolute majority of game studios use third-party game engines. Even if they're made in-house, they're (usually) made by whole team. You got something else irrelevant to say?
He's more privileged than other indie devs. He has a whole discord and industry darlings feeding him help. It's fair to be tired of it but let's not act like he's struggling more than a regular developer doing it alone while juggling 9-5 and other parts of life.
@@zip2kx 100% agreed
@@ludde12345678950 And do those games feel good to play? Usually not.
I cut my list short with just saying that he uses an engine, but he also used some nobody's movement controller, so that makes it so he doesn't know how input, collision and movement *actually* work. He's stuck with sub-par solutions and he isn't doing anything about it, just hacking things together.
I mean, just look at the game, it's about "magnets", yet there is really almost no magnetism happening, just some prop that get's attracted or repulsed by some zones: a very lossy approximation of what magnets are or how they work. That's what happens when you do top-down design with tools you don't understand.
That 'not sticking to a moving platform' bug nearly seems like a feature with the robot rolling around on one big cartoonish wheel. Add in a 'crouch to brake/stick to surface' mechanic and you could have interactions like rolling/stopping on slopes, moving with/against conveyor belts, and so on, if you wish!
That adds unnecessary complexity
@@tekbox7909 only unnecessary if you can't think of interesting ideas for it.
@@shalimarlake7852 but you also have to focus on the core of the game. It doesn't matter how many ideas you come up with it. If you don't reel in and focus on one thing, scope creep's going to come on you hard
@@shalimarlake7852 yes but an entire extra button just for a few extra things is unnecessary. You should build a control scheme as simple as possible and design around that and not make extra buttons for specific purposes
@@tekbox7909 but he could re-use this button later, e.g. when the magnet is stuck on the ground, which is moving and he has to crouch to slip through a small gap, which he couldn't do while standing normally
When I was younger I enjoyed programming, but I assumed I could never be a programmer because I thought I was bad at it so I chose a different career path. It would take me hours and days of bashing my head against problems to make small progress. But now I'm learning that this is a common, perhaps universal experience. And maybe what makes a great programmer is precisely that willingness to repeatedly fail without giving up.
You're fairly on point here(and it is never too late to learn, btw). Also worth pointing out that you don't actually need to be a great programmer to be a great software developer. A lot of (probably most) problems people need to solve when writing software have already been solved. So there is a lot of value in working smarter not harder and spending more time researching solutions or finding a library that already does what you need than trying to write that bit yourself.
It is expected to be 5% of structuring/writing code and 95% of searching for errors. With growing experience you do not become less prone to errors but more methodical in ironing them out.
"And maybe what makes a great programmer is precisely that willingness to repeatedly fail without giving up."
You hit the nail on the head right there! That, and a certain approach to problem solving. In my experience, being a software engineer is more of a mindset than a set of skills. You can somehow just look at somebody looking at a problem and grok "ah yes, they're an engineer".
Of course, people who don't have engineer-mindset can still go into the profession, but they won't get much joy out of it. Conversely, those with engineer-mindsets (especially tech-industry-specific minorities such as women and black folks) who didn't go into software, you can still just _tell_ sometimes that they'd be good at it. One of my friends is a nurse, but I've been not-so-subtly nudging her to give programming a try because I think she's got the mindset to be good at it. It was just never an option to try when we were both at school, and she didn't stumble into any programming-adjacent activities until about a decade after myself, long after having already picked another career path.
Sorry, I digress. But all that's to say, if you're enjoying programming, getting that flood of dopamine when you finally succeed after so many failures, then I encourage you to give it a try! If you've got the engineer-mindset, you'll still do well, even if it's gonna take a while to "catch up" on the knowledge-specific front. So if you have the option, why not give it a try and see if you like it?
The hardest part about programming isn't actually writing the code, it's learning how to google for answers and how to adapt the solutions to your project and organize your code. When it comes down to it, a program (software, videogame or otherwise) is just a bunch of tiny tasks that work together to solve bigger problems.
Becoming great at anything involves a willingness to fail without giving up.
As someone who works in the industry ("developer"), I very much appreciate this series. I have found most gamers don't (can't) fully understand the struggles and pains of making a game - this series is an education.
I do also hope, later on, you'll also share the elation that comes when things go well/come together (like this video captures). It is, at times, a very difficult and painful job/industry to work in, but other times it can be just so rewarding. (And hope that you yourself feel this elation!)
I agree
I think it's exactly those beautiful moments when you see it all come together that attract people to game dev in the first place. But often, along the way, there is so much work to do that you forget to take a step back and appreciate what you've done so far.
Yep, I keep trying to explain prople that making a video game is very, very, far from being a game.
True i didn't either but now that i became a dev myself (still new and learning though) i really see how much work, bug fixing and frustration goes into it props to every developer out there trying to finish their work and good luck
I (absolutely) agree (with) you.
I'm glad you fixed the tilt; I can ride a unicycle, so it was really bugging me how the character tilted backward when going forwards. When riding a unicycle, you have to tilt into the direction you are traveling / accelerating to keep your balance. Leaning back while moving forwards would throw you backwards as the unicycle flies forwards from under you. The tilt is still backwards when holding the magnet, but it is less noticeable than it was before.
This is cool to hear!
I never paid attention to how cartoon characters tilt while running / cycling and thought it was just cartoons being silly.
Thanks for the shout out Mark!! Amazing video as always!
I love seeing the progress you made and it makes me want to make some thing of my own! Here is an unsolicited thought: if the ramps are more satisfying than jumping, then what about adding some smoother ramps that allow the character to get some air when they pedal off the edge of it? So, instead of a plain 45° ramp, it was a curved ramp? Anyway, just thought I’d throw that out there. Awesome stuff and congrats on the win!
Curved ramps could tie into the magnetism concept quite well. Imagine ramps that curve up like a half pipe and you need to use magnetism to stick to the vertical wall
@@samhblackmore Or maybe something could pull the magnet horizontally toward a curved ramp, and switching the polarity at the right point would allow the ramp to redirect that momentum upwards, as a way to gain height.
That sounds really fun, would be complicated to code and would mess up some puzzles but it is probably worth it.
I would’ve never even attempted to have different speeds of gravity for rising and falling, I always just assumed it would look unnatural. Now I am the April fool 💀
If it’s normal to do that in platformers that explains why the “platforming sections” of Outer Wilds (getting to the observatory etc) feel like garbage since that game has full Newtonian physics
@@voidify3 Yeah, I totally agree. Although as a physics nerd, that was actually part of what pulled me into the game XD
but yeah it really does feel pretty horrible
@@voidify3 There's quite a lot of old games that are too realistic for their own good when it comes to jumping. In Castlevania I for instance, there's no control over the jump at all after you leave the ground - not of the height, and not sideways. It's quite unforgiving.
man, there’s such a notable improvement between the character last video and this one. looks so much more alive and fun to control. great video.
What a transformation! It’s crazy how much work a good character controller can be… But adding juice is always fun 😜
I’m glad my controller could assist you on your journey!
Yours is one of my favs. of all time. Absolutely one of the best raycast based controllers out there :)
@@Tharky Thanks Tharky 🙏
There is a reason why there's that tale of them doing nothing but perfecting Mario's movement for a while at the start of Super Mario 64 dev I guess
@@MaakaSakuranbo absolutely. That game wouldn't be what it is today if the controller was sloppy.
Interesting note on sound stuff. The screenshake when the magnet lands on a magnetic surface was so convincing, that I didn't realize that I was imagining the THUD of it until you mentioned that you weren't using any of the prototype sound.
1 month to do make everything just "work"
2 months to make single cog truly works and there is still room for improvement
Seems like typical developer routine
It's a lot easier to make the basics than the details. That's true for most things. Like say you're carving a wooden block into something. You can get it to that people know what it's meant to be pretty quickly, even pretty recognizable. But then adding all the detail (folds in clothing, wrinkles in skin, etc) is a lot more work.
A little accessibility suggestion. For low vision people you could try to add a collor filter for different objects like Background, player (and magnet) and interactbles. If you could let us choose the collors would be amazing.
I can only see things that have contrast (black backgrounds on white charactes)
I feel like the contrast of the platforms and the background should be bigger as well. A good way to check if there is enough contrast is to take a screenshot of the game and convert the colors to grayscale.
I love this technical analysis of your game, really puts you in perspective of what to put your attention in game development
Honestly deserved that award, and you also deserve that break! This series really got under my skin, and I've finally started to crack the nut that is Unity game development - even managed to rope a friend in to help me design the first game I want to make :D
This gives so much insight as someone who's planning to develop a game as a side project. Thanks for this! Seriously.
Delighted that that controller by Shinjingi has finally got a shout out, such a great tutorial that truly deserves exposure from people of your influence.
I love the recoloring of the magnet's polarity and how you implemented it so people can chose the exact color they want! Brillant!
This series has been one of the best real-world introductions to game development I've ever seen. Better than anything I had in college. Better than any tutorial I've ever had the misery of following. You 100% deserve that award!
It's been fun following you on your journey. Looking forward to your future updates, and can't wait to play this game once it's fully released! Hope you enjoy your break.
Congrats to you, man. From reviewing the processes and pipelines of developers and the systems within games, to actually making one yourself. You've come long and far, and I'll always look forward to seeing what you come to show next.
Great video. Your thoughts on accessibility features were particularly interesting. I've spent some time recently contemplating this aspect of game development and appreciated hearing your thoughts on the matter.
Amazing work Mark! From just watching the footage, I can tell your character handles like one of the greats. It looks fun just moving around.
This series has been hugely helpful already. I hope to see more of it soon. I am trying to get into game development myself (for the umpteenth time) and I greatly appreciate your insight.
I've been binging all the recent game dev vlogs and I'm so happy a new one is out. It's such an inspiring story to tell.
8:13 Dan Root always makes everything better!
This series is great. I'm loving watching each episode including the successes and the failures. However, the fact that you want to take a break and make other types of GMTK videos is also awesome, I game here for boss keys type content, stayed for everything else and this series is like icing. Don't feel bad taking a break, resting, and getting more inspiration for the next sprint. Keep up the great work!
The changes look absolutely fantastic, I'm inspired to continue work on my game! :D Congrats on the award too!
Awesome series. Thank you so much for the videos. I've enjoyed watching your process and have much more of an appreciation for how hard game development actually is. Keep up the great work, but enjoy the break!
The wheel following behind the screen adds some really satisfying follow through/overlapping action. Great work!
The animation looks good. I'd like a little more squash on landing after jumps, but that's probably just me. Marshall McGee hasn't uploaded in a while, but his channel is an excellent resource for sound design. I also recommend Sebastian Lague as a great resource for Unity development.
You've done a lot of work and deserve a rest :) But as someone who struggles with this myself, I want to encourage you to not take *too * long of a break. It's too easy to forget important details that don't sit well in long-term memory. So take a break, watch some of the channels I've suggested, and maybe they'll give you some ideas that will reignite your enthusiasm for the project :)
Thank you Mark! You work so hard and put so much effort in everything, it's an absolute joy to watch every single one of your videos. And congrats on the award!
Thoroughly enjoying the series but I'm glad you are taking a break, I originally envisioned this being at the same pace as your other series but it feels like I haven't seen as much of that content since this one started
Watching you develop this game is truly inspiring. I love seeing your progress. I hope you're really proud of how much you've accomplished. You definitely motivate me to put some real time and effort into my Unity projects. Congrats on the award!
I really love this series of videos.
It's very warm and cosy, feels like we're chatting with you while having a cup of coffee.
I'm also very very admirative of your work. It's awesome !
I just found your channel and watched the series. Great work. Looking forward to see where you go from here. Now I just need to get somewhere with my game.
Dude, I'm just so proud of you :) Thank you for sharing your journey and your experiences with us! It's very interesting and educational as well as motivating to have a realistic outlook on how starting a game is like. Tysm! x)
The animation and movement looks amazing ! Can't wait to see next steps !
Congrats! Super proud of you and love your videos, take your break you deserve it!
Despite having long since given up on any desire to make video games (I like too many things, so I have chosen different passions), I really appreciate this dev log. It is really insightful to see you get into what works and what doesn't from personal experiences. Not only does it make me appreciate games even more as I learn about problems I couldn't even have forseen without seeing someone struggle with them, getting a bit more 'under the hood' as to why certain things work and why others don't (thinking of the 'different gravity for up and down) adds to my understanding of what I like and dislike in games.
So thanks a bunch! Enjoy the break from coding and I am looking forward to seeing what comes next :D
Genuinely so happy for you winning the Unity Award! Have watch your channel for years with but have only recently became a supporter.. love your content so keep up the good work, have a well deserved break but most importantly, carry on creating content the way you do! :)
So freaking inspiring! I can't wait for that Unity Basics video, watching your game come to life has really made me start thinking about my folder of game ideas... One day!
Something I want to recommend is the option to invert the magnet colors so that blue attracts to blue and red attracts to red, because some people (like me) have trouble putting down that blue-red red-blue muscle memory unless I do it a lot.
the time spent on the character controls paid off! it looks really good, and it's really great to see the many accessibility options :)
I'm sure this is a ton of work, but this is so interesting to watch the process...thanks for the show and can't wait to keep watching the progress
This is so much fun to watch. Also the part of it actually taking time and effort.
Congrats my friend. It's nice to see how much you've come along on this. It's also refreshing to see a creator show all the problems they've had and actually encourage the subscribers for constructive criticism. Get some rest, and keep kickin' ass!
You know given when you uploaded this I was half expecting you to be like "And that's why I'm scrapping the game and shifting to a new magnet-based mmo!"
In VR, with magneto-coin, and NFTs, and lootboxes, and DLC
Keep it up man you're doing great. I love the new direction and the inspiration for me to get into unity even. I'm loving the look of the game.
Thank you for making these, Mark! I think you're helping a lot of people understand just how complicated making a game is.
It always gets me how quickly a prototype or MVP can seem to come together, and just how much work still needs to be done once that happens.
When I was still in animation, a friend of mine posted an inspirational image that explained that the first draft of your animation is like establishing the base camp for a mountain climber, and the same is true for prototypes and early game dev.
You've done all your prep work and figured out what the mountain you're climbing is. Now you have to actually climb it.
You're doing great! I'm going to download the MVP as soon as I can, and it looks AMAZING right now. Anyway, take a break! You're doing the work of an entire studio in half the time, so you definitely deserve it!
What an absolute legend! Enjoy your rest, and congratulations on the win and game progress!
This is a brilliant journey that's just so much fun to follow, congratulations on the endeavor and the award. And take your break, it's better than burning out and giving up on game dev altogether. And remember that the more you learn, the easier it becomes.
You and Jonas have been some of my favorite RUclipsrs of my favorite RUclipsrs. It's nice to see that you guys were in a competition together! Congrats by the way!
Really impressed with your determination to do this, well deserved break
The art and graphics looks amazing! I love the swingy animations :)
The intro is so damn satisfying. Watching the loading icon pulse with the drums just inexplicably fills me with happiness.
I'm so glad you're doing this. As a game dev who is also a long time fan of your channel, I am extremely happy that you're facing the task of being "on the other side". I wish more people who talk about and analyze videogames would do this with an honest heart. You've been 2 months doing this, and you're burnt out, but keep in mind how much help you had from tutorials and your Discord members! This is a collaborative effort, and it may be extremely taxing and difficult, but you're never alone.
Your hand gestures are very enlightening, I can watch without subtitles or audio.
One of the most important parts of any creative venture is taking time to step away and become reinvigorated and newly inspired. Congratulations on the award! Well deserved
So dope! The character is looking a lot better. Keep it up Mark!
Your content is one of the only things I enjoy watching on RUclips without skipping even a single second of the video)
This video looks so damn *slick* my guy!
Big ups to the visuals here.
The project looks really good! Very punchy and enjoyable to play, it does get very exhausting to be on one project for a long time, but it's paying off here so well done.
Congrats on the Unity Award. Love your videos and this series is really great in particular.
I love this series! I’m super excited to see the game as it is being developed!
You've absolutely earned a break, this is a big milestone. I'm confident you'll come back to the project with fresh eyes.
oh! man! it looks amazing! the character, the animation, the movement, all of it!!!
Looks awesome! Amazing work, and congrats on the award - get some R&R and good luck with the rest of the project!
I love seeing this video series, especially as an indie developer who makes similar content.
The quality of your videos is amazing and so inspiring!
Looking forward to new stuff after your well deserved break!
This is such a great series! Thanks for this man. I literally watch every one of your videos!
Stay awsome!
I really admire your work and this series of videos it's just soo good.
thx for all, really nice work
Love to see the progress on the character. Looks great
It's been a real treat to watch this coming along
So cool that you mentioned Mix and Jam! I think André would be hyped to know you checked out his stuff.
be careful with long breaks, I always get back to this one project I'm doing after some time away from it and its always a struggle to get back on track with my own coding. Only now I'm learning to make notes EVERYWHERE so I can understand my own code later (as if I was seeing it for the first time)
Thanks for the new video, it's a really nice birthday surprise ☺️
I love the MVP character easter egg at 11:21. Really nice touch!
good job man congratulation on the award can't wait to see more of your videos
Congratulations to you men! Looks like a great game, and I know this is one of my favorites RUclips channel!
Congratulations| These videos are very interesting, inspiring and entertaining. Thanks for making them.
so inspiring to see your process, hope you get better of the developing burnout soon!
It's been a fun journey, the game looks pretty good right now. looking forward to future videos.
I haven't subscribed to anyone in quite a while. Just not enough brain space, but I'm really enticed by your development journey and really am really glad you recorded it. I'm trying to breach back into Unity development after bouncing off it a few times and these series of videos have been very insightful. Thank you!
i love that the robot has a different idle animation on a moving platform thats such a cute touch
Great video, as always! Now that you're on a (deserved) break on developing I wanted to request a boss keys video for a long time: Outer Wilds would make a great boss keys video! The keys are... knowledge. This is so smart I would love to see your analisys from one of the best games I ever played. Keep up the awesome work!
It's absolutely a great idea to manage your hierarchy as best as you can, and make sure everything is still readable, even months later. This tip has definitely helped me while learning Unity.
This series has been a super interesting look at game design at a level I rarely see
I'm so happy you've switched the tilt in the later animations so the character leans into the movement and not the other way around. It really bugged me, as that was not how you ride a unicycle :D Congratz on the Unity award! Keep up the good work, it looks pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing
I'm starting Ludum Dare 50 today, so this is a great primer, thanks!
Hey, congrats on the Unity Award! As someone who dreams of making his own game one day, I really appreciate how honest you are with some of the struggles that someone would face during game development, as well as showing just how much time and effort goes into making the things we dont really think twice about when playing games-
As someone who keeps opening game engines and feeling completely overwhelmed, I can’t wait for that Unity tutorial.
Sure there are lots of tutorials out there already, but few explain concepts in as intuitive and accessible a way (and without sacrificing depth) as Mark Brown explains game design.
Looks great! Can't wait to play the full game!
This is looking great! I really enjoy coming along on this journey with you. If you put this sort of characterization into your environments this will be a fantastic game! I particularly love how the screen moves before the wheel. That cartoonishness matches the coyote time and really sells it for me. It did seem like there should have been a bit more of a bounce though on the landing. Just a thought, but I totally agree with the idea of taking some time away to see where your thoughts take you while enjoying non-magnetic concepts for a while!
You do not know how much I appreciate these videos man 🙏
Enjoy the break, I've loved the series so far and can't wait to see more in the future!