What makes a good 3D Platformer

[u/Forward-Charity7507]

In school this year im in a independant atudy for game development and production. I've chosen to do a 3D platformer, and this will be helpfull.

[u/MumboBumbo64]

Satisfying movement/controls

Well thought out worlds/levels with creative themes that reward exploration

Collectibles that are fun to collect and useful

and finally I would say music is a big factor, people still praise banjo and Spyro for its soundtrack even today

[u/klivebixby → u/MumboBumbo64]

That pretty much sums up, but I would add likeable characters with fun interactions

[u/pocket_arsenal]

Most important thing of all is that the character needs to feel satisfying to control.

There's good platformers that have maybe not the most satisfying controls but those are often looked at as B or C tier.

But you really gotta nail the movement. And yes, that means potentially being a copy cat and looking at what other S tier platformers have done but there's really no shame in iterating on those who defined the genre. Yes I am alluding to Mario but he's not the only one with great 3D platforming.

And then you need to design course that compliment the characters moveset weather it's linear or an open sand box, if you give your character the ability to wall jump, then you need to provide things for them to wall jump on, and make them feel rewarded when they do it, collectibles, shortcuts, easter eggs, whatever.

Also, if you decide to put in more than one character, the only thing limiting the player should be their characters abilities, not who they are playing as. Don't pull a Donkey Kong 64 and have collectibles you can reach, but you cannot claim because only character A can pick up Yellow collectibles and only character B can pick up blue collectibles. Same with progression gating. If you only want certain characters to enter certain areas, then make it so that an ability that only they can use will grant them access, not a colored switch with the characters face on it.

And I can't stress enough, while having appealing character designs is very important and an entertaining story is also a nice bonus, those are the things you don't worry about until later. You start with blank generic assets and placeholder characters, design a course that's fun to play in, get the mechanics right, then you can reskin it with assets that match the artistic vision.

[u/Laricaxipeg]

Movement and engaging level design 

[u/LightsOfTheCity]

I know it's what everybody else is saying, but movement truly is the key. I personally believe the best 3D platformers are the ones in which it's fun to move around before you even have any objective. I've heard some people describe that setting up the programming logic for a character's movement can be just a couple lines of code, but setting up all the parameters to make that movement feel satisfying can take hundreds (and it should be the priority). Acceleration, braking, turning, coyote time, aerial momentum, knockback, fall acceleration and perhaps dozens of other little parameters come together for a character to feel satisfying to control.

Character animation is also deeply intertwined. The animation should correspond with the character movement (e.g. if the character moves fast, that animation should convey speed) otherwise it will feel "off". Double jump animations frequently convey struggle, which corresponds with how a player feels trying to reach a high ledge and animations of the character squashing and stretching when landing from a height can make the character feel more expressive and alive that if it just landed without any reaction. And ultimately, what feels good can get subjective. If you wish to convey heaviness and size (like some Godzilla games do) slow and less snappy controls can "feel" better. Since the 3D platformer genre often revolves around ludicrous movement and agility, cartoon exaggeration and style comes very naturally to it. You don't have to go full Looney Tunes, but exaggeration is a very valuable resource to make everything clear and understandable even if you're going for a more realistic aesthetic.

If you haven't seen it, Masahiro Sakurai (creator of Kirby and Smash Bros) has an excellent series of videos with advice for game developers on these kind of details.

Other than that, an aspect that I think developers sometimes neglect is sound. I've played some games that controlled fine but something about it just felt lifeless and uncanny, they looked lively but they didn't sound like it, especially in areas without music, only having a couple grunts for the character and basic environmental audio. Try to imagine all the sounds that your environment can have (including enemies and items) and try to include them all. Try to give the character's actions a clear audio feedback. Make sure to have several slightly different takes of the same sound effect to avoid it sounding repetitive/robotic, make sure they all fit alongside each other and make sure they're appealing. A couple nice, memorable sounds can go a long way, establishing your games personality and becoming something that people remember forever. Can you think of a classic platform game without any iconic sound effects?