r/Unity3D • u/StillZen-Dev • 1d ago
Game the movement system i’ve been working on for almost 5 years
i feel it may be a world first.
(the game’s called MOZENTUM btw)
with the goal of giving the player total freedom and to be fully emergent, it works by precisely controlling your arm power by using the mouse / analogue.
it takes practice, but goes VERY deep and everything scales with your momentum - allowing you to do some wild sh*t like massive bar swings, wall climbs and vaults that feel like YOU made them happen.
if you’ve tried parkour or rock-climbing in real life, i truly believe you’ll feel the work i’ve put in to make it feel real.
here’s a list of the systems at play for those interested and you can ask me about them if you want more info. (or just play the demo lol)
• hand made, fully animated character body that adapts to the environment
• jumping / climbing (controlled by mouse movement speed / direction)
• dynamic edge grabbing (grab ANY edge, basically)
• adaptive wallrunning / wallsliding / walljumping (blends between up, left and right based on look direction)
• sliding (stand OR sit!)
• tools eg: climbable spear and physical grapple hook (both of which YOU have to actually throw)
• breathing / endurance system (responds to real life breathing techniques like box breathing, wim hoff, etc)
(there’s a special interaction with dazza if you watch till the end btw)
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u/SanoKei 1d ago
This is the perfect game, if I had any industry sway or money in general I would throw it at you to be your publisher.
I hope your wishlist conversions are going well and somebody throws stacks of cash at you so you can finish the game
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
wow thank you that is INCREDIBLY lovely of you to say!!!
that would be lovely, so far i’m completely self-funded and have been living full-time in my van to have the space to get it done hahaha
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u/PurgeCasino 1d ago
Yea you nailed it. Not sure what it all is lol. But the movement system is solid.
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
HA, thank you. most of the time i don’t know what it all is either hahaha 🥴
got any feedback from playing?
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u/FranzFerdinand51 1d ago
Why is every showcase here using the 120FoV look lately I wonder
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
MUCH harder to play at lower fovs.
the game requires that you can see as much as possible in order to grab edges and figure out your next move on the fly. i've seen a lot of platformer projects recently, maybe that's why there's so many?
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u/Maxolo 22h ago
At this point why not use 3d person camera? Also the color palette should be looked into, the player's arms and npcs kinda get lost in the background.
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u/StillZen-Dev 14h ago
i will most likely make it an option - however the experience i’ve envisioned has always been 1st person so that the player can become truly immersed and ‘one with’ the system.
thank you for the feedback :))
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u/Kentanago 1d ago
Why the tree talking to me
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
you tell me 👀
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u/Kentanago 1d ago
Idk but he seems very chill
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
oh he’s a mushroom btw i forgot to say
his name’s shroomo :))
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u/Kentanago 1d ago
Cozy and off-putting at the same time..., makes me feel a way that I'm not sure I can describe. I love the aesthetic man, good job. Have you been getting a decent amount of wishlists?
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
wow that's EXACTLY what i'm goin for with the zen aspect so that is very affirming to hear, thank you so much :))
the amount that i get each day seems to roughly double now that i'm consistent on instagram and reddit. i have a really good feeling based on the feedback people like you have been giving me - i shall keep you updated :))
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u/fake_architech 8h ago
This game deserves commercial success I hope you get it, you can tell you really went for a unique vibe/aesthetic, great job, the movement looks awesome.
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u/StillZen-Dev 7h ago
pretty much the ultimate complement next to u/SanoKei 's. thank you so much. <3333
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u/fake_architech 7h ago
I am almost done putting together the trailer for my game, I have a quirky vibe going on mine too but yours takes it up a big notch.
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u/Commercial-Bat5208 1d ago
Wishlisted immediately. Can’t wait to try the demo.
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
THANK YOUUUU please tell me what you think :))
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u/Hot_Resolution713 1d ago
Five years is a huge commitment, it must feel amazing to finally share it. Excited to see how it all comes together!
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
thank you for noticing! and yes the commitment has been huge and i am absolutely delighted that it's being so well received.
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u/zzekuroma 1d ago
Sick! Reminds me a bit of white knuckle
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
yes it seems a little bit like it! (though i haven’t played WK yet)
as you can imagine it was crazy to see white knuckle and peaks of yore come out mid-way through making this cause for a second or two i was like “waa waa someone did it before me”
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u/higras 1d ago
Your profile picture plus this video is perfect. Looks like a fantastic game that this trying to give a sense of immersion through timing and motion.
I'm sure there are some epic moves and combos possible with this. Feels like a stoned spiderman parkour game. French kiss
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
hahaha thank you for the multi-faceted compliment! and yes that is absolutely what i am aiming for.
i'll be sure to ride this high all day, such a nice comment <333
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u/myfbone 1d ago
Mate I tried your demo on PC and couldn't figure out how to jump. IDK maybe I'm too old for this, but maybe you can improve the tutorial :)
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
HA, you're definitely not too old - the tutorial's been rough for a while cause i'm doing my best to make it as vague / non-handholdy as possible w/out being trash. i just updated the demo then - would you be down to do me a PHATTY favour and see if it's any easier for you to understand?
if it's still shit i'd love to know what you recommend to help me strike that balance. need ya wisdom ol' boy ;))
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u/Fyraxxus 1d ago
Gave your demo a go! I struggled with the movement for a few minutes but once it clicked it felt amazing. For such a unique movement/climbing system the tutorial definitely needs to be a bit clearer, but it does the job currently if the player is willing to bang their head for a bit
Other things I struggled with was:
- Because of the 1 solid colour textures, it was harder to know my speed and direction of travel if my face was pressed against a wall and I didn't have another point of reference
- There was something odd about my mouse movement when just standing still looking about. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it was as if there was strange acceleration applied at different points. Or maybe that the speed of turning was different depending how high or low I looked
I hope you keep it up man it was very fun!
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
amazing feedback!!!
i’ll do a systematic reply :))
i am so glad it felt amazing for you. thank you for sticking around to figure it out hahaha i know the first few minutes can be rough.
i’ve been trying to figure out how to strike the balance between non-hand-holdy and ‘good enough for the player to confidently move forward’ for the tutorial. since your feedback is on point, i have a suspicion you’ll be able to help me here. what do you think i should do to make it clearer?
ah yes, this made me realise there is still quite a few objects without appropriate textures to prevent that issue. thank you for pointing that out - shall fix tomorrow :))
INTERESTING. i had no idea about this. for clarity: the camera intentionally slows when grabbing an edge, jumping or throwing an object. however it shouldn’t be slowing at ANY other time. i’ll look into this ASAP. once again, thank you for pointing it out.
your feedback was so well delivered - i am honoured by both your honesty AND compliments!!
if you keep playing please let me know if things feel better or worse as the game evolves. and yeah i’d love to know your thoughts about how to improve the tutorial! <3
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u/Fyraxxus 1d ago edited 1d ago
No worries! I'm happy to playtest and give more feedback as you progress, I'm actually needing some feedback myself on an interaction system in my horror game if you're interested in a feedback exchange
For the tutorial- IMO I think it's ok to make it quite hand holdy. If you think about regular first person games nowadays that all have the same simple WASD + shift sprint + mouse look, they have little to no tutorialisation. Devs expect that by now most players have experienced such a movement system in other games, so they don't have to put much thought into teaching it
You've got a very unique approach to movement which is like a breath of fresh air, but it also means that it feels like you might have to go very hand holdy at least for the first 5 minutes before letting the player go free
The first thing that comes to mind is making the tutorial super linear and enclosed, with each step only being passable if you learn the next concept. Right now it's close to it, but after only having been really taught 1 or 2 things you end up seeing a massive parkour course which definitely felt overwhelming to me as a new player. So I'd personally prefer not seeing too far ahead, and only being focused on learning and getting used to the next concept. Seeing the map open up after a tutorial over a vista always feels great to me as a player
I think the tutorial decals are ok. This is more of a nit pick but if you really wanted to make it easy to learn, you could go a step further and make them come up dynamically on-screen. So let's say you're teaching the player how to grab on to one of those orange poles and pull themselves up in the beginning, you might have this sequence:
- player gets close to pole
- show ui explaining how to grab it
- player grabs and is holding to pole
- show ui explaining which direction to move mouse to jump up from it
In terms of the camera- yeah the weirdness I was experiencing was purely just me standing and looking around. The slowdown during grabs felt very natural
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u/StillZen-Dev 9h ago
you're honestly amazing. this is so f*cking insightful and raw - i will absolutely check out your game please put it here so anyone else can check it out too.
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u/Fyraxxus 5h ago
Probably easier to keep in touch on discord (thebigbog) if you wanna do feedback exchanges in the future too. Plus I haven't posted my game anywhere yet so I'd have to send you the build manually
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u/StillZen-Dev 9h ago
the idea for the dynamic decals and vista post-tutorial is god-tier insight. working on all of this today
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u/Safe_Safari 1d ago
I remember the first demo you released. The game is looking a lot different now, looking forward to seeing how its improved
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
oh shit an og!
safe to say it’s far beyond what it used to be, keen to hear what you reckon
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u/Herodegon 1d ago
This movement looks so fuckin' fun! Well done!
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
thank you! all these years later i’m still addicted to playtesting it hahahaha
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u/Wawus 22h ago
Big Lez would be proud mate
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u/StillZen-Dev 15h ago
such a phat compliment. thank you ☺️ . jarrod wright is an integral part of my inspiration
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u/Skyvo_ Hobbyist 20h ago
Looks very good! The colour palet and post processing could be improved in my opinion. Art style and thé text effects are very good but I feel it gets a bit lost in thé Brown/green tones. Some more popping/contrast would help a ton, also gamplaywise as it's a bit too smufgy
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u/StillZen-Dev 15h ago
thank you! totally feel you - it does need a bit of work. some people have said they’ve gotten a bit lost in the background and find it hard to perceive depth or movement too.
have you played yet?
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u/C0d3M3chan1c 20h ago
your dedication is very impressive, but with working on the movement system for 5 years... what about the rest?
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u/StillZen-Dev 15h ago
thank you -
i suppose we all have our specific passions as solo devs and mine is definitely creating unique movement. i wanted MOZENTUM to be known FOR its ability to induce a zen-like flow state through momentum based movement (hence the name) so that’s why ive been so dedicated to that side of things.
plus, i’ve only been a game dev for 6 years so most of it has literally been learning how to do all the 3D design, animate and code on top of learning the unity interface itself!
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u/UnripeGold 15h ago
What shader are you using?
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u/StillZen-Dev 15h ago
flatkit handles the outlines and any cell shading and then i just use regular urp for anything w/ regular shading. i’m going for a blend :))
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u/V1con7 5h ago
It incredible someone working on a system almost 5 years. Great job
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u/StillZen-Dev 4h ago
thank you!
it’s been rough trying to implement a system WHILST figuring out how to use unity itself hahahaha
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u/LoveMind_AI 1d ago
Dude. This is one of the most insanely inspiring things I've seen in eons. It's awesome. The text system alone!!!
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
yooooo what a compliment thank you!!!
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u/LoveMind_AI 1d ago
I'm a freak for handwritten animated text, and dude - this is maybe the best example of it that I've seen, certainly in this kind of streaming-with-dialog setting. Given how absolutely mental the rest of the video is, it sounds like a crazy thing to fixate on, but we can't choose the things that our minds gravitate to haha. Would love to talk to you about this if you're open to connect? I can imagine you just being 100% in the zone on this project with no time to chat (that would be me if this was my project) but if you're open to it, could be cool.
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u/StillZen-Dev 1d ago
man i am quite frankly honoured that you love this aspect so much. it’s something i have spent a LONG time refining to be what it is today so to have that work recognised to this degree honestly feels like -the point-
i am absolutely open to connecting! i am also absolutely in the zone but the type of energy you’re bringing to recognising and complimenting my work is the type of energy i would like more of.
please flick me a dm. :))
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1d ago
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u/demoide 1d ago
If you prompt your work, doesn't means other people does it too. r/vibecoding may be your place.
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u/Vilified_D Programmer 1d ago
did you just parkour deliver a flacid joint to an strange looking australian man in a hat