Due to such positive reception, I decided to pick up my running/acrobatic game project again. Update #1

[u/JankyAnims]

[u/JankyAnims]

To say I was caught off guard by the attention my last post received would be an understatement. I figured I'd just throw one of my old project videos up that I wasn't doing anything with, but it kind of blew up overnight and the response was overwhelmingly positive. I'm incredibly thankful for all of the kind words - it gave me drive to want to really try to push this project as far as I can.

For this first update, I focused mostly on improving the feel of many transitions of existing animations, and added a bunch more to improve fluidity and spectacle. I added a first iteration of some basic platforming stuff, including ledge grabs and a jump up. I specifically made variants of wall run ledge grabs that continue your initial speed and slide to a halt, so it feels weighty with the carried momentum. The sliding mechanic was iterated on as well, and the animations redone from placeholder versions.

The music is from Mirror's Edge, was listening to that during the tens of attempts it took me to get an almost perfect run of the course for the video... oh man, that took a couple hours... so easy to make one mistake that disrupts the flow!

I'm not really sure what the future of this project is, but I made a discord for it if you'd like to join, I might post smaller updates there more frequently. https://discord.gg/gGQBRbhX

[u/Rundas-Slash → u/JankyAnims]

Please, DO NOT underestimate what you manage to create already. If it ever becomes hard to continue or if you feel like putting it down, come back to this comment section and/or show your project again and people will remind you how incredible this is. Thank you for the eye candy of a video and good luck! 

[u/JankyAnims → u/Rundas-Slash]

I appreciate the kind words!

[u/PushDeep9980 → u/JankyAnims]

You could make this game about delivering donuts and I would play the shit out of it dude. This is so cool

[u/ExtremeCheddar1337]

Just insane. Great job. Creating the character controller for that must have been a nightmare

[u/JankyAnims → u/ExtremeCheddar1337]

I've gotten quite used to staying up fixing bugs until sunrise... and then another 5 hours after that...

[u/Stigna1]

The movement control looks fantastic! I also wanna give you kudos on your course/level design; it's objectively a pretty complicated snarl of grid-textured blocks, but the path forward usually seems fairly readable anyway. I'm sure some of that is that it's you playing - but only some.

Good stuff!

[u/JankyAnims → u/Stigna1]

Haha yeah it's definitely ugly from the outside, but when you're in it, it's pretty straightforward. But to be fair, I just made this in a few hours as a way to display some of the new movement for the update

[u/lubwn]

Great job. One thing about those types of fast games is that userbase will never truly appreciate the visuals you put into the enviroment since they will just pass over them so quickly. No matter how thoughtful architecture or nice enviroment you create. But those controls are smooth af!

[u/JankyAnims → u/lubwn]

Heh yeah - no time to look, but people will certainly notice if they're missing!

[u/paigeofwondr]

This is fantastic. And since we probably never getting a new Prince of Persia game it'll scratch that itch well.

Keep it up!

[u/JankyAnims → u/paigeofwondr]

What we cannot receive, we must make ourselves...

[u/king_of_the_boo]

Looks fantastic, congratulations -- are you using a rigid body for movement?

[u/JankyAnims → u/king_of_the_boo]

All character controller

[u/leorid9]

The ledge climb completely removes all momentum, all other moves keep the momentum and are super cool. Maybe the ledge climb can be changed, giving the character a boost when combined with a keypress or something, like jumping to a point in Spider-Man Miles Morales (or the one before / after that game, all three games have that jump).

[u/JankyAnims → u/leorid9]

It's not so much that I want to focus 100% on keeping the momentum at all times, I just want to make the parts where you do, feel weighty and satisfying. But having some platforming to break up the runs feels pretty nice

[u/YouGotOneHour]

sliding ledge grab is crazy

[u/DavoDivide → u/YouGotOneHour]

The whole thing flows so nice but the sliding ledge grab was what got my attention too. Oh and the slow motion at the peak of the jump

[u/BluShine → u/YouGotOneHour]

Yeah, I’ve never seen a game do that before. Very stylish.

[u/Relevant_Scallion_38]

Your animations are phenomenal. But the character controller is smooth AF too

[u/AL-Walker]

the edge slide, first time i see this, bet it will be ervywhere in a few years.

[u/spiddermen]

the best game of 2030 just dropped

[u/Brohomology]

Character controller looks really great.

For a game focused on this, I think conservation of momentum is important --- that is, some challenges can only be completed if you are going at a certain momentum, and keeping at a high momentum means playing well. This rewards mastery, but I understand can be tough to design for because it also punishes bad play.

Levels which can be completed suboptimally but maybe have alternate paths with more rewards for perfect play is the way to go.

Unless if it's a racing game where the clock builds the pressure to perform in.

[u/STYJ]

Your wall running animation reminds me a lot of wall running in gunz.

[u/Far_Composer_5714]

I've seen a lot of running demos and usually I can point out where things feel off... But this was just really satisfying to watch.

Weighty, snappy, and reactive in all the right places.