• Hey Guest! Ever feel like entering a Game Jam, but the time limit is always too much pressure? We get it... You lead a hectic life and dedicating 3 whole days to make a game just doesn't work for you! So, why not enter the GMC SLOW JAM? Take your time! Kick back and make your game over 4 months! Interested? Then just click here!

Graphics How to make player movement more easily tracked/less choppy?

S

Setteduetto

Guest
First off, yes the game is running at 60 fps.

Basically I'm making an action platformer game where the character is very small. The character has to be small because he moves very fast and I want the player to be able to see a ways ahead of themselves so they don't have to make blind leaps. The problem is, while I don't have much trouble keeping up with the character's location (it looks fine as just a blue square), if I keep my eyes on the player it looks choppy and makes me want to look away.

Do things like a trail of gradually less opaque particles help? Or would that just clutter the screen?

Any and all potential solutions would be helpful, whether they're graphics solutions or just design fixes.
 

Khao

Member
The most important thing is having a simple, easy to read character, and a good contrast between it and the background. Every single action needs to be perfectly clear from a distance even when not looking at the character directly, and any design element that's not immediately visible when zooming out becomes noisy clutter. For example, Ori and the Blind Forest solves this by having its character be pretty much just a bright white silhouette that emits light, and mostly dark backgrounds.
 
S

Setteduetto

Guest
Hmm, maybe that's my problem then. The background right now is black since I haven't done that yet, and the character is also fairly dark. A bright background might look weird, and the character design is fairly finalized, but thanks for the advice! I'll be sure to keep it in mind and use contrasting colors at least.
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
Have you considered a dynamic camera to make things smoother?
 
S

Setteduetto

Guest
Have you considered a dynamic camera to make things smoother?
No I haven't, but I've never done something like that before. I might consider it.

Is that the type of thing that has to be done early in development, or can I hold off on it for now and add it in later if the movement becomes a problem?
 

JackTurbo

Member
If you're locking the camera to the player X/y consider changing it so instead it moves slowly towards the player. This eliminates weird movements of the camera when the player changes direction rapidly etc
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
No I haven't, but I've never done something like that before. I might consider it.

Is that the type of thing that has to be done early in development, or can I hold off on it for now and add it in later if the movement becomes a problem?
You shouldn’t have any problems adding it in at any stage of development. I have just added one to my game and everything like parallax works fine.

@JackTurbo is right though I have s dash mechanic which makes the camera jerk so I need to sort that out.
 
Top