WHAT ARE "TIGHT" CONTROLS? - Movement in Games

weirdly good character controls or something you don't think about unless there's something wrong when they're done well it's not only fun to play the game but entertaining to mess around with a character and it just feels right what separates the good from the bad what is it that makes some games feel great first off what we're not going to be talking about is walking simulators even though walking is definitely a type of movement games that are called this a Miss named because the focus is actually on exploration or narrative or basically anything but movement say hi to my friend Panza who's here to introduce game via the magics that puts great games on top is the vague term game feel which is the result of intuition experience and expertise it's one of those things that if it's done well you don't notice because it feels natural a lot of the time game developers describe the process of getting it right by just tweaking and trying different things usually based on testing and player feedback you see this happening post released or when an older game is remastered or updated for the current generation as an example we can take a look at spelunky when spelunky was remastered as Spelunky HD that there were many improvements that were made in the three years between the releases one of the major improvements were to the game's controls in the original spelunky you needed to cycle through the individual items but when the HD version was released it featured dedicated buttons for each item instead allowing players to activate them more easily additionally getting your character to run in the game required you to hold the attack button but the HD release assigned that to its own button this gave players easier access to it and even opened up more mobility options that were previously difficult to achieve or plain impossible overall the newer control scheme felt tighter but what does tight controls me there's a ton of games I've described as having tight controls but they don't all work the same Mario Super Meat Boy spelunky all feel great but apart from being platformers and having tight controls I wouldn't describe them as being the same so does their movement have anything in common so unlike a Mario game where the pace is slower meat boys jump height ends when you let go of the jumper so that what is tested over the course of the game is your reaction time and split-second planning even though you might not be thinking it consciously you know when you're going up or down by whether your finger is on the button or not if that fails to finish a level for you repetition kicks in so you can learn a level move by move after dying a lot the precise controls are once again an advantage because you get the same result every time you press the button combination almost in Mario the design is less punishing and you're not expected to die as often so the movement allows for time to plan and react comparing the shape of each game's jump Super Meat Boy is a smooth curve if you hold the button down the very same speed up and down so that it's easier to track your horizontal movement Mario's is very different because landing on blocks needs to be precise so the speed going up is slower than going down and instead of looking like meat boy who immediately changes to falling like he bumped his head Mario hovers in the air to give you some time to line up your landing the falling starts much faster than the jump to help you keep that landing trajectory there are other important things to consider like the fact that you spend much more time heading towards platforms off screen and meatboy and there are not enemies to balk on the head so what happens when the design is not focused around mobility challenges inside is a great example of how to make an expressive platforming character that feels nice to control but makes the platforming surf the games puzzles large gaps don't need a run-up because when you jump forward the boy is instantly at maximum speed and one go in the air the speed is easily changed so you don't have to try a whole puzzle again if you're misjudging a distance it's not realistic but it stops the player from getting frustrated at the movement if you watch the boys run jump and slide it all feel satisfying because in his animations is a sense of weight even though that can be interrupted for responsiveness even though all of these games work differently with the control schemes and characters they all have tight controls because they focus on giving the player the appropriate tools to get around the obstacles they're facing another key factor in how the player understands what effect their actions are having is feedback I'm not gonna go too deep into this because it could fill up a whole episode on how different games let you know what thing happened a lot of the time in the results seem way over the top to the action so I see the part of robots shouldn't really make the entire screen flash red but when you have to look away at your next target or it might not even be on the same screen anymore getting this information is essential for a satisfying reaction to your input and if you don't get it you are 100% sure getting the expected reactions out of your commands often involves things you'll never see for instance hip boxes are enlarged and shrunk all the time to account for our purely human brains both Canabalt and ten-second injure X are meant to be played with less than a fraction of a second to act in many circumstances while you're trying to shave seconds off your time the devs don't want you throwing your controller across the room so to make it feel fair ten-second injure gives you a huge hitbox for their attack animation and cannibal shrinks and moves back the character hitbox so that you can make those last second jumps this is because when the player pushes a button they expect something to happen unless there's a crystal clear reason why it didn't they're then going to call BS it doesn't have to be the rule all the time though the cool skid effects that happen when a character quickly changes direction for example if there's plenty of time for the interruption in control then the dust kicking up from that feat that posed the sound and grinding to a halt exactly where you want it's really satisfying and can add so much character and weight to the character games don't have to have easy-to-use controls to make them fun gang beasts is hilarious exactly because the floppy characters don't do what you expect my favorites are queue up style games that have spawned so many variants where a button press directly connects to the fingers grabbing muscles flexing or holding poses where any other game would just have the character animate to grab onto something the acrobatics you end up performing on your keyboard are more comparable to the actions even though you're not literally climbing up your keyboard and girl the fingers stretching is like mini twister and fun to engage with even though it's silly the more complicated controls give you more possibilities to mess up in fun ways this can be used to create other feelings to the flow for instance the amnezia games allow you to carefully control the speed of opening things like doors not only is that a nice tactile feeling but the player creates their own tension when they expect something on the other side minimizing the sound of the door peeking around it or flinging it open gives you lots more choices each time there is a door even if the decision to approach it in a different way it doesn't change anything inside makes some simple but fun changes to how using environmental objects works normally there is a context button in some games that does a thing depending on where you are push buttons believer's drag objects all of them are done with a single button but while many games just have you press the button once for action to be completed inside makes you act with the character by having the button effectively be a grab verb while you're holding down the button or grab you have to move the analog stick at the same time to imitate the action this way you feel the effort with the character if you want your player to feel powerless the animation will take longer and larger movements or to empower them you do the opposite there are so many great examples that I couldn't fit in here but let me know in the comments what are your favorite character actions and controls thanks for watching if you've enjoyed then like and subscribe for indie games and design videos cheers to Panzer and Dan Pearce for their input and until next time mustache

Channel: JoshFTL

Views: 340,651

Keywords: gamingftl, game design, game feel, controls, game controls, game controllers, spelunky, spelunky hd, INSIDE, super meat boy, mario, super mario, super mario galaxy, super mario maker, 10 second ninja, 10 second ninja x, platformer, game movement, game movement design, gameplay design

Id: OpmbyUtLr4Q

Length: 9min 14sec (554 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 17 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/dogfacedboy420]

A prime example - Super Meat Boy

[u/TerraChron]

I'm curious how this relates to less-platformy games, like modern military shooters. Perhaps it's what caused Dying Light to be such a powerful sleeper hit.

[u/c3534l]

I really wouldn't say the original mario had tight controls. In fact, with a slight momentum system in place, it occasionally feels downright sluggish, at least by modern standards.

[u/endless90]

whats the second last game where the player swings underneath the platform?