How To Fail At Making A Platformer 

You forgot that, as any good game designer would tell you, autoscroll lecels are never bad. They dont restrict your speed or movement by forcing you to wait until the screen has moved far enough!

If you think this was funny.... Stop. It wasn't... This is a totally serious tutorial series and should be respected as such. ;)

Hot take: I think that making a main menu will actually not help you fail. This is because I think that - as long as you don’t spend to long on it - it can make your game look a little more finished which can be motivating

Important note: your players need the freedom to control the camera, so make it so that the camera only moves when they want it to, and never automatically!

i love how one of my first ever projects was a platformer that followed everything in this video unknowingly. i'm sorta glad i gave up on it but it gave me good experience in game dev i guess

I would've also considered adding underwater levels to your platformer. It is really fun to go from gameplay that rewards speed and precision to very slow and clunky gameplay that takes away all of your movement abilities and sometimes takes away some of your attacking abilities as well

what's most important in creating a platformer is making sure your camera is zoomed in tight and your player character moves incredibly fast. you want that exhilarating platformer rush but you also want players to appreciate your tilesets

It seems to me like the common-ness of the Double Jump is really about something much more integral: air mobility. A double Jump is one of the simplest ways to let the player reset their speed and position mid-jump without completely breaking the game. However, it is far from the only way. To name a few examples off the top of my head: -Spin Jump in Super Mario Galaxy: it may technically count as a double jump, but I think its implementation is unique enough to warrant a pass -Stomp attacks: these let the player quickly get back to the ground in the event of either being knocked away, or just needing to return to ground state, and also makes for a very cool attack -homing attack, Sonic Adventure onwards: without a target to lock onto, this is a simple air dash, helping the player quickly regain speed after slowing down for a jump. But with a target, the attack will joke Sonic in to jump off of them without the player needing to precisely line him up. This can let Sonic effectively _fly_ across a stage for as long as there is a chain of targets to hit -aerial recovery, Kingdom Hearts: by being able to cancel your knockback animation in midair, the player can quickly escape a dangerous combo situation and return to the fight

I think even better than dash and double jump are wall jumps that are extremely difficult to pull off so only about one third of your players actually gets to use that ability (and many don't use it because there's no real reward for being able to pull them off)

I would argue making the simplest platformer possible without expansive movement options is a good learning step. Plus you get the motivation of knowing you made a game at all, full stop, even if it isn't the best. First project: make a platformer. Second project: make a GOOD platformer.

This is the "terrible writing advice" channel of gaming and I love it

Thank you! I am currently trying to make a 2D platformer so this really helps me by knowing what pitfalls to avoid. I was feeling a bit demovtivated because I could tell my game wasn't going in a fun direction but now you've given me the motivation to keep going and try different things. (Especially with the core mechanic thing, I was developing just a regular 2D platformer).

Working on my first ever platformer game, this is exactly what I needed

instructions unclear: i made celeste 2

Sometimes it is better to know what NOT to do in geme dev. Says me, who is learning game development and making a platformer with no interesting core mechanic XD

"precision platformer = fail" **slowly looks over at my Steam/itch library, which is 20% precision platformers**

I love videos like these. Instead of giving you things TO do, they give you things NOT TO do. Sets you on a better path in life ❤

I want to make a rage platformer now with a knight cursed to always double jump, even if they have the heaviest armor that weighs two tonnes and are trying to simply jump 1 inch off the ground, and their motivation is to kill some wizard that cursed them to this.

I thought this was going to be a video about what do do to not fail at making platforms games (I know, it literally says the opposite in the title), but no. He really made a guide for how to fail. That's it. No joke. Visionary.

Great video! Momentum is also very important in platformers. Too much momentum physics and you'll feel out of control, like you crash into things too easily. Too little momentum to where you can accelerate instantly and stop instantly, makes the game feel very flat; it doesn't feel rewarding to keep your speed by dodging stuff when you can insta stop and start without thinking. There's a spectrum of possibilities for good momentum physics, and the level design should compliment the character's physics as well as possible.

1:01 this is an accurate description of every mario maker level I have ever made

Super creative way to deliever the msg, laughed through most of it. I don't think the message would have delievered the same if the video was "How To Sucess At Making A Platformer". Good job!

"Coyote time" That's a MUCH better term for it than what we settled on in college. :D I proudly labeled the logic that tracked it as the "donkey kong timer", since Donkey Kong Country is so lenient in that regard.

Pretty high quality vid, deserves some more views 👍 Edit: "You're the game designer, you know what's fun." lmao

1:59 It reminds me of that transformation in pizza tower, a knight one, and it's the only one that gives you double jump

Make sure to force the player to run on a moving platform to stay on top of it. It'd make the game too good if the player could just stay idle on top of a moving platform with no issues.

Short, sweet, clever and on point. Nice work!

You forgot the part where you add randomly spawning projectiles to your precision platformer so that players can experience new, inventive, and unavoidable ways to die every run

You forgot the best tip, making jumps have absolutely zero arc. Make sure it feels like your character is bashing their head on an invisible ceiling each time ;)

You should also make sure: the first environment is a forest (green and blue helps people learn faster) If you have NES graphics you should add an OST with real instruments at 128kbps If you get bored making levels just make it so the game gets dark in tone really quickly (bonus points if the twist is that the character is delusional and nothing is real) Make it pixel art, despite the fact you've literally never made any pixel art your entire life Don't just restrict yourself to one colour pallete, use the whole colour wheel whenever you need to change colour! You absolutely need a speedrun timer on the bottom right that counts fractions of a millisecond Can't forget a crt filter for that nostalgic feeling! Some really original enemy designs that makes sense for your hero to slaughter on the quest for restore peace are bats, wolves, bears, rats, snakes, eagles, scorpions and penguins. When you're done, don't forget to publish it online! We've all been waiting patiently for someone, _anyone_ to make a pixel art puzzle platformer!

“make sure your dash or double jump ability makes no sense at all” (celeste was an award winning game)

Also don’t forget to make the endgame as short and anticlimactic as possible. That way, all of those upgrades the player went out of their way to get felt like a waste of time.

Great video, glad RU-vid recommended it to me. Gonna watch some more and maybe it'll inspire me to start learning game development.

1:34 oh my god I remember trying this game and constantly dying on every jump because of the lack of coyote time

the best part is that Super Meat Boy is widely regarded as one of the best platformers of all time and it follows a lot of these principles

Woah, really quality video, I'm gonna watch this a few times before I make my platformer, overall, good stuff

Terrible writing advice but for gamedev is such a genius idea, i love this video!

The bad writing advice channel but for video games, I love it!

Thank you sir. I will watch more of your informative videos.

This is extremely helpful! Fortunately for me, I have no idea how to finetune my player movement in my 3d platformer ✌️

Omg I found the video game version of Terrible Writing Advice, I love it

Oh and be sure when programming your collision to just undo the vertical movement for that frame and set your velocity to zero, that way you have to fall to the ground a second time and can't jump until you do so.

how to fail at making a platformer: 1. dont even make it, you've failed to create a platcormer thus making you failed making a platformer

I mean, A play former with a core mechanic that the controls are wonky seems pretty fun.

Absolute GOLD content mate!

I honestly don't know where the line between sarcasm and real advice is.

thanks for all the tips

Finally, someone talked about that fucking dash ability that every indie game has nowadays, for some reason.

"The only thing that makes a platformer good is how unnecessarily difficult it is to get from point A to point B" As someone who loves Mega Man Zero is it bad that I somewhat unironically agree with this.

"Don't add things like jump buffering or *coyote time*" [stares at Dustforce]

Remember, if you are going to have a dash or double jump then make sure there is an in universe reason as to why the character can do such a thing. There are many ways it can be done such as rocket boots are a magical item the can throw you forward, but it usually depends on the games setting and world.

Reason PoP and Tomb Raider worked the way they do is that they actually delayed your jump to the very end of the ledge. They also had precise set lengths for steps, jumps and running jumps, and levels were built using that knowledge: i.e. Lara can make this specific jump when running and grabbing the ledge but the game engine makes it easy to kick off at the exact end while pressing the button earlier - yea, it buffered jumping during running, so did Prince.

Locking the player character to one movement speed (which they'll snap to with no gradual acceleration) and give them a set jump height regardless of jump input length 😈

Never heard the term "Coyote time". I've been calling it Donkey Kong jump leeway.

I hate to say this but most of this video’s points are dangerously close to just describing Hollow Knight Edit: I hadn't played much hollow knight when I posted this, but after playing a bunch more. Yeah. This video just describes Hollow Knight. No idea how anyone likes that game.

The first “Platformer” game I thought of making is very inspired by Hollow Knight. I did put reason as to how you are able to dash, which just like Hollow Knight you don’t immediately have until you beat a boss, but still only 1 jump (not including walls) even after getting all the abilities.

let's just take a moment to remember Celeste, one of the best platformers in history

0:26 Mah Story ;D I actually appreciate the dedication to the pixel art scroll there

Also, from an art standpoint, always make sure the platforms use the same color values as the background so the players have to learn what they can and can't stand on. I've fallen through so many "solid" objects I just stopped playing indie platformers.

Fantastic video, I'm not even that interested in video game development (Although I _did_ think of a fantastic idea for one earlier and I'm tempted to try and make it, Even though it's _way_ too ambitious for a single person who doesn't know how to code and has almost no experience making games), And yet after this alone I subscribed.

I ... I need some self reflection after this :P I also never heard about Coyote Time. That's handy to know, thanks!

I absolutely love this series)

To be fair, hollow night had a really sick main menu.

Feeling inspired to make a game just to follow this tutorial

I like your sprite art :D

>video shows indies how to make a bad game >mainstream studio Sonic Team travels to the future from 2017 and follows this video to a T when going back to make Sonic Forces

You're ironically inspirational! We'll work to make games so crappy they're stunningly fun!

With the power of this channel and terrible writing advice, I am bound to make the most innovated, creative, groundbreaking story driven video game there will ever be

Shoutout to youtube for recommending this video to me *after* turning in my game development assignment that I made a platformer for.

Your pixelated stick figure is so expressive

Thanks! I'm failing every game jam now!

Alright, let me make a game using this as a checklist

Starbound Devs needed to watch this....

Very inspiring ! What to fail at next ? Save system ? Hiscore system ?

it is also important to have a player sprite that is teeny tiny that you can barely see on the 4k screen resolution

2:34 , easy for you to say! I've never had one whole thought my whole life! 😹 I love the sarcasm for this tutorial. 10/10. I think you just summarized why I don't enjoy platforming and jump puzzles in most games, honestly.

This video made me realize all the mistakes I'm making in the game I'm developing, I'll try to fix it

This video saved my game No joke i watched it a few months ago and everything he said here reflected on my game At first i was stubborn after all changing the entire game i worked more then an year already would be brutal But i eventually just came to accept that my game was jist not fun and i did an entire combat rework on it that i am still finishing now But well the game is fun now Thanks i can now see a future where my game actually succeds now with ismt something i could do before

I love your content LOL, this sounds like the voices in my head 🤣

Don't forget having a jump and run platformer with extreme fall damage.

Never thought I'd ever be taught how to [Mission: Failed Successfully.]

Thank you )) Finally =)) The first video I followed the advice from, and succeeded ))) in failing my game )))

1:39 i literally took a screenshot of that part and i'm gonna add most of those to my game

This gives me a lot of confidence yippee

2:03 reminding me of that one flash game Pixel Quest

def gonna use this advice

This is making me want to try and make a game now XD

Thank the Heavens! Until this guide, I was worried I would *accidentally* make a good platformer!

It's like @TerribleWritingAdvice but for game development. I love it!

This feels like you're calling out Cloudberry Kingdom for some reasons and that just makes it funnier

I love it! Devs need to step their game UP!

1:24 Aside from those jumping gimmicks, the real meat of making platforming feel good is a nice, smooth jump arc, such as in, for example, the 3DS LEGO games, so rip your physics straight from them and you can start from there.

Since I started my game development with turn based RPGs, my ideas for platformer mechanics have to do with stat numbers and customization of builds. There'd be certain "baseline" levels of running and jumping designed to be satisfying and all the main challenges of the game at least _possible_ with all stats at zero, but stats for "how much coyote time?" and "maximum bonus jump height" and "number of multi-jumps before landing" as RPG style stats that can be grown, whether through static in-world upgrades (Metroidvania), shops that use money drops from enemies, or experience system(s) from either defeating enemies and choosing an upgrade in the menu or from repeatedly doing an action gradually improving the action itself. I'd also make the platforming itself pretty easy regardless, due to my own relatively poor action game reflexes.

"Did you actually pause to read this ?" -Legend

Holy crap, I didn’t know scratch platformers were badly designed!

Well that could result like a game that people will play for the memes. Like "getting over it"

I love dashes, I feel they are a very cool way to give to the player a sense of speed, and once fine tuned, they make the game flow really well

THAT PRINCE OF PERSIA LEVEL!! The purpose: Adrenaline. The mission: Succeeded.

Absolutely carbonized every single Kaizo player ever.

Good advice, but I'll save it and come back when I can get my ramp and collision physics working in pygame first :)