Top Down Shooter
Here is a little top down 2D character controller. These videos highlight the Unity LWRP lighting, sprite rendering order, simple shooting, simple walking animations, and top down 2D movement. Later on I want to update these to make use of Unity’s new 2D lighting system and add a weapon for the little guy to hold.
Platformer
I wanted to try my hand at creating a 2D platformer character controller inspired by Celeste and Ultimate Chicken Horse. The controller offers players the ability to jump off walls as well as grabbing and climbing them. I tried to keep movement very fast, light, and arcadey, a characteristic of Ultimate Chicken Horse, while also incorporating the rock climbing aspects of Celeste.
platformer character controller update - 9/23/2019
I’ve made a lot of updates to the platforming character controller and it’s surrounding mechanics that could make it viable for expanding into a small game.
Here is a clip of the full test level I’ve created which also functions as a basic tutorial for the controls. Like I stated before the controller is heavily inspired by games like Celeste, Ultimate Chicken Horse, and Super Meat Boy.
I wanted movement to feel fast and precise but at the same time a bit arcade like. I achieved this by having the player maintain control of the character while in the air as well as stopping horizontal movement on the ground when there is no input for more precise stopping. Jumping and movement are also a bit exaggerated, and depending on the direction I take this the player movement speed could probably be pushed even farther.
To help deepen the controller I added a fatigue system to the wall grab and a slight jump assistant. When grabbing a wall, if the player holds on for too long (n seconds) they will no longer be able grab the wall and will fall. This is inspired by Celeste and is a great way to add variety and pacing to platforming levels. Since the player can not just hold onto a wall forever they must try to push forward and react on the fly to the challenges presented.
To assist the player in timing their jumps I also implemented a first pass attempt at a jump assistant. For a split second after walking off a ledge / platform the player will still have the ability to jump. This is also inspired by Celeste and within it the mechanic is used to help increase the accessibility of the game. In Celeste the levels are extremely challenging with near pixel perfect precision necessary to navigate over, under, and through hazards. By aiding the player and giving them a slight buffer when timing their jumps it can help reduce frustration when it comes to timing during platforming sections in an invisible manner.
Beyond tweaks to the character controller I also did some work on fleshing out the foundations of potentially making a platforming game. This include level transitions, hazards, and check pointing / re-spawning. An example of all these mechanics can be seen in the clip bellow.