I’ve been working on the ultimate “feel” for TOB. I’ve been programming for over 25 years, and playing games longer, so I think I’ve got a good idea how a game should feel.
Some of the important considerations are about how responsive it is, on analogue sticks and touch screens. We want the on-screen character to do the opposite of mario:
Instead of slowing down sharply when the player moves the other direction, we slow down sharply when you reach the deadzone of the touch input or analogue stick, or when the finger has been lifted from the screen. This works naturally with the time it takes to slide a typical finger across.
The result is on-screen you see a seamless and charming little devil rushing around with sharpness and no lag to the inertia – it’s crisp and yet not stiff.
For jumping, we have some funky raycasts that help us pass through platforms. If you fall off the edge of a platform and just hit jump then, the game gives you few precious milliseconds grace and lets you take the jump. This is not something you normally notice, but it sure is appreciated on touch screens.
Another element was that we wanted it to speed up quickly, but not travel very far if the player just edges towards something. We wanted that nippy feel. Likewise, it should not accelerate too slow overall when changing direction. To do this, we use 3 different curves of tweened motion together for different times, which give the character specific rules in how it behaves with physics, and focusses on playability.
That’s all for now… the next time I post will be about the scrolling!
(http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=2251762&postcount=2)