Comments on: Scary Girl and the Bane of Platformers That is Physics

By: The Management

The Management — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:03:18 +0000

Thanks for the comment, although I think someone actually beat you to your idea — one of the reasons I wrote this post was a Mario clone with a plugged-in physics library. I can’t seem to find the link now, but as you can imagine, it wasn’t an improvement.

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:20:07 +0000

I know this article is a bit old, but I just had to post my wholehearted agreement! Realistic physics are hurting so many games. Just the other day I had an idea to recreate Super Mario Bros with realistic(ish) physics, just to show people that it can actually greatly harm a game.

Also, great site!

By: The Management

The Management — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:21:50 +0000

Really? Pretty much anyone I know who’s played platformers in recent years has used the word once or twice (which is probably indicative of the trend itself).

By: Keith Weatherby II

Keith Weatherby II — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:20:07 +0000

Wow, I thought only *I* used the word “floaty” but I guess not. At least we’re both using the term to mean the same thing.

Keith aka Uhfgood

By: What made those old, 2D platformers so great? « Significant Bits

What made those old, 2D platformers so great? « Significant Bits — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:22:23 +0000

[...] little while ago I dug into Scary Girl for not being a very fun game. This brought up some discussion on what actually makes a good 2D [...]

By: The Management

The Management — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:17:43 +0000

OK, sure. I’ll give it a go a bit later and e-mail you my comments.

By: Tonypee

Tonypee — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:23:45 +0000

we have submitted some changes – key setup, underwater swimming, floating, general feel, are all updated and should be greatly improved

By: Tonypee

Tonypee — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:31:55 +0000

note – we did beta test the game for 2 months, from the start of the year, and most people found it fine – so we werent totally unprepared, but obviously not all things work as planned

By: Tonypee

Tonypee — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:29:40 +0000

We havent aimed for this feel, the gamplay has evolved as become what is just through testing. Floatyness i guess was a factor of giving the user more time to control themselves in the air, supposedly making the play easier – i guess the fine line of testing has failed :(
I think, on out computer is feels better than on a slower computer (remember the old quake bug of ID testing their network play on a T1 connection), so the floatyness is accentuated for other people.
I have nearly completed reworking the feel of the game, the gravity, and the keys. I think you should find them a lot better- will be updated in a few hours.
Tarwin is working on changing the swim mechanic atm, hope if can be done in a few hours too. :P
Thanks for your interest in the game and we appriciate any more comments

By: The Management

The Management — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:56:33 +0000

That’s interesting to hear since the end result is rather floaty — a frequent side effect of platformers that rely on earth-like gravity. Any particular reason why you specifically aimed for this feel?

Either way, I don’t think the moveset is Scary Girl’s sole issue, but good luck tweaking the game.