Gonna do something a bit different today, and it's something I have been thinking about for a while.

The other night, I was talking with my good friend Srehpog, he's currently working on a platformer and hooks me up with the occasional demo.

It doesn't have a whole lot in common with Twinsen, but since Cocopuffs and I started Twinsen I've developed, or realized a philosophy about video game design.

I like to sum it up as "play control" which really boils down to three things:

Logical controls, logical effects, and logical gameplay.

That sounds pretty broad, and it is, there is a lot to write about, and I probably won't hit on everything, but I should do a pretty good job.

So, let's start with "logical controls."

This is pretty simple stuff, and I'll use Twinsen as an example.

In Twinsen, you've got the arrow keys, jump button, sword button, and magic ball button (we got rid of the run button, we also have other various buttons like pause, full-screen etc that don't really effect the gameplay)

And it's pretty obvious what they all do, and I believe under no circumstances should the buttons ever significantly change their effect.

Take for example, the GM game Raptor 2.

When you're standing on the ground, you can run with the arrow keys, jump with up, tailwhip with ctrl and bite with space.

First thing I believe is a mistake, is to have the up arrow act as the jump key, jumping is such an important part of any platformer that it deserves it's own key, more on this later.

Now, if you want to climb a tree, you have to jump (up) into it while holding ctrl (tailwhip), once you are on the tree and in "climb mode", up is no longer jump- it now climbs up the tree, you now jump with space (previously bite)

The controls have almost completely changed when you enter a new gameplay mode, which is very bad and confusing, when I jump onto the tree, I'm reminding myself I need to hold ctrl and press up to climb, but then I forget how to jump off, infact, that's why he has made the buttons appear on screen because they're constantly changing and there is no way he could expect someone to remember all that if they read it in a readme or manual.

The best solution is first to give jump it's own key, because if you ever do climb in the game, it should of course be assigned to the up and down keys, that way, the buttons don't need to switch around when you change into a new gameplay mode.

Back to the ctrl and space keys, these both act as attacks while standing still, but if you're walking, ctrl changes into a run key, and space remains bite.

That isn't too bad, but it would make more sense for ctrl to always be run, and space to always be attack, and whether you are moving or not dictates the type of attack.

It sounds like pretty simple stuff, but it's a mistake constantly made, in Sonic Rush Adventure, B and A both jump when you're on the ground, but when you grind on a rail and change into "grind mode", B changes into a trick button, which has caused me to miss a lot of jumps and hate the game.

I shouldn't have to remember that the buttons will have their effects magically change, it's just a flawed design.

This all ties into the next part "logical effects."

Consider one of the simplest combinations of keys; right+jump, obviously your character should jump to the right.

Then let it get a little more complicated as it was in Super Mario Bros, if running full speed, you will jump higher, which is something very useful to remember, and not annoying like the up button suddenly changing to "high jump" while you're running at full speed.

Twinsen is kinda like that, we have it so if you're running, you do a longer spinning jump, and if standing still, you do a higher vertical style jump.

Same sorta deal for attacking, if you're moving, he does a sliding attack, and if standing still, he does a standing slash.

That obviously makes more sense than having X button perform the standing slash, and Y button perform the sliding attack regardless of what mode you may be in.

And that ties into "logical gameplay."

This basically ties the first two together and the "gameplay modes" I mentioned a few times.

Ok, consider when you're standing still in Twinsen, you are in the "standing mode", from there you can enter other modes that each have their own set of available options and changes to previously available ones.

This is why I believe jumping deserves it's own key, because in a platformer, it is another gameplay mode, and not just one option from the standing/running modes.

So, when in "standing mode" you have the options of attacking with the sword, or throwing the ball, you also can lead into "running mode" where you will attack with the sword slightly differently, throw the ball, other things like run into an enemy or fall off a cliff, you also could lead into "jumping mode" where you could attack with the sword a number of ways depending on your type of jump, throw the ball, jump into an enemy/off a cliff/onto a platform etc.

Just take note of how everything flows into each other, and logically deactivates other gameplay modes, for example, while jumping, you can't resume running or any of it's specific available options until you have landed.

It makes perfect sense, but again, a lot of developers still forget it.

Then, you have to consider which abilities your character has should be classified as a "gameplay mode" or just an option specific to a certain mode.

Every mode should have it's own key, or a clearly defined way of activating it, such as running off a cliff should activate "jumping mode" where specific options unique to jumping are available.

And the same applies for every option, since I'm only going over platformers where abilities like attacking are usually an option, whereas in an FPS or fighter game they are more complicated and more like a mode in that they open up new specific options.

So, when you have your modes and options all figure out, you need to work out which mode should activate which option.

For example, when jumping, should I still be able to attack similarly as if I were on the ground?

If you were spin jumping, then perhaps that should effect the type of attack I perform.

So that's pretty much the gist of what I like to call "play control", it's really about letting people play the game how they want by presenting enough options to them, and keeping them logical that they don't need to read a manual just to figure out the basics.

I'm sure some of you have your own ideas about this, so feel free to post yours or add to mine if you'd like.

I've got some other stuff I could write about, but I'll save that for another update…

BYAAH!