Movement Improvement!

Hello all!

I first released Me and My Missile Launcher around 4 months ago, as an entry to GMTK Jam 2019. The game was my first ever entry to a jam, and it didn't turn out bad! It consists of using momentum mechanics and a missile launcher to overcome a series of challenging platforming time trials.

Since then, I have just been tweaking levels slightly, as well as improving performance of particle effects in certain browsers (incredible stuff). 

However, today I improved a part of the movement in a substantial way.

In this game, you must use your missile launcher as a way to gain momentum. Before this small update, firing a missile would give you a big burst of speed. You would keep this speed while in the air or running in the same direction.

This was great, but there were a few issues:

• Firing a rocket while in the air and stationary would blast you quite far back, sending you into spikes in an unfair way,
• If you fired a rocket while on the floor to boost you forwards, you would lose all that speed to friction if you weren't moving in the same direction as the knockback simultaneously. This was a tricky for some people to pull off, and should be made more lenient.

With this in mind, I devised a new system for gaining momentum while also keeping control of your character: 

Momentum Memory!™

What is that? Simple. Now when the player fires horizontally, only a small boost is given to them, but the game remembers which direction this boost was given in. If they happen to be moving in this direction when they fired or in the short moment after firing, the game gives them the rest of the boost! This means that the player will only get a speed boost when they want it, and there are a few frames after firing where they can cash it in if they want to, making the controls feel more fair and rewarding. Lovely!

I hope you enjoyed this little read. Check out my project, and have a nice day!

Hamezii