Post by dwhiffing in Waltermelon jam comments

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Thanks for playing and all the kind feedback!

When you say the jumping is clunky, could you be any more specific? I suspect that if I were to increase the air control percent further, increase jump height, decrease gravity and remove the velocity reset on landing, it'd be perceived as less clunky, but it would also make walter control more or less like mario. I was trying to strike a balance between a precision platformer like prince of persia and wario land, but unfortunately seems like I missed the mark, and people just find the controls frustrating.

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Wrong Way Games3 days ago

Sure! So when I say “clunky” I mean that the jumps feel heavier than I expected, and the wall grabs feel slipperier than I wanted them to. It felt like it was almost… bogged down(?) by this.

Personally, I’m wondering if maybe, for me, you just tweak some of the values you mentioned and not necessarily go the Mario route, but revisit the first few obstacles and make them easier/less involved so the player gets a feel for what to expect. I need to replay it to give you more detailed feedback about what exactly is going on because I’m just going off memory at this point. Give me some time and I’ll revisit and give you a detailed breakdown of my thoughts on these systems you have in place. I’ll see if I have time after work today.

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dwhiffing3 days ago (5 edits)

I appreciate your thoughtful response! If you're free to give me a deeper analysis, id be grateful ☺️

When you mention wall jumps being slippery, I suspect you are trying to use the arrows to wall jump, but there is no need. You can simply start sliding on a wall and jump repeatedly until you get to the desired height

When I mentioned the velocity reset on landing, this is exactly what I meant when you said you felt "bogged down". It's meant to encourage you to take your time and focus on precise jumps instead of running and jumping constantly like Mario. I feel if I tone this down, I'm essentially trying to make it more Mario like, but I'll experiment with it.

Here's a version with a toned down velocity reset. Makes running and jumping feel less heavy, but I'm conflicted about if its objectively better: https://dwhiffing.itch.io/waltermelon-postjam

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