{"id":98,"date":"2017-07-11T23:28:29","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T12:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studios.nomoss.co\/blog\/?p=98"},"modified":"2023-12-12T15:41:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T04:41:04","slug":"maximising-the-fun-in-mundane-interactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noblesteedgames.com\/blog\/maximising-the-fun-in-mundane-interactions\/","title":{"rendered":"Maximising the Fun in Mundane Interactions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hey guys,
This week I\u2019m going to talk about something that I have been thinking about a lot while making Duped. This probably wont be new to anybody, but it\u2019s something that I\u2019ve been working on a lot so I\u2019m going to talk a bit about it and maybe somebody somewhere can get some insights from my journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not an artist. Anybody looking at Duped can easily tell that. Most of the art is taken from a game called Glitch<\/a>, which was abandoned and its assets made public domain back in 2012. I\u2019ve long been resigned to the fact that I\u2019m not going to be able to make Duped as beautiful looking a game as I want to. Because of that, I\u2019ve had to work on making Duped differentiate in a different way. I\u2019ve put a lot of time into polishing the very basic interactions of this game to make them feel as fun as I can. I\u2019ve done this in a number of places \u2014 menus, switches, enemy interactions \u2014 but the one I\u2019m most proud of is the player movement.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Clambering
Clambering about at the start of the game<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

While the conceit of the game is being able to duplicate yourself, you don\u2019t actually get the ability to do so until the 2nd world of the game. I did this to make sure that the player gets used to being able to control their clones in a simpler environment before they get the ability to create more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the drawback with this is a lot of the fun in the game comes from the freedom of solving puzzles by creating clones how you want to. This means that I really had to put in a lot of effort to make the game feel fun to play, even when you\u2019re just walking and jumping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first way I did this was by building around the physics system of the game. A platformer like this doesn\u2019t need to be physics based, but by doing so it makes the game feel more \u201creal\u201d to play. All the small interactions when your player is jumping and moving cause them to actually get jostled around a little bit, which is fun! You want your cube to tilt and spin as you\u2019re moving through the levels, and this is very intentional.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Running
Running & Jumping<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In this gif you can see the player just moving forward and jumping. There aren\u2019t any complicated sequences of jumps to pull off here, but the player still spins and tilts as they move. I\u2019ve added code which makes the player tilt a little when they jump while moving, and almost all of the platforms in the game have slightly uneven colliders.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Add<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

To emphasise this, as much as possible I try and use \u201cstaircase\u201d configurations of platforms instead of ramps. This means that you have a much higher chance of colliding slightly with the edge of a platform, jostling you (or even more fun, you almost don\u2019t make it onto the platform and have to slide up the side of it a bit to get on!).<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Going
Going in a “straight line”<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I know I\u2019m drilling down pretty deep into some minute details here, but this is stuff that I\u2019m really proud of having implemented in the game. Making Duped fun to play is one of the biggest polish aspects that I have been working on, and it makes me really happy when people lose themselves for a moment just jumping around. It makes me feel like I\u2019ve succeeded as a game developer when people want to get lost in waving their mouse quickly over the menu for a few seconds, or just running back and forward and jumping. People are never going to remember \u201coh walking felt really fun in Duped\u201d, but maybe they\u2019ll have a better experience with the game overall, and that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hope you enjoyed reading this! Have a question or want to chat more about game development? Reach out to us!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other places you can find us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n