platformer

Platformer

A playbook for 2D platformers — the run/jump controller "feel", level structure, hazards, and goals. This is a compositional skill: it wires an engine movement skill, a tilemap skill, and design skills into a working game. It does not re-teach physics or tilemaps; it tells you what to build and how to make jumping feel good.

When to use

• Use when building a side-scrolling or single-screen platformer, a "Mario-like" / "Celeste-like", or any game whose core verb is jump between surfaces.
• Use when a jump feels floaty, unresponsive, or "unfair" and you need feel fixes (coyote time, jump buffering, variable height, corner correction).

When not to use: top-down movement with no gravity → use the engine movement skill directly. 3D first-person traversal → fps-shooter. Grid/turn movement → roguelike. For the raw kinematic body API, use godot-2d-movement (or your engine's controller skill).

Core loop

Observe a gap/hazard → commit to a jump or move → land safely (or die) → reach the next checkpoint/goal. A platformer lives or dies on the moment-to-moment feel of that single jump, repeated thousands of times. Tighten the controller first; everything else is content.

Must-have systems

1. Run/jump controller — horizontal accel/decel, gravity, jump, with the feel aids below.
2. Solid + one-way collision — ground, walls, and "jump-through" platforms.
3. Level geometry — a tilemap or hand-placed colliders; the playable space.
4. Hazards + death/respawn — spikes, pits, enemies; reset to the last checkpoint.
5. Checkpoints / level goal — progress markers and a win condition (flag, door, exit).
6. Camera — follows the player with a deadzone and look-ahead, clamped to level bounds.
7. Juice — landing dust, squash/stretch, hit-stop, sound. Cheap, huge feel payoff.

Design knobs (make the jump feel right)

Tune these by outcome (height in tiles, time to apex in seconds), not by raw numbers.

Knob	Effect	Sane starting point
Max jump height	reach	3–4 tiles
Time to apex	"weight"/snappiness	0.30–0.40 s
Fall gravity multiplier	snappy, non-floaty fall	1.5–2.0× rise gravity
Coyote time	jump just after leaving a ledge	0.08–0.12 s (~5–7 frames @60)
Jump buffer	press just before landing still jumps	0.10–0.15 s
Variable jump cut	tap = short hop, hold = full	cut upward velocity ×0.4–0.5 on release
Apex hang	brief float at the top for air control	reduce gravity ×0.5 near `
Ground accel / friction	responsiveness vs. ice	reach top speed in 0.05–0.1 s
Corner correction	nudge past a ledge clipped by 1–2 px	nudge up to ~4 px sideways

Derive gravity and jump velocity from the feel values rather than guessing — see Pattern 1.

Patterns

1. Solve jump physics from height + time (not magic numbers)

# Pseudocode. Pick the FEEL you want, then derive the physics. y-axis points DOWN.
# From kinematics: h = (g * t^2) / 2  and  v0 = g * t.
JUMP_HEIGHT   = 3.5 * TILE      # how high, in world units
TIME_TO_APEX  = 0.35            # seconds to reach the top

gravity       = (2 * JUMP_HEIGHT) / (TIME_TO_APEX ** 2)   # rising gravity
jump_velocity = -(2 * JUMP_HEIGHT) / TIME_TO_APEX         # negative = upward
fall_gravity  = gravity * 1.8   # heavier on the way down → less floaty

2. Coyote time + jump buffer + variable height (the feel core)

# Pseudocode in the per-frame update. dt = seconds since last frame.
# Timers count DOWN; refresh coyote while grounded, buffer on a fresh press.
if on_floor:
    coyote_timer = COYOTE_TIME           # 0.1
if jump_pressed_this_frame:
    buffer_timer = JUMP_BUFFER           # 0.12
coyote_timer -= dt
buffer_timer -= dt

# A jump is allowed if we pressed recently AND were grounded recently.
if buffer_timer > 0 and coyote_timer > 0:
    velocity.y   = jump_velocity
    buffer_timer = 0
    coyote_timer = 0                     # consume both so we can't double-jump

# Variable height: releasing jump early while still rising cuts the arc short.
if jump_released_this_frame and velocity.y < 0:
    velocity.y *= 0.45

# Asymmetric gravity: snappier fall than rise.
g = fall_gravity if velocity.y > 0 else gravity
velocity.y += g * dt

3. One-way platforms

Solid from above, pass-through from below. Most engines expose a "one-way collision" flag on the tile/collider; enable it and let the player drop through by disabling that collision for a few frames when the player holds Down + Jump. Do not re-implement collision math.

Pitfalls / failure modes

• Per-frame movement not scaled by dt → speed changes with frame rate. Every velocity integration and timer must use dt. (See physics-tuning.)
• Floaty jumps → symmetric gravity. Make fall gravity heavier than rise gravity.
• "The jump didn't register" → no input buffering. Buffer presses for ~0.1 s before landing.
• "I fell off and couldn't jump" → no coyote time. Allow a jump for ~0.1 s after leaving ground.
• Sticking to walls / catching on tile seams → use a single capsule/box collider, not per-tile colliders, and add corner correction.
• Tunneling through floors at high speed → enable continuous collision / smaller fixed timestep for fast bodies (see physics-tuning).
• Camera snaps and induces nausea → smooth/lerp the follow, add a deadzone, clamp to bounds.
• Difficulty wall from bad teaching → introduce one mechanic per area before combining them.

Composition (build it from these skills)

• Controller body: godot-2d-movement (Godot CharacterBody2D); for other engines use the engine core + physics skill (unity-physics, phaser-arcade-physics, pygame-core).
• Levels: godot-tilemap / unity-tilemap-2d for geometry; level-design for layout, pacing, and teaching order.
• Feel/physics: physics-tuning for timestep, CCD, and stability.
• Input: input-systems for buffering, rebinding, and gamepad support.
• Polish: audio-design for SFX/music; the engine animation skill for squash/stretch.
• Process: prototype-fast to greybox the controller before building content.

References

• For jump math derivation, a full feel-tuning table, corner correction, moving/one-way platforms, and camera follow, read references/feel-tuning.md.