Platform Fighter Movement So it isn’t exactly a secret that I am working on my own platform fighter that is equal parts Mega Man and Super Smash Bros, with a little sprinkling of Tower Fall. These are my inspirations and I will happily admit it. That platform fighter has a current build on the main site called Zone Bots. It’s pretty fun, but something that was brought up by testers and bugged me throughout its development was that moving in the game just felt like it was missing features. So, like any good developer, I went back and looked toward my inspirations to understand what I could be missing and drew the following conclusion: Zone Bots is too Mega Man and not enough Street Fighter. Well, it isn't enough of a fighting game because fighting games have options in both attacking and approaching the opponent. So what Zone Bots is missing is the implementation of choice on its second axis; it’s movement. To get a feel for increased movement options I looked toward Super Smash ...
When I say “sequel” the things that come to my mind are either “movies” or “video games” and I honestly care much much much more about video game sequels than movie sequels. Like, yeah, a new movie sequel comes out and it’s more of the same with some nice twists, good entertainment for 2 or 2 in a half hours. It’s why Marvel movies are a success. Video game sequels, though? Those are much more nebulous and can be outright strange in both approach and implementation because they are expected to take up so much more of our time. When making a sequel to a game what is it that we, as designers and players, come to expect out of these sequels? When observing game sequels I believe that, historically, two common patterns arise in their creation; the “new take” and “built-upon” sequels which drastically alter how the new entry comes out. While there are definitely financial reasons for one approach versus the other, I would like to examine several franchises purely from a design standpoint an...