What Makes a GOOD Platformer?

[BattleZoneHD]

Give me some of your ideas/opinions please. After I learn/study for a few years, I want my first big project to be a platform game.

[dandymcgee]

One that is finished. I don't care how terrible it looks, if you create a finished product I promise I'll try it out.

[BattleZoneHD]

Alright then, btw, I'm going to use a game specific language instead of a multipurpose language. Hopefully you guys will look past that when it's finished.

[superLED]

As long as you don't use GameMaker, edit some sprites on the platformer-example and say you created a game, I'd be happy to try it out.
I've seen too many of those :P

[Light-Dark]

The opposite of this:


So basically a finished working product.

[BattleZoneHD]

Good thing you didn't say DarkBASIC. Is GML a really easy language to learn or is GML just really popular? I ask this because you've seen so many game maker platformers.

[XianForce]

Good thing you didn't say DarkBASIC. Is GML a really easy language to learn or is GML just really popular? I ask this because you've seen so many game maker platformers.

It didn't seem as if he meant if you used Game Maker. I had to read it a second time to understand. He seems to be referring to people who use Game Maker AND take an example platformer that is already made and simply edit the graphics or tweak little things here and there. Then they show it off as something they made.

[BattleZoneHD]

Thanks for clearing that up, XianForce. I never really touched Game Maker but I know tons of people use it. So I thought he was telling me GML is the easy way out. Does the Game Maker community SUPPORT what I would call cloning or jacking the game? You would call it taking "an example platformer that is already made and simply edit the graphics or tweak little things here and there." I don't even make games yet and I feel that is the easy way out.

[XianForce]

Thanks for clearing that up, XianForce. I never really touched Game Maker but I know tons of people use it. So I thought he was telling me GML is the easy way out. Does the Game Maker community SUPPORT what I would call cloning or jacking the game? You would call it taking "an example platformer that is already made and simply edit the graphics or tweak little things here and there." I don't even make games yet and I feel that is the easy way out.

I'm not really familiar with the Game Maker community, but I'm quite sure that they do not support that. Don't get me wrong, taking someone else's work and changing things for yourself is a GREAT way to learn. Passing it off as your own work, on the other hand, is just messed up.

[Skomakar'n]

Maybe it's just me, but as long as the mechanics and controllers are good, I find it hard for a platformer to fail. I remember playing some Game Maker platformer game based on a template, with ripped sprites and no original features at all, and it looked like crap, but the mechanics we're smooth and I had great fun just jumping around and shooting stuff. It's a genre that's very easy to work with. If you actually add a few original twists and make your own graphics, that would be enough to satisfy me properly. Don't know about others.

[dandymcgee]

It didn't seem as if he meant if you used Game Maker. I had to read it a second time to understand. He seems to be referring to people who use Game Maker AND take an example platformer that is already made and simply edit the graphics or tweak little things here and there. Then they show it off as something they made.

He meant as long as you don't do ALL of those things: Use GameMaker, load the platformer sample project that presumably comes with GameMaker, change one or two assets and release it as "My super awesome game".

In other words, don't steal someone else's code, modify 6 lines, and claim the entire project as your own.

[superLED]

It didn't seem as if he meant if you used Game Maker. I had to read it a second time to understand. He seems to be referring to people who use Game Maker AND take an example platformer that is already made and simply edit the graphics or tweak little things here and there. Then they show it off as something they made.

He meant as long as you don't do ALL of those things: Use GameMaker, load the platformer sample project that presumably comes with GameMaker, change one or two assets and release it as "My super awesome game".

In other words, don't steal someone else's code, modify 6 lines, and claim the entire project as your own.

Yes, that's basically what I was saying.
Kinda looks like I wrote a really hard puzzle and all of you tried to solve it.
My English is not that good, I guess.

[CC Ricers]

Look at Spleunky for a really good platformer made in Game Maker. And it was supposedly the developer's first GM game too.

As far as what I look for in a good platformer, jumping that isn't floaty.

[dandymcgee]

As far as what I look for in a good platformer, jumping that isn't floaty.

And doesn't let you reverse directions infinitely mid-flight?