Research: The Importance of Player Mobility in Games

Have you ever played a game where the player character just felt good to control but you couldn't quite explain why? Or perhaps you've played a game that had amazing visuals but actually playing the game didn't feel right or was frustrating? Chances are you've discovered a good and bad example of a player character's mobility affecting gameplay. In these series of posts I'm going to be looking into the specifics of player/world interaction through a character's movement system, discover how it affects gameplay and what steps I should take to start creating an enjoyable playable character for a 3D platformer.

What is a Player Character?

First of all let's get the definition of a Player Character out of the way. A Player character is an in-game animate character or object that is directly controlled by the player. Every input that the player performs on a controller will cause the player character on screen to react in some way. So for example if a player were to press the A button on a controller, the player character would immediately jump. Or if they pressed the X button, the player character would immediately attack. There is a direct relationship between intent and action.

An in game character that isn't directly controlled by the player is referred to as an NPC (Non-Playable-Character)

In a lot of games there is only one player character, in Spyro the Dragon for PS1
                           you control...well, Spyro the Dragon, and that's it.

Whereas some games may have multiple player characters, Street Fighter V
has over 28 characters for the player to choose from, each with their own unique talents, stats and abilities.

Player Mobility, what is it and why is it important?

To put it simply, player mobility refers to the actions that the player character can perform in game to move around a game's environment. These actions can vary from game genres and can include running, jumping, climbing, rolling, shooting etc.

So why is mobility so important? Can I not just give a character 360 movement, a jump, an attack and call it a day? Absolutely not. Whether you are designing an action, racing, sports or any other type of game, the most significant part of the design is the central character and the intricacies of how they behave to player input. "Whether the character is a real person, a fantasy character, or a vehicle, how the player moves when controlling the "character" is among the most important aspects of most games" - Troy Dunniway

Designing Mobility Around Game Genre

A character's mobility must be determined based on game genre and context. In a platformer game such as Super Mario 64 the player has access to a variety of moves to be able to bounce around the large open ended environments. Jumps, dives and kicks are used for Mario to be able to easily get around the levels, collect important power stars and coins, stomp on enemies and so on, these are the usual kinds of actions you would expect a colourful platform game hero to possess.

Now in the horror, third person shooter Resident Evil 4, movement is a lot more restricted. Players control Leon Kennedy. Moving around is naturally a lot slower and you don't have much control at all over directional movement while running forward. You can only shoot while standing completely still. Due to this more restricted movement style, players are made to adapt to the movement system by learning how to correctly position themselves before aiming and shooting. This can create tense situations where they are surrounded by zombies and they have no easy way to escape or run away. This sense of powerlessness really helps encounters feel nerve-racking and fills moments between them with frightened anticipation.

Now take the two examples of mobility I've just given and swap them around. Mario now has limited movement, it takes him ages to get from one place to another and he can't jump. Moving around levels now doesn't feel as fluid and it's boring. (Although I can imagine shooting Bowser with a shotgun might be funny) Leon Kennedy on the other hand is now able to easily run away from zombies or jump over them and ignore them completely, ruining any sort of threat the monsters in Resident Evil 4 may of had over the player. Both of these games were easily ruined by having player mobility that didn't correlate to the game's world and design.

Making a character feel good to control in a 3D platformer

Making a character feel good to control means a lot of time needs to be put into every aspect of a players movement. Running speed needs to be adjusted, how fast is the character going to be? Where's the line in being too fast or not fast enough? Acceleration and Deceleration are extremely important as these can affect a player's thoughts on their input. When they tilt the analog stick is the character moving at a pace that feels believable but instant? Having a character's acceleration being too low can frustrate players, they may not feel like they are fully in control and this can also affect platforming, especially on small platforms where the player will not have as much room to perform a run up jump.

Interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto, the game designer responsible for the Super Mario games have revealed how he approaches movement in game design. He starts by implementing the most basic feature, running, and makes that fun, then he moves onto jumping, and makes that fun, and by the end of it you have an enjoyable movement system. I'd like to follow Miyamoto's way of designing his games.

To create an enjoyable movement system I will need to look at each individual aspect of a character's movement. For the sake of not making one post too long I'm going to split this case study into different parts. Each part will contain theory and practice on how to make each mechanic in a platformer feel good.

I've started a new project in the Unreal Engine for a 3D platformer, I'm going to play around with a characters movement and make a quick level that players will be able to move around in. Along the way, as mentioned in a previous post, I will get playtesters to provide feedback as I believe it's important that I create a movement system that other players can get behind. Being the designer/developer I will have an easy time getting used to a movement system that might not actually be that good.

References 

Dunniway, T. (2008) Game development essentials : Gameplay mechanics, Clifton Park, NY, Clifton Park, NY : Thomson Delmar Learning.

Rogers, S. (2014) Level up! the guide to great video game design, Hoboken, Hoboken : Wiley. 

Images:
Insomniac Games, Spyro the Dragon
Capcom, Street Fighter V
Nintendo, Super Mario 64
Capcom, Resident Evil 4