Player Movement Refinements

Hey there everyone! I'm Hunter Skipper, one of the programmers working on Iconoclast. My focus on this project has been writing all of the code that drives the player character's behavior, and I wanted to share some of the improvements we've made to our game's player movement based on the feedback we received on our Alpha milestone.

One of the main criticisms we received was that the player's jump felt too "floaty",  so I put a great deal of effort into reworking the way jumping is handled. The player character now feels much heavier, and the platforming segments that our level designers have built should be substantially less frustrating for players.

Above: one of the platforming challenges devised by our level designers: Jacob Tyner and Ian Lee.

Another criticism involved movement up and down stairs. The player's movement looked jittery on stairs due to the stairs' shape, so one of our level designers ensured that all the stairs in the game now use ramp-shaped colliders so movement up and down stairs will feel nice and smooth. I also made use of a built-in Unity function called SmoothDamp to make it feel less abrupt when the player starts and stops moving.

One major issue with the Alpha version of Iconoclast was the way the player knocks tablets over. The player had to physically run into the tablets, which often led to unintended consequences, such as the tablet getting knocked far away from its original location, or in some cases, not falling over at all.  We reworked this so now the player simply presses E while standing next to a tablet to knock it over.

Above: The interact text that now pops up when the player is close to a tablet.

We also added an option to adjust mouse sensitivity, so players can use the mouse to look around at whatever speed feels most comfortable for them. And lastly, I added some camera effects that should make moving around the levels feel a bit more fun, including a head-bob effect while walking, a slight camera zoom while dashing, and a camera shake when dashing into breakable walls.

Above: The options menu, which now allows the player to adjust mouse sensitivity.

Some more changes and additions you can look forward to when we reach the Beta milestone include more textures and lighting, character models and animations, sound effects, particle effects, patrolling guards, and improved puzzles.