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 |vy|<threshold | | 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)

python
# 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)

python
# 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.