How to Turn Movement into a Game Mechanic

I love games that let you move with speed, fluidity, and finesse. I'm talking about games with perfect parkour, comic book web-swinging, awesome skateboarding, super sonic speeds, and ninja-like wall-running. The problem is: there's no one-size-fits-all answer for how to make such a movement system.

What makes Rocket League great is completely different to Sunset Overdrive, which is different still to Titanfall 2. Sure, we can get point to obvious stuff like responsive controls, visual effects, and cool animations. But perhaps we can go further.

What we can do is look at the very different ways that movement works in a bunch of brilliant games, and then see if there's anything these varying approaches all have in common, and help answer the question of how to make movement fun. So, Hi. I'm Mark Brown, and this is Game Maker's Toolkit.

Okay, let's start with Super Mario Odyssey. This game is all about giving the player a bunch of different moves - that all allow for slightly different actions. You've got tall jumps and long jumps and fast jumps and last-minute-save jumps.

It's about knowing which move to use, and when. But what's even better is that these moves can be chained together to eke out further advantages. Mario's jump, dive, and hat throw can be carefully chained together to bound between rooftops in New Donk City.

We see similar stuff in other 3D platformers like Sackboy: A Big Adventure and A Hat in Time. But also the Tony Hawk's series, which is laser focused on combining moves. There are two actions - the revert and the manual - which are specifically designed to keep your combo going between the skatepark pieces.

Next up is Insomniac's open-world zombie blaster Sunset Overdrive. Now here, the main character doesn't have a particularly involved moveset: just a basic run, jump, and roll. But that's because this game is all about using things in the environment: running on walls, bouncing on awnings, grinding on rails, and swinging on poles.

Clever use of the environment will put you at a huge advantage over the enemies. Other games that put the focus on environmental interaction include sci-fi ninja sim Ghostrunner, and the best bits of the Ori games as you bash to propel yourself off enemies and projectiles. Next, let's look quickly at The Pathless.

And this one is all about timing. In this game you can temporarily boost your speed by shooting arrows at floating targets in the world. You have to charge the shot and release when the meter fills up completely - giving the game a sort of rhythmic action as you try to efficiently time the release of every shot.

And that's not to mention that if you release when the meter is only halfway full, you get a much bigger burst of speed. But, if you screw up the timing, the shot will miss and you get nothing. Moving on to Titanfall 2.

And this game is all about momentum: building it, and keeping it. The pilot can run at a max speed of only 22 kilometres per hour. However, your speed can be temporarily boosted by things like wall-running, leaping away from walls, and sliding along the ground.

So to be truly fast, you've got to try and keep that momentum up, by endlessly chaining together those moves. But that's not all. When we go into multiplayer, we can get things like the grapple which hooks onto a wall and then retracts - like Link's hookshot on fast forward.

Combine that with a jump and you can slingshot your way across the map at super speed. And we're still not done. Because when you come to land you can do a slide-hop (which is where you hit crouch, then jump) to maintain that momentum.

The very best Titanfall 2 players - i. e. not me - are the ones who are always thinking about ways to keep the momentum they've built up.

We see similar stuff in older shooters like Quake and Counter-Strike, where bunnyhopping to build momentum was a physics-busting emergent strategy not intended by the developers. The parkour gem Mirror's Edge will force you to maintain momentum if you want to nail its time trials. Crumble is all about getting faster and faster, the more you move.

And in the platformer N++, you need to build momentum in order to make the biggest jumps. Next up is Cyberhook - a first-person speedrunner about grappling onto blocks and launching yourself towards the goal. And so this one, I think, is about understanding trajectories.

Bear with me for a second. A trajectory is a path an object will follow, when moving under the influence of a physical force. And we subconsciously consider this when playing any platformer, because the arc of every jump is determined by gravity.

But in games with grappling hooks - like A Story About My Uncle and Bionic Commando - the swing's arc is determined by both gravity and the taut pull of the rope. And so to get the most out of the mechanic we have to mentally map out the precise arc of the swing - and know the best time to latch on and let go. We also see this in games with gliding mechanics, it's all about the shapes the character will make when moving, and understanding how to use that to your advantage.

And finally, I want to touch on Rocket League. This game is kind of unique because the character - in this case, a car - is basically a physics object, and you just apply forces in different directions. This allows you to move the car about in pretty much whatever way you desire: leading to masterful players discovering absurd tricks like making a car fly across the pitch, or doing bonkers bicycle kicks.

Trust me, this one is way over my head - but I thought it was still worth mentioning. So, here, I've identified six different elements that great games use to make movement more fun. Those are chaining moves, using the environment, nailing timing windows, building momentum, understanding trajectories, and playing with physics.

Now that's not an exhaustive list - and it's also important to note that many games mix and match these different elements. In Just Cause 3, for example, you need to hook shot onto the environment, which builds momentum as the rope retracts. You can then chain into your parachute and then chain into your wingsuit.

At which point you're carefully considering the weirdo trajectory of this thing as you dive away from enemy attacks. So this gives us a sort of table of elements when it comes to movement. The building blocks that are used and combined to make interesting interactions.

These are the things that make movement fun. But… why? Is there anything these different approaches to movement have in common, to help explain their appeal?

First, all of these approaches allow for a real freedom of movement. They're about giving you options for how to get around the world: you could take a very slow and meandering trip up a staircase, or you could run up the wall, turn around, spring off the wall, and tuck your feet up over the handrail. This effectively turns the entire game space into a traversal playground.

Walls and big gaps are no longer barriers to impede progress: they are challenges to overcome. And where many games are practically glued to the ground, these advanced movement mechanics add verticality to the world. Second, these movement mechanics typically allow for very analogue inputs.

Which. . .

let me explain what I mean. When using the hookshot in Zelda, you must aim it a suitable point, and then it locks Link into an unstoppable animation until he reaches his destination. It follows a single, predetermined path.

In Titanfall 2, however, the grapple works in a very different way. You can latch onto any point in the world, you can move while it retracts in order to change its trajectory, you can boost the speed with a jump, and you can cancel the grapple at any point. There is an almost infinite number of paths it can follow - entirely based on your control and desire.

And we see this in other mechanics too: like generous mid-air movement in Mario, being able to bash in literally any direction in Ori, and the absurdly granular input you have in physics-based movement systems like Rocket League. These either give you perfect fine-grain control of the character, or at least the ability to influence a trajectory. Third… when done well, these mechanics allow you to move with flow, which is when you fluidly move through a level without stopping or slowing down too much.

So perhaps that's chaining together moves across an entire level, or keeping your momentum with careful navigation of the space. This can be particularly fun in games with environmental interactions as you bounce from one object to another - but that's as much to do with the level design as it is the basic movement mechanics. Fourth - and perhaps most importantly - these advanced movement mechanics are a test of skill.

When chaining moves, you need to know how and when to link these actions together - and probably in mid-air or when moving at speed. When it comes to using the environment, there's a certain level of precision needed to guide your character onto a rail or bounce pad. And timing, naturally, tests your timing.

Momentum has a built-in skill check: the faster you move, the harder the game is to control. Trajectories can be particularly hard to understand until you internalise their unique arcs. And physics-based characters are naturally challenging to navigate.

And so while these advanced moves offer huge advantages over the more basic running and jumping - such as making you move faster, take shortcuts, or get the drop on enemies in combat - they come with a huge skill barrier, and until you can surpass it, you’re gonna spend a lot of time scraping your face against the tarmac. But, that leads to the fifth and final similarity. Which is when you do have that skill, all of these movement mechanics are intrinsically satisfying to use.

When chaining moves you're performing tiny, quick-fire piano melodies on the controller which just feels amazing on the fingers. When you're exploiting the environment you're constantly making plans about your route forward. And hitting a button in a microscopic timing window and getting a big burst of feedback is always a hit.

Building momentum lets you get almost uncontrollably fast, putting you in thrilling white-knuckle situations as you try not to slam into a wall. And expertly navigating a character while navigating gravity and other physics-based interactions just feels great. Skimming close to the ground with Just Cause's wingsuit is an unparalleled treat.

It would be easy to say that movement in a game feels good because you're playing as a character with awesome abilities - but I think it's the player's physical performance of these skills that feels satisfying - and not just the super heroic imagery on screen. Though, let me give a couple caveats. One is that games should look for precision - but not perfection.

So it's good to have systems that subtly help the player out. I've talked before about coyote time - which is letting the player jump off a platform, even if they've already run off the edge. We can do something similar on the landing, by pushing the player to safety if they were just a few centimetres away from the ledge.

You might also give the player moves to save themselves from a bad jump: like being able to right your board back in line with the ground in Tony Hawk's, or slow time and dash in Ghostrunner - which can be used to realign for a wall run. And in King of Cards, if you get hit in mid-air you'll get a free shoulder bash move which can be used for a last minute, frantic scramble to safety. And secondly, this brings us back to something I explored in a video late last year.

The idea of whether the player should be given a power fantasy through slick animation and highly automated systems. Or have to earn the power fantasy through the application of hard-won skills. Ultimately we want something that can do both: easy to use, but hard to master.

So please check out that video for more information - and ideas for how to make these movement systems more accessible to a wider audience. So how do we make interesting movement systems in games? If you ask me, we're looking for mechanics that give players a real freedom of movement, through analogue inputs that let them fully control how their character moves.

We want to test - or at least reward - the player's skill, and create movement that feels satisfying when you perform it well - whether that's through quickfire finger action on the controller, or stomach-clenching, near-miss thrill rides. I've established a number of elements that work towards these goals - from chaining together a big load of actions to toying with the trajectory of a wingsuit under gravity - but there are probably more to discover, and more I missed. So, in the comments below - what's your favourite movement system in a game?

And - most crucially of all - why? It's indie game recommendation time, and I've been having a lot of fun with Cyber Shadow - an NES throwback platformer that's inspired by games like Ninja Gaiden and Shatterhand. It's not quite as punishing as those old games but it will certainly give you a good challenge.

If you're up for it you can expect great level design, a huge moveset, and stellar boss fights. Cyber Shadow is out now on all major platforms.