Description

Porter is a project that I made in Unity as a tech demo with the intention of researching exactly what it is that makes movement satisfying in 2D platformers. The project was inspired by games like Mario, Celeste, and Exit Path.

The game features a blue box running around through a simple level I made to test different movement options. The player is able to walk, jump, wall-jump, and wall-slide their way around. Like in Mario, the player can sustain a jump for longer if the jump button is held down. Whenever the player is in the air or landing on the ground, their instant vertical momentum is calculated in order to squash and stretch their body to better illustrate the effect of gravity.

The player also has access to 2 different gear options which drastically change the kind of movement options available. The first is a pistol which is so powerful that it pushes the player back from whatever direction it fires. This can be used to give the player a bit more height in their jumps and let them cross gaps they normally could not. The second option is a sword inspired by the Engine Blade from Final Fantasy 15 which is able to teleport the player onto any light-gray surface it makes contact with. It isn't able to push the player around like the pistol, but it can grant access to areas the player could not normally reach with the pistol.

So as not to distract from the goal of the project, I elected to make the art as simple as possible, only using basic geometry for the player, the level, and the particle effects. Fine tuning this project was extremely satisfying and I spent far too much time having fun running around in it. I learned a lot more than I expected to going in and built something I am super proud of.