game design sequence for a platformer controller

[droqen]

Tried in pico-8 and ran into some issues with collision
I think I more clearly need to lay out a pattern that refers to collision, because of how key it is
In theory, a sequence's patterns could indicate what you're going to need to be able to do, and what skills you'll potentially need to develop to be able to execute the sequence -- that way if you get stuck on something, it's not as much of a surprise! You can be prepared ahead of time.

[droqen]

revised ver.

1. DRAW A SPRITE WITH DIRECTIONALITY AND ANIMATION. This can be anything, but the sprite should appear to be 'facing' or 'pointing' either to the left or to the right. The animation does not have to look like the sprite is doing anything in particular, just that it should feel somewhat 'animated' or 'alive', rather than static. (For this step, I like a 2-frame looping animation and I slightly prefer an animation that appears to contain around, say, 75% vertical movement, and 25% other movement - boiling or internal wiggling or scaling or whatnot)

2. ALLOW THE PLAYER TO MOVE THE SPRITE. For whatever input scheme, allow the player to move the sprite in every direction. It may feel better if the movement is more "smooth"; use feelings of 'acceleration' and 'friction'.

3. DRAW A SMALL LEVEL AROUND THE SPRITE. Draw a floor / platforms to stand on, and walls to block you.

4. ADD COLLISIONS. Make it so that the player cannot move through the floor or walls of the "level".

5. ADD GRAVITY AND ALLOW THE PLAYER TO JUMP. While they are in the air, apply a vertical force to a player that causes them to inevitably move "down" to the ground. While they are on the ground, give the player an input that allows them to "jump" up a certain distance, before being brought back to the ground again. (Questions to ask yourself: How high does the player jump? How fast does the player come back to the ground? Tweak the gravity and the jump until you have something you like.)

6. ADD ANIMATIONS FOR VARIOUS PLAYER STATES. Notice now how when the player is "standing still on the ground" they should look different from when they are "running on the ground" or "in the air", or how when the player is "moving left" they should look different from when they are "moving right".
Re-using existing sprites as much as possible, render / animate the player differently in each state that feels like it needs a distinct animation. (For this step I will usually start by flipping the player sprite horizontally to face the appropriate direction when the player uses left/right input, and stopping the player's animation when they are standing still on the ground.)

Note: Should 'animation' be something that happens in-line with each pattern? Does it come first? Last? It seems like something that happens in parallel, at the same time ideally, but in practice happens at various times during the process. Difficult.

[droqen]

Cleaning up - Not doing this

[droqen]

post-mortem: I think I'm just not too interested in pursuing this or polishing it further? This already lives in my head; who needs it on paper? Someone? i dunno. If I discover some real practical interest I am intrigued by the possibility of revisiting game design sequences: maybe for myself? That oculd be interesting.

TODO: In the future,, projects should have more clearly stated purpose. Note, however, that the purpose-statement must be understood as a keyhole to a Jupiter, not the jupiter itself.