On Safari 6.1.2 the second jump in the first level only works 50% of the time. The other 50% the jump only registers by the time the thingy has hit the ground.
I'm not a game developer, but I found the jump key to be slightly inconsistent, specifically pressing jump while running towards a ledge. Whether or not the jump registers seems to depend on how close to the edge you are. The closer you are, the less likely the jump is to register.
I guess depending on what you want out of the game mechanics, you could leave it as is or extend the "range" of a valid jump to slightly beyond the edge (perhaps half the width of the character). I guess some good questions that you could ask are:
- Is it a faster paced game where jumping from platform to platform quickly matters?
- Do you want to focus more on fluid movement and the ability of the player to think about their moves ahead of time?
- Are there any gaps in any level where the jump is nigh impossible without performing a "perfect" jump. If so, is that a feature? (maybe it's supposed to be that difficult?)
EDIT:
I've been looking at the source and I'm pretty sure it has to do with how Phaser checks whether the character is on solid ground or not (body.blocked.down). I'm not too sure how it calculates it (I couldn't understand the SAT.testPolygonPolygon function[1]. If anyone wants to help me with that, I'd appreciate it). I think the tilt of the character when it's running potentially makes it worse too.
Most platformer games actually let you jump for a short time after you run off the edge of a platform. The lack of this mechanic is what causes the jump to feel inconsistent.
I ran into the same jump issue. Playing with two hands (one for right one for jump) seemed to help. Maybe it has something to do with rapid consecutive inputs being lost.
I also found the hardest thing about the game to be figuring out the lag in timing between pressing jump and my character actually leaving the ground. Windows 7, Chrome.
I worked through the fourth level. It took me a few tries, but I made it. I'm not going to finish the 5th level. The first few sections are not fun enough to make it worth replaying them repeatedly to move forward in the game. So I would be in favor of a checkpoint system (try it in next platformer you make!).
I developed a couple of small demo games and one huge one (3-month project) with HTML5 and browser behavior is often lacking performance-wise, especially on Linux and mobile devices. I decided to limit myself to mouse controls only and slower games like turn based strategies or similar.
I have plans to make a faster 2D paced game this year and I'll go back to desktop and SDL for it. Especially since the SDL author joined Valve in 2012 and development pace has picked up again. Looking forward to run in on my Linux Desktop, Windows, Mac and a Steam Machine. I'm not sure I want to go any more cross-platform than that. Especially since mobile devices are polluted with low quality nickel-and-diming games.
I have input lag on Firefox, Linux. Well, maybe lag isn't the word, but it's definitely not responsive (meaning I did notice that being annoying before seeing comments about that).
I really enjoy your games and (especially) the tutorial side. Great stuff! But I have been a bit put off by the frequent plugs for your newsletter. Of course, you couldn't have known that before commenting here, and so I hesitated a while before posting this. But I figure it may be a useful data point.
In any case, I hope you keep up the great work, I'll certainly be following!
It started as a pure hobby with no revenue. But now that my project is getting a lot of attention, I might start making iOS/Android apps, or maybe write ebooks about how to make games.
I think it's awesome. Haters hate. Love that it starts with a wtf challenge -- invests the user. Love that your exploring mechanics without all the news.
Why a week? I'm trying the "one game a month" challenge and I find it very difficult for one single reason: cut out things so it's possible to finish the game in a month!
Do you think it would be harder if you had more time per game?
i'm tempted to just get all those games, put in a "full screen" page and adding either touch events or simply using the trackball (which a few old ancient android phones still have)
I liked the games, actualy played longer then i intendet the #6 :=)
The Gameplay Mixing Board was used for the ingame music in the last one. Is this a free musik then, or did you just asked the autor to use it?
