While completing a tacked on jumping section of Diablo a la Spore: Act 2 and messing around other users' adventures I realized how fun jumping is. There's something satisfying about reaching that next platform. I'm sure most of you, gamers or not, know that already, or at least don't find it that difficult to see. What really struck me though, is that jumping is the core of the entertainment.
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| This ugly, but highly entertaining Spore Garfield romp got me thinking about jumping. (D/L this image and add to spore to try it out) |
Okay, truthfully, I'm not just talking about the jumping. I'm referring to controlling a body to navigate an environment. This includes jumping, running, climbing, driving and probably a couple other things. This doesn't include reading text, looking at scenery, shooting, managing inventory, punching, activating levers, opening doors, moving troops, casting spells, picking pockets, quick time events, singing, memorizing, solving puzzles, reloading, sneaking, breaking necks, navigating dialog trees or anything that isn't controlling movement for the sake of moving.
I think this may have been the appeal of the Mario series. The game is 99% about making Mario run and jump. Nintendo stripped out the rest of the crud. After all, his original name was 'Jumpman'! All gamers can agree there is something satisfying about making Mario leap off a moving platform to land on a smaller parallel platform. Landing that never fails to feel sweet. Who cares about shooting and all that other crap when you can jump?
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| This is what video games are all about. |
Anyhow, I could be totally wrong about this. In fact, I'd wager in two years I'll look back at this blog and be in disbelief of my ignorance. Still, I've decided to apply this idea to Act 3 of Diablo Spore. There's a path that is solely navigate by launch pads and the walkways have more vertical depth. The launch pad section is definitely fun, but I still need to add more variety to the walkways before I can decide if the added navigational challenge makes walking around entertaining.
P.S. While procrastinating editing this article, I came across
this bit-tech.net article on jumping.
