First of all, I would like to point out that this article reflects my personal opinion. Feel free to agree, disagree or comment your own view!
In this article, I would like to talk about how most Endless Runners currently work and the possibilities of expanding on those mechanics by implementing other gameplay relevant components.
With this being just a small article, I will only look at 3 main gameplay components:
- Reaction
- Precision
- Decision making
Many Endless Runners are built around reactions. A prime example of this is Canabalt. Canabalt is controlled only by a single button press to jump. There are little bits of precision later on in the game, but its mostly build around having to react to jump across upcoming gaps or obstacles.
Precision based platformers have even spawned a whole new genre called..precision platformers. My favorite precision platformer is Super Meat Boy. It's tight controls make it even possible to Speedrun the game, if you have enough skill, patience and time to learn. In Super Meat Boy, the main task is not so much to react to new situations in a splitsecond or decide, what exactly should be done, but executing it at the perfect time with the right amount of speed.
Last but not least, decision making. A good example for decision making is the game Subway Surfers on mobile platforms. There you have two gameplay components, the first is jumping and the second one, the main component, is lane switching. You have to adapt to which lanes are free and switch the lanes accordingly to move forward.
Can you strive for having decision making, reaction, and precision all in one single Endless Runner package? Yes. Does it bring problems with it? Definitely.
So first, how did we bring all those mechanics into Run or Die?
Tilemaps:
Many Endless Runners use procedurally generated content to run through. That content mostly contains of simple Rectangular shapes. We used another approach by implementing the use of tilemaps. Tilemaps give you the ability to tie more complex gameplay situations into the current run speed of the character. By using those, you lose a certain level of randomness, but you gain the ability to create spot on situations for the player to handle. To face the loss of randomness, we added randomly moving objects into the equation to keep things interesting.
7 Different abilities:
The heroine of Run or Die wears a suit which gives her the ability to perform different moves. The catch to make it interesting but not too complex: She can always Jump and Slide & she can use two of the remaining 5 abilities which are distributed randomly. That makes for 4 abilities available to the player at any given time and 10 different combinations of abilities in total. Most abilities are based around character movement to be able to traverse the maps in interesting ways.
Different run speeds:
Having the character moving more and more fast during the course of a run is a common theme for runner games. Because we use tilemaps, we decided to go for a different approach though. Rather than having the character moving slightly more and more faster, we have 3 different run speeds which change after a certain amount of time. That way we can make sure that the situations created by the tilemaps are perfectly tied to the current run speed.
Now back to our three mechanics: Reaction, Precision and Decision making.
Having all three mechanics in place right at the start would be too overwhelming for new players. That is why the progression in Run or Die is as follows:
Decision making > Reaction > Precision
At first, the most important point is to learn when to use which ability (Decision making). If you proved that you have that one nailed down, the game picks up the pace with a faster run speed and more difficult situations (More difficult Decision making & Reaction). If you can survive those situations, the game picks up the pace again (More difficult Decision making & quicker Reaction). If you are still on the run, the third and last mechanic comes into place. The situations within the maps get tighter (More difficult Decision making & quicker Reaction & Precision).
The article became a little longer than intended. For all those reading this lines: Thank you for still reading! I hope it has been an interesting insight into my view on Endless Runners.
So long,
Flow
P.S.: Direct Steamlink: Greenlight.runordiegame.com
