One Platform's Movement

I have just spent an hour compiling the comments I have received on One Platform, here on Itch. I am yet to go through all of the streams. But I can already see a few recurring pieces of feedback. Some of which regarding the game's movement and how it feels.

One thing that can really make a game's movement feel weightless, is lack of acceleration and develeration. In other words, if you are able to both instantly start moving at full speed from a standstill and then stop instantly, the character is going to feel like a bag of air. It is something a lot of beginner devs overlook and a reason why some indie platformers just don't feel very nice to play.

Adding acceleration to your game is easy enough. But then there's the issue of how much? Long acceleration and deceleration periods will give your character weight, which lends itself well to some games. Shorter periods will give your player more control, which works better for other games. Getting that balance just right can be tricky. Some things to consider are character, genre, gameplay, and difficulty. All will be impacted by the implementation and configuration of acceleration.

Different from many other platformers where the character run, the character in One Platform rolls. When configuring the acceleration, I had this in mind and found that quite a long start and stop period felt right for the look and feel of this type of movement. This is what it currently looks like when I start rolling, jump, and turn in mid-air.

Going through the feedback on One Platform, there are a few mentions of the controls feeling good. However there were also at least two players feeling like they didn't have enough control of the character. Not that I thought I would not get the acceleration right the first time around. But this feedback has pushed me to try to improve the feel of the movement. It is not the easiest thing to tinker with, as the levels are built for what the player can and cannot do. But at the same time, I do want players to feel like they are in control, as this is a game that involves precision jumping.

Here are examples of where I have both increased and decreased acceleration.

A lot of people either liked the feel of the movement or didn't comment on it. And I do sense that given the choice, many players would say that they prefer having more control, even though it subconsciously can feel better to give up some of it. With that in mind, I am going to be careful in how much I alter the current configuration. But there is definitely room for improvement and I look forward to hearing thoughts on coming versions.

What is your experience in implementing acceleration? Are there other elements which are important to the feel of movement? I would love to hear your thoughts.