Genre guidesReflexSpatialShort run
Platform jumping
The distance, height, and recovery of a jump are the rules. A level is a set of sentences about where the player can land.
Guides explain combinations and are counted separately from individual mechanisms.
Core loop
- Read the distance between the landing and the danger
- Jump and make a small correction in the air
- Land and accept the position the jump left you in
- Use that position to attempt the next stretch
Key mechanisms
- The same input gives the same arc
- Danger is visible early, and failure retries only the short stretch
- A new ability changes which terrain can be reached, rather than only adding score
Design notes
- Tune one jump until it is predictable, then build levels
- Put a checkpoint before the decision, not after the player is already airborne
- Moving, jumping, and falling must look different
Reference games
- Celeste
- Super Meat Boy
- Shovel Knight
Variants and combinations
- Room order changes, but each jump stays fair
- A crate changes the height you can stand on
- The window for a jump opens and closes with the beat
Common pitfall
Difficulty should come from learnable movement, not invisible collisions or slow restarts.
Observations and sources
Cases refer to public documentation. Developers and community wikis are credited separately; document review is not a claim of hands-on testing.
- Celeste
Compare short jump challenges, clear landings and quick retries.
Brief for the studio
Opens the AI studio with the brief below in the input. You can edit it. Nothing starts automatically.
Make a platform game: the same button always gives the same jump arc. Three short sections each have one landing, and failure returns only to the start of that section. The danger is visible before the jump.
Covers are original AI-generated style illustrations. Game names reference publicly visible design choices and remain the property of their owners. This atlas does not supply screenshots or assets from those games. Prompts and combinations are original drafts for new games.