11:02 For the inverse coyote time thing, one mechanic I like is that you don't land on the ledge, but you grab onto it with your hands and pull yourself up if you get close. That way you're still rewarded for actually making the landing, but you are only slightly punished for failing and you can tell it was close because you have a couple second animation instead of just sticking the landing.

I love how some games implement movement differently, though that is exactly why mainline Sonic games have been struggling so much as Sega needs to find that balance between having the player feel like they're running at super fast speeds, but not like the game is completely holding their hand or that the level is constantly interrupts their sense of movement via the stage or the enemies.

I think an interesting contrast would be Breath of the Wild's slow pace but completely free "climb anything, glide off it" combo.

Maybe an odd suggestion, but I like Portal's movement system. Using gravity and portals to launch yourself across rooms was always satisfying to me.

TF2 rocket jumping is probably one of the sickest game movement in any game. Although unintentional, I think Smash melee has some real awesome movement too. Only problem is that both of these systems are REALLY hard to pick up.

Games like these are why I love the left joystick

I love the movement systems in TF2. They're all different for each class, some have more focus on movement, like the scout, soldier and demo while others have less e.g. heavy and sniper. They merge the weapons into the movement perfectly which is the thing i love, you can put countless of hours into mastering them and still have stuff to learn

Surprised not to see Journey mentioned here. That game was basically Joy of Motion: The Game. I love the way freedom of movement and increasing mastery of the game's controls, which you express with increasingly speedy and graceful traversal of the environment, is tied to the storyline. The midgame point underground, which has you sneaking around and deprived of your movement abilities due the scarf being torn, feels gut-wrenching and terrifying as you know you can't fly away from danger. An absolute masterpiece of game design.

"master players flying across the pitch" anyone can boost, the hard bit is hitting the ball

For me, "Katana Zero" has an absolutely thrilling movement system. It isn't big and explosive like some of the games mentioned in the video, but it defined the gameplay for me. Being able to precisely control when to roll, jump, or swing the sword became tools in increasingly elaborate puzzles as the game progressed, and I feel that these tools are what kept me engaged and consequently made me love the game.

I love how Celeste has all 6 things he mentioned, it's such a good game with so many ways to go fast

I love how everyone acts like jc4 does not exist

I don’t know if I’m the only who does this, but whenever I see a movement-themed GMTK video, I have to go into the description to see if a certain game is listed in “Games Shown.” For me, it’s Titanfall 2

07:49 Jooooo that's me in a GMT video. Wtf hahahaha. I made it mom. P.S: If you are into Momentum and Indie Games. Try out The King's Bird

original Mirror's edge felt so good to move in. loved to get into that "flow" interacting with the environment and nailing every timing while looking at the beautiful world and dodging guards.

I love how the RL footage is showing really low level games, making it seem like that "physics" is clumsy but if you check out footage of more higher level play, you can see how much you can express with movement in RL and how it links with all the other points.

I was honestly expecting a dissertation on Quake's strafe jumping.

There is also another way of "turning movement into a game mechanic": instead of making it fluid and fast, make it slow and limiting, for example in Elite: Dangerous. Combat, especially in larger ships, is not a frantic reaction showdown, but a slow and deliberate dance, trying to get your ship out of your enemies' crosshairs and them into yours, with any tricks possible. It is also very free, with full three-axis rotation and thrusters (if you have a HOTAS to control them all). And if that's too easy, then you can turn off flight assist, which removes the normal alignment help and even makes it a challenge to *not* move, but makes for a nice trick up your sleeve in combat. Overall, with few control inputs, but many interactions between them, it's fun to even just fly around in an asteroid belt, throwing the momentum of your ship around and seeing how narrowly you can avoid the rocks (similar to JC3's wingsuiting... maybe this is another point: giving opportunities for showing off movement mastery). And nothing beats blowing up a Federal Corvette in my Anaconda without even getting hit, by dodging all its PA rounds :) (A similar, though afaik much less deep movement would be the tanks in War Thunder)

Favorite movement system is still Spiderman 2 for the PS2. That was such a good game. The web-slinging incorporated two mechanics that when used together made you move fast and felt complex to execute (though thinking about it it's just the timing of 3-4 button presses): 1) a speed swing to make you go faster that acted just like how a person swings on a real swingset (but you couldn't stop at just that or you'd stall out between swings) and 2) the fact that you could charge up your jump while swinging and release right at the end for a big boost. You would chain speed swings into jump boosts and zoom around New York City like a crazy person, and then on top of that when you were going fast your wall crawl became a momentum-based wall run so you could improvise your routes by running up, down, and along buildings in addition to your swings. It was great

I think there’s one thing you didn’t touch about movement in games. And its that movement not only for moving from point A to B. but also for combat and battle mechanics. I love Gravity Rush 2’s movement. it doesnt have much of what you’ve listed, but the game uses its movement for battle. theres a particular boss fight that forces you to fight an enemy with similar ability as you in the air. you really need to master your movement if you’re to beat the boss. GR2’s movement mechanics is fairly simple on its own, but it throws you boss fights, numerous enemy ads while flying through the air. And I think thats awesome. oh and on top of that there’s gyroscope controls. not a lot of games utilise it much.

the just cause "scraping face on the tarmac" reminds me of how long it took me to understand that that glide-suit has air-plane controlls.

GMTK always uploads after everytime I think “dang hasn’t it been a long time since the last GMTK episode?”

The Tribes series nailed every aspect you discuss here, and is still the most enjoyable movement system I've experienced in an FPS.

Not having Tribes in this video is a crime.

Something I just thought about is risk. A great movement system makes taking risks incredibly addictive because the payoffs are so satisfying to watch. An example is when players get to "thread the needle" by making perfectly adjusted motions to move through difficult spaces, the fine tuned mastery of the movement is put to the test. An excellent example of this is wingsuits in Steep. To get that gold medal run down a perilous mountain formation requires break neck speeds inches from death down steep angles and tight chasms. It's like tuning a guitar perfectly the first time when done successfully. The gentle movement of the stick ever so slightly adjusting the character's pitch while on screen the character narrowly avoids crashing into the face of a mountain by slightly moving left. Threading the needle is such a valuable experience for a satisfying movement system. It's not always necessary, and sometimes even discouraged, but the draw of just being that much faster because I drifted perfectly between traffic at a tight corner, or forward slid right under an enemy hitbox instead of going around is like watching slo-motion rain on loop. When devs introduce risk factors that make stunts even more daring, the mastery of the mechanics go from a race against time, to a dance with death.

"The best titanfall 2 players learn how to keep that momentum" False. Best titanfall 2 players equip the stim, equip the mastiff and launch themselves at the enemy firing wildly hoping they land enough pellets for an instant kill I'm not good at that game but christ I love it

I am a platform completive fighter player (super smash bros. melee, slap city, rivals of aether, ect) so I love making movement mechanics. Wavedashing/dashing is a super fun mechanic that is extremely underrated and is as complex as a jump. In my game dashing is a important mechanics because it allows you to use it defensively by dodging an attack or offensively by canceling the dash into an attack or using a unique thrust attack. You have complete directional influence over but it is a constant force so you cannot stop without canceling it and it has a cooldown so it is a resource.

Reminds me of a good Dunkey video where he describes this feeling as "jazz" - you're making a hundred decisions per minute without even realizing it. You make plans, but you spend just as much time riffing off the plans failing and still recovering gracefully.

I spent over 1000hrs on TF2s rocket jump maps. I absolutely love the options and freedom it gives you and no matter what you do there are ways to improve. Watching ppl beat levels you only dream of beating with ease, is one of the most amazing and inspireing things ever.

Melee is by far my favorite movement game with its momentum management, stringing together multiple inputs, and satisfying game feel.

I remember playing Warframe when it was taking its first steps and it had a very fluid movement system but a stamina meter that would hinder chaining too much forward momentum. Then players found a way to exploit this by sliding, which doesn't consume stamina so it keeps regenerating while maintaining speed. And then later the stamina was completely removed and the movement added so many things, wall cling, air glide, bullet jump, wall kick/climb/run, dive kick, and many others that they had to reword one of the classes skills (which was a moon jump) to something else. And there are several, not one or two but several classes that take advantage of movement into their abilities. Volt can store electric energy he generates when moving into bonus damage. Gauss can also do the same but he can apply fire or cold effects to his attacks based on how much energy he has. Nezha has teleporting, a barrier and a skill that leaves a trail of damaging fire everywhere he walks. There are other things like how they implemented movement into melee so that it doesn't stop the flow of combat, or during open world areas with various vehicles.

Distance is a great example of implementing satisfying movement mechanics in a racing game

I literally just unlocked the "Bash" skill in Ori and the Blind Forest yesterday, and then I see this pop up in my sub feed. Fantastic timing if I've ever seen it

I miss when Assassins creed had fun movement instead of horses which automatically ride to your next objective while you check your phone

My favorite movement is legs

I'm a huge fan of racing games. One of my favorites is TrackMania Nations Forever, a skill-based arcade-style formula 1 stunt racing game. The physics are realistic and feel good, but contain a few little unrealistic things like some control over your car's angle and speed in the air that just make it feel so good to play. It's often relatively easy to beat the tracks, but getting the best time is a challenge of timing (like how you have to time your turns to not align with your automatic gear changes) and precision (taking corners really tight but not too tight) as well as split-second decision-making (intentionally hitting a booster pad to increase speed but while risking losing control of your car). It's pure movement and I love it.

I really appreciate having movement options as part of a move-set rather than only being able to move in specific ways in response to certain environmental hooks. Wall running and grappling hooks are two major examples of things that could go either way for me in this regard. Man, I wish LoZ:BotW had a Clawshot.

I grew up playing Starsiege: Tribes, and that was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the title of this video. A multiplayer team shooter that takes place at breakneck speed on massive maps, and your ability to navigate the environment was just as important as your dueling skills. I think my favorite aspect of the Tribes movement mechanics was how well the rest of your toolkit was designed to interact with that movement. Most of the weapons were explosive projectiles with relatively large splash areas. So, even when you're skiing around at 300mph, trying to catch up to your opponent, you're both firing back and forth at each other across canyons, predicting where they'll move next, trying to nail them with a mortar when they hit the bottom of the next hill.

Thank you for putting a scene of Splatoon! I've been playing a lot of Splatoon and am diving deep into breaking down all the basic mechanics when I practice. This video has given me even more ideas of what and how to practice more effectively. :)

I like Terraria's movement system : the bosses often have a danmaku-like fighting style and you can use dashes or your grappling hook to change direction instantaneously, fly for a limited (or not) period of time, choose what movements you'll prioritize etc

Doom Eternal has excellent movement, it's one of the reasons it's get addictive and challenging.

I'm so glad that N++ got mentioned. One of the most interesting games in terms of movement, considering how simple it is.

One of my favorite movement system is from the now retired Worlds Adrift, it was a simple grapplin hook that you could manually reel in or extend, and a small boost that broke the hook. It was a game with flying island and skyships, so you could fling yourself at such high speed if you boosted at the right time in the right direction that you could reach islands or high ships ! I remember my favorite thing was hopping between 2 ships flying next to each other, such a level of freedom... May you rest in peace Worlds Adrift

Funny enough Death Stranding has been a game I've been enjoying lately. The way it makes you aware of topography how you move has really stuck with me as of late.

Love gravity rush when I was a kid, it's so liberating to fly/fall through the sky at crazy speed. Thanks for at least showing it in the end. Great video as always.

Glad to see Sunset Overdrive getting some love. The movement system in that game always felt beautifully snappy.

I love bunnyhopping and accelerated back hop from the old source games. They let me move through open space quickly without having to waste bullets or time walking. In portal, it gives me an extra solution the some of the puzzles.

The amount of dopamine released whenever someone talks about titanfall 2 is unnatural.

Holy crap can't believe you mentioned Superflight! That game is so amazing and I thought I was the only one that had heard of it.

Nothing gives you more satisfaction than hitting a nice goal in Rocket League, because you don't just tap a shoot button like in Fifa, you really have to do the work of hitting the ball properly

There are several instances where I was overjoyed at the movement in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. When used correctly, some moves can allow you to do minor sequence breaks and access areas that are just a little harder to navigate without a later upgrade.

As someone who is making Minecraft Parkour maps, this ended up being exactly the video I need to watch!

I feel like there's also something to be said for slow, deliberate movement. If a game goes at a certain speed, things feel "swishy" (which is not necessarily bad or worse). Slower movement can give weight, so if I'm wielding a big warhammer for example, a long swing gives a satisfying thwomp. In my experience, those kinds of things are very satisfying to time correctly

I love movement in games. Perhaps its why I love platformers so much, but the act of simply moving from place to place in the best/fastest/coolest way possible really gives me a reason to play some of the games shown.

Definitely Warframe - you can tell someone is a newbie because they seem *at all related to the floor*. Everyone else may as well be flying, and it's really, really fun to improve at this by little bits over time, especially since its core is still just pressing the B button and left bumper at certain times depending on altitude and environment. So, it's got environmental interaction, a skill test, and simple controls that are still granular. Everything you want in a system like this. Plus, late game, you can upgrade your parkour speed to be given an even harder challenge in exchange for getting to go even faster.

gotta say smash melee is my all time favorite movement system, once you really master it it is so free-flowing and creative while still being important competitively. it really opens up opportunities to style on your opponent too

When it comes to movement in terms of how it works with the game environment, Just Cause 3 and Dying Light are up there but for widely different reasons The latter has its parkour system, while a bit touchy at times, feel SOOO satisfying when you're running from Volatiles at night, hop on some lights across a street filled with undead and to the other side. You feel like your quick thinking got you out of a tight squeeze until you inevitably run into another Volatile. The parkour is usually very tightly held together running along pipes, up walls and the grappling hook, while not involving trajectory, helps in getting you out of tight spots. It makes you feel like a kid in a playground. Just far deadlier Just Cause 3 and the way you build momentum makes the speed junkie in you feel so damn alive. Driving in a car, getting onto its roof, going off a jump as you then paragliding into your wing suit is such a fast paced teeth clench of a ride when it all comes together. The grappling hook in that gets you going and you feel like you want to fly forever everywhere. You feel free as a bird while dangerous as an eagle

This is great. Thanks GMTK. I've been on a little prototype for a while now, and I didn't consider some of these elements for Movement. Perfect Timing

I love Star Wars Squadrons’ free movement around a 3D space that allows for quick boosts, satisfying drifts, and options to be more nimble or fast, sacrifice damage and shields to quick get away, and a variety of ships to choose from.

Sonic Generations is the embodiment of pretty much all of these points Speedrunning those modern Sonic levels are such a hit of euphoria when landing all the correct movements and hitting all the correct inputs

You talked about this game but Ori And The Will Of The Wisps has the most satisfying moveset ever! Once you finish the game and you have every skill at your disposal, it is pure bliss to have complete control over Ori!

I wish assassins creed would learn from this. There hasn’t been any actual gameplay in its parkour since Revelations. Such wasted potential.

For me it still has to be Jet Set Radio. I know it's not a perfect game, but the synergy between the chaotic feel of the controls and the movement and the loud, wacky artstyle is just *chef's kiss*. It also was a big inspiration for Sunset Overdrive, which is awesome.

Fun traversal is near the top of the list of what I love about games. I love when a game's movement is so fluid that you lose yourself in its world because you're just focused on traversing around the environment, even if you're not moving towards any particular goal.

The thing that makes Hollow Knight's movement system so good is that you can only dash or jump once in midair, except that both of them reset when you down strike on an enemy. The potential for mid-air combat that it creates is amazing.

For me it has to be the sand surfing sunset scene in Journey. Completely exhilarating and with a genuine sense of freedom.

15 years later and Gunz: The Duel still has my favorite movement system (baring an eventual Titanfall 2 playthrough) out of any game, and is easily the best emergent system out there. Nails the high skill cap, timing, and usage of the environment mentioned here. Shame they patched it out (the one thing that made the game special) in the sequel and killed it. Also, Hook Champ was one of the first iOS games I got addicted to and played for more than 5 minutes at a time

I have a weird feeling that Prototype series won't be mentiond:(

Movement has always been the most important aspect of Game Design for me. Awesome to see you back!

GMTK: and bonkers bicycle kicks in rocket league. Every modern day RL player: where da flip resets at?

My favorite has to be either Mirror's Edge or Sunset Overdrive, both feel incredibly natural after a while, they manage to rewire my brain to think movement through their mechanics when playing. I had a lot of fun with Just Cause 3 but I must admit that every now and then my habits from JC2 kicked in and I just stole a helicopter instead of using the wingsuit. When it comes to Rocket League, I love the game but I'm simply not good enough to pull off the more complicated stuff, even after years of playing the rocket boosting stuff in mid air is just too hard for me to do it reliably. That said when I do manage to do things like jumping off a wall, hit the ball in mid air, and shot a goal it feels fantastic. My favorite move is using the tail of a long car as a paddle.

I recently played Sunset Overdrive and Dying Light. I was tired of open-world games, but these games made me realize that fun map transversal mechanics are one of the keys to fixing the current tired open-world game formula

'The pilot can ONLY run at a maximum speed of 22 km per hour' Jokes on you, my top speed is 22 meters per hour.

Superflight is my favorite movement system of all time. It uses similar mechanics to Just Cause's wingsuit but instead of trying to get out of danger, you are actively rewarded by taking dangerous routes and insanely-tight windows. Nothing gets my heart racing as fast as when I play that game and I just barely avoid a wall or weave through small openings.

How serendipitous! I've actually been making a momentum-based platformer for a school project that uses mid-air dashes, slides, and high jumps, but I felt like something was missing! I think I know why it doesn't work now, thanks for the video man!

I love when moves have both a movement and combat implication. Like stuff in metroidvanias.

Surf maps in counter-strike. I can't think of a better example of the zen satisfaction movement can provide once you've surpassed the learning curve.

So glad you showed a bit of Gravity Daze at the end. The game can get a bit tough, movement-wise, but feel of the gravity slide or chaining gravity kicks through time trials is so satisfying.

Sunset Overdrive is so fluid and fun once you get all the abilities and master it. I really wish more people played it

For me, I absolutely LOVE the movement in The Messenger. That game is all about non-stop movement, and I think the fun of it comes mostly from it's abilities. I mean, it's basic jump and speed are fine and tight on their own, but it really is great because it gives abilities that reward experienced players with the ability to go faster, and take the shortest path possible. It has the cloudstep, where you can attack anything midair for another jump as many times as you want meaning that if you play and move well, you can go in a while without touching the ground. It a grappling hook that goes straight forward and boosts you forward into walls or through enemies and objects for extra speed and a cloudstep. And, it has climbing claws that let you rapidly scale walls without penalty and finally a non-committal glide that you can throw out at any time to keep your speed but slow your fall in the air, also giving access to a bounce-slash move that given you even more height. As well, I love Hollow Knight's movement once you have all the abilities because it gives a dash and double jump that are really quick and tight, allowing you even to control the height of the double jump, that both reset without landing if you land a downward slash on an enemy in the air allowing you, just like the messenger, to go a long time without touching the ground. Like The Messenger it has a wall cling that feels nice to use and lets you stall on and climb walls which is nice. And finally you can equip charms like Dashmaster that gives your dash more freedom of use, allowing you to dash straight down, and do if more often. Also Mario Galaxy 2 just gives you so much air control paired with the tight movement and options that also makes that game a blast. Oh and also drifting feels really nice in Mario Kart 8 and adds a higher skill ceiling to the game and is satisfying to use efficiently. Also Brawlhalla just gives you a ridiculous amount of movement options in the air including allowing you to cancel your gravity and let you do grounded move in the air, along with fast and crisp movement on the ground. Movement in Ultimate is just nice and crispy paired with plenty of different special moves that give new movement options. AND PLAGUE OF SHADOWS OH MY GOD he freedom of movement that game allows with and extra jump and a huge chargeable bomb burst makes using it effectively feel like you are riding a roller coaster that you have to perfectly control to keep on the tracks, it's wild and often fails but dang it gives you freedom. The dash slash of Specter of Torment feels really great to use, along with being able to start skating on your scythe any time(once you get the upgrade) is really fun. And fighting games like DBFZ with an air dash and double jump feel really good to use, especially with the added tension of a human opponent.

So glad you included gravity rush at the end there. Such a great game.

One of my favorite movement systems in a game was definitely the one you showed at the end, Gravity Rush. Not only did it feel like you could literally go anywhere, but I also felt badass as I was zooming around killing and dodging enemies.

the "playing piano on the controller" analogy is perfect for how it feels to play melee/PM

"super sonic speeds" *shows sonic* You're a legend, Mark

I think the first movement system I really enjoyed was Metroid Fusion. Being able to slowly build up from a fairly pitiful jump all the way to basically being able to fly with good timing using the space jump was what made me fall in love with Metroidvanias.

This channel is an absolute gem to anyone with any interest in game design. Keep doing what you're doing!

Smash Melee has some of my favorite moment. Landing perfect wave lands mid combo or using it to read your opponents next move and hit them with a big punish is so satisfying

And this is why we still play Melee. Literally checks off all the boxes of movement value from this vid lol

This was the video I needed, and I'm so glad to see Titanfall 2's movement system get addressed. If you think the clips he played were cool, that was about 1/3 of what you can do with practice in the game, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes those kinds of games.

Been playing a tonne of Trials Fusion lately. The precision and physics are insane. So fun.

You are forgetting the ultimate momentum builder The backwards long jump

I actually speedrun Titanfall 2! The movement system is so incredibly deep, we're still learning about it's nuances to this day. Also gotta give a shoutout to Melee/Project M/Rivals of Aether, 3 platform fighting games that thrive due to their comprehensive movement mechanics.

Thank you, your videos are pretty much carrying me through my game dev course.

Gravity Rush 2 has one of my favorite movement systems entirely because of how perfectly the animations sell the "gravity" aspect of it. Changing gravity styles to impact your fall speed and stride length fulfill your "chaining" concept and each style giving some unique way to affect your momentum or trajectory lets everything feel like it has some purpose.

Great as always Mark. One game i like the movement of a lot is a recent subject (which I'm playing thanks to you!), Shadow of War. It feels like if Assassin's Creed parkour dropped its pretense of being grounded in reality and really makes you feel like a god. It is truly "video-gamey", and is very smooth, rarely getting caught on the environment. Also if I had a note; throw better Rocket League footage in. Your point about granular control and mastery is spot on, but a bicycle hit is still super-basic. Swap with a flip reset or something, there are endless advanced mechanics which are a wonder to behold. Also Skate 3 deserves a shoutout here, that stick flick system makes it a forever game for me.

Perfect timing: may I suggest to take a look at the Solar Ash trailer from yesterday's State of Play? "A 3D platformer focused on speed, movement and fluidity" from the creators of Hyper Light Drifter. Looks bonkers.

You hit the nail on the head when talking about how it feels gliding close to the ground in Just Cause 3.

My favorite one is Remnants of Naezith, it has very little with grappling hooks, double jump and dash on 2d platformer but physics felt so real and fluid.

I like Botw schmoovement, parcially bacuase its hard to access it feels great to pull of wind bombs and wierd stasis shenanigans, but the base movement is also great with it's wide variety of options.

I love the way Hollow Knight integrates movement and combat. At first, it's a pain to deal with knockback from your own attack. But eventually, it's really satisfying to land difficult hit on an enemy and then escape its reach in one fluid series of motions.