Chapter 11. Using X and Y coordinates to make a simple platformer
In 1982 the world met Pitfall Harry, and the great platformer tradition was born. Activision’s game has a little pixel man jumping over rolling barrels, landing on crocodile heads to cross lakes, and climbing down ladders to get to a second, underground level that runs parallel to the main level of the game but contains scorpions that can stop Harry in his tracks. Jumping, landing, racing, and collecting are the hallmarks of the platformer genre. Think of Pitfall as a jumping puzzle game or video obstacle course—one that would challenge even an American Ninja Warrior. Harry has to leap over rattlesnakes and land on the other side. He leaps over holes in the ground, leaps up to grab onto a vine, and leaps over the scorpions when he’s underground. He’s also racing against a clock to collect treasure. Harry only has 20 minutes to collect all the gold and silver bars or diamond rings scattered across the game.
Beach Blast is a simple platformer, so you’re not going to focus on time limits or treasure collecting in this game (though you will in the next platformer, School Escape). Instead you’ll focus on a single idea shared by every platformer on the market, from Pitfall to Leo’s Fortune to Geometry Dash: simulated gravity.