Platformer

A playbook for 2D platformers, the run/jump controller "feel", level structure, hazards, and goals. This is a compositional skill: it wires an engine movement skill, a tilemap skill, and design skills into a working game. It does not re-teach physics or tilemaps; it tells you what to build and how to make jumping feel good.

When to use

• Use when building a side-scrolling or single-screen platformer, a "Mario-like" / "Celeste-like", or any game whose core verb is jump between surfaces.
• Use when a jump feels floaty, unresponsive, or "unfair" and you need feel fixes (coyote time, jump buffering, variable height, corner correction).

When not to use: top-down movement with no gravity → use the engine movement skill directly. 3D first-person traversal → fps-shooter. Grid/turn movement → roguelike. For the raw kinematic body API, use godot-2d-movement (or your engine's controller skill).

Core loop

Observe a gap/hazard → commit to a jump or move → land safely (or die) → reach the next checkpoint/goal. A platformer lives or dies on the moment-to-moment feel of that single jump, repeated thousands of times. Tighten the controller first; everything else is content.

Must-have systems

1. Run/jump controller, horizontal accel/decel, gravity, jump, with the feel aids below.
2. Solid + one-way collision, ground, walls, and "jump-through" platforms.
3. Level geometry, a tilemap or hand-placed colliders; the playable space.
4. Hazards + death/respawn, spikes, pits, enemies; reset to the last checkpoint.
5. Checkpoints / level goal, progress markers and a win condition (flag, door, exit).
6. Camera, follows the player with a deadzone and look-ahead, clamped to level bounds.
7. Juice, landing dust, squash/stretch, hit-stop, sound. Cheap, huge feel payoff.

Design knobs (make the jump feel right)