Good high jump challenges

Healy

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I'm making a challenge level where the player starts off with run and high jump (no climb), and I'm trying to think of good challenges that take advantage of it. I guess I'm so used to the player having climb that I've got a bit of a mental block about this. Does anyone have any ideas for high jump challenges? Examples would be fine, too.

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LPChip

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Re: Good high jump challenges

« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2015, 23:22:53 »

I made a map called Learning to Jump, which is a trickjump style map. Perhaps it has some ideas for you?

You can find it on the level archive.

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Healy

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Re: Good high jump challenges

« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2015, 04:24:37 »

Thank you, but I specifically wanted challenges that made use of the high jump, which Learning to Jump doesn't do. And besides that, I don't really like the style of that level (jumps are too, well, tricky for me). If you have any other level suggestions I'm all ears, though.

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egomassive

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Re: Good high jump challenges

« Reply #3 on: July 26, 2015, 06:36:36 »

In Shipwrecked there's a challenge where the ceiling is spiked and you need to jump over creatures. If you hold the jump too long, you hit the ceiling.

Other than that all I can think of are typical jumping challenges which are geared towards having those powers. For example, requiring the player to jump over the purple spider as it runs beneath them is difficult without the high-jump and highly difficult without any powers. So, for a level of normal difficulty it is a good challenge for the combination of run and high-jump powers.

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pfrangip

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Re: Good high jump challenges

« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2015, 16:00:59 »

A few ideas:

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Levels where you can't see everything because it's dimly lit. One of desgeeas levels gave me the idea for it (can't remember which) and I used it in Tower of Joy, and Talps even did it a little bit in I dreamed of the Sky. Basically you use the fire or some other decoration and only show a few blocks. Then you use the invisible block and a lot of black spaces to create some required extrapolation to where the jump platforms are.
Several times in my upcoming level, I've found any jump where you have to switch directions in midair, like jumping vertically up a series outcropped stones is usually difficult enough to at least keep the player entertained.
In Tower of Joy, I had a part where the fire spitting fire decorations shot at the player. I also used the sticky tile such that the player had to jump to even move, making it difficult to avoid them. I felt this was Very Hard, and had trouble with it even on my own playthroughs. (Now that I think about it, Run and High Jump are the only powers I used in Tower of Joy (until the secret part). It's a quick run through if you want some more ideas.)
Another one I used involved strategically placed hazards (I made the fire decoration a hazard by overlaying a small invisible red hazard) while the player had to jump up and around a series of 1x1 blocks. Not particularly difficult but also not particularly common and forces the player to pay extra attention.
There are other things you can do to enchance suspense without making the jumps any more difficult. For instance, making the entire ground hazardous. Adding spikes to the edges of blocks. Adding hazards in the middle of jumps that they have to make sure they jump over (even if they would have already). I liked a section where I made the ground hazardous lava and put it three screens down to enhance the idea that the player was super high up to add to the feeling of suspense.
You can always use lasers or the moving spiked blocks to force the player to time their jumps. There's also the robot that dropps sparkling bits every second or so.
The robots that chase the player (slow, medium, and fast) can be used to add a sense of urgency. This is done well in Don't Stop Running, Monocromatic Grotta, and many other levels.

EDIT: Wait, you're Healy?? Asking this question? Psh, you know all this already!!! You're an expert at making levels. What do I know compared to you?? X)

« Last Edit: July 26, 2015, 17:13:44 by pfrangip »

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Spoiler: KS Levels by me: (click to show/hide)

Healy

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Re: Good high jump challenges

« Reply #5 on: July 26, 2015, 21:20:48 »

Quote from: pfrangip on July 26, 2015, 16:00:59

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)
EDIT: Wait, you're Healy?? Asking this question? Psh, you know all this already!!! You're an expert at making levels. What do I know compared to you?? X)

I may be an expert on environmental levels, but on challenges I tend to get stuck. We can't be good at everything, after all.

Anyway, thanks for your help, Egomassive and pfangrip! Your advice has given me some ideas.

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CWolvie

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Re: Good high jump challenges

« Reply #6 on: July 27, 2015, 19:23:08 »

As far as I remember Craig Pennell's Death of a God is good place to practice jumping (and other things). It's a very large and difficult level with several endings (probably), but I like it. I think in some certain area the sign says: You need the high jump to reach the upper areas, or something like that.
It's also on the level archive.

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sergiocornaga

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Re: Good high jump challenges

« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2015, 11:39:42 »

I was just playing The Tower of Joy and thought x1021y1012 was quite a nice high jump challenge. The screens that immediately follow it may also provide some inspiration.

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