Quick, Snappy Movement

As a fan of precision platformers, I want to give the players as much control as possible. Even then, control in Walrus Run is very limited. The game is designed around the DK Bongo controller, which is a controller with only 4 large buttons. Players move by repeatedly tapping the bottom buttons to move left and right (which can be changed to a hold in the control options). Players increase the movement value per tap, meaning the character has slow acceleration, and comes to a stop very slowly. the movement value goes down over time if the player is not inputting a movement direction. I have added two mechanics to the movement to make the movement quicker and snappier - Braking and Dashing.

If the player taps the opposite move button (such as the left move button while moving right), the player will come to a stop. This way the player can stop themselves before the run off the edge of a platform.

Dashing is a very common technique in platformers, and it's even simpler in Walrus Run. The two upper buttons on the Bongo controller will make the player dash left and right, and will grant players a burst of speed instantly. This is meant to counter the regular movement's slower acceleration, as it gets the player to full speed instantly. Pressing the opposite dash button will also instantly transition all your momentum to the opposite direction. You can even do it in the air!

However, due to dash's 1 second cooldown and the player's speed decreasing without an input, the fastest way to accelerate is to dash once, and then begin moving. This way the player is encouraged to both move and dash, rather than only using one. In addition to braking, using all of these mechanics provide an in-depth movement system for precision platforming.