#celeste the hedgehog | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bios-hzrd · 3 months ago

Text

Sonic, Celeste, and the indie game that elevates both of them.

Another video essay script that probably won’t become a video. Complications have arisen, I might never make another video essay. I’m writing them still in case I do, posting them here in case I don’t.

Soda Powered Penguin is pretty easily boiled down to Sonic meets Celeste. It’s not even being subtle. the game is about a high speed blue animal ascending an icy mountain. There are momentum physics, slope jumps, and loop de loops, as well as a room by room structure with a bunch of small collectibles blocked by platforming challenges meant to be navigated with a midair dash and also you can die in one hit.

Now I have gripes with Sonic and Celeste. (Note that I’ve mostly only played Mania.) Sonic has this really cool core gimmick in the speed and momentum physics, but it doesn’t feel well supported by how the game is structured. Specifically it doesn’t feel like the game is capable of bridging the gap between newer and more experienced players.

Let’s establish one thing first, Sonic levels are not meant to be sightread. You can’t really play a level smoothly on your first time going. Pizza Tower shows us what that looks like. Let’s immediately take note of the heavily zoomed out camera that always gives a good view of what’s ahead. Second let’s note the fact that Peppino is always in the center of the camera, whereas Sonic will sometimes get ahead of it while moving at high speeds.

Third, and this is important, in order to get by in Pizza Tower, in order to play this game without losing momentum at a base level, there are no bits of fuzzy timing. For example in order to get past a small jump, you need to tap the jump button after some point near the wall, but before you hit the wall. Where the right time starts is fuzzy, but that’s not important because where it ends is extremely clear. You’ve always got the last possible second as a visible point of reference. For Sonic it’s fuzzy on both ends, in order to make this jump without losing speed you’ll need to jump somewhere around here. Further, the placement of this fuzzy spot will change depending on your current speed, which is variable depending on level geometry and how well the player is doing. This fuzzy timing is just sorta inherent to how Sonic works, you’re expected to play the levels multiple times in order to memorize what’s up ahead and get a feel for what the right timing is.

Now where this becomes a problem is in how Sonic isn’t very good at encouraging and enabling learning the level layout.

To my understanding, the idea is that less experienced players will explore the level, looking for rings and item monitors that’ll help mitigate their lack of platforming skill, whereas more experienced players will skip past all of these elements in favor of more speed. Sonic levels are known for their tiered structure that helps facilitate this. There is a high route, a low route, and a middle route. The highest is the fastest but most difficult to remain on, the bottom route is the slowest but easier to stay on, and the middle route weaves the two together, giving ways in and out of both.

This automatically sorts players out into a challenge appropriate to their skill level and provides a more lenient punishment for platforming mistakes, which is unique and clever. That leniency is very important if you want to make sure players aren’t afraid of going fast, aren’t afraid of making mistakes.

The problem comes in how this tiered structure makes it incredibly difficult to build a mental map because you play the level once and you’ve only experienced one third of the stage. Play it again and you’ll likely experience a different third of the stage. The core mechanics make levels challenging to learn which is fine, but make the level layouts challenging to learn as well and now it’s too difficult.

The game often likes to launch you large distances where you can’t tell how two spaces connect, and There’s no clear markers to help you tell what is where, all the item monitors beginner players should be looking for are only distinguishable by whatever happens to be inside, which tends to overlap with other monitors.

You can’t effectively learn just by playing, but the game doesn’t provide any good tools to focus exclusively on learning. There’s no map to better understand the layout of each level, and while there is a time attack mode to practice each level individually you can’t warp to specific checkpoints in order to find the best way to navigate individual sections, you just need to take it from the beginning each time.

I don’t understand how you’re supposed to get into Sonic games other than playing them over and over again. The speed is the core appeal, it’s Sonic’s trademark, it’s what I came here for, but the game isn’t showing me how I get there, and stumbling around in the dark isn’t very fun.

//modern sonic has skill rankings so don’t talk about distaste for time attack

//maybe mention how while time attack does provide some incentive to replay, it doesn’t facilitate practice. You can’t just boot up a certain section or practice certain techniques

//put focus on how Celeste does this kind of level design right

Celeste has a different issue, almost the exact opposite one in fact. The way the game is structured ensures a thorough understanding of how each level is lain out and should be navigated, but when the game starts getting more difficult The levels are learned far too quickly for how often you have to repeat them.

This isn’t a big problem, I did beat the entire main campaign, all the B-sides, and a good handful of the c sides after all, but it did make the game less fun as it became more difficult and was the reason I ultimately put the game down before fully beating it.

Celeste’s formula constructs a really great understanding about how the level is laid out and how it should be navigated. Looking for strawberries encourages thorough exploration, and the one hit point combined with frequent checkpointing ensures that the player can never simply stumble their way through any given room. They have learn how to get through each room without making any mistakes.

Now the fun thing is that as you repeatedly attempt a room, your execution will tighten up and your strategy for how it ought to be navigated will develop. You’ll find exactly where you’ll want to jump and dash in order to proceed more quickly.

But when the game gets really tough oftentimes I’ve worked out the optimal strategy before my hands can pull it off. I’m stuck repeating the same series on inputs over and over again until I don’t mess up, don’t jump a few frames too early or dash a little too late. I think it’s boring when games cut down exclusively to execution because now you just have a Rhythym game without the boppin tunes.

There’s a few ways games can be seen circumventing this issue. Number one is allowing players to recover from mistakes. I think if a wants to be fun, it’s in their best interest to always allow the player a degree of leniency over mistakes. It doesn’t have to be much, but it’s much more fun to desperately try and claw out a victory from the jaws of defeat even if it doesn’t work, than just lose immediately.

For an example, Pizza Towers greatest challenge is to P rank every level, one of the requirements for this being that you must carry a single unbroken combo from the levels beginning to end. As long as you maintain momentum this isn’t a problem, but the second you lose it, you have about five seconds to get back on track or you have to restart the whole level. It’s not as simple as getting a running start though, as enemies will only attack you when you don’t have momentum, so a whole new threat rears its head in your most vulnerable moment,

Your run hinges on your ability to respond to a situation you have likely never encountered before. Also you only have 5 seconds. The game will generate new strategical challenges automatically, highly stressful ones at that, as long as you aren’t good enough to beat the level flawlessly. If you are good enough to beat the level flawlessly, then do that and move on to the next. Pizza Tower never gets dull, not for long at least.

In Celeste because you die instantly to any obstacle and after using a dash you’re fresh out of any useful platforming tools, Celeste lacks this completely. What it does have however is freeform routing. The game likes to place a bunch of these blue key things across a room and challenge you to nab all of them without dying. Each relevant point has multiple ways in and out so there’s no clear order. This strongly obfuscates the optimal route if one exists and allows players a great degree of freedom to experiment and generate their own strategies. If they get bored of one route they are free to try out others.

One final thing that probably exists in Celeste for players far better than I is shortcuts, a quicker route obfuscated by something more intuitive. If you want examples Neon White is chock full of this shit. The game puts a lot of work into establishing clear and specific rules that outline the critical path. Demons and weapon cards are to be followed like breadcrumbs, weapons are used in the order you find them in, this guy is made of 6 boost pads. All 6 of them work, but if you want a 100% chance of not being chucked into the uncaring void touch the green one.

But these intuitive suggestions exist primarily to be broken. While yes oftentimes the black panels will send you into the uncaring void, this specific black panel on this specific demon will let you skip part of the level. You don’t have to collect every weapon card, they’re only important to the extent they let you kill demons; if one is too out of the way, skip it. Demons generally guide you to the goal, but if the game has a long empty path with a single demon at the end, check for open sightlines, guns are ranged weapons. You don’t have to kill enemies in melee range, it’s usually optimal, but not here.

If the player knows you’re hiding this kinda stuff, they’ll always keep their eyes peeled, keep asking questions, never settle. Because some of them are probably better hidden than what they’ve found.

Check this shortcut where I just jump over handrails, now check this one where I interrupt my initial jump with a double jump to reduce my overall jump height, so I can land on this platform and jump to the next while minimizing the time spent falling.

Back to what started all of this, my issues with Sonic and Celeste could probably be solved if you, say, took the momentum physics of a high speed blue animal and threw in the room by room structure littered with collectibles of an icy mountain. Sonic struggles with giving the player enough practice with each room through regular gameplay, but the way that Celeste forces players to repeat each room until they’ve mastered it mitigates this. Celeste struggles with constructing enough variety between room attempts, but the incredible depth and unpredictability within Sonic’s momentum physics cancels that out.

But the thing is that Soda Powered Penguin also takes notes from what I said could improve both of those games. I didn’t just go on massive tangents because I love to yap, all the things I mentioned apply to this game. The camera is zoomed out far enough to sightread, the game applies enough leniency to allow players to scrape out victories, and levels are littered with shortcuts and freedom of routing.

While Celeste kills the player in one hit and only allows them to dash once in the air, most obstacles in Soda Powered Penguin will kill the player in two hits, and the dash will recharge in midair. It takes a few seconds, you can’t just repeatedly dash upwards to fly or anything, but it’s enough to desperately scramble for solid ground.

Check out this wall jump section, wall jumps can be done vertically or diagonally, and one of these types of jumps connects just about every available point to every other point. Freeform routing. And it’s here specifically for a reason; this is actually in the middle of an incredibly tense Wario Land 4 style escape sequence, where you have to hit a detonator, escape, and come back with a key. The player is going to be running this section forwards and back a lot. I wonder why they emphasized freeform routing here of all spots.

What I’m saying is if you like Sonic or Celeste, fuck it even if you don’t like either I thought they were just sorta okay, go onto steam and download the demo for soda powered penguin, and if you like it, then wishlist it because the game isn’t out yet.

Strawberries encourage thorough exploration

Can start level at any checkpoint

Very intuitive

Little variability

Multiple routes make it difficult to build a mental map.

No direct incentives to explore aside from the special stage. No hints as to its location and there’s only one per level.

Unclear when exactly you’ve explored everything.

Celeste exploration is nice but once the game gets down to the brass tacks it quickly becomes repetitive

The game takes a lot of cues from Mario’s playbook on platformer level design, which is sensible.

It’s very difficult to sight read levels and you need to make the active choice to go back and replay them to learn how to navigate them quickly.

Part of what makes pizza tower work is the discreetness of its mechanics. You have until the very last second, until you touch that wall right there, to jump in order to not lose momentum.

There’s a pretty good video on all the cues Sonic took from Mario, Mario had momentum physics long before showed up, you can’t hit the top of the flagpole until you learn how to get up the staircase without losing speed after all. Sonic just decided to really push the momentum concept.

Going fast necessitates a decent level of familiarity with the level design

It is possible to make a game that goes fast and is suitable for sight reading.

It’s got a structure meant for sight reading but a gimmick best for replaying.

Now the funny thing is that my issues with both games could probably be solved if you, say, took the momentum physics of a high speed blue animal and threw in the room by room structure littered with collectibles of an icy mountain. Sonic’s strengths covers Celeste’s weaknesses and vice versa. But the thing is that Soda Powered Penguin also takes notes from what I said could improve both of those games. The camera is zoomed out far enough to sightread, levels are littered with shortcuts and freedom of routing, look at this bit that focuses on wall jumping. You can either do a vertical or diagonal, which gives you multiple ways both in and out of each relevant point.

#somic the hedgehog #celeste #sonic mania #soda powered penguin #game design #neon white #pizza tower

4 notes · View notes