One of my biggest gripes in Flash games to date is that of simulated motion that is by no means realistic. True, this may be acceptable for some games, but as a whole, there is something that just doesn’t feel right when your side scrolling shooter plane moves up one unit when you press UP, left one unit when you press LEFT but moves both up and left one entire unit when you have both keys depressed. Logically, by moving in two directions at once, your character or vehicle should not be granted an additional bonus to their movement speed. Not only does it offer unfair advantages to the competent player who learns to use this loophole to his advantage, but it also makes your control somewhat unwieldy. The human brain is able to estimate precise movements and predict where things should go, and some people, though they may not know the precise reasons, will gravitate to those games that their minds can accurately predict the outcome of a motion.

If you have read my last few posts, you understand that this more realistic motion has driven me to all sorts of physics and algorithmic studies in the past weeks. Today, though, I decided to write on something a bit more fun. Those of you who remember the great old days of R. C. Pro-Am, Super Off Road or other top view racing games can attest to both the challenge and creativity about learning to control a car driving in an omnidirectional world without having to sit directly behind the wheel.
Continue reading →