A 2D platformer with a grappling hook mechanic — the main focus of this project was learning how to use the new Unity input system and how to create tight platformer controls using unity’s physics. Works well in single player, but gets much more chaotic fun with more players. Supports as many controllers as you can plug in*.

Objective

This project’s aim was to have a complete game loop featuring local multiplayer and learning to use Unity’s new input system, which had just became available as a beta around the same time.

Mechanics & Concepts

• New Input System supporting any amount of players*
• Tight platforming controls with wall jumps
• Grappling hook mechanic
• Storing scores on a per-level basis (Deaths and Times)
• Exploring Unity Tilemaps

New Input System

I implemented players being able to join both in the menu scene as well as within a level by pressing any button on a new input device. This spawns a new player, a new stats plate in-game and assigns them a random color, which can be randomly changed by pressing a button. There's also a hidden Party mode by holding down P or Left Trigger for a few seconds.

Tight Controls

The character needed to be able to move, jump, walljump and grapple onto certain parts of the terrain. To get nice tight controls of the character, I focused a lot on the jump itself, which gains height the longer the jump button is pressed, and accelerates faster towards the ground when the jump time expires or the button is let go.

Fuzzball Grappling

The grappling hook is physics based, it shoots out a small Rigidbody2D with a line renderer drawing a line between itself and the player. If it hits normal terrain, it'll give the player a small momentum boost in the opposite direction. If it hits another player, it'll gently nudge that player, and if it hits an attachable object, it'll attach and switch the player's normal movement controller to a grappled controller that handles circular motion around the anchor, as well as shortening and lengthening the hook distance.

Tilemaps & Scores

The levels are hand-made with the Tilemap package, and utilized the TilemapExtras package for rule tiles to auto-generate tile corners and edges. Scores are tracked and added to a running high-scores list for each level, which in this project are just stored in the PlayerPrefs.

Challenges

• *The screen can only fit about 7-8 score plates, any others will just be cut off
• The main menu UI only supports mouse input
• Once a player has joined with an input device, they cannot be removed
• If the player dies while grappled, the respawned character remains attached to the grapple point