How to Turn Movement into a Game Mechanic

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I love games that make movement into a primary game mechanic. From the parkour thrills of Mirror's Edge to chaining moves in Mario Odyssey to dive-bombing in a wingsuit in Just Cause. How do developers come up with amazing movement systems? Let's find out.
=== Before you watch ===
Disclosure: Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Spider-Man Miles Morales, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 game codes provided by the relevant publishers. I was a game design consultant on Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
=== Games Shown ===
inFamous Second Son (2014)
Mirror's Edge (2008)
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020)
Skate 3 (2010)
Sonic Generations (2011)
Ghostrunner (2020)
The Pathless (2020)
Rocket League (2015)
Sunset Overdrive (2014)
Titanfall 2 (2016)
Dustforce (2012)
Assassin's Creed Unity (2014)
Just Cause 3 (2015)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020)
Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
Sackboy: A Big Adventure (2020)
A Hat in Time (2017)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 (2020)
Ori and the Blind Forest (2015)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)
Quake (1996)
Crumble (2020)
N++ (2015)
Cyber Hook (2019)
Gravity Ghost (2015)
Shovel Knight (2014)
A Story About My Uncle (2014)
Bionic Commando (2009)
Superflight (2017)
Dishonored (2012)
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)
Bowser's Fury (2021)
Grow Up (2016)
The King's Bird (2018)
Skate (2007)
Marble It Up! (2018)
Unravel (2016)
Snake Pass (2017)
Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018)
DOOM Eternal (2020)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (2001)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003)
The Free Ones (2018)
Celeste (2018)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
Splatoon 2 (2017)
Clustertruck (2016)
Gravity Rush 2 (2017)
=== Credits ===
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== Translation ==
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/en-gb/videos/FdY2wm...

[@OZZY9669]

I love how everyone acts like jc4 does not exist

[@osneket5713]

TF2 rocket jumping is probably one of the sickest game movement in any game. Although unintentional, I think Smash melee has some real awesome movement too. Only problem is that both of these systems are REALLY hard to pick up.

[@RTDelete]

Games like these are why I love the left joystick

[@lintonfor4035]

"master players flying across the pitch" anyone can boost, the hard bit is hitting the ball

[@ERoBB1]

I think an interesting contrast would be Breath of the Wild's slow pace but completely free "climb anything, glide off it" combo.

[@Malysitos]

I don’t know if I’m the only who does this, but whenever I see a movement-themed GMTK video, I have to go into the description to see if a certain game is listed in “Games Shown.” For me, it’s Titanfall 2

[@thpion]

Maybe an odd suggestion, but I like Portal's movement system. Using gravity and portals to launch yourself across rooms was always satisfying to me.

[@abuffzucchini]

I love how Celeste has all 6 things he mentioned, it's such a good game with so many ways to go fast

[@askinnyball785]

The amount of dopamine released whenever someone talks about titanfall 2 is unnatural.

[@AgentNyo]

The funny thing is, most games have movement, yet only a few actually do this essential mechanic some justice

[@danielrhouck]

11:02

[@ssj4922]

I love how some games implement movement differently, though that is exactly why mainline Sonic games have been struggling so much as Sega needs to find that balance between having the player feel like they're running at super fast speeds, but not like the game is completely holding their hand or that the level is constantly interrupts their sense of movement via the stage or the enemies.

[@Starlightbooper]

I love the movement systems in TF2. They're all different for each class, some have more focus on movement, like the scout, soldier and demo while others have less e.g. heavy and sniper. They merge the weapons into the movement perfectly which is the thing i love, you can put countless of hours into mastering them and still have stuff to learn

[@nathanwhitwell2255]

For me, "Katana Zero" has an absolutely thrilling movement system. It isn't big and explosive like some of the games mentioned in the video, but it defined the gameplay for me. Being able to precisely control when to roll, jump, or swing the sword became tools in increasingly elaborate puzzles as the game progressed, and I feel that these tools are what kept me engaged and consequently made me love the game.

[@SamiK951]

Surprised not to see Journey mentioned here. That game was basically Joy of Motion: The Game. I love the way freedom of movement and increasing mastery of the game's controls, which you express with increasingly speedy and graceful traversal of the environment, is tied to the storyline. The midgame point underground, which has you sneaking around and deprived of your movement abilities due the scarf being torn, feels gut-wrenching and terrifying as you know you can't fly away from danger. An absolute masterpiece of game design.

[@Mefy_]

I was honestly expecting a dissertation on Quake's strafe jumping.

[@Pelusteriano]

I love how the RL footage is showing really low level games, making it seem like that "physics" is clumsy but if you check out footage of more higher level play, you can see how much you can express with movement in RL and how it links with all the other points.

[@alexlillie5563]

Favorite movement system is still Spiderman 2 for the PS2. That was such a good game. The web-slinging incorporated two mechanics that when used together made you move fast and felt complex to execute (though thinking about it it's just the timing of 3-4 button presses): 1) a speed swing to make you go faster that acted just like how a person swings on a real swingset (but you couldn't stop at just that or you'd stall out between swings) and 2) the fact that you could charge up your jump while swinging and release right at the end for a big boost. You would chain speed swings into jump boosts and zoom around New York City like a crazy person, and then on top of that when you were going fast your wall crawl became a momentum-based wall run so you could improvise your routes by running up, down, and along buildings in addition to your swings. It was great

[@hadinossanosam4459]

There is also another way of "turning movement into a game mechanic": instead of making it fluid and fast, make it slow and limiting, for example in Elite: Dangerous. Combat, especially in larger ships, is not a frantic reaction showdown, but a slow and deliberate dance, trying to get your ship out of your enemies' crosshairs and them into yours, with any tricks possible. It is also very free, with full three-axis rotation and thrusters (if you have a HOTAS to control them all). And if that's too easy, then you can turn off flight assist, which removes the normal alignment help and even makes it a challenge to

[@ghostderazgriz]

Something I just thought about is risk. A great movement system makes taking risks incredibly addictive because the payoffs are so satisfying to watch.