Platformer

A platformer is a type of video game. You control a character that can run and jump. The task is to get from one surface to the next without falling. These surfaces are the platforms that give the genre its name. In German, it is also called Jump’n'Run, roughly meaning “jumping and running”. The best-known representatives are the games around Super Mario, along with Sonic, Donkey Kong, and newer titles like Celeste or Hollow Knight.

The genre used to teach game design

Platformers are to the games industry what the bicycle is to traffic: simple in principle, but instructive in detail. The controls consist of only a few inputs. Nevertheless, every little detail determines whether a jump feels good. How high does the character jump? Can you still change direction in mid-air? Such questions have been discussed in the industry for decades.

Economically, the genre is especially important for Nintendo. Super Mario Bros. from 1985 sold over 40 million units and rescued the then-struggling home console market. New Mario titles are still released to this day, and they help drive sales of entire console generations. When financial news reports on Nintendo, it is almost always about such games as well.

The genre is also attractive for small studios. A platformer doesn’t need an elaborate three-dimensional world or a big story. Two or three developers can manage such a game. That’s why many successful indie titles, meaning games from independent small studios, come from this direction.

What makes a good jump

Technically, a platformer consists of a game world with fixed gravity. The character constantly falls downward until it lands on a surface. A jump gives it an upward boost for a short time, and gravity pulls it back. The computer checks many times per second whether the character overlaps with a platform. If it hits a surface from above, it is placed on top of it.

What’s interesting are the small tricks developers use to make the game feel fairer. Well known is coyote time: someone who has already left an edge is still allowed to jump for about 0.1 seconds. This is physically nonsensical, but it feels right. The input buffer works similarly, where a jump button pressed too early is stored and executed upon landing.

There are two major design forms. In the 2D platformer, the character moves only left, right, up, and down. In the 3D platformer, depth is added, and the camera has to follow along. This makes jumps harder to judge, which is why 3D titles often use a shadow beneath the character. The genre should not be confused with the side-scroller: that term only describes the fact that the image scrolls sideways, and it also applies to games without jumping.

From consoles to AI research

Most commonly, of course, you encounter platformers while playing itself, on consoles, on mobile phones, and in browsers. On platforms like Steam, the genre is one of the largest categories overall. In beginner game-making kits, too, platformers are usually the first project, because with just a few rules you get a working game.

In AI research, platformers appear as test environments. Programs there learn through trial and error to complete a level and receive points for progress. Super Mario Bros. and similar games have been used as a standard task for this for years. The reason is simple: the rules are clear, success is measurable, and you can immediately see whether the program has learned something.

Anyone who comes across the term in the news will also find it in reports about speedrunning. There, players try to finish a game in as short a time as possible, exploiting flaws in the jump system to do so. Such records now reach millions of viewers on streaming platforms.