In today’s blog I will describe the techniques that we used to make Basher Beatdown, a fast paced game, work with 10 fps. A lot of info will be about the way we handle data on the controller itself but in the end we will also go over some gameplay changes that were made.

1. Optimizing data send

Sending data every 100ms (10fps) Because we make use of a joystick, which is permanently used by the user and feels the worst if it doesn’t work properly, the most sensible thing to do at first is sending the input with the max fps allowed. The big problem here is that especially when a button is pressed the player can feel this delay. Pros Fastest possible stable input Cons Buttons aren’t responsive

Joystick data no equal to data when button was pressed Min fps Max fps Worst delay Best delay Button press 100ms 100ms Joystick change 10 10 100ms 100ms Quick joystick change 100ms 100ms

Sending data every 125ms (8fps) and send 2 buttons/sec immediately Because having to wait 100ms + send delay + 1 frame before the game notices that you pressed jump doesn’t really feel good, we changed the fps of the joystick to 8 so we had 2 fps to send a button when it’s pressed. Of course we also send the joystick data with the button data. Pros Button input is now as fast as possible

Joystick data equal to data when button was pressed Cons Joystick becomes less responsive Min fps Max fps Worst delay Best delay Button press 0 2 1ms 1ms Joystick change 8 8 125ms 125ms Quick joystick change 125ms 125ms

Reset joystick timer when button send With the previous rules the following could happen; 124ms after the last data was send we press a button after which the joystick and button data get send. Then 1ms later it’s been 125ms since the last joystick data was send so it gets send again. Since that isn’t needed we can optimize the data send by resetting the last send timer for the joystick Pros Button input is now as fast as possible

Joystick data equal to data when button was pressed

Possible room for extra button when joystick fps is saved by resetting timer Cons Joystick not responsive Min fps Max fps Worst delay Best delay Button press 0 2 + joystick send saved 1ms 1ms Joystick change 8 – saved by button send 8 125ms 125ms Quick joystick change 125ms 125ms

Only send data when direction angle difference > X When playing I noticed that in general a user doesn’t change the joystick all the time but quite often has the joystick pointed in the same direction for a while. By making sure that we don’t send (almost) identical data we can save 1 or 2 sending every second. (which leaves more room for buttons) Pros Button input is now as fast as possible

Joystick data equal to data when button was pressed

Possible room for extra button when joystick fps is saved by resetting timer

Possible room for extra button when joystick fps is saved by not sending duplicate data Cons Joystick not responsive Min fps Max fps Worst delay Best delay Button press 0 2 + joystick send saved 1ms 1ms Joystick change 8 – saved by button send – saved by duplicate data 8 125ms 125ms Quick joystick change 125ms 125ms

Don’t reset the last send timer when the data isn’t send because the angle was lower than X degree The biggest problem that we currently have is that the joystick still has a fastest response time of 125ms (except when send with a button). We can lower the ‘best delay’ of the joystick to 1ms if we don’t reset the last send timer but instead just keep waiting when the angle difference between the last set angle is > X. Pros Button input is now as fast as possible

Joystick data equal to data when button was pressed

Possible room for extra button when joystick fps is saved by resetting timer

Possible room for extra button when joystick fps is saved by not sending duplicate data

Certain cases where the joystick input becomes more responsive Cons Joystick not responsive Min fps Max fps Worst delay Best delay Button press 0 2 + joystick send saved 1ms 1ms Joystick change 8 – saved by button send – saved by duplicate data 8 125ms 1ms Quick joystick change 125ms 1ms

Immediately send data when big angle change is detected When playing the game with the previous rules feels much better than what we started with but there is still something that we must improve to make the game feel as good as we can; When doing a big change in direction it’s most notable that there’s a delay in what direction the character is going, since the delay can still be 124ms + delay + 1fps worst case. In order to fix this we handle the joystick input the same as a button when a big change in direction is detected. Pros Button input is now as fast as possible

Joystick data equal to data when button was pressed

Possible room for extra button when joystick fps is saved by resetting timer

Possible room for extra button when joystick fps is saved by not sending duplicate data

Certain cases where the joystick input becomes more responsive

Quick direction changes are send immediately Cons Still not truely 60fps? Min fps Max fps Worst delay Best delay Button press 0 2 + joystick send saved 1ms 1ms Joystick change 8 – saved by button send – saved by duplicate data 8 125ms 1ms Quick joystick change 1ms 1ms

2. Adjusting gameplay

Dealing with input delay

When playing the game it became apparent that navigating through the levels was quite hard because of the input delay, most notably it caused the players to just walk of platforms instead of jumping off the end. The fact that a virtual joystick isn’t as accurate as a normal joystick also made it much harder to navigate through the levels, especially because it would happen quite often that we would just hit the end of a platform when dashing.

Fixing the jump

In order to fix the jump we implemented some techniques described in this excelent blog by Yoann Pignole on Gamasutra. Most notable the “remember to jump” and the “still jump after drop” fixed the problems that we had.

Fixing the dash

In order to fix the dash we implemented Aim help in the game. When the user performs a dash we do a raycast in that direction, if the player is about to dash into a wall/platform but this can be prevented by a couple of degree that’s the direction the player jumps.

Redesigning the levels

Even with the jump and dash help it was still quite hard to navigate through the original Basher Beatdown levels (which were designed for the PC version with controllers. We decided to create special levels for AirConsole that included easier gameplay and that were easier to navigate by making bigger platforms and leaving bigger gaps between them. You can see the difference clearly in the below level comparison:



The original level



The AirConsole version