Birds That Fly

I'm a big fan of "time trialing" in platformers. This much is obvious if you look at my previous games: FLaiL's scoring system was based on time, with your total score from all stages determining your progress through the game. Jumper Three had time trial goals for each stage, and the medals you earned by beating them unlocked secret stages.

The structure of my current project is again new: each stage contains 25 coins and a door. Your goal is to grab as many coins as possible and then exit through the door. The coins you've collected are saved, and you can return to the stage later to collect any you missed. Your total coin count unlocks new worlds for you as it surpasses certain thresholds.

Now, this is not a friendly format for traditional platformer time-trialing. Usually, a time trial consists of the player making their way through the stage as quickly and efficiently as possible, and upon completion they receive a bonus if they went fast enough. This is trouble because the door in these stages is sometimes right next to the entrance of the level. Even if it is a bit further away, the door usually isn't all that interesting to reach - the real meat of the stages is in grabbing the coins.

My solution is the golden bird above. I can place the bird anywhere in a stage, and it flies away after a certain amount of time has elapsed. If you jump on it before time is up, it drops precious coins for you to pick up. Not all stages have a golden bird, letting me save time trials for the stages that can really make them interesting.

I loved the idea of incorporating time trials into the environment of the levels so much, I ran with it and ended up including other color birds with different fly-away conditions. For example, a pink bird flies away if you kill any enemies on the stage, making for some interesting situations where the player must go out of their way to preserve the wildlife.