Game Physics

Abstract

In this chapter, we go into depth on how the character interacts with the game world. We can make a character move from left to right, but if we simply place the character in the level, he/she will only be able to walk on the bottom of the screen. This is not enough. We want the character to be able to jump on top of wall tiles, we want the character to fall down if he/she moves off a wall tile, and we do not want the character to fall off the edge of the screen. For these things, we need to implement a basic physics system. There are two aspects of physics: one is giving the character the ability to jump or fall, the other is handling collisions between the character and other game objects, and responding to these collisions. Both aspects will be dealt with in this chapter.