During February 2019, I improved the basic avatar I created in Unity last month by adding additional features, such as a functional jump that ascends and descends at a suitable pace. Previously, the jump would not raise vertically at all and only appeared to do so because of the animation.

Collectable powerups were also added to add more functionality to the avatar.

One powerup grants the ability to double jump, which has been created to be flexible and accurate in any situation. For example, falling off a cliff will result in the player only being able to use their double jump and not their ordinary jump too.

The other provides a significant speed boost that allows the player to jump across gaps they would have not been able to otherwise, especially when combined with the double jump.

Further improvements that can made to these powerups is a particle effect for the double jump to indicate the double jump, as well as provide some visual satisfaction. Likewise, the speed boost could also have particle effects emitting out of the player’s feet to better illustrate the powerup’s effect.

Similarly, the pickups themselves could better illustrate what powerup they provide, which would synergise well with level design and provide the player an idea of what they are about to get when travelling through a level.