Platform Games: An Analysis

For my Game Design III class we had to choose a platform game to play and break down. For this I chose a fun little favorite of mine called Dino Run: Escape Extinction. Dino Run is a fast paced, little platformer created by Pixel Jam Games.

The game is based during the great extinction event where you play a young dinosaur who must run for its life while avoiding a number of obstacles which would otherwise slow it down and lead it to face its doom by being destroyed by the wall of ash gaining on it which was created from an asteroid's impact. Not a light hearted game if you're a dino fan.

The games controls are laid out on the start menu. The player can choose the "How to play" option or watch the middle of the screen which lists the keys for moving your dino character, what obstacles you should avoid, and what items you can pick up for speed and points.

For the most part, once you start playing the game just goes from there. While you play there aren't any pop-ups to guide you along your journey, you just run like mad to avoid a giant killer ash-cloud that will swallow you up if you stop for too long. Because the player must keep running in order to survive this keeps the player from being inactive for too long, which may attribute to boredom.

The start menu is really the main form of a tutorial for the player. After that it's all up to themselves to make it through the level.

(Run For Your Life!)

The layout of each level is pretty straight forward. Level 1 starts off the extinction event which the player must run away from. Each level is linear in that you start at one point and it ends at the other, however each level will change depending on the difficulty by means of having certain terrain or obstacles which can hinder the speed of the player.

Along the run, players can pick up smaller dinosaurs or eggs to help boost their speed and gain points.

However, players must be wary of larger dinosaurs like the Stegosaurus which can slow down a player is they get stuck behind it. Pteradactyls, the orange flying ones, though can pick you up and fly you a good distance further along the level if you manage to jump high enough at the right time to get grabbed by them.

Stay away from Stegosauruses as they'll slow you down if you get stuck behind them. 

The player can jump on top of them in order to move further along.

At times red Pteradactyls will fly down from the sky and try to hit the player to harm them.

If hit the player will burn for a second and slow down.

Rolling rocks are another obstacle which players must watch out for if they don't want to be slowed down.

If the player is too slow the screen will start to become more red and darker in tone.

This is the signal that you're not running fast enough and the ash-cloud is gaining on you!

If you manage to outrun the ash-cloud you'll make it to the end of the level and will be able to move onto the next. Each level starts off with the ash-cloud right behind them so it's best not to stand around idle unless you want to die.

                         
                           

(You Made it!)

Here's a video of myself playing the first level. I would recommend watching it in full-screen in order to see the detail better because it's somewhat small.

Here's a layout of the current level 1 I played through. What's interesting about Dino Run is that the levels seems to change in their layout when you play them again.