Simple Parkour DevLog

Simple Parkour

//Concept Statement

A blocky parkour game that will be played on one large scene, a strip/maze of parkour. The game will teach you all your controls in the beginning with simple obstacles/challenges that need a particular ability (e.g. double jump for a large gap, wall jump to climb a pillar) to pass. Once all skills are covered the parkour will slowly progress in difficulty and complexity. Checkpoints will be placed after each area that you will respawn at after death/taking damage.

//Genre or Category of Game

               Platformer, Puzzle,

//Concept Creation Process / Influences

               Recently, with Hollow Knight: Silksong coming out in 2025, I have been playing a lot of Hollow Knight and trying to fully explore the word. One of the challenges I completed was the Path of Pain, PoP. It was one of the most aggravating yet satisfying and enjoyable times I have had in a game before. Hollow Knight is close to, if not my favourite game of all time, and PoP was easily as enjoyable as the boss fights and pantheons in the game. They key difference being parkour would be a lot simpler to create a spin-off of than boss fights. So, with my idea in place and a rough game concept I started to thin out the contents of PoP.

               The main and most simple movement mechanics I wanted to take away were double jump, wall jump + slide, and dash. And for obstacles I wanted to create spikes and saws (that could move from point A to B and back). I figured with these components I could make a fully functional parkour game, and if I later had time, I could add things like pogo, spikes and saw would become pogo-able, and I would add thorns that the player could not pogo from.

               Now with my movement mechanics in place, I needed a map. I figured to keep things simple I would make the game one scene. I would have a long strip of world with a puzzle (parkour) section, then a flat section in between each challenge to separate things. Those flat areas would function as checkpoints for the player to respawn back to.

               In the end, the reason I chose this style of game was simply my love for Hollow Knight and its amazing, simple game play. Hollow Knight has been my inspiration from day one of ever even thinking about game development.

//Audience and Competitive Analysis

The target audience for Simple Parkour is mostly players who enjoy skill-based platformers and challenging mechanics that demand timing and precision. This would include fans of games like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, and of course, Hollow Knight (especially people who finished Path of Pain or White palace). Most of these players tend to be either regular gamers who like a fair challenge or even speed runners looking for tight, movement-focused gameplay.

Because the game does not have any focus on narrative or combat, it is more aimed at people who enjoy movement and platforming as its own reward. I imagine it appealing more to teens or adults who are either familiar with the games that inspired this one, or who just like parkour/movement-based indie titles. It is also a game that is easy to watch, so there could be an audience on Twitch or YouTube who would get a kick out of watching others fail and succeed in ridiculous ways.

I do not know many games that go all-in on just one massive parkour puzzle in a single world, so that might help this stand out. The checkpoint system makes it less punishing than games like Getting Over It, while keeping tension and challenge high.

All up, the game fits nicely in the indie platformer space but with a bit of a niche twist on structure and layout. Hopefully, it fills a small gap in the market for players looking for a clean, challenge-first parkour experience.

//Game Treatment and Concept Art

Had troubles uploading concept art so I included them in a Word Doc here, it contain 3 images with 6 concepts.

Narrative & Worldbuilding

               There isn’t really a story to this game, at least not in a traditional sense. The idea is you are just small blocky character dumped into a single scene world of platforming parkour puzzles and challenges you must survive to progress. Anything narrative related I might add would have to be simple background/ or foreground hints that show your progress. That all depends on how the game comes along in the short working time I have on it.

               Gameplay & Mechanics

               The game play is straightforward, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. You use your movement abilities, jump, double jump, dash, wall jump, wall slide, and if I have the time, a pogo ability that lets you pogo on certain materials, to complete a series of parkour challenges. There will be spikes (pogoable if added), saws that move between point A and B (also pogoable), and possibly thorns (not pogoable). These will be used to create the challenges to force you to use the right combo of moves in a certain rhythm or pattern to pass.

               At the very start of the game, the first few sections will each teach one movement mechanic. After that it slowly starts combining them and the challenge naturally builds. There won’t necessarily be levels as the would be one long strip on parkour with short flat section in between each puzzle that you can rest at and will act as checkpoints.

               Eventually, like I mentioned before, I would like to add pogoing to the game, however, I figured its best to focus on making the core aspects of the game smooth and enjoyable and then if I have time I can try to add it later on.

               Visual Style & UI

               I want the game to be very blocky and clean. Basically, as simple as I can possibly get it while keeping the look appealing to players. Presumably the player will be a solid colour, maybe with a black outline for definition, and the rest of the world will follow suit. Ideally the “art” can be made entirely within the unity editor.

               I’d like to keep UI to a minimum. The style of game I’m going for has no need for any sort of advanced UI, so I will only use the basics. Press esc to pause the game and open UI, have a restart button that put you to the very beginning, and a respawn button that puts you back to the last checkpoint activated, and a continue button.

               Audio & Music

I would like some nice peaceful Zen music for you to listen and relax to while you enjoy the game. Preferably something that loops on cleanly. I will keep sound effects simple as well, a sound for every movement mechanic as well as dying.

               Technical Considerations 

                The game will be built with Unity, as that’s what I’m most familiar with. It will be a 2D game with simple sprites and a hand-built world.

               Checkpoints are tracked with an EmptyGame object with a SetSpawnPoint script attached to it. Damage zones (like spikes or saws) are colliders that trigger a death/respawn event. The movement abilities are introduced in the intro, but permanently unlocked and available, so I don’t need an inventory or power-up system.

               The game will be uploaded to itch.io. 

These images are ideas for parkour puzzles to introduce the game mechanics. All are drawn by me.

Introducing different jump heights for Jump. Introducing Double Jump.

Introducing Dash and how it can be used in conjunction with Double Jump. Introducing Wall Jump and Wall Sliding.

This is a random section of the map that has a challenge including all the fundamental movement components, it also shows how Wall Jump will also reset your Double Jump and Dash abilities.

 References:

Team Cherry. (2017). Hollow Knight [Video game]. Team Cherry.

Maddy Makes Games. (2018). Celeste [Video game].

McMillen, E. (2010). Super Meat Boy [Video game].