Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The 'Turnaround' Point

An article over at Press the Buttons exams one of the more prominent level designs patterns featured in the Mega Man series known simply as the 'turnaround' point.


Described as the point where "the path will force [the protagonist] to drop into a room from above, make a quick jog to the left, drop down to the ground, and continue onwards to the right", can be found in not only practically every classic series game, but a number of other Capcom 2D sidescrollers, too. Have a look at some of the other 'turnaround points' from the classic series:


It's an interesting design, makes me wonder if it's a level designer's trademark or something. There's plenty more where that came from: click here for a complete rundown of every know turnaround point.

12 comments:

  1. It's probably put there to have a safe spot to put a "Checkpoint." All of those areas is where Mega Man restarts after you pass it.

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  2. i just noticed an error. it's not your fault, it's the same way on press the buttons. they make the statement that you make a quick jog right, and then fall down, and continue right. that's NOT right. litteraly. you make a quick jog LEFT, then fall, THEN move right.

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  3. It gives the designers the ability to make use of one screen for a bit longer and prolong the experience, it makes sense really.

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  4. In most cases, they do that in order to keep Mega Man at the center of the screen when the stage begins scrolling to the right.

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  5. I keep thinking 'reach around' when I look at this article.

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  6. Anyone notice half of the screenshots are from MM3?

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  7. common sense level design, without the turnaround you'd drop down on the right edge of the screen, wasting more than half the screen. Similarly there's quite a few screens where you drop in from the top right, move across the screen, and drop out the lower left, same tactic

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  8. @Anonymous #3:

    I could think of at least two reasons for that. There's probably more Mega Man 3 screenshots, because that's the game that started the trend, or because it's the game with the most. Or both.

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  9. In the context of a Mega Man game, these are usually checkpoints, and it -generally- forces a screen scroll right afterwards so that you get a full layout of what's next.

    I guess it could also be a test to make sure your left and right buttons are working? I dunno.

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  10. I've noticed this myself, but the majority of the time there is a "checkpoint" placed there, or it's to change scrolling. You can only add so much variety to such a linear platformer, after all. It might also have something to do with consumption of RAM on the cartridge limiting the amount of screens - that's why there are the shutter doors for bosses after all. This element is also in Metroid.

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  11. You know something? Even I fell victim to this trend in my Mega Man: Powered Up level, "Wary Warehouse"! And for no real good reason, either! It was just like "down, left, down, right, up".

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  12. I know this gona sound stupid but... it's the letter "C" from "Capcom"?

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