Why Does Celeste Feel So Good to Play?

Like this video, and wish you could actually try out different movement mechanics? I've made an interactive video essay, called Platformer Toolkit, where you all full control over a character's jump height, move speed, coyote time, and more. Check it out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWi0jgghGcI Also, a quick note that Matt Thorson now goes by Maddy Thorson. I’ve updated the description, but unfortunately can’t change the video itself. More info can be found here: maddythorson.medium.com/is-madeline-canonically-tr…

“Why does Celeste feel so good to play?” Me on 1.8k deaths on chapter 9 slowly contemplating the reason of why life exists and if it’s all worth ir

I have never once felt angry while dying in Celeste. The respawn time being super fast + the music not stopping when you die. Dying in Super Mario Maker makes me angry because of that stupid "oh no", the music stopping completely, and the sound effect for death all make it frustring. In Celeste you don't even feel like you died

Fun fact: Madeline's hair uses procedural animation, meaning it's animated via code as the player moves, hence why it's so smooth

"I pulled apart the games's code" shows exclusively the hair physics

Celeste is maybe the most fair game I've ever played. You die after one hit, and you die frequently, but you respawn almost instantly, there's no harsh plenary to dying and checkpoints are frequent.

One of the best things in Celeste is that every death feels like your fault. The game is so responsive that it's hard to blame the controls or the level design

One of my favorite moments was on the last level of farewell, where the game literally checks in on you and basically says “Are you ok?” It was very encouraging

Biggest flex in video games was when that bird freezes time as you're about to fall to your death just to say "Oh yeah by the way, you can do this."

The empty room thing is critical! It's like how Mario 64 was designed with fun and expressive 3D movement first and its iconic worlds afterward.

Mark, I honestly think this is one of the best videos you've made to date. You've approached the topic from every angle and yet kept it so tight and flowing beautifully. Your graphics are on point as always, only ever bringing clarity to what you say. Particularly in the section about jumps with the graphs and examples underneath, and the outlines showing the height of the jump. And also I have been really appreciating the amount of effort you're putting into your audio design recently, but you totally upped the ante in this vid. The low-pass filter on the music when you transition to the interview so you can hear it better, the little in-key piano notes that accentuate your titles, how you use the end of chapter jingle at the end of a section before moving onto a new point. Honestly it's just superb work, you're an absolute inspiration and a boon for the entire video essay community. Thank you for putting in the amount of effort you do.

yo. Is it only me who is almost brought to tears every time the chapter ends and the music starts with a nice story picture? Honestly, its the music that is the most powerful at that moment.

I have never played a game that felt so satisfying and rewarding. I didn't even feel discouraged after dying. It respawns so fast that all you can do is take note of your mistakes and adjust. Once you finally get past a difficult section it's hard not to smile and feel good.

When comparing Madeline's jump height and curve to Meat Boy's and Mario's, I think it's better to think of her jump as half of her aerial mobility, with the dash being the other half. The jump arcs for Mario and Meat Boy are higher because that's the only tool they have to gain height and/or cover distance, and they work just as well for their respective games.

So you are saying that this game makes you FEEL like Madeline.

fun fact: madelines hair actually turns light blue, which in Spanish is "celeste".

Quality video. Especially with the clips from the developers

What a masterpiece of a video about a masterpiece of a game. I love deconstructions like this. I'll never forget the final climb in Celeste. The final few checkpoints when your heart is pounding and you're almost there - no game in years has made me feel that way.

I just want to point out at 5:15 when mentioning how the game was coded, this does not mean that Unity, GameMaker, or similar game engines can't achieve this. You can simply hard code your player's movement to get the precision you need and avoid the built-in features the engine provides to you. I'm sure Mark didn't mean to imply this, but it's worth pointing out in case it gets taken the wrong way. Please don't watch this section and think you NEED to use XNA to make a good platformer, that's straight up false.

Dying feels good in Celeste which could be its own video. On maps with moving parts, the map is almost always timed so that with every respawn you don’t need to wait to try your next attempt. It’s almost always best to get started immediately, keeping you engaged. The game says to be proud of your deaths, and making death feel like it’s helping you by showing the timing really pushes that philosophy.