Jusant

Map each trigger to one hand so letting go means letting go. The left stick moves a cursor to pick a handhold, and pushing it further from centre reaches a more distant hold. Each trigger grips with one hand, so releasing a trigger makes the climber release the wall.

Older climbing systems felt disconnected from what the player did on the controller. Mark Brown sums it up: "You let go, they let go."

DON'T NOD dropped realistic inputs that were too hard to learn. A prototype controlled arms and legs with four shoulder buttons, and a jump coiled momentum by tilting the stick away from the jump. Both were cut, and the jump became a held button that charges up.

The four-limb scheme was overly complicated, and the stick-coil jump "proved difficult to teach and execute."

Jusant stacked proven kinaesthetic tricks onto a realistic human climber. Shadow of the Colossus inspired the clenched grip and Grow Home inspired a trigger per hand. Jusant combines these with a human character rather than a goofy red robot.

Similar input-to-action links include Mario's longer jumps, Luigi's Mansion's ghost reeling, Tony Hawk's manual flick and Street Fighter's fireball motion. "What makes Jusant special, then, is doing all of this stuff simultaneously."

Sustained trigger grip needs accessibility options for easier input. Holding the triggers aggravated Mark Brown's repetitive strain injury, so he played in 20 minute sessions. Jusant ships accessibility settings that ease the input.

Complex controller wrangling can be a problem for players with certain motor impairments.

Traversal needs decisions, not more buttons. Uncharted-era climbing asked for no thought, problem solving or decision making. Real climbers call a route a "problem" because it means planning each move, and Jusant adds that planning through the rope and pitons.

In big-budget games Lara Croft scales cliffs by holding up on the stick for about five minutes, a criticism Mark Brown first made in 2015.

Three placeable pitons make the player choose where to save. Pitons wedge into the wall as checkpoints, and a fall catches you at the most recent one. Carrying only three forces careful use on every climb.

"This puts you in charge of when and where to save." A piton pulling the rope the wrong way has to be removed.

A fixed 40 metre physics rope makes route length a constraint. The route must leave enough slack to reach the top, which can mean a shorter route or backtracking to pull a piton. The rope also snags and tangles as a physics object.

"At times, the rope is your saviour, but at other times it's your biggest obstacle."

Hidden concessions and relay points keep the rope limit fair. Near a ledge the rope secretly grows five extra metres. Relay points reset the whole rope, give a target to aim for and allow far longer climbs.

Without relays, climb length would be capped by the need for flat ground.

The rope expands where players can go, not just their safety. Placing a piton, abseiling and swinging along the wall reaches ledges far from any handhold. Later you dangle beneath a wall and swing to a surface further back.

Climbing and jumping alone only reach areas near a viable handhold.

Sunlight-wilting plant handholds add pressure without enemies. A button makes plants sprout buds that serve as handholds, but buds in direct sunlight wilt. This forces the player to move fast and use pitons for safety.

Four stamina designs failed playtests before a simple one won. DON'T NOD tried a gauge per arm, chunks refilling only on the ground, refilling only on the rope, and a forced descent when empty. They chose stamina that refills anytime by clicking the left stick.

The rejected versions felt punitive, broke the climbing flow or were hard to explain. "Ultimately, playtesting showed that none of these were a good fit."

Jumps shrink the stamina bar so players learn to rest. Grabbing a hold costs a tiny amount of stamina and jumping costs a lot, permanently shrinking the bar until you reach flat ground. You only run out by ignoring obvious prompts to rest.

Stamina becomes a small nuisance to nurse rather than a source of stress, unlike Shadow of the Colossus.

DON'T NOD removed friction because the goal was a peaceful game. Inspired mainly by Journey, the team cut anything causing frustration: you cannot die, invisible walls stop falls, and the rope catches you back at your last piton. Puzzles stay light so they never break the flow.

The trade-off is little fear, since fear needs a consequence for failure. "The intention for this game was to make a peaceful experience without pressure."

Judge a design against what its makers intended. Mark Brown argues Jusant's lack of challenge is a deliberate choice, as Tomb Raider's climbing was meant as downtime and Insomniac wanted every player to feel like Spider-Man at once.

He keeps the immersive controls, rope physics and checkpoints as ideas to reuse, leaving a harder climbing game to another developer such as the next Tomb Raider.