Week 5 Workshop: Air control drill

A hands-on drill isolating air control from the vertical physics it doesn't touch, using displacement as the number that actually moves.

24 March 2027

Preparation#

Complete the week 5 lecture task before this session.

Activity#

1. Pick three air control values spanning the slider’s range. Holding the same direction for the whole jump each time, run three trials per value and log height, displacement and airtime.
2. Confirm for yourself that height and airtime stay roughly flat across the three values while displacement moves — if any of your height values jumped noticeably, check whether a different slider got bumped between trials before concluding air control caused it.
3. Discuss in pairs: if you were designing a precise-platforming level around a low air control preset, what would that force a level designer to get right before the player even leaves the ground? Write down one concrete consequence.

Output#

Your three-value displacement/height/airtime table and the one-sentence design consequence from step 3.

Criteria#

Not marked. Your tutor will spot-check that height and airtime are actually flat across your three air control values — this is the “variable-height and air control” evidence Take Control, due next week, asks you to have already gathered.