Inspiration
Jump Legion is an arcade-style indie game built in Unreal Engine 5, inspired by the classic arcade games of my childhood on the Commodore 64.
The game revolves around two Jump Legionnaires working together to collect crystals. One Legionnaire launches the other into the air using a jump pad, creating a dynamic and fast-paced gameplay experience (if you survive long enough).
Physics based – get ready to skill up
The game is physics-based, allowing you to control jumps through strategic landings. The trajectory is influenced by where your jump legionnaire lands, its positioning on the board, and the speed of the board at the moment of impact. Mastering these factors lets you fine-tune each jump for precision and momentum.
Forbidden zones
The center of the board is a forbidden landing zone. You must land within the coloured areas on the board. Additionally, your jump legionnaire must land on the opposite side of the board relative to the other legionnaire’s position.
Landing in the middle of the board results in a lost life, and you have three lives before Game Over. Missing the board entirely and landing on the ground will also cost you a life.
Jump spots
Your jump legionnaire can bounce off the outer edges of the level and on the lower wall for a rebound when hugging the edge.
Additionally, they can ricochet off the head of another jump legionnaire. This mechanic provides creative ways to rescue your jump legionnaire if it lands in a hard-to-reach spot or when you wouldn’t be fast enough to secure his recovery on the board itself.
Jumping off of crystals
Your legionnaire will jump off the crystals when he hits them, depending on the angle, he can jump away; If you get him on top of the crystals, you have a chance that he jumps on multiple crystals this way creating a combo multiplier to earn more points.
Jump Board switch 180°
Pressing the up key rotates the Jump Board 180 degrees. However, there is a brief cooldown period to prevent rapid switching, so time your moves carefully.
Be mindful of your other jump legionnaire’s position—when the board flips, any legionnaire standing on it will swap positions as well. Physics apply, so if you execute the flip with too much speed or force, you risk launching your second jump legionnaire off the board.
Board movement
The jump board can be moved left / right in terms of the direction. The game can be controlled using a keyboard (left/right keys), using a gamepad (left thumbstick or d-pad) or using the mouse (moving left/right).
The keys are fixed in the spirit of old arcade classics, why would you need to change the controls when the gameplay is this straightforward?
Controls schematic
The controls schematic is as follows:
Use keyboard/mouse for in-game menu navigation.
Keyboard:
Left/right – jump board movement left / right
A/D – jump board movement left / right
Up – switch jump board 180°’s
W – switch jump board 180°’s
Escape – pause the game
Mouse:
Left/right movement – jump board movement left / right
Right click – switch jump board 180°’s
Gamepad:
Left thumbstick – jump board movement left / right
Bottom front button – switch jump board 180°’s
Scoring points
Hitting a crystal will give you points.
There are three rows of crystals, the higher the row, the more points you score.
You get a bonus multiplier if you hit multiple crystals. This is visually indicated by a “X1, X2, X3, …” multiplier. The more crystals you can hit in a single jump, the higher the score will be that you will get for that jump.
Gameplay speed
Your legionnaire will slowly pick up more speed as you continue to play without loosing a life up to a maximum speed level. This makes the gameplay more challenging the longer you live but on the other hand it also gives your jump legionnaire a greater speed at which he can traverse over the crystals so it can also help you out to maximize your points scoring efforts.
When you loose a life, the gameplay speed will slow down again.
In the end I will be curious to see how far the player can get in terms of getting a high score.
Life count
You start the game with three lives. If you jump in the center of the jump board (death zone) or next to the board (on the ground) you will loose a life.
If you clear the top row of crystals, you will gain an extra life again.
Player profile definition
The game is singleplayer and can only be played locally but it does offer the ability to create player profiles. This way you can locally challenge your family and friends to beat the highscore and create separate user profiles for them which will hold their highscore but also their customized settings such as skin colour of the jump legionnaires.