Understanding Player Movement in 3D Action-Adventure Games: From Mechanics to Implementation

Abstract: Modern video games exhibit increasingly complex player movement systems, while accessible and well-structured resources on their underlying implementation remain limited. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing player movement in contemporary 3D action-adventure games. We conduct a comparative study of 20 critically acclaimed titles, identifying 37 distinct movement mechanics and using state counts as a coarse measure of controller complexity. Building on this empirical analysis, we relate observed mechanics to established implementation paradigms drawn from both academic literature and industry practice. By connecting gameplay features to system design strategies, this work contributes to understanding and designing player movement systems.

Reference: Tobias Florian Heller and Daniel Dyrda. 2026. Understanding Player Movement in 3D Action-Adventure Games: From Mechanics to Implementation. In Foundations of Digital Games (FDG ’26), August 10–13, 2026, Copenhagen, Denmark. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3815598.3815685