Video Game Details: Gunpoint's brilliant animation

Oh boy, Gunpoint. I'll likely have an "In Praise Of:" post for this game at some point because it's utterly brilliant in it's entirety. Any individual detail merits a post, but I'm going to talk only about one. While the art style, music and writing are all reasons I bought the game, one of the biggest deciding factors was a really small detail, one that exemplifies in my view the style of humour Gunpoint has going for it: the falling animation.

In Gunpoint you jump by holding the mouse button and charge the strength of the jump (up to a point) for as long as you hold the M1 key down. When you release you jump, following the parabolic arc represented (in the above image) by the dots on screen.

Do you see the playable character (Richard Conway) there? He just flung himself from a building. Now, at the apex of his arc, he is in the superman pose. Brilliant. Are you in love yet? No? Take a gander down here then.

See the way that little trench coat is flapping upwards with the air resistance? Isn't that just beautiful. Still not convinced? Well, this isn't the punchline quite yet.

*plaf* That's about the best way I can describe the (wonderful) sound you make as you fall flat on your face. A core mechanic in the game (that is that you take no fall damage, as well as your ability to perform massive jumps) is explained away by Conway possessing a special pair of trousers that have some sort of springs in them. Then to test them he jumps out his apartment window and he is flat on his face, just like in the image above. The game wonderfully makes fun of it's silly explanation of core mechanics and creates a fantastic visual gag at the same time, and this tiny detail is just one of the reasons I think Gunpoint is as good, if not better than, some of the indie heavyweights (for example Super Meat Boy, Hotline Miami, FTL) and one of my all time favourite games in general.

Tremendously fun, it remains the only game I've ever wished I paid more for than I did (I bought it during a steam sale). And if I had to pick the one quality amongst so many brilliant individual elements that made me fall in love with the game; this tiny animation would be it.