Loot drops that feel good to pick up

In a gathering game the reward for every swing is the moment loot pops out and lands in your bag. It happens thousands of times, so it has to feel good every time and stay readable when ten things drop at once. In Mytheria, our pixel-art co-op game, loot follows a real arc, stands out with a pale outline, and flies to you once it has landed.

Every clip below was filmed in the game.

How do you make loot drops feel satisfying?

Let the loot burst out of the thing that dropped it, with a small arc and a bounce, and make it easy to spot against the ground. Then bring it to the player: wait a moment so they see it land, pull it in faster as it gets closer, and add up the haul in one pickup line instead of one line per item.

The short answer

How loot drops work in Mytheria:

• Drops fly out evenly around the source, fall and bounce once.
• Each drop appears at about half size and grows to full size in 0.14 seconds.
• A pale outline around every item makes it readable on any ground.
• Drops wait 0.1 seconds, so you see them land before they move.
• Within 36 units of you, loot flies to you, faster as it gets closer.
• One line counts the haul, from "+1 STONE" up to "+4 STONE".
• Loot stays on the ground if you're out of reach or your bag is full.

Throw it out, let it bounce

When a tree falls or a rock breaks, its drops fly out in a ring, each one at an even share of a full turn so they never stack on one spot. Each has a little sideways speed and a pop upward, a touch higher for each one so they don't move in step. Gravity pulls them down, and they bounce once at about a third of their speed and settle. One swing can fell several trees at once, each throwing its own ring (see forgiving aim). This is a tree at half speed:

While a drop is popping out or flying, it's drawn in front of whatever it came from, so it never vanishes behind the falling crown or the dust.

Make it stand out

Small items on busy pixel grass are easy to lose. Every drop gets a pale outline one pixel wide, cut from the item's own drawing, plus a soft shadow under it and a brief mark where it lands. The outline shows that the item can be picked up, on grass, sand or snow, without a glow or a bobbing arrow.

Bring it to the player

A drop waits 0.1 seconds after it appears, long enough to see it land, then any drop within 36 units of you starts flying to you. It accelerates as it closes in, from about half speed at the edge of your reach to nearly one and a half times at your feet, and lands in your bag once it's within 14 units. Keep that wait short: at 0.6 seconds, players walked straight over their loot, as what one co-op playtest changed in our game describes. These are stones from a broken rock, at quarter speed:

Try it with the game's own numbers. Break the rock, stand further away, and try a longer reach: the Far Reach upgrade adds 35 % per level, and the Lodestone Charm pulls from 2.2 times as far:

Break the rock, then try a longer reach or stand further away

Break the rock

Base reach Far Reach ×3 Lodestone Charm

Stand

Anything outside your reach stays where it landed until you walk over to it, and a drop that won't fit in a full bag stays on the ground, so nothing is lost.

Count the haul, once

Every item that lands in your bag adds to one line: "+1 STONE" becomes "+4 STONE" as the stones arrive, instead of four separate lines. That line takes its own lane, clear of the damage numbers from the final blow; how is in how to make a rock break feel satisfying. The sound works the same way, with a burst of items playing a few soft plops, as a pickup sound you can hear a thousand times shows.

Share loot fairly in co-op

In co-op, ordinary loot goes to whoever is closest. But creature materials, the ones each player needs for their own gear, are personal: every player near the kill gets their own drop, which only they see and only they can collect. That way nobody has to race a friend for the hide. Health orbs follow a similar rule and only fly to players who are hurt; that's in health regeneration vs health pickups.

A checklist for loot drops

• Fling drops out evenly, with a little variation.
• Give them gravity and a single bounce.
• Pop them in from smaller, quickly.
• Outline them so they read on any ground.
• Wait a moment before pulling them in.
• Pull from a short distance, faster as they close in.
• Merge pickup text into one counting line.
• Leave loot on the ground when the player can't take it.
• In co-op, give each player their own share of what they need.