Knock back mechanics have been a part of gaming since the early days of platformers and are still a part of games today. Modern game designers, however, have taken this common source of player frustration and evolved the idea to give players more agency and more control, even if they are being punished for a mistake.
In this video, we talk about the broad history of knock back mechanics and then zero in on two games that took two very different approaches to current generation knock back mechanics: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and The Messenger.
