The Anatomy of a Jump - A Guide on how to make Parkour

A Pink Cow

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#1
Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Choose your jumps
  • Adjustment (Building PK) - Juicy. Important. Read me!
  • Case Studies
  • Inspiration
  • Final words + tl;dr
Introduction:
Parkour making is is 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration
~ Shinxray, probably
Putting together random blocks to jump from is simple. Getting it right is what this guide aims to outline!


Choose your jumps:
If you boiled every jump into boiling water and wringed em’ out like spinach, you’d be left with nothing. Because spinach disappears HAH- just kidding. But here’s what they’d be:

Type: Straight Fast Jumps
Focus: Timing
Examples: 3 block jumps + 1 up, 4 blocks

Type: Curves
Focus: Mouse movements
Examples: Neos, Corner Turns etc.
For an open aired section - straight fast jumps with good flow is always preferred
For a more closed sections - you may be forced to make more curved jumps with more technical parkour

Please also note: This is only but one of the MANY ways to build parkour. Jump choice is always up to you to develop your own style. Like the technicals? Build more of em'! More simplistic jumps? that works too!
Adjustment (Building PK):
When reworking jumps, the best way to think about this is seeing a jump's sections:
  • Starting platform
  • Blockage [OPTIONAL]
  • Ending platform
  • Margin of error
Minecraft is a 3d game ∴ we can move ANY of those things in the X, Y and Z directions. Here is where our PK palette comes in handy. Always reference it! Use it to adjust the jump to the right difficulty/tier you want.
Click me!
Parkour palette.png

Note: You have many different tiers. Experiment with them! I'll be writing up more about this in a future post
  • Margin of error: How much room does a player have to make an error? A large margin of error is often preferred as this makes the map more fun.
Test yourself! How would you change this 2+1 jump into something interesting?
Screenshot 2021-07-03 at 17.41.03.png
  • We can either buff it (harder, but not interesting) or nerf it (gives us a wider margin of error, allowing us to add blockage)
Screenshot 2021-07-03 at 17.41.42.png Buffing it by 1 tier
Screenshot 2021-07-03 at 17.42.29.png Nerfing it by one tier - gives us a wide room for error!
Screenshot 2021-07-03 at 17.45.16.png
The player now has to avoid the glass panes
  • The jump is now more interesting, but can we take it one step further? What if we changed the starting platforms width
    Screenshot 2021-07-03 at 17.45.27.png
The stair means the player has a smaller room to get momentum from
  • The jump is now more precise, let’s try rotating the starting platform!
  • This jump is now fun and challenging! Perfect for a Hard map.
Screenshot 2021-07-03 at 17.45.39.png

The player has to jump from the left side of the stair, and curl around the blockage. Completing the 2+1 transformation into this fun and challenging jump!

Momentum setup, X/Z facings

If you want to elevate your map to the next level, and distinguish yourself from other mappers, have a think about these two questions:
  • Momentum setup: Can a player create good momentum from a block or previous jump to help clear this jump reasonably?
[in some cases, for above medium difficulties, it may be an idea to remove available momentum, to create ‘chains’ of jumps to prevent the player from stopping]
  • X/Z facings: Have you managed to minimise X facing jumps?
Here's my personal pet peeve:
X 1.png these x-facing jumps can go in the BIN

Case studies
This is a good version of a ‘nerfed’ crossed neo. There is a wide margin of error, and is z-facing – good for an Expert Map [Escher’s Playground]
Good 1.png
The player observes the red apple blockage, and will attempt to jump around it, but it’s the green leaves on the top, which is not apparent. [Escher’s Playground]
Bad 1.png
This jump requires you to chain to the ladder. There is a sign for instructions. The choice of wall, and 2 slimes and their location allows for a wide margin of error. These all lead to it being a fun jump! [Portshaven, on Howl’s Moving Castle]
Good 3.png

Inspiration

The fantastic thing about ideas is that they NEVER get used up. Watch parkour, play parkour, and get some fantastic ideas from great builders. Also store up a test plot of jumps! (Come to my 6th, if you need some inspiration!)

Here’re a list of fantastic and fun maps I’ve handpicked from manacube.
And here’s some of my favourite mappers to learn/play from:
  • Kubikit - Tight intricate parkour maker (much like this)
  • Caseyclosed - A mixture of both technical and fast parkour
  • Presidenten
  • Gamersdecision - Simple hard jumps and few technical ones

Final words - For those who like a tl;dr
Key points:
  • Consider a jump with starting, blockage and ending platforms and adjust accordingly
  • A wider margin of error is more fun for the player
  • The less x-facing jumps, the better!


Hopefully this has given a good insight into what makes good parkour fun and enjoyable!
Go make those 5-star maps!
 
Last edited:

Pulty

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#2
Idk about you, but for me, making parkour is 99% inspiration since I steal cool jumps from everyone else
 

Udun

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#3
Fantastic work pink. I personally would put you in the list of the best mappers, also ewoutv. :)
 

Pris

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#4
or you can just do a me and use up all your creativity to make one super original cool jump and the rest is cancer
 

Berry_Blue145

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#5
This is gorgeous! Thank you thank you this will definitely help me and my endless confusion when it comes to working with parkour. Have a gold star uwu
 

Shinxray

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#6
I don't even know what perspiration mean.
 

Once_Upon_A_Mine

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#7
This is truly a really nice post. It can be hard to right something like this with all of the endless things in your head and ideas about the topic but you put it down into a nice concise list. Great job!
 

jacobsfunparty

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#10
Hot take but I like x facing jumps and think they can be used in a good and fun way
 

rew

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#11
Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Choose your jumps
  • Adjustment (Building PK) - Juicy. Important. Read me!
  • Case Studies
  • Inspiration
  • Final words + tl;dr
Introduction:
Parkour making is is 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration
~ Shinxray, probably
Putting together random blocks to jump from is simple. Getting it right is what this guide aims to outline!


Choose your jumps:
If you boiled every jump into boiling water and wringed em’ out like spinach, you’d be left with nothing. Because spinach disappears HAH- just kidding. But here’s what they’d be:

Type: Straight Fast Jumps
Focus: Timing
Examples: 3 block jumps + 1 up, 4 blocks


Type: Curves
Focus: Mouse movements
Examples: Neos, Corner Turns etc.
For an open aired section - straight fast jumps with good flow is always preferred
For a more closed sections - you may be forced to make more curved jumps with more technical parkour

Please also note: This is only but one of the MANY ways to build parkour. Jump choice is always up to you to develop your own style. Like the technicals? Build more of em'! More simplistic jumps? that works too!
Adjustment (Building PK):
When reworking jumps, the best way to think about this is seeing a jump's sections:
  • Starting platform
  • Blockage [OPTIONAL]
  • Ending platform
  • Margin of error
Minecraft is a 3d game ∴ we can move ANY of those things in the X, Y and Z directions. Here is where our PK palette comes in handy. Always reference it! Use it to adjust the jump to the right difficulty/tier you want.
Click me! View attachment 49341
Note: You have many different tiers. Experiment with them! I'll be writing up more about this in a future post
  • Margin of error: How much room does a player have to make an error? A large margin of error is often preferred as this makes the map more fun.
Test yourself! How would you change this 2+1 jump into something interesting?
  • We can either buff it (harder, but not interesting) or nerf it (gives us a wider margin of error, allowing us to add blockage)
View attachment 49343 Buffing it by 1 tier
View attachment 49344 Nerfing it by one tier - gives us a wide room for error!
View attachment 49345 The player now has to avoid the glass panes
  • The jump is now more interesting, but can we take it one step further? What if we changed the starting platforms width View attachment 49346
The stair means the player has a smaller room to get momentum from
  • The jump is now more precise, let’s try rotating the starting platform!
  • This jump is now fun and challenging! Perfect for a Hard map.
View attachment 49347
The player has to jump from the left side of the stair, and curl around the blockage. Completing the 2+1 transformation into this fun and challenging jump!

Momentum setup, X/Z facings

If you want to elevate your map to the next level, and distinguish yourself from other mappers, have a think about these two questions:
  • Momentum setup: Can a player create good momentum from a block or previous jump to help clear this jump reasonably?
[in some cases, for above medium difficulties, it may be an idea to remove available momentum, to create ‘chains’ of jumps to prevent the player from stopping]
  • X/Z facings: Have you managed to minimise X facing jumps?
Here's my personal pet peeve:
View attachment 49348 these x-facing jumps can go in the BIN

Case studies
This is a good version of a ‘nerfed’ crossed neo. There is a wide margin of error, and is z-facing – good for an Expert Map [Escher’s Playground]
View attachment 49350
The player observes the red apple blockage, and will attempt to jump around it, but it’s the green leaves on the top, which is not apparent. [Escher’s Playground]
View attachment 49349
This jump requires you to chain to the ladder. There is a sign for instructions. The choice of wall, and 2 slimes and their location allows for a wide margin of error. These all lead to it being a fun jump! [Portshaven, on Howl’s Moving Castle]
View attachment 49351

Inspiration

The fantastic thing about ideas is that they NEVER get used up. Watch parkour, play parkour, and get some fantastic ideas from great builders. Also store up a test plot of jumps! (Come to my 6th, if you need some inspiration!)

Here’re a list of fantastic and fun maps I’ve handpicked from manacube.
And here’s some of my favourite mappers to learn/play from:
  • Kubikit - Tight intricate parkour maker (much like this)
  • Caseyclosed - A mixture of both technical and fast parkour
  • Presidenten
  • Gamersdecision - Simple hard jumps and few technical ones

Final words - For those who like a tl;dr
Key points:
  • Consider a jump with starting, blockage and ending platforms and adjust accordingly
  • A wider margin of error is more fun for the player
  • The less x-facing jumps, the better!


Hopefully this has given a good insight into what makes good parkour fun and enjoyable!
Go make those 5-star maps!
this is cool. i will now make a map breaking every single rule you laid out