Today I implemented "on-rails" platforms that move in x & y directions (besides falling, which was already done) and rotating platforms.
After implementing these I stopped and thought for a bit about how I wanted the player to interact with these platforms.
On one hand I can have the player character automatically move with the moving platform like in many platformer games. This removes any challenge associated with a moving platform, which is usually compensated for by adding challenge elsewhere. For example, in some platformers when you jump on a moving platform and your character moves with it automatically, you will have to time when you jump off of the platform perfectly to avoid death or enemies or some obstacle. If no challenge is added elsewhere, and the platform movement is done for the player, there's really no challenge presented and you might as well have a static platform.
On the other hand, I could force the players to keep moving with the platform in order to avoid falling of and dying. This adds some challenge, but not a lot - it's fairly easy to keep holding the movement key and continue moving with the platform.
I ended up going with the 2nd option - players have to keep moving if they want to stay on the platform. However, I added a slight additional challenge and have plans to combine it with parts of option 1. The slight additional challenge is that the player moves faster than the platforms, so they can't just blindly hold the movement key down and steamroll past the platform's challenge. And my plans for further down the line in more challenging levels is to combine moving platforms with enemies, moving obstacles, and gaps to add more unique challenges to the moving platform.
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