The Art and Science of Game Feel | How Game Designers Juice Games with Mechanics,Pacing and Effects

Summary

The video script delves into the concept of 'game feel,' exploring its impact on player engagement through responsive controls, dynamic music, and visual effects. It discusses the evolution of game feel from early games like Pac-Man to modern titles, highlighting the importance of real-time control, simulated spaces, and polish in creating an immersive gaming experience. The script also examines the role of game feel in teaching new systems, enhancing player skills, and extending senses, ultimately emphasizing its significance in delivering fun and tactile gameplay.

Takeaways

• 🎮 Game feel is about creating an impact and maximizing player input, enhancing the tactile experience of playing games.
• 📚 Steve Swank's book 'Game Feel' emphasizes the importance of game feel in simulating speed, sound, and visual effects to create a responsive and engaging game environment.
• 👶 The superficial aspects of game design, such as graphics, sound, and responsive controls, are crucial in making games appealing and enhancing their teaching ability.
• 🕹️ Real-time control over an avatar, simulated space and context, and polish are the three characteristics that games with a strong game feel possess.
• 🔁 The perceptual feedback loop, which is under 240 milliseconds, is essential for games to simulate direct control and create a sense of continuity.
• 🏎️ Racing games use acceleration and various visual cues to enhance the sense of speed, contributing to the overall game feel.
• 🤸‍♂️ The design of the context surrounding a game's mechanics is vital for creating depth and can affect the skill ceiling of a game.
• 🎵 Music games like 'Thumper' use physicality and resolution to make players feel like authors of music, enhancing game feel through auditory engagement.
• 🎨 Polishing effects such as animations, sound effects, screen shake, and rumble are used to 'juice up' games, making them more visceral and engaging.
• 🛠️ Functional and situational design are two approaches in game development; functional design focuses on expressive mechanics, while situational design embeds systems within specific scenarios.
• 🏆 Scoring systems and power-ups in games incentivize players to play in ways that are fun and engaging, pushing them to explore the game's mechanics to their fullest extent.

Q & A

What is the core concept of 'game feel' as described in the script?

Game feel is about maximizing the output of a player's inputs and viewing games as tactile playthings that respond to our actions, creating an engaging and immersive experience.

How does the script relate game feel to the evolution of Pac-Man over time?

The script illustrates the evolution of game feel in Pac-Man by comparing the original version with its newer iterations, noting the addition of dynamic music, pulsating colors, camera zooms, and screen shape changes to enhance the sense of speed and engagement.

What are the three characteristics of games with an elusive feel property according to Steve Swink?

Games with an elusive feel property have real-time control over an avatar, a simulated space and context, and polish in terms of graphics, sound, particles, and screen shake.

How does the script explain the importance of responsive appeal in game design?

The script suggests that the responsive appeal of a system is instrumental in enhancing its teaching ability, as it helps players learn new systems and contributes to the overall fun and engagement of the game.

What is the significance of the perceptual feedback loop in game feel?

The perceptual feedback loop is crucial in game feel as it determines the responsiveness of a game. Actions need to respond under 100 milliseconds to create a sense of continuity, and the overall feedback loop should be less than 240 milliseconds to simulate direct control.

How does the script discuss the impact of input response time on a game's skill ceiling?

The script explains that a higher response time can limit the skill ceiling of a game, as seen in Assassin's Creed's combat system, which has slow animations that lock out the player after input, capping the skill level of combat.

What role do polishing effects play in enhancing game feel?

Polishing effects, such as animations, sound effects, screen shake, and dynamic camera angles, work in conjunction with the underlying systems of a game to deliver a particular experience and enhance the overall game feel.

How does the script differentiate between functional and situational design in game feel?

Functional design focuses on giving players expressive options to play with, while situational design embeds its systems to create a specific scenario, enhancing the context and meaning of the play space.

What is the significance of risk/reward decisions in game feel?

Risk/reward decisions are significant in game feel as they create strategic depth and prevent dominant strategies, allowing for a creative possibility space and enhancing the player's engagement.

How does the script relate game feel to the concept of 'flow state' in gaming?

The script relates game feel to the flow state by discussing how escalating difficulty, such as in Space Invaders, can lead to a state of engagement where challenges rise in proportion to the player's abilities, contributing to the fun and immersion of the game.

What is the role of scoring and leaderboard systems in enhancing game feel?

Scoring and leaderboard systems incentivize players to play in the most fun and engaging way possible, promoting risk-taking and creative play, which are key aspects of game feel.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 The Essence of Game Feel

This paragraph delves into the concept of 'game feel,' emphasizing its importance in creating an impactful gaming experience. It references Steve Swank's definition, which involves maximizing player input-output interaction and treating games as tactile playthings. The evolution from Pac-Man to newer versions illustrates advancements in dynamic music, color, camera effects, and screen shape to enhance the sense of speed and engagement. The paragraph also touches on the superficial aspects of game design, such as graphics and sound, which contribute to the depth of games by facilitating learning and responsiveness. The discussion on 'game feel' concludes with the three characteristics that define games with this elusive property: real-time control, simulated space and context, and polish in graphics and sound.

05:01

🛠️ Mechanics and Skill Ceiling in Game Design

The second paragraph explores the relationship between game mechanics and the skill ceiling, focusing on how quick responses and lack of input lockdown can elevate a game's depth and player engagement. It uses examples like Assassin's Creed and Bayonetta 2 to illustrate the impact of response time on skill levels. The paragraph also examines the importance of context in game design, using Dark Souls and fighting games to explain how enemy difficulty and move recovery frames can balance risk and reward. The discussion on inputs covers the ADSR framework, emphasizing the role of attack, decay, sustain, and release in creating a sense of momentum and responsiveness in games like Donkey Kong and Mario. The importance of dimensionality, sensitivity, and versatility in input design is highlighted, with examples from Devil May Cry 3 and 4 showcasing the potential for creative expression through varied combat systems.

10:03

🎨 Polishing Effects and Situational Design

This paragraph discusses the role of polishing effects in enhancing game feel, using Vlambeer's approach to game development as an example. It outlines the various categories of effects, including animation, visual, sound, cinematic, and tactile effects, and how they contribute to the overall experience. The talk 'Juice it or Lose it' is referenced to demonstrate the transformation of a basic game through the addition of color, scale, wobbles, and sound. The concept of functional versus situational design is introduced, highlighting the difference between mechanics that offer expressive options and those that fit within a specific context. Examples from Platinum Games and Sid Meier illustrate the importance of risk/reward decisions and strategic depth in game design, emphasizing the need for constraints that prevent dominant strategies and encourage creative play.

15:03

🏁 The Dynamics of Game Feel in Racing Games

The fourth paragraph focuses on the application of game feel principles in racing games, discussing how the responsiveness of a character's movement and the friction they feel can influence the design of platforming challenges. It contrasts the tight controls and versatility of Super Meat Boy with the less responsive feel of LittleBigPlanet, highlighting how game feel can make difficult challenges either engaging or frustrating. The paragraph also touches on the importance of polishing effects in conjunction with underlying game systems to deliver a particular experience, using Space Invaders as an example of escalating difficulty and the flow state. The discussion on game pacing mentions how varying levels of engagement, such as in Uncharted 2 and Devil May Cry 3, can maintain player interest and create a compelling emotional arc.

20:03

🎶 The Tetris Effect and Emotional Engagement

The final paragraph examines the Tetris Effect as an example of how game feel can be integrated into a game to create a powerful emotional experience. It describes how the game synchronizes music with the movement of game pieces, using quantization to ensure harmony and a sense of flow. The paragraph also discusses the game's point system and new mechanics like the 'zone' mode, which encourages creative play and provides a cathartic release for the player. The music in the Tetris Effect is highlighted for its ability to adapt to the player's actions, creating a personalized and immersive experience. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the enduring importance of game feel in creating fun, engaging, and immersive gaming experiences.

Keywords

💡Game Feel

Game feel refers to the sensory experience of interacting with a video game, encompassing elements like impact, responsiveness, and the tactile feedback of controls. It is central to the video's theme as it discusses how game developers enhance player engagement through this sensory experience. For instance, the script mentions 'Thumper's booming bass' and 'Doom's weaponry' to illustrate the immersive nature of game feel.

💡Synesthetic Trance

A synesthetic trance is a state where one sensory input triggers a perception in another sensory modality, such as hearing music and seeing colors. In the context of the video, it is used to describe the immersive experience induced by the music of 'Rez,' where the auditory stimuli create a trance-like state that enhances the game feel.

💡Tactile Playthings

Tactile playthings are objects that are physically interactive and responsive to touch. The video uses this term to describe games as interactive systems that respond to player actions, emphasizing the importance of haptic feedback in creating a rich gaming experience. For example, 'Pac-Man' is mentioned to show the evolution from simple color and music to more dynamic and responsive game feel.

💡Polishing Effects

Polishing effects are the visual, auditory, and tactile enhancements added to a game to make it more engaging and responsive. The script discusses various types of polishing effects, such as animations, sound effects, and screen shake, which contribute to the overall game feel by providing immediate and satisfying feedback to player actions.

💡ADSR Framework

ADSR stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release, which is a framework used to describe the dynamics of sound and, by extension, the responsiveness of game inputs. The video uses the ADSR framework to illustrate how different games, like 'Donkey Kong' and 'Mario,' respond to player inputs, affecting the perceived momentum and fluidity of the gameplay.

💡Perceptual Feedback Loop

The perceptual feedback loop is the cognitive process that mediates direct feedback from our senses to our motor system. The video explains that this loop, which operates within a 240-millisecond cycle, is crucial for creating the sensation of direct control in games. It is exemplified by the 'Call of Duty' series, which maintains a smooth frame rate and quick response times for a responsive game feel.

💡Skill Ceiling

The skill ceiling in gaming refers to the upper limit of mastery a player can achieve within a game. The script discusses how certain game mechanics, like the combat system in 'Assassin's Creed,' can have a low skill ceiling due to slow response times and input locking, which limit the depth of player skill that can be demonstrated.

💡Contextual Mechanics

Contextual mechanics are game systems that make sense within a specific scenario or situation. The video argues that these mechanics, such as the enemy placements and level geometry in 'Devil May Cry 3,' contribute to the game feel by providing a meaningful context for player actions and encouraging creative play.

💡Quantization

Quantization in music and games refers to the process of aligning actions or notes with a musical beat or rhythm. The 'Tetris Effect' is highlighted in the script as an example of leveraging quantization to synchronize game actions with music, creating a harmonious and engaging experience for the player.

💡Juice

In game development, 'juice' refers to the various effects and feedback mechanisms that make a game feel more alive and responsive. The video mentions 'Vlambeer' as an example of a company known for adding juice to their games, enhancing the player's sensory experience through animations, sounds, and other dynamic effects.

💡Situational Design

Situational design is the concept of embedding game mechanics within a specific context to create meaningful experiences. The script contrasts this with functional design, using 'Halo' as an example of an expressive mechanics game, while discussing how situational design can enhance the depth and strategic options available to players.

Highlights

Game feel is about maximizing player input and viewing games as tactile playthings that respond to actions.

Original Pac-Man had dynamic music and colors, but newer versions introduced more elements like pulsating colors and camera zooms to enhance speed simulation.

Burna game adds objects, high fidelity graphics, dynamic music, and screen blur to maximize visceral engagement.

Karateka, one of the first fighting games, was impressive for its time but is considered static by modern standards.

Game feel is often misunderstood as being about superficial aspects like graphics, sound, and controls, but these features contribute to game depth.

Responsive appeal of a system is instrumental in enhancing its teaching ability, as per Raph Koster's theory on fun in games.

Children play with colorful objects and sounds to assemble a rule book about the universe, which is a fundamental aspect of game feel.

Game developers have evolved over time to create more kinetic and engaging game experiences.

Steve Swink identifies three characteristics of games with a good feel: real-time control, simulated space and context, and polish.

The perceptual feedback loop is crucial for simulating direct control in games, with actions needing to respond under 100 milliseconds.

Call of Duty is an industry leader in game feel due to its smooth frame rate and quick response time.

The skill ceiling of a game is affected by how quickly an input responds and if it locks the player out during animations.

Bayonetta 2 allows for instantaneous attack output and dodge cancellation, elevating the skill ceiling and enabling creative play.

Dark Souls has a high skill ceiling due to the difficulty of enemies forcing deliberate attacks, despite locking out after input commands.

The context of mechanics is often overlooked but is essential for creating depth in games.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band rely on peripherals to simulate music creation, unlike Thumper which uses physicality and resolution for a more immersive feel.

Understanding inputs is key to game feel, with Steve Swink introducing the Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release (ADSR) framework.

Polishing effects like animations, sound effects, and screen shake are used to enhance the feel of a game.

Functional and situational design are two types of design dichotomy in games, with functional design focusing on expressive mechanics and situational design embedding systems for specific scenarios.

Risk/reward decisions and long-term and short-term decisions are integral to all games, creating strategic depth.

Game feel can enhance player expression and strategic depth, as seen in games like Dead Space, Geometry Wars, and Devil May Cry.

Polishing effects work in conjunction with the underlying systems of a game to deliver a particular experience, as demonstrated by games like Space Invaders and Tetris.

The Tetris Effect is a reimagining that harmonizes game mechanics with music, using quantization and a new zone mechanic to create a cathartic release.

Transcripts

game feel is all about impact it's about

simulating the screen tearing speed of

thumper the booming bass boosted bravado

of Doom's weaponry and the synesthetic

trance induced by the music of rez as

steve Swank describes in a seminal book

of the same name game feel is about

maximizing the output of a player's

inputs and viewing games as tactile

playthings that respond to our actions

if we go to the original pac-man we see

dynamic music and a variety of colors

but when we transition to the newer

pac-man's there is much more happening

from pulsating colors than ascending

musical scale camera zooms dramatic

slow-motion and yes screen shape poor

position was impressive at the time

leveraging relative position linear

perspective and a low viewing angle to

simulate speed but compare that to burna

which adds more objects in the world

high fidelity graphics dynamic music a

boost system and screen blur to maximize

her sense of visceral engagement finally

this is karateka one of the first

fighting games which was impressive at

the time but static by modern standards

and compared to Street Fighter with its

vibrant animated backgrounds and special

moves calor many people mistakenly think

that game feel is about these

superficial aspects of game design that

being graphics sound and responsive

controls but in many senses it's these

superficial features that make games

deep if Raph Koster is right that fun

and games is about learning new systems

the responsive appeal of a system is

instrumental in enhancing its teaching

ability there is a reason children play

with brightly colored objects that make

a whole host of peculiar sounds because

this is the infant assembling a rule

book about how the universe works and

fun and whimsy is what drives this all

this video is about the art and science

of game field and how game developers

have evolved over time in bringing us

the most pulsating kinetic action they

can possibly make

Steve swing argues that games with that

elusive feel property have three

characteristics first they have

real-time control over an avatar

this means your actions directly

correspond to movements in the world

like in Mario as opposed to the delayed

motion of a real-time strategy game

second they have a simulated space and

context so the systems and world design

of Devil May Cry 3 where you have enemy

placements and level geometry but also

the famous style meter that incentivizes

creative play are all a part of this if

you look at the unfinished smalls

opening salvo there is literally nothing

in the world which was its thematic

point about negative space but it has no

sense of place finally Swink talks about

polish which is everything you thought

game feel was about from graphics to

sound to particles to screen shakin more

swing crafted a Venn diagram like this

to delineate where different experiences

fall within his field framework and he

further elaborates how these elements of

feel are in service to deeper needs like

testing our skills the pure kinesthetics

of control creating new realities and

ultimately extending our senses and

identity in his book understanding

comics Scott McCloud outlines how when

we drive a car the car becomes a part of

us expanding our being and this is what

is happening in many senses when we

enter game walls amplifying our ability

to influence the world around us you

need at least 10 frames per second to

simulate motion actions need to respond

under 100 milliseconds to create a sense

of continuity and the overall perceptual

feedback loop needs to be less than 240

milliseconds to simulate direct control

this is the perceptual feedback loop

that scientists have figured out that

mediates direct feedback as our senses

create perceptions that are interpreted

by a cognitive hardware which transmits

messages to our motor system which then

activates a muscle group this entire

correction cycle is 240 milliseconds and

immediately tells you why certain games

feel more responsive than others in his

GDC talk design and detail the speaker

talks about why Call of Duty is

consistently the industry leader when it

comes to game field as they preserve a

buttery smooth 60 frames a second and

have a quick response time that makes

everything feel precise and immediate

compare that with Killzone - with its

weighty controls lower frame rate and

slow responsiveness

now Killzone 2 was going for a more

grounded feel with a weighty aesthetic

so it doesn't make it worse but this

just illustrates the principle clearly

in the original Prince of Persia the run

cycle took far longer than the 240

milliseconds we have to perceive direct

input and what also happened is that it

locked out the player from its animation

so if you started an unresponsive run

cycle you had to wait for it to play out

giving you the impression the avatar was

not responding to you this is an

important thing to keep in mind how

quick does an input respond and desert

lock the player out this actually

affects the skill ceiling of a game for

example assassin's creed's combat system

is viewed as one with a low skill

ceiling because the animations are slow

take awhile to respond and lock you out

after its input what this does is put a

cap on the skill of the combat as a

higher response time doesn't do anything

for you if you look at Bayonetta 2

though the attack output is

instantaneous you can cancel into a

dodge at any time giving it a

responsiveness but this also elevates

the skill ceiling as it allows for

quicker reflexes and creative play to

shine enabled by the feel of the game

however if you take a combat system like

Dark Souls which also locks you out

after you input a command it's high

skill ceiling comes from the difficulty

of the enemies forcing you to be very

deliberate with your attacks in fighting

games moves that yield a higher reward

often have a lot of recovery frames to

balance them in the risk/reward meta

leaving you vulnerable to attack

afterwards this shows the importance of

the design of a context surrounding your

avatars control as this is where depth

can come from the context of mechanics

is very often ignored and this can be

the downfall of a lot of games if you

look at the guitar hero and rock band

games the notes that come on the screen

feel like they are just weightless facts

similes descending in an abstract space

giving it absolutely no sense of feel so

it relies on its peripherals to simulate

the sensation of creating music compare

this to two of my favorite music games

ever thumper forces you to actually

collide with the walls and ground

generating music with the intrinsic

physicality of your emotions and

resolution

quantization and dynamic leering to make

the world respond to your inputs with

harmonized music these games leverage

feel to make you feel more like the

author than the recipient of music

giving them a more powerful sense of

agency despite not having peripherals to

work with understanding inputs is

essential for understanding of game feel

and here Steve swing introduces the

attack decay sustain and release

framework the way it works is that this

segment tells you how long it takes for

the pressing of a button to reach its

maximum state this section designates

the continued input and this falling

section delineate what happens after you

let go to give an example the original

Donkey Kong had an adsr that looked like

this giving it a very stiff cadence as

it would immediately respond to your

left and right commands with no gradual

sense of momentum compared that with

Mario's adsr and it felt much more like

a believable character racing games take

a while to reach maximum speed and this

helps the feel as it creates a sense of

acceleration heightening the sense of

pace a sense of speed is tricky to do

but lowering the field of view creating

more objects that speed by using

relative size and position and screen

shake and blur like in the underrated

shift games all enhanced this other

related aspects of input include

dimensionality sensitivity and

versatility dimensionality refers to how

many states an input can be in and in

how many dimensions sensitivity is how

impactful an output is to a

corresponding input something a lot of

shooters allow you to customize to make

the controls more responsive and finally

we have input versatility which is about

the combinatorial repertoire afforded by

the inputs and systems are forgiving

interface to go back to Mario vs. Donkey

Kong Donkey Kong only had one type of

jump regardless of how hard you press

the button

but Mario varies the input by

recognizing different types of jumps

depending on how hard you press it also

allows you to combine a jump with

movement in the air combine the movement

wind-up speed with the jump distance and

then use a whole host of other modifiers

by Mario 64 we could combine buttons do

triple jumps wall jumps roll and use our

momentum in multiple directions to have

a truly versatile character however the

context is also important here as the

design of the obstacle

the world allows clears to actually use

these movement systems in engaging ways

and speedrunners can endlessly try to

perfect this because the context affords

it Devil May Cry 3 is another great

example of this you can attack normally

with a button or delay the sequence of

inputs for modified combos you can press

forward and attack to thrust backwards

and attack to launch get in the air with

an attack and you have a weapon switch

and gun switch you can transition to mid

combo each with their own set of moves

and properties there are also multiple

styles that add modifiers to existing

moves and by Devil May Cry 4 you could

actually switch between styles during

combat amplifying the possibility space

exponentially furthermore the context of

the game incentivize using these systems

the style system rewards you for playing

with creative flair grading you on your

ability to use novel moves and tying

this to rewards this also fit within the

thematic context of being a demon

hunting trickster

the level design converged on creating

an optimal context as well as Devil May

Cry 1 felt too confined and fixed Devil

May Cry 2 lost a lot of the

responsiveness of control and had to

wide open levels but Devil May Cry 3 and

4 switched between camera angles created

medium sized spaces and allowed the

player to play the role of

cinematographer to enable creative

expression this is why games like Mario

and Devil May Cry are held at the

pinnacle of their respective genres

now we can turn to what people are more

familiar with when they think of game

feel that being polishing effects first

let's turn to a company that has become

synonymous with the screen shape in

their talk the art of the screen shake

game developer Vlambeer outlines what

they do to their games to juice them up

they are the creators of games like

luftrausers and nuclear throne we see a

lot of these lessons applied to their

games they walk the audience through

making a standard shooter feel much

better

they added basic animations and sound

lowered the HP to amplify outputs

increase the rate of fire added more

enemies created bigger bullets added

muzzle flash impact effects enemy flash

knocked back object permanence screen

shake strafing more base explosions and

giving the player the ability to walk

through the carnage something the game

hotline Miami did one of the most

popular talks on the subject called

juice it or lose it takes a breakout

clone and enhances it by adding color

scales wobbles sound but also something

called tweening where objects Bend and

take time to run the course of their

animation this is a version of the

technique squash and stretch seen in

animation there are five broad

categories of polishing effects that

designers can leverage there are

animation effects which amount to squash

and stretch timing and also adding

emphasis through characterization in a

game like crash there are visual effects

like the voxels that spurt out of

enemies in resogun we have sound effects

like the satisfying grind in Tony Hawk

cinematic effects include screen shake

dynamic camera angles and slowdown

effects and tactile effects include

Rumble Rumble and more Rumble however

all these polishing effects have to be

considered in the context of the systems

that exist in your game which is where

we will turn to next in their GDC talk

called action Without Borders Platinum

Games introduces an interesting

dichotomy in design they call this

dichotomy the difference between

functional and situational design and

broadly speaking it's the difference

between a good feeling and expressive

mechanic and one that makes sense in a

certain context a game that's purely

about giving players expressive options

to play is using functional design but

one that embeds its systems to create a

specific scenario is leveraging

situational design which is better well

it depends on the aesthetic of play you

want

to deliver expert-level combo creators

indefinitely cry for love the expressive

repertoire of Dante's moveset so that

they can creatively craft absurd combos

hallo limited the use of guns to two at

a time however what that did was

actually enhanced the context and

meaning of the play space as it asked

the players to make interesting

risk/reward decisions with regards to

their weapons unleashing more strategic

depth than a situation where a dominant

solution may arise sid meier called

games a series of interesting decisions

and in his GDC talk he outlines how

risk/reward decisions and long-term and

short-term decisions permeate all games

the idea here is that there is no

dominant solution enabling a creative

possibility space that sometimes

strategically employs constraints I've

spoken about how other dynamics like

rock-paper-scissors scene in fighting

games match for dynamic scene in RTS

a--'s and Yomi

scene in any game where you have to read

and manipulate opponents is also

instrumental in creating depth and this

is all part of Myers observations and

the importance of situational design in

his talk meaningful choice in game level

design Matthias worch talks about how

something called orthogonal unit

differentiation in do where different

types of enemies exist on to 2d axes of

either hits cannon projectile or ranged

and melee create priority puzzles that

gives players a meaningful context to

express themselves in games from dead

space to geometry wars to Devil May Cry

all create similar prioritization

puzzles and game feel can enhance this

are you preventing dominant strategies

are you creating interesting enemy

variation with unique gameplay the

systems in your game create risk/reward

long term short term and interesting

Yomi scenarios these are all questions

you can ask yourself but the well runs

much deeper layers of depth are unlocked

as difficulty Rises and mechanics

combined in a context like how

Bayonetta's dodge offset Devil May Cry

is jump cancelling and vanquishes boost

dodge all emerge out of the mechanical

substrate of each game Virtua Fighter

may only have a few buttons but you can

combine these buttons to multiply the

inputs incredibly and mechanical context

unleashes such powerful levels of Yomi

that most players who clear that game

can tell who they are playing

immediately because of how precise the

system is near automata has excellent

feeling combat but the RPG systems in

the game sometimes conflict

with the situational design because you

find yourself way too overleveled or

under level for certain sections

undermining the skill based strength of

a precise field in combat system again

though it depends on the aesthetic of

play you are going for skill based

clears may have been annoyed by this but

players who love character building and

grinding may have appreciated it so the

situation is not just a play space but

also the players you are creating the

game for differential sounds animation

and effects can cute players into

enemies and threats and the impact of

weapons and polishing effects can steer

them in certain directions great

fighting games of animations that

telegraph the moves the more frames it

takes and games like Bayonetta will

never allow enemies to attack you from

off-screen unless there are obvious cues

also a lot of tournament players for

Street Fighter 4 actually chose to play

on the training stage a level with no

polishing effects because it actually

distracts from the strategic action

on-screen the responsiveness of a

character's pivoting motion the friction

they feel and the time it takes to

accelerate alter what kinds of

platforming challenges you should make

super meat boys tight a STR and

versatility allows absurdly difficult

challenges but the loose floaty and

unresponsive feel of LittleBigPlanet

makes difficult platforming almost

impossible and frustrating however they

were going for a realistic craft like

feel so again it works for that game a

game like cannibal has what's called a

ghost jump and shmups have smaller hit

boxes to allow more agency and power to

the player ultimately polishing effects

work in conjunction with the underlying

systems of a game to deliver a

particular experience

Space Invaders created an escalating

sense of difficulty by having enemies

get faster as the game progresses as

with most great discoveries this was a

mistake

and gave us a glimpse into the flow

state a phenomena where a sense of

engagement is preserved only when the

challenges you confront rise in

proportion to your abilities

this birthed the idea of tension being

at the core of fun the escalating

difficulty of tetris and the rise of

tension in an uncharted set peace or

their structure - this mistake

pac-man popularized the power of an

instance where a state change can happen

allowing a transformation of the

dynamics in a place space finally the

scoring and leaderboard system pioneered

by early video games are mechanisms that

incentivize players to play in the most

fun way possible tension power-ups and

scoring systems live alongside all the

other tools have mentioned SSX is a

fantastic feeling game it has crisp

controls fluid animation dynamic

graphics and sound and a kinetic sense

of speed that sends you hurtling down a

track what really makes it pop though is

how there is a boost system that

incentivizes taking risks and doing

incredible moves off ledges and linking

them together in a combo if you chain

moves together well enough you enter

tricky mode where you are given

indefinite boost new moves and the music

gets more dynamic layering in additional

parts of a track

however this state is predicated on you

continuing the combo great players can

chain their tricky down the entire

mountain and the systems that exist

leverage feel and all its tools to

incentivize this absurd risk-taking

getting players to play in the most fun

way possible is what this type of design

is all about Doom has what is called

push forward combat which was devised to

incentivize aggressive play you get more

resources for close-up glory kills the

AI is less likely to hit you if you are

moving and the momentum of the music the

level design and the configuration of

the enemies get you to maneuver

phonetically through the environment

letting you experience the breath of

fantastic guns and combat scenarios in

that game all while preventing static

forms of play vanquish is an absolutely

fantastic feeling game to the boost

system allows you to power across the

map with blistering speed but you can

couple this with the slow motion system

that

to dive and trigger a John Woo inspired

moment the coordinator attacks the game

system gets you to consistently keep

moving and ironically being forced into

cover is the punishment for not playing

the right way vanquish also has a

scoring system that allows high level

players to use these systems in more

creative ways throwing grenades then

jumping out of cover to shoot in midair

before sliding across the battlefield

while slaying into another enemy before

finishing them off with a melee kill

bullet storm combines a scoring system

with emergent design to make its

battlefield an incredibly creative play

space you get points for novel kills and

you have tools like your slide and leash

that can be combined with an assortment

of armaments that reward you for playing

around with your enemies why just kill

someone when you can slide into them

launching them into the air and then use

your leash to pound them into the ground

creating an area of effect attack that

takes out everyone around Barnard does

something similar for racing games

allowing you to smash into opponents to

kill them

traffic chat other cars into enemies

move your car even after you are killed

to get a post death takedown and layers

in a boost system with particles dynamic

music and an unmatched sense of speed to

create one of the best feeling games

ever made

high level pacing a game is also

instrumental in ensuring the player

feels engaged the visceral sense of

engagement needs to exist at all levels

of a game uncharted 2 has a sequence

where you go from solving quiet puzzles

to a shootout to a narrative ly

compelling sequence to an emotionally

draining cutscene then a quiet section

right before it propels you into one of

the greatest set pieces in all gaming

Devil May Cry 3 expertly shifts between

environmental navigation Kombat puzzles

and boss fights crafting a fractal

structure in each of its missions that

is isomorphic to the overall flow the

end of each act of the game is

punctuated with an intense and difficult

boss fight with your brother Virgil

games are experiences and managing a

player's emotional arc is an important

part of crafting engagement a recent

example of game feel ties a lot of these

principles together in a powerful way

the tetris effect is a stunning

reimagining of an old concept moving a

piece add sound to the music that

harmonizes with the underlying beat

leveraging a tool called quantization to

make sure there is no dissonance every

line cleared also adds a different sound

and sometimes causes something to happen

in the background the faster stream of

blocks is also present reflecting flow

theory there is a point system that

encourages creative play and now there

is a new zone mechanic which functions

like a powerup it allows you to trigger

a sequence where you can build blocks

all the way to the top without

consequence and the music adjusts

horizontally to make you feel like you

are the author of your own cathartic

release also the music layers additional

versions and vocal complements to

existing versions of a track when you

trigger a certain line requirements in

stages and this is also coordinated with

the shift in speed of the play pieces on

the board

you

[Music]

game feel is that elusive property that

makes playing games fun visceral and

engaging whether it be through precise

mechanics dynamic music pulsating visual

effects or robust gameplay systems

juicing a game can make the simple act

of interacting with a system a joy the

medium might be maturing incorporating

more nuanced and deep explorations of

stories and ideas however game feel does

not necessarily conflict with this

either game feel is also important in

recreating reality and crafting a sense

of immersion so its application is much

broader than first glance

regardless game feels most enduring

capacity is to create games about pure

unadulterated fun the purest expression

of our undying impulse to play