This talk introduces the idea of "Game Feel" and its many elements. I also look at some research into understanding the nuances of this phenomena in game design and how it applies to games with different aesthetic goals.

1. GAME FEEL – “JUICING” YOUR
GAME

2. TOPICS
• What is “game feel” and what does it do?
• Elements of game feel
• Mechanics/emotion
• Perspectives on “juicing” mechanics

3. WHAT IS GAME FEEL?
• Game Feel – The intangible,
tactile sensation experienced
when playing video games

4. ELEMENTS OF GAME FEEL
• Elements of Game Feel
• Input
• Response
• Context
• Aesthetic
• Metaphor
• Rules

5. ELEMENTS OF GAME FEEL
• Input – the actual haptics of the
device you use to interact with
the game
• Inherently effects how you
perceive controlling the game
• Stickiness of the controller
• How “clicky” buttons are
• Ergonomics

6. ELEMENTS OF GAME FEEL
• Response – how the game
responds to player input
• Amount of delay
• How sensitive controls are
• Does the character start and stop
harshly or do their movements
blend into one another
• Inertia

7. ELEMENTS OF GAME FEEL
• Context – Environments provide
interesting places for input and
response to occur
• Level design properly created to
respond to the player character’s
abilities
• Player metrics – The movement
capabilities of the player character
translated into unit-based
measurements
• “Intimate space” – spaces
designed to best take advantage of
the movement capabilities of player
characters
• http://ubm.io/2x5iJCl

8. ELEMENTS OF GAME FEEL
• Aesthetic – Visual and auditory
amplifications of input/response
• How “big” the response from the
game is
• Screen shake
• Particle effects or other explosion
effect
• Over-the-top animation
• How animations blend with one
another
• Satisfying sound effects
• Big vs. little sound effects

10. ELEMENTS OF GAME FEEL
• Metaphor – How much
mechanics relate to the game’s
theme
• Do mechanics match user
expectations
• Do the type of mechanics
available match the game’s fiction
or theme?

11. MECHANICS/EMOTION
“Talking about a videogame being tight
or crunchy or sluggish or sticky feels like it
is at odds with the hardcoded and
definitive code and programming logic
and on/off switches that videogames are
made out of. ”
~Brendan Keogh

13. PERSPECTIVES ON “JUICE”
• “Juice” – Indie game developer
slang for “game feel”
• Popularly understood as the
“aesthetics” part of game feel
• Screen shake
• Particles
• Special effects
• Sounds

14. PERSPECTIVES ON “JUICE”
“A criticism of many of the above talks and books is that
they suggest a certain level of prescriptivism. There’s a
sense across them that ‘juice’ or ‘game feel’ is
something you add to a game. If your game isn’t good,
you just add more juice. There’s a risk here of
suggesting that more is always better which, in turn,
risks turning ‘game feel’ into as useless a concept as
‘gameplay’, where games are evaluated on how much
game feel they possess rather than on how they feel.”
~Brendan Keogh, again

15. THE NUANCES OF JUICE
• “How can I tune the juice of my
game so it is coherent?” ~Lisa
Brown, indie game developer
• “Juice is just an emphasis on what
the player should be feeling in a
particular moment” ~Lisa Brown
and Rami Ismail

16. THE NUANCES OF JUICE
• Things that Lissitzky’s Revenge
had to signify “powered up”
• A single-shot particle
• A sound
• A “tail” of particles
• DIDN’T WORK!

17. THE NUANCES OF JUICE
• Things that Lissitzky’s Revenge
playtesters suggested:
• Changing the shape of the wedge
to a rectangle or other object (the
work the game is based on is
specifically about a wedge)
• Having the red wedge turn another
color entirely (the work the game is
based on is specifically about a RED
wedge)
• DIDN’T EXPRESS THE IDEA!

18. THE NUANCES OF JUICE
• Things that Lissitzky’s Revenge
HAS AFTER PLAYTESTING to
signify “powered up”
• A bigger single-shot particle
• A louder sound
• A “tail” of particles
• Flashing shades of red-hued colors
• WORKS AND EXPRESSES THE
IDEA!

19. THE NUANCES OF JUICE
• Nuclear Throne – top down
procedural shooter
• Has “juice”
• Screenshake
• Special effects
• Particles
• The “juice” is very contextual
• Screenshake follows the direction
of the player’s shot and the
“intensity” of the weapon

20. THE NUANCES OF JUICE
• Imaginal – Zen game about
catching lightning bugs
• Subtle but emotive “feel” elements
• Lightning bugs flash
• Play tone
• Subtle particles on lightning
bugs when they flash
• Can be caught when lit, but only
when lit brightly
• Flashing light reveals the world and
is when you can execute the core
mechanic, so there’s an anticipation
• Longer light “window” and gentle
light dimming creates a calmer
game

21. THE NUANCES OF JUICE
• Dead Man’s Trail – zombie horror
adventure game
• “Reverse” game feel
• Shooting has small/subtle particles
• Muzzle flash
• Blood spurt
• Killing a zombie is temporary fun
• Satisfying death animation
• The rest of the horde probably steps over the
one you just killed
• Screenshake when the ZOMBIES HIT YOU
• Only exception is “fording the horde”
• Very juiced
• Still risky and full of fail states – shaking might
mean you are screwing up your vehicle

22. THE NUANCES OF JUICE
• What is your game about?
• What are players supposed to “feel”
during your game?
• Calm?
• Intensity?
• Powerful?
• Scared?
• What is your game supposed to
express?
• Story?
• Symbolism?
• Intellectual property?
• Think about how the “ingredients”
of juice can be used to express
these things