A Simple Guide To Game Feel

'Game Feel' is not invisible nor is it silent. It can be heard, seen, and ... well, duh - felt!

In this little demonstration I want to showcase the effects of methods that generate active feedback to a player.

A game is a digial medium - something we can not directly touch or physically interact with. Hardware like a mouse, controllers or keyboards create a bridge between a player and a game.

It is a developers responsibility to make this connection feel as real as possible. Every one of these connections can be seperated in 3 categories.

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"Intention", "Action" and "Consequence".

The intention is anything the player is about to do or anything he could consider interacting with. You as a developer need to hint the player towards things that they can do. Be it as simple as outlines seperating the 'thing' from the background, an animation or a sound playing at the 'things' position. Anything that shows the player that this 'thing' is different from the other static assets in your game. As an example: in this demonstration a sinus wave effect on the scaling of the cookie indicates that this image should and can be clicked on.

The action is when the player decides to take the course that you intended for them to take. Clicking the button, collecting the item, shooting an enemy, ...
A player needs to be shown that they have executed their intentions and the game has registered that they have in fact just now done something. The player needs a reaction. This could be the enemy flashing, shaking, screaming or the item disappearing, exploding, fading, clicking. In this cookie game, the cookie-sprite flashes white and gets tiny when clicked on.

The consequences are normally what make a game from being interesting to possibly being fun. Consequences of an action are permanent or temporary changes that affect the experience of a player. It shows that the action the player has taken had lasting effects. This could be combat strength increasing, a story plot unfolding, a new armor set being available or - for online experiences - making friends. In this example I have decided to make the cookie rotate when clicked on, getting more intense the more you click. This effect lasts for some time until eventually fading away when it not being clicked on anymore.

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Music by: Alec Weesner

Feel like something is missing? Feel free to post your suggestions down below and I will edit this as needed.

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