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Hi this is Mark Brown with Game Maker's Toolkit:
a series on video game design.
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This is an iPhone game called Random Heroes.
It's a run and gun platformer and it's fine.
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It exists. But it feels kind of limp and lifeless,
like the video game equivalent of a cabbage.
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It doesn't even really look much fun, right?
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Now compare it to a game like Super Time Force
and it's a completely different experience.
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It feels alive and responsive. It pops and
crackles, like electricity is surging through
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your Xbox. It's just much more fun.
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I think this is a good example of how one
developer, Capy in this instance, has maximised
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an elusive quantity in games that some call
"game feel".
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This is a mostly abstract, largely invisible
art, but getting it right is essential when
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making a great action or platforming game
and it's something that players can immediately
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detect as soon as they start waggling analogue
sticks and jabbing at buttons.
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It mostly occurs in the fundamental action
of the game. It governs the second to second
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play, and is felt in the very undercurrent
of the game.
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A good way to test for this is to think how
does the game feel even when you strip out
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the points, the story, the graphics, the music,
and the clever level design. Even without
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all those trapping, is your game still fun
to interact with?
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The Super Mario games are. In Mario 64, the
plumber is such a fun avatar to control, with
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his bouncy jump, his wall kicks, his triple
leaps, his long jumps, and his stomach dives,
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that you could lose hours just hopping around
a blank room. And it's said that for the first
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few months, that's exactly what Mario 64 was
like as Shigeru Miyamoto fine tuned every
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aspect of Mario's movement before making anything
else.
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The "game feel" here is about the friction
and momentum and weight of Mario, and it's
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the most important thing. In fact, the level
design and enemies in Mario 64 exist simply
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to facilitate Mario. The levels let players
express his movement, and challenge them to
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master his underlying move set.
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Other developers have clocked this. Super
Meat Boy, for example, feels fun at a primal,
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kinetic level. But plenty of platformers are
hampered by loose controls and stodgy movement.
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Likewise, the best action games would still
be fun even if you're just blasting enemies
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in a blank room forever. But many others lack
that vital energy.
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When it comes to the fundamentals, there's
not much I can do to help right here. It's
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going to be completely different for every
type of game, and I'm not sure that "be Shigeru
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Miyamoto" is particularly useful advice.
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But there are lots of little tricks, often
used in the polishing stages, that you can
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crib from great games to make yours feel 100
times better. And in the spirit of brazen
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theft, I stole most of these from talks by
Vlambeer, Cactus, and Grapefrukt. I've linked
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to the full talks in the description below
if you want more.
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So. First up, is screen shake and Vlambeer
is the king of this stuff. All its games wobble
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uncontrollably when you fire a gun or hit
an enemy or saw through a fish. It feels satisfying,
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and provides instantaneous feedback that the
player is touching the world.
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Vlambeer also likes to pause the game for
a split second when you hit or kill an enemy,
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just to make those impacts more impactful.
You see this in fighting games too - watch
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how the action judders in Street Fighter,
to really make those kicks hit home. God of
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War does this also and most Zelda games do
it as well.
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To be honest, anything you can add to make
it really clear that you're damaging an enemy
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is worth it. I'm talking about making them
flash white, get knocked back, spray blood,
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change animation, or make a satisfying sound.
It all provides useful feedback, and it improves
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the game's feel .
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Similar effects can make playable characters
feel like they're really part of the world.
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Like tiny dust particles when you hit the
ground and recoil when you fire a gun.
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And sound effects are key. Make them bassy
and loud. A gun shouldn't sound like this…
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It should sound like this.
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You can use randomised sounds effects to avoid
repetition, or steal the rising pitch idea
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from Mario and Peggle to sell the tenuous
joy of nursing a combo.
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Next, be creative with your camera. In Luftrausers,
the camera doesn't follow your plane - it
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intelligently moves to frame the action and
reveal nearby threats. And in Hotline Miami,
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the camera juts out far in front of where
you're looking to help know how your hero
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is orientated.
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And make stuff big. Really big. Make the bullets
as big as your face like in Nuclear Throne,
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make the explosions mini atom bombs like in
Super Time Force, and make the blood spatters
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into geysers of red goop like in Hotline Miami.
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And Hotline Miami has a permanence that many
other games lack. Bodies and blood sprays
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stick around when you walk back to your car
to give you a little short-term nostalgia
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of the chaos you've caused, and make battles
feel really hard won.
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Ultimately, this stuff, which some call juice,
is all about doubling down on whatever your
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game is about. If it's about shooting, then
make the guns kick and make the fire rate
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fast and have the camera shudder with each
shot. But if it's about jumping, give your
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character friction and keep the camera stay
still so you can land each jump.
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Game feel is something that developers can
spend months, if not years working on, so
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I doubt you're going to find the secret to
making your game feel fun and satisfying in
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a five minute YouTube video. But hopefully
there's something to take away here, about
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making the fundamental action feel good, and
making every lick of polish speak to what
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the game is really about. Follow that advice,
and maybe, just maybe, I won't have to play
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so many limp and lifeless iOS games for my
job.