Secrets of Game Feel and Juice

"like electricity is surging through your xbox" who's gonna tell him

"Be Miyamoto". Is that the Game Developer version of "Git Good"? :P

"Video game equivalent of a cabbage", Wrekt

These "make your bullets as big as your face" and "double down everything" apply mostly to the action genres. In some tactical and TBS genres you go for more subtle means, as the loud and exaggerated effects are undesirable distraction. I just loved the buttons in Spellcross for example: they felt so cold and hard on touch... :)

It is the umami of game design. Excellent, brilliant, satisfying and wholesome flavor, but if you just dump a crapload of it into your game, it makes you feel a bit ill.

It's interesting, Mark's voice has so much more energy and presence in his more recent videos. This is a great video, but his content has definitely improved over the years!

Short pauses upon hitting enemies with a powerful move is one of my favourite ways of making attacks feel satisfying to land.

My take - every action, every sequence in the game should divide into three parts. Start, slowdown, climax. Start is the beginning, exciting because things begin to change. For example, player pulls the trigger of a rocket launcher, noise plays, gun flashes - OR player presses 'jump' and lifts off. Then, slowdown. This part should be understated and long to build up anticipation. For example, rocket travelling to the enemy, or your character hanging in midair. If you actually look at how jumping works in Mario games, Mario DOES seem to be faster at the start, then slow down in midair, just to speed up again when landing. Then final - climax, the conclusion. That's where the satisfying payoff to all the buildup is. Enemy blowing up in a fiery explosion, or perhaps your character safely landing on the other side of a deadly pit, making you feel like you accomplished a good job. Everything GMT discusses in this video - screen shake, that little pause, sound effects - goes here, into the climax. But you can't have payoff without buildup, in this respect games are just like any other form of art.

So, which games do you think have the best "game feel"?

Skyrim’s sound design was so good, I sometimes almost felt my hits connect

As someone who tries to make their videos as professional and entertaining as possible, I just wanted to thank you for making such amazing content. You really do this medium justice and my heart skips a beat every time I see you've made a new video. Keep up the good work, Mark! :)

That first thing you mentioned - feedback from your hits connecting with enemies - is the reason I just can't bother with any Bethesda games. Elder Scrolls or Fallout. It feels like I'm hitting/shooting at ghosts.

Even today, this video is still really useful and I can't recommend it enough. This is definitely a "game dev fundamental".

Good to see that you're using fighting games as an example! A lot of indie developers, specially the ones that were not gaming during the golden age of fighting games tend to ignore the basic, yet satisfying tricks that Capcom and SNK's titles used in order to make every punch feel rewarding. Speaking of SNK, Metal Slug is probably another good example of a game that has an amazing game feel.

I actually loved random heroes as a small kid.

Damn, these toolkit video's are so awesome to watch, and helpful! thank you so much mark! :)

I think the key here is simply having these aspects of presentation convey or emphasize gameplay information to the player as well as is possible. The reason this stuff feels good is because it creates a close connection between the player and what they are playing, as feedback is made incredibly clear. Some things like excessive explosions and screen shake can go too far and actually obscure gameplay information, making the game feel worse than it would if it were a bit more restrained, and unfortunately I feel Super Time Force and Vlambeer games are good examples of this.

Too much screen shake is bad!

Please make more videos. They're extremely informative and some of what you say lines up with a lot of my beliefs about video games. Great series.

I've taken this advice/analysis to heart with the games I make. This video is not only interesting to watch, but it's genuinely helpful for new game devs.