This presentation is basically a manual on how to use the paper Designing Game Feel, A Survey, which is available here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.09201 Abstract: Game feel design is the intentional design of the affective impact of moment-to-moment interaction with games. In this paper we survey academic research and publications by practitioners to give a complete overview of the state of research concerning this aspect of game design. We analysed over 200 sources and categorised their content according to design pur- poses. This resulted in three different domains of intended player experiences: physicality, amplification, and support. In these domains, the act of polishing, which determines game feel, takes the shape of tuning, juicing, and streamlining respectively. Tuning the physicality of game objects creates cohesion, predictability, and the resulting movement informs level design. Juicing is the act of polishing amplification and it results in empowerment and provides clarity of feedback. Streamlining allows a game to act on the intention of the player, supporting the execution of actions in the game. These three design intents are the main means through which designers control minute details of interactivity and inform the player’s reaction. The presented framework and its nuanced vocabulary can lead to an understanding of game feel that is shared between practitioners and researchers as highlighted in the concluding future research section.

1. DESIGNING GAME FEEL.
A SURVEY.
MARTIN PICHLMAIR & MADS JOHANSEN
IEEE COG 2021 PRESENTATION

2. A SURVEY PAPER

3. A SURVEY PAPER YOU SAY?
We analysed over 200 sources.
They came mostly from 3 areas: prior research on game feel, context
for understanding game feel, and re
fl
ections of practitioners on
game feel.
We did not look at games directly except when we tried to explain a
speci
fi
c game mechanic or design element.

4. WHAT IS GAME FEEL?

5. CANONICAL DEFINITION
Game Feel is the feeling of “real-time control of virtual objects in a
simulated space, with interactions emphasised by polish” (Swink,
2009)

6. OUR DEFINITION
Game feel is the feeling of control of a game, with interactions
emphasised by different kinds of polish. Game feel is an affective
part of interactivity. Game feel design is designing how the
interaction feels.
An example of a kind of polish activity is juicing:
“You’re not juicing your game — you’re actually picking
a feeling that your game should communicate and
juicing that feeling” (Lisa Brown, 2016)

7. EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED
Game feel
Cognitive Science
Neuroscience
HCI
Game Design
Design Theory
Pragmatist Philosophy
Interaction Design
User Experience Design
Accessibility
Narratology
Ludology
Play Design
Mathematics
Psychology

8. PRINCIPLES

9. GAME DESIGN PROCESS
Foundation Polish

10. WHAT KINDS OF POLISH?
Design Domain Physicality Ampli
fi
cation Support Writing Rules …
Domain
Description
The physical
simulation.
Intensifying the
experience.
Enabling the
player.
Making a
narrative
experienceable.
Creating systems
to interact with.
…
Task Description Setting
parameters to
specify the
behaviour of
objects.
Adding feedback
to emphasise,
clarify, and
amplify.
Acting on the
player intent by
interpreting the
input in context
of the gameplay
situation.
Designing the
dramatic arc of
the experience.
Ensuring that the
interactions
between dynamic
systems in a
game do not
degenerate.
…
Polishing Task Tuning Juicing Streamlining Editing Balancing …
Covered in the paper
Left for future research…

11. BALANCING THE FEEL
This is Tanya X. Short, experienced
game designer and CEO, talking
about how game feel and balancing
interact in a classical RPG context.
It’s everywhere :)

12. CATEGORIES OF GAME FEEL

13. We found 5 categories of design elements and 31
subcategories (but of course there are more):
• Movement and Action (10 elements)
• Event Signi
fi
cation (10 elements)
• Time Manipulation (4 elements)
• Persistence (5 elements)
• Scene Framing (2 elements)
We assigned what design task they are connected to based
on our de
fi
nitions of those (physicality, ampli
fi
cation, and
support).

14. JUMPING
An example of an academic paper that drills
into individual parameters.

15. COYOTE TIME
An example of a re
fl
ection by a
practitioner.

16. OBSERVATIONS

17. COMPOUND EFFECTS
• Movement and Action
• Invincibility during attack
• Backstab region behind enemy
• Equipment-determined speed of character
• Event Signi
fi
cation
• Blood particles
• Sound effects
• Haptic feedback (controller vibration)
• Time Manipulation
• Slowdown of enemy
• Persistence
• Follow-through (animation after success)
• Scene Framing
• Camera orbiting
In practice, most effects are
compounds, demonstrated here on
hand of backstabbing in Dark Souls 3.

18. PLAYER INTENT > SIMULATION
“working on the player’s intent
rather than making a precise
simulation ” (Thorson, 2019)
“If done successfully, the player has an
immersive experience, that is the player thinks
only about what they're doing in the game, not
about how to manipulate the controller to get
some desired result.“ (Zimmerman, 2010)
“[Coyote Time] has a bunch of good side effects that make it
seem like the game knows your intentions.” (Nijman, 2020)

19. SUMMARY

20. DESIGNING GAME FEEL
Game feel design is minute design work that evokes an affective
reaction in the player. If game feel design is the act of
fi
ne-tuning
the relationship between expected and actual outcome of an
interactive process then it must be regarded central to the game
design process.

21. WHAT CAN I DO WITH THIS?
1. You can use the list as a reference and look up sources for the category you
are concerned with.
2. You can analyse further design domains to gain more insights. Or expand
the concept to physical games, urban games, …
3. You can devise a design process that acknowledges different tasks at
different design stages.
4. You can analyse whether and how different polish tasks are applied to
different design tasks in order to get a more granular understanding of
game design

22. SQUEEZER
A mixed-initiative tool for
automatic juice creation.
5. Or you can make tools that
support game feel design.

23. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
Martin Pichlmair
IT University of Copenhagen
mpic@itu.dk
Twitter: @martinpi
(This slide demonstrates how Bullet Time powers ampli
fi
cation)