FEEDBACK IS EVERYTHING
I was amazed by this short footage.
The game responds to every player’s action with a tone of feedback!
So I decided to break down what makes it so tactile and alive and counted 27 methods.
1/15 #gamedev#GoMechaBall#madewithunity#indiegames#vfx
EFFECTS 1) The ball leaves dust and a trail that has a fixed lifetime, thus it stretches when the ball moves faster - conveying speed 2) Dust ring, sparks, and distortion effect on dashing with the spider - conveying dashing feel
2/15
3) The ball has an orange effect - responding to dashing 4) There is dust on the character's steps - adding life to the movement 5) Shells fly out on every shot - adding feel to the shooting and changing environment for a time
3/15
6) Projectiles are significantly stretched - conveying the power of every shot 7) Muzzle flash (bubble + sparks) - adding feel to the shooting 8) Shots hit effect (bubble + sparks)
4/15
9) The spider flashes white on every hit and collision - this is a cheap and flashy way to show enemies' response to hits
5/15
10) In other GoMechaBall footages, enemies leave parts on death
This changes the environment for a time too, which adds a lot of feedback to the player's actions
6/15
ANIMATION 11) The ball stretches while moving fast - conveying speed 12) The ball is squashing when colliding - conveying the power of the hit 13) The gun in the character’s hands twitches on shots - adding feel to the shooting
7/15
14) The character’s tail waves on steps - adding life to the character’s body 15) All parts of the spider squash, stretch and have inertia - adding life to the enemy's movement
8/15
UI 16) When the ball's (apparently) yellow energy is filled by another chank, it flashes white - notifying the player that he can do more dashes 17) Shots counter stripes twitch on every shot - adding feel to the shooting
9/15
On the other GoMechaBall footage points counter animation can be seen 18) The counter's value doesn’t change instantly but instead, it flips through from the previous number to the new one - making it easier for the player to notice the change and just making it jucy
10/15
19) The counter's value flashes white on the change 20) The counter’s value squashes and stretches on change (even with a little bit of inertia)
11/15
CAMERA 21) There is a small camera shaking in every shot 22) There is a big camera shake on collisions with the spider 23) The camera doesn’t follow the ball strictly. It moves slower than the character - this type of camera movement emphasizes character acceleration
12/15
SOUND
The following actions are emphasized by the sound 24) Gunshots 25) Projectiles hits 26) Dashes 27) Changing modes between walking and rolling
That’s all that I have found by now
13/15
This was quite fun to decompose those 15 seconds of footage
Some of those methods I use personally in my game (will show it later)
Some of the methods I will start to use now
(I had to rewatch it 9999999999 times)
14/15
If you want to learn more about making your game feel, there is a wonderful essay about it on @gamemakerstk channel
15/15
Also, check out my decomposition of an older game)
DO WE REALLY NEED SCISSORS IN ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS?
or
What is the minimum number of elements in rock-paper-scissors like systems and why? #gamedev#gamedesign#gamebalance#games
1/18
RPS is often used in video games. Such systems are perfectly balanced but don’t make options in a game equal in power.
2/18
What the RPS-like systems do instead, is they make each option’s power a relative concept, dependent on a situation. This adds a layer to players' decisions and a sequence of interesting decisions is what makes good games!
3/18