Believe in the process, being thoughtful of course

Art, Visual effects, Level design, FX Sound, music, storyline, mechanics, systems... I'm done.

Hello my fellow gamedevs!

You have a plan, Godot (or <name of engine>) is open… Your idea is flawless you have a established goal, your scope is good enough, the theme and aesthetics are also defined, your motivation and excitement is so high, Rocket to the moon platform is ready.

But… You are not an artist, you are not a sound technician and of course you are not a narrative writer. So what’s left? Should I stop?

No my friend, this newsletter is about our gamedev journey, let’s find the way and evolve within the process.

Game Feel

It’s 1999 you power on your shiny Game boy Color system and you see the following screen, color and a iconic Nintendo character waiting for us on your handheld system.

You are so excited with the original box that you want to look further and open the “Instructions Booklet” - Source

• Control Pad.

  • Left/Right. To move our character left and right

  • Up. To move the camera

  • Down to enter a Pipe.

• A Button: Jump/Swim

• B Button: Run/Shoot fireballs

Quite easy right?

Now is your first contact with Super Mario Deluxe, you start your play session and as soon as you action any control the feedback and response is almost close to perfection, every direction shift, jump decision is as responsive as if the videogame was reading your mind’s intention.

Super Mario Deluxe highlight is not about art, sound or storyline. Even tho we have to admit the plot twist is really well done, but is about Game Feel.

Game Feel. Set of chemical reactions (Emotions) and decision tree triggered at the moment you get in touch within an interactive/ludic experience through an input (Controller)

Platform games genre requires a delightful game feel as all the systems (Remember mechanics working together) are constantly receiving our input to take us to the next level. But this could be applied to any other genre!

Defining the experience

So probably you are thinking, but

José Pérez

how can I apply the previous explanation to my game/idea? Hold on, we are close to that point.

Let’s leave behind (For some time, not forever)

• Art

• Sound

• Storyline

• Level design

• FX Sounds, Visual FX

Wait but what is my game about removing those things? Your game core is all about the first game feel the player perceive after the main menu.

Character/Playable Node Movement

Whatever your game is about, puzzle, racing, platform, a-rpg, classic rpg the first 20 seconds of interaction (after cutscenes if any) are probably more important than the remaining N hours that your game will offer, so make sure it is really refined.

Working at any of the videogame development engines around the world (Unity, Godot, Love2d…) they provide tools, libraries, functions at the end that you can call to apply movement to your player… those are good to start bringing life to your game but they doesn’t provide a refined player movement or best saying they doesn’t provide your personal approach to player movement.

Types of movement

Standard uniform physics movement - No game feel, plain gameplay

Friction physics (Interpolar movement, applying forces to our character)

Organic movement, ah?

Food for thought

Don’t worry after you start focusing on the initial game feel of your game/idea the rest of aspects that will be required are now on the background, so you can focus on a polished core for your game.

Later on the next article of gamedevpills I would like to provide insights and basic guidelines at Pixel Art, so as soon as you reach that point the information will be available for you, free on this newsletter

Thanks for reading, if you like my content don’t forget to share and subscribe!

You just discovered gamedevpills now? Don’t forget to read my first post to understand our goal and scope 😊

See you on the next one! 🎮