How to make your game more fun
How game juice can change your game
A lot of factors determine if the game is fun or not. The player must feel powerful and in control. Many game developers fall into this trap, and their game feels dull and lifeless. In this article, I’ll explain the importance of game feel and juice, using my game Robot Frenzy as an example.
Robot Frenzy is a game I made for the GoedWare Game Jam #7. During its development, I hit a roadblock. My game wasn’t fun. To fix this, I added the following:
Screen shake
When used correctly, it adds a dynamic feel to your game. You can achieve it by taking a random Vector2 between — and + amplitude values (I set the amplitude to 8) and changing the camera offset to that Vector2. But be careful. Too much screen shake will make the player nauseous.
Camera lean
Making the camera lean toward the mouse will make it feel more responsive. Do this by changing the camera’s position to half the distance between the player and the mouse.
Vignette effect
A vignette effect is just making the corners of the screen darker than the center. You can do this by applying shaders to the screen. By doing this, you make the player focus on meaningful things.
Gun animation
Adding gun knockback and recoil makes the game feel natural. You can achieve this by slightly changing the gun’s scale every time the player shoots.
Explosions
Make lots of explosions, and make them big. Make the bullets big. Especially in shooters, bullet chaos and explosions can make the game look amazing.
Enemy hit
Make the player know they successfully landed a hit. Make the player flash white, push it back, pause it, etc. It gives the player the feeling of satisfaction.
Aimer
If you’re making a shooter, replacing the mouse cursor with an aim sprite can make a huge difference.
Music and sound effects
Both music and sound effects are necessary. Music should follow the game mood, while sound effects should be loud and exciting, especially in dynamic scenes.
Now here is the before and after of my game.
In conclusion, you have to make the player feel in control. Animate everything and dedicate time to polishing your game. If you want to learn more, I suggest checking out some talks on game feel. I hope this guide helped, and if you want to check out my game, go to Robot Frenzy.
If you are starting out with game development, check out my article on Getting started with game development.
