h p://www.tinymantis.com/
h p://www.supremacygame.com/
Using Software Prototypes in Game Design 223
Prototyping for Game Feel
by Steve Swink
Steve Swink is a game designer, teacher, and unicycle enthusiast. Having done stints at Neverso and the
now defunct Tremor Entertainment, he now designs for Flashbang Studios, a small development studio in
Tempe, Arizona. He is also an instructor in Game and Level Design at the Art Institute of Phoenix, and he is
currently writing a book entitled Game Feel: a Game Design Guide to Virtual Sensation to be published by
Morgan Kaufmann in summer 2008.
What is good game feel? Among other things, it might mean that the feel of controlling the game is intrinsically
pleasurable. The feel of Super Mario 64 ?¬? lls me with thoughtless joy, enhancing every aspect of the
game. From the ?¬? rst few seconds, I??™m hooked, sold, ready to spend endless hours discovering the endless
challenges and permutations implied by this tantalizing motion. Every interaction I have with the game will
have this base, tactile, kinesthetic pleasure. How was this sensation designed? What??™s behind the curtain?
Wherein does the ???magic??? of game feel lie?
The problems of game feel quickly become intertwined with the problems of the design as a whole, but
it is possible to separate out the relevant components of game feel to make them a bit more manageable:
?· Input: How the player can express their intent to the system
?· Response: How the system processes, modi?¬? es, and responds to player input in real time
?· Context: How constraints give spatial meaning to motion
?· Polish: The impression of physicality created by layering of reactive motion, proactive motion,
sounds, and e?¬? ects, and the synergy between those layers
?· Metaphor: The ingredient that lends emotional meaning to motion and that provides familiarity to
mitigate learning frustration
?· Rules: Application and tweaking of arbitrary variables that give additional challenge and higherlevel
meaning to constrained motions
Note: In the interest of brevity, the following discussion focuses on input, response, and context.
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