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Game Development vocabulary · Gameplay & Game Design

Game feel

Meaning in game development, with examples

nounCommon term

In game development, game feel means: How responsive and satisfying it feels to control a game moment to moment, created by things like input timing, animation, camera shake, sound and visual effects.

In Turkish: oyun hissi, kontrol hissi, game feel

How it is used

Designers say a game has great game feel, or that movement feels floaty, heavy or tight. Small effects that make actions feel better are called juice: 'add more juice to the jump'. Hit stop, a tiny pause on impact, is a classic technique.

Example sentences

  1. The game feel improved a lot once we added screen shake and a short hit stop.

  2. The mechanics are fine, but the game feel is floaty; the character takes too long to stop.

Common collocations

  • great game feel
  • add juice
  • feel floaty
  • tight controls
  • hit stop
  • gameplayWhat the player actually does in a game and how it feels: the actions, rules, challenges and choices, as opposed to the story or the graphics.
  • game mechanicA single rule or action that a game is built around, such as jumping, crafting, stealth or a cover system. Several mechanics together make up the gameplay.
  • hitboxAn invisible shape around a character, or part of one, that the game uses to decide whether an attack or bullet has hit. It is often simpler than the visible model.
  • post-processingVisual effects applied to the whole image after the scene has been rendered, such as bloom, motion blur, color grading and depth of field.

More terms: Gameplay & Game Design

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