Customer Reviews

Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation (Morgan Kaufmann Game Design Books)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all, this is not about haptics (literal 'feel', as in force feedback or other simulated touch) though haptics are touched on (har). It's about tuning the feel of a specific kind of game - the sort where your avatar, seen or unseen, becomes a virtual extension of your real self. This requires a certain tight feedback loop of repeated player input and game response that's fast enough that it becomes to some degree chunked and unconscious. Games like Super Mario 64, Half-Life, Burnout, and Geometry Wars all qualify. Civ IV and Starcraft, even though they're great games, don't qualify - the input is too far removed.

It comes with a companion website, [...], and you are expected to follow along by downloading various example apps from the site at given points in the text and play with them. And they do add a huge amount to the book.

I'm slightly conflicted by this book - Swink does a good job of laying out exactly what makes a good game feel right, but it's a bit too chatty and repetitive, and there is a lot it 'it should do x' without as much indication of how to do x as I would have expected. If you tinker with the provided example apps much of it will come into focus, though from a tuning side if not implementation side.

I also didn't feel I learned a lot new till the end of the book, though it certainly helps to have it all laid out semi-rigorously as a checklist. On the other hand I've also played too many video games since Super Mario Bros where the designers obviously did NOT know this stuff, so I would highly recommend that anyone working in the game industry read this if you're not already Mark Cerny.

The real payoff for me came in the last several chapters where he analyzes several videogames in detail: Asteroids, Super Mario Bros, Bionic Commando, Super Mario 64, and Offroad Velociraptor Safari. And the chapter on experimental games to push the limits of the various game feel metrics was quite interesting as well.

There are charming hand illustrations throughout, and a constant stream of references to games (new and old) that you should have played at some point if you're a serious game author or player and which provide a shared reference. On the other hand, if you haven't, you might lose the point being made.

I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could - it's a good informative book, but for most of it I didn't feel utterly compelled to keep reading no matter what, and I need that for 5 stars. There are also some obvious errors an editor should have caught, though since the technical content is almost entirely on the website it doesn't hurt too much.

Steve Swink writes at length in this book about an aspect of game design that's rarely considered in a formal way: How to make a game feel responsive and consistent with a player's expectations. He's particularly concerned with games that play in real-time and give instant feedback, and makes his point with a rich set of examples. For instance, why was Street Fighter II so much more successful than the plethora of other, superficially similar fighting games that came out around the same time? Swink's answer: Because when you press a button in Street Fighter II, you get a response very fast--usually within 100ms, even if your character is in the middle of another move. Any lag beyond 240ms, Swink argues (with scientific data), leads to player frustration.

Swink also talks about "polish," the subtle visual or aural cues that alter a player's expectations. A slight change in the texture filter used on a sphere changes it from solid to squishy in the player's mind, and affects how they'll try to interact with it. The importance of polish to a game can hardly be overstated. It's what separates "Gears of War" from the hordes of other zombie shooters on the market.

Think of this as a more in-depth sequel to the superior Game Design Workshop. It should be on every video game designer's shelf.

When playing a video game, it's common to talk about how it feels. Stiff, floaty, slippery, etc... The feel of a game has got to be the most crucial, yet hard to define aspect of a game. Game Feel explores this elusive yet essential quality.

The book looks at the feel of a game both in abstract and mathematically definable ways. It surveys areas like controller input, rules, game world context and experience enhancing polish effects (sound design, particles, etc...)

Later chapters focus on examples of popular games that exhibit good game feel (Asteroids, Super Mario Bros., Bionic Commando & Mario 64) and break down the components that make these games feel so good to play.

This book is kind of a dense read, which is pretty much unavoidable given the topic, but the author does a pretty good job keeping things entertaining with a rather humorous writing style. The topics are also well divided, laying out each concept separately.

The book also has a companion website that contains playable examples of the concepts being covered. Unfortunately at the time of this review, only a few of the examples are actually there. Plus they have to be downloaded onto your computer rather than simply loading directly in the browser. It would also be nice if the site linked to all the articles the author mentions in the foot notes so I could avoid typing in a bunch of 40 character URLs.

This book is an enlightening read even if you only desire to play video games rather than design them. I personally liked the parts on virtual perception and how some of these principles of appealing game feel are similar to principles of appeal animation. (Overlap, Squash & Stretch, etc...) It's also nice that the author wraps up with a look at some of the possible future developments of game sensation.

All in all, Game Feel is an eye-opening look at the most important part of video games; the part going on in our heads.

Game Feel, an introduction to the interaction of the player with world of a video game, is an excellent primer on this much neglected subject in video game design. The way in which a player interacts with the virtual world of a video game is, perhaps, the most important factor in determining whether the player will invest any time in the game at all. If the player finds the controls either frustrating or too simplistic, or if either the actions of the player's avatar lack polish or seem inconsistent, or if the ratio of reward to effort is unbalanced the player will most likely just walk away from the game. Game Feel helps the reader make a start toward keeping these things from happening in your own video game. The author accomplishes this by first setting forth the basic tenets of: input (the range of possible movements of the player), response (the range of possible reactions of the computer to player input), context (essentially the world in which actions occur thus giving them meaning), polish (the finishing touches that bring the avatar and the world to life), metaphor (whether the game is realistic, abstract, or iconic) and finally, rules (which determine what the player has to do in the world). Next, the author presents case studies of several games, including Bionic Commando, Asteroids, and Super Mario 64. I felt that these case studies really put the previous tenets into sharp relief. Overall, I feel I have come away from this book with a better understanding of how to think about video game design. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to make a video game whether a hobbyist like me or a professional game designer.

I have a very keen interest in Computing, especially Computer Games and have amassed a collection of over 210 PC games over the years. I have often been intrigued by the subtle characteristics of game play that enrich the "game feel" and like so many others, have cursed at badly engineered situations that cause my avatar to do something totally unexpected.

"Game Feel" does an exceptional job of explaining the various mechanisms at play, both from a design and psychology perspective, that lead towards that immersive feeling that we covet from computer gaming. There are many black arts to computer game design and Steve Swink's elegant writing captures the essence of what is needed to be understood with great clarity, offering examples, analogies and clear common sense references that help the reader to effortlessly digest the essential points.

Having worked as a programmer and software designer, I would strongly recommend this book to anybody who has either an interest or a career that touches upon human interface design or computer game design. The information in this book will give the reader a much firmer grasp of the influences and tools that drive game feel up to those lofty pleasure levels that make for a great computer game.

I must admit that I did not get this book because I have a hankering to create video games. But as a graphic designer, I thought I could learn a lesson or two about how people react to visual and tactile input.

Besides, I love playing games and wanted a little more insight into why some felt different than others.

If you are a gamer, you know when you start a game whether the creators were advanced in their knowledge or just trying to get something on the market. There are games that the first minute you try them, you are hooked, either by their method of input, movements, timing or reward system (how quickly you can rack up points or advance within the game). Then there are games that just feel awkward and don't do much to keep you playing. This book explains why some games work and others fall short.

Personally, I think Nintendo has this down and sets a high standard for other game designers.

Swink has written his text so that the average person can understand and often adds humor to lend some levity to the lessons.

It will certainly help to have some gaming experience before reading. I have played a number of games, usually rated E for everyone, and mostly Mario/Nintendo. I have a young son and we often play together.

Swink uses previously released video games to illustrate his lessons. Many of them are Nintendo games so I had enough experience to relate to samples and apply the information from each chapter to actual experience. There were plenty of higher end interactive games he refers to that I haven't played but this did not detract from understanding his points.

Swink covers a lot of ground in this book and opens each chapter with a purpose, continues by using examples of actual games and throws in a few of his own samples on a referenced website, [....]. Unfortunately, at the time I read this, not all of the samples he created were ready but he links to another site, [....] that has free games he has created so he clearly practices the lessons he teaches.

There are ample line drawing illustrations (many are comical) that add to the detail in his text. He ends every chapter with a summary.

Game Feel starts out very basic but as your knowledge and understanding increase, so does the difficulty of text, although not so as to go over the reader's head. By then, you will have come to understand enough of the previous lessons to feel comfortable continuing.

It is a very thorough book and could easily be used as a teaching guide and may have been written as just that.

It covers many topics like how the object on screen appear to move in a game (2D or 3D), how avatars move and interact to their environment, how different input devices create a different user experience, the psychology of the user to connect with the avatar, how a game can create the feeling of jump, running or sliding, and the `polish' of the game.

There are references to older games, like `Asteroids' to illustrate how games have developed and entire chapters devoted to Super Mario Brothers, Bionic Commando, and Raptor Safari.

I'm sure that the next time I delve into Super Mario Galaxy, I'll be thinking about all the things Game Feel taught me. I'm hoping it just enhances the experience and I don't get too caught up in understanding why it feels so `real'.

I am not a game developer and never have even tried to program. However, I am a lover of video games from my childhood onward. I've developed a real appreciation for the way games are made and what separates a good game from a bad one, and especially what separates a fantastic game from a merely adequate one. The concept of game feel has been something I've thought about since the days of playing Mario Brothers on the NES (which is one of the games referenced as having excellent feel!) but have been limited in explaining to others. This book will give you a vocabulary and methodology for understanding synthetic sensation in games and the concepts behind what works and what doesn't, regardless of the type of game. I found the book fascinating as a 'consumer' of games, and it's increased my appreciation for those that make games well. I particularly enjoyed the many useful examples from games as old as Atari games or as new as Half Life II.

Excellent read, but a bit technical if you're not a game maker. Still worth your time if you love gaming and the concepts that make them work.

I found this book to be a very enjoyable read for someone like me who is interested in getting started in game development. The writing style is conversational and easy to understand. It discusses the common issues when trying to think about and develop a game, such as target audience, gaming interface considerations, and gives real life examples in games that we're all familiar with.

This excellent guidebook provides a taxonomy for describing the internally felt sensations of computer gamers. It analyses and describes in exhausting detail such topics as the layout and behavior of game controls (and their relation to internally felt sensation, kinesthetic, proprioceptive and tactile characteristics of the perceived experience of navigating and interacting with a game, virtual camera viewpoints and their effect on the user experience, and the feel of novel interface paradigms. These topics are particularly relevant to console games, portable devices and new configurations with accelerometers and tactile controls. With new gaming paradigms like the iPhone, and Wii-mote based exercise, having a means to describe and analyze "Game Feel" in unique environments will prove invaluable both in the design process and in evaluating user response. That this vocabulary has been extended to a variety of physical controls and interface devices, and that it describes the cadence of control and game response in terms of "attack", "decay", "sustain" and "release" and provides a graphical means to display system responses will prove increasingly valuable in the engineering of new systems.

For anyone who wishes to design, or even intelligently comment on the behavior of computer-based games on consoles, with unique controls, on phones and with tactile response systems this guidebook is a necessity. My only slight caveat is that I might have wished that the author place these sensory and physiological perceptions of game control and response in a wider context of game emotions, and cognitive response. In many cases, I might want to know how the game player is responding to the story being told and about their state of cognitive engagement at the same time as reporting their response to control arrangement and perceived navigation, but such an approach might require a more costly and unwieldy volume.

--Ira Laefsky

Information Technology Consultant and HCI Researcher

The first thing you should know is that I am NOT a gamer. So it was with some skepticism that I got this book. A book about video games... come on!

Video games are a recent (30 years or a little more) form of entertainment. And when we look at the complexity of today's MMORPG like World of Warcraft or the bizarre beauty of Resident Evil 5 for Xbox 360 or the simple pleasures of playing Tennis on a Nintendo Wii Sport Bundle - With 5 Great Sports Games Plus Wii Zapper, it is quite obvious that we've come a long, long way since the Atari 2600 I used to have back in 1986. Today, video games are not only an industry but also an art form in its own right... just like film, music, literature, etc...

This book is much more than a book about the making of video games. It is (I dare say) a book on the Philosophy of video gaming. And for someone like me who cannot find my way around a PS3 controller (I'm from a time they used to be called joysticks - one red button and one stick), it was a joy to be able to read a such well written work about the inner elements of a video game: its mental/physical/spiritual relationship with the player, the features, the mechanisms of response, the ergonomics of gaming, the perceptional/sensory side of gaming, the challenges ahead, the importance of the different interfaces, past case studies... and a lot more.

This book seems to me like one of those works destined to become a reference book for anyone who needs to read a serious reflection on the issue of video games. AND with the big plus of not getting into programming (which is ancient Greek to me). In fact, this book does not cover the technical (in my opinion less interesting) side of making a video game: it comes BEFORE all that - it gives you all the knowledge prior to the task of actually starting to write code. So this is a book on the fundamentals that drive it all...

And that is quite a work. For a complete stranger like me, the book was a delight to read. Very engaging and interesting, it covered the issues of "what constitutes a game today and how it all works with the players?" with ease... and a style that was clear and accessible.

And more: the book sometimes directs you to its website, where you can open up examples of the several gaming experiences the book refers to. This way you can feel for yourself the point the book is making.

This is a stunning book and a perfect study in every way.