Game design is concerned with creating and refining the mechanics, progression systems, balance, visuals, audio, animation, narrative, and more of video games. Game designers apply principles developed over the game industry’s sixty-plus-year history, building experiences up from core loops and mechanics to complex, unfolding narratives. Games are composed of the player, game world, antagonists, allies, and the systems and mechanics governing them. Designers must create each element of their game in a player centric way to ensure a cohesive, satisfying, and interactive experience.
Games need rules and systems to be consistent, contestable fun. In the context of video games, game mechanics make up these rules and systems. Core mechanics are the central repeated actions like jumping, shooting, or driving, and secondary mechanics are additional actions that contribute depth like inventory management or levelling up. Players quickly lose interest without a sense of progression and reward. Video games deliver this feeling with increasing difficulty curves, ability unlocks, and loot drops. Each element or system overlaps and works together to make a satisfying, balanced, replayable gaming experience. Read on to learn about game design principles, tips, and basics.
1. Game mechanics
Game mechanics interact with the rules and systems to determine how the player interacts with a game. A game must present players with options, actions, choices, and responses that influence their success, failure, or progression in order to be a game. Game mechanics are the building blocks of gameplay – the individual actions that interweave and overlap to create a system that’s fun for players to engage with. In the context of an RPG, for example, the story tells you what’s happening, while the game mechanics represent the actions the player takes, the rules that govern them, and the systems affected through player actions.
A game’s core mechanic is the primary way players interact with the world. In the Doom series, the core mechanic is shooting. In Mario, the core mechanic is jumping. Core mechanics are typically representable using simple verbs: jump, kick, shoot, score, drive, etc. Secondary mechanics are actions that support the core mechanic to deepen the experience. Trading loot in a shooter to buy a new gun is an example of a secondary mechanic. Crafting weapons and armor in an RPG to improve stats for combat is another. Deeper, more complex games like simulations, strategy games, CRPGs, and MMOs feature several layers of mechanics that overlap to maintain long-term interest. More immediate, arcade-style games, such as versus fighting games or arcade shooters, use fewer mechanics and polish existing ones to a high degree.
I picture individual mechanics as notes and the overall experience of gameplay as the song when I work on game mechanics. Each mechanic (like each note) must work in harmony with the others so that the experience of playing the game (or listening to the song) feels like more than the sum of its parts. Take World of Warcraft (WoW) as an example. No element of WoW’s mix of combat, progression, exploration, social interaction, resource management, and exploration exists in isolation. Each mechanic overlaps with others, making WoW a deep, complex experience. Combat fuels progression, exploration reveals combat opportunities, social interaction unlocks group raids, and raids reward players with loot to sell or use.
2. Progression and rewards
Progression and reward systems engage player interest in the medium to long-term by creating goals to work towards and rewards for the time spent. Progression systems include moveset unlocks in fighting games, power-up systems in platform games, skill tree progression in RPGs, new unit unlocks in an RTS, or any other system that encourages players to push towards the next milestone. Rewards act as in-game recompense for the time and effort the player has put into the game. Rewards include currency, armor, weapons, cosmetics, and progression options. Games like RPGs, MMOs, and sandbox games often reward players with a mix of progression options and loot as rewards. Platformers, shooters, and racing games are more direct with their rewards, offering power-ups, weapons, and new vehicles as rewards.
Progression systems deepen player investment in a game by making the experience unique and reactive to player input. An RPG player is able to choose a solo magic-only run in a CRPG, a MOBA player is able to build a highly specific glass cannon character, and a skilled Forza 5 player is able to win on a technical race course in a classic road car. These options aren’t optimal from a path of least resistance perspective, but they represent players choosing to progress within a very specific form of self expression. Emotional attachment to a video game is deepened by effective progression systems by giving player a sense of ownership over their characters/builds/vehicles.
Challenges, obstacles, and enemies are central to satisfying progression and reward systems in games. I realized how important enemy design is to progression when I was redesigning the Warlock class for WoW’s Mist of Pandaria expansion. In a game where combat is a large part of the core loop, enemies shape the entire gameplay experience. The rate of players choosing the Warlock class had steadily dropped off in the months before Mists of Pandaria, with player feedback suggesting the class had become complex, unwieldy, and samey-feeling across many specializations. With feedback from the community, I focused on making the fantasy of each Warlock specialization feel complete and distinct. Then, I looked at the enemy roster and how engaging with it reinforced the core fantasy of the Warlock.
3. Video game balance and difficulty the flow state
Video game balance is crucial to a successful game because players enter the flow state when the challenge is equal to that player’s skill level. The narrow band between boredom through over-simplicity and frustration through excessive difficulty looks different for every player. Experienced players with fast reaction times and a high level of coordination demand a stiffer challenge than casual players with less favorable attributes. Arcade games, roguelikes, and soulslikes offer harder challenges, forcing players to learn underlying systems and patterns. Casual games, cosy games, and mobile games tend to present lower challenges and demand less intense concentration. Finding the right balance to create the flow state depends in part on player expectations based on the genre and platform.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi recognized and named the flow state as a state of mind conducive to progress and productivity. Csikszentmihalyi described this state as becoming absorbed by an activity for its own sake, achieved by using skills at their utmost threshold. For games to cause players to enter the flow state, they must balance skill with challenge and offer clear goals and feedback. The player must know what to do and get immediate feedback on the success or failure of their actions. Effective difficulty curves introduce players to core mechanics, obstacles, and antagonists in a structured way. Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 is iconic for the way it introduces each mechanic and gameplay element intuitively without tutorial text or pop-ups. World 1-1 is neither too simple to be boring on a first attempt, nor too complex to overwhelm the player. It engages the flow state from the beginning, encouraging players to continue.
I worked on combat balance to tune the challenge for optimal flow state on Ori and the Will of the Wisps. In the game’s predecessor, Ori and the Blind Forest, combat was a minor part of the game, using an underpowered, auto-targetting projectile attack that kept the focus on platforming. In Will of the Wisps, we wanted the combat to feel more fluid, giving players strategic options with detailed melee and magic systems. Balancing combat meant regular testing and feedback to make sure it felt satisfying to fight using melee, ranged, and magic offensive abilities. Players tend to gravitate to the most effective options when presented with multiple play styles in a challenging game. Balance for effectiveness across all combat/traversal/racing options to ensure players follow their desired fantasy and not the path of least resistance.
4. Immersion and narrative
Immersion and narrative are the elements of games that engage players’ imaginations, making game worlds feel real. Immersion is affected by every element of a game’s design, from aesthetics to sound design to writing – each element contributes to the sense of a cohesive, real-feeling place. Narrative strongly affects immersion by creating characters and plots that players respond to emotionally and want to see resolved. Immersion is possible in games without a strong narrative element, however. Designers create highly immersive experiences when the player’s power fantasy is compelling, and effective challenges and rewards push the player forward. Space sims like Elite Dangerous and the X series are renowned for their immersive gameplay, systems, and atmosphere with limited narrative elements, for example.
Strong linear narratives hit story beats in a similar pattern to films, TV shows, and novels. A game must follow a specific structure and feature certain guard rails for a linear narrative to work. The Last of Us is curated to deliver high-impact story and character moments that are only possible in a rigid framework. Sandbox or open world elements often hamstring attempts to tell linear narratives because they allow the player too much freedom to disrupt the order of events, kill NPCs, or bother the wrong faction. This explains why games like Skyrim are immersive for their sense of player power fantasy rather than for their linear narrative elements. Titles like The Witcher 3 successfully blend open-world environments with a reasonably strong, semi-linear narrative and character arcs.
Most video games deliver a blend of immersive power fantasy and interesting narrative. Understanding what drives these two elements and how they intertwine elevates game design. Effective designers use gating to subtly lock off areas, abilities, and options that interfere with the desired narrative structure. Be careful not to opt for arbitrarily locked doors, invisible walls, or unintentionally mute NPCs. Players expect reasonable, in-game explanations for why they can’t go to certain places or interact with objects or characters. “Immersion-breaking” has become a regular part of video game discourse, levelled at narrative or gameplay elements that feel incongruous with the rest of the experience. During playtests, look for feedback on how the narrative, gameplay, and audiovisual elements support immersion.
5. Player agency
Player agency is the capacity of players to influence events onscreen through their choices, actions, and strategies. Player interactions that meaningfully affect events, characters, gameplay, or the gameworld are examples of player agency. Effective game design doesn’t create interactions in a vacuum. Instead, designers look to build interactions that influence other elements and mechanics, building nuanced, layered interactions without overbearing complexity. Player agency exists in all games, but varies in degrees according to the genre. Bullet-hell shooters offer little agency outside of do it the right way or die, but it’s still in the player’s hands. CRPGs, MMOs, and open-world games offer myriad, overlapping options, ranging from classes to builds to exploration to crafting.
Player agency is expressed through game mechanics (magic vs melee), narrative choice (kill the captive vs spare them), strategy (trading vs bounty hunting), and roleplaying (hero dialogue options vs villain dialogue options). Games like the Hitman series offer deep mechanical agency by presenting the player with many divergent ways to achieve the same objective of assassination. Stealth, disguise, and deliberate chaos are all valid ways to get to the target. The player expresses agency by selecting the approach they feel is most appropriate. Player agency in the Mass Effect series stems from the meaningful narrative choices like saving the Citadel Council vs sacrificing them. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’s light side vs dark side role-playing options gave players agency over a central part of the Star Wars fiction.
Players don’t get satisfaction from autonomy alone. Giving players control over choices and mechanics they find meaningful and thematic is the key to effective player agency. When I redesigned the Warlock class for WoW’s Mists of Pandaria expansion, I realized that the existing options didn’t fulfill the fantasy promised by the titles of the class specializations. I looked at the three Warlock specializations, Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction, and considered the core fantasy underpinning each option. Affliction needed options that emphasized pain and suffering, Demonology needed power and pets, and
Destruction needed to give players control over raw, unrestrained force. I focused on abilities and mechanics for these specializations that made players feel like high fantasy Warlocks. Players enjoy agency over meaningful, thematic options, not options alone.
6. Gameplay loops
Gameplay loops are the cycles of actions a player takes moment-to-moment during gameplay, compelling them forward and maintaining engagement. The core loop is the simplest repeated action that constitutes gameplay, such as jumping, shooting, or steering. Secondary or meta loops represent progression over a longer timeline, such as upgrades or unlocks. A loop cycle includes a reward for progression followed by an escalation in challenge. In an arcade game like Space Invaders, the goal → action → feedback → reward → escalation cycle is identical except for the increase in challenge and points accrued. In an RPG, the cycle involves nuanced choices around builds, classes, and abilities.
Effective gameplay loops are clear and easy to understand without extensive tutorials. Genres set expectations for the complexity of gameplay loops. Arcade brawlers feature loops like defeat enemies → fight → enemies explode → unlock new level → fight tougher enemies. The classes, specializations, build options, and scale of MMOs mean players expect more complexity when interacting with their gameplay loops. Each step of a gameplay loop must feel satisfying, from the simplest action, such as running, jumping, or shooting, to the longer-tail activities like character leveling and crafting.
I boil the cycle down to its three most basic components: challenge → action → reward (or punishment) when I work on gameplay loops. Focus on making each of these steps feel balanced and make success or failure dependent on player skill or strategy. Then, consider how satisfying these loops feel to engage with moment to moment, minute to minute, hourly, daily, and over longer periods. Effective gameplay loops are clear to players, motivate players to continue, respond to player input, feel satisfying, and fulfill the fantasy promised by the class or character.
7. Game system interactions
Game system interactions refer to the way the player, the world, and game elements respond to each other. Games are composed of the player, game world, factions, NPCs, antagonists, abilities, choices, and progression systems that overlap and interact. Interaction between game systems is what makes video games feel more alive and dynamic than other media. Grand Theft Auto’s escalating wanted level in response to player crime is an example of a system interaction. Systems interacting allows for emergent gameplay opportunities, interesting faction and character relationships, and reactions to dynamic events.
Cause and effect interactions are a common way to make the game world feel responsive to player action or NPC behaviour. Classic platformers and shooters featured tight but simple cause and effect interactions like shoot object → object explodes. CRPGs, immersive sims, sandbox games, and open worlds use layers of interacting systems to offer player options and create a convincing game world. The Dishonoured guards’ reactions to light, sound, and other stimuli change available pathways, turning combat encounters into stealth opportunities. In Dwarf Fortress, The Sims, or Rimworld, environmental, economic, and social systems interact to create emergent stories and gameplay scenarios.
I put resource systems as the glue that held each playstyle together when I revised the WoW Warlock class. This allowed for specific, specialized forms of distinctiveness within a specialization, without having to dramatically change the familiar core elements of each. For example, Affliction’s Soul Shards could create a super powered utility effect, while Destruction’s burning embers allowed for a short window of high damage or self healing.
8. Art and animation
Art and animation are core pillars of game design because video games are a visual medium where aesthetics and movement affect both identity and function. Art style plays a major role in establishing a game’s identity by transmitting the tone and atmosphere before gameplay begins. On one end of the spectrum is the gritty realism of the Metro series and on the other the hyper stylized cartoon world of the Animal Crossing series. Players identify and categorize games based on their first impressions of the art style, making assumptions about genre, tone, and target audience. Effective animation is central to game design because it’s the link between player input and onscreen action. If animations are sluggish or don’t effectively transmit the action they represent, gameplay suffers.
Art and animation design transmit a game’s identity and help mechanics operate by using contrast and color choices to subtly highlight options, enemies, routes, and other gameplay features. Super Hot’s desaturated visuals with vivid red elements are unique and make the frenetic gameplay pace more manageable. Shovel Knight’s cartoon aesthetic is charming and allows for color coded visual elements, such as destructible terrain and desaturated colors to highlight specific elements. Art design transmits tone and atmosphere, but animation creates the cause and effect of player input. Players feel connected to an experience when the animation transmit the intended effect – swinging the sword looks and feels like swinging a sword, for example.
Many of the principles underpinning video game animation design overlap with traditional animation. Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston’s book, The Illusion of Life outlines the twelve basic principles of animation, covering concepts such as squash and stretch, anticipation, straight ahead action and pose to pose, and overlapping action. These principles form the backbone of contemporary understanding of animation. Animation in games is more than aesthetic. It drives mechanics, informs player feedback, and overlaps with art design to set the tone. Ori and the Will of the Wisps’ lush, natural visuals combine with the fluid animation to amplify the game’s themes of saving nature and restoring balance.
9. Sound design
Sound design is a fundamental part of game design because it’s the key factor in guiding the player throughout all in-game interactions. Video games are an auditory medium as much as a visual one. Sound design is how a video game speaks to the player, communicating success, failure, combat hits and misses, blocks, acceleration, footsteps, and a list of other actions. Effective sound design techniques are not always flashy. Subtle but readable sound design cues for mundane actions like opening inventory, reloading, and picking up objects guide players while avoiding fatigue. Ambient sound and music composition contribute to immersion, and must match the environment while setting the tone.
When each action in a sandbox game like Minecraft has a distinct sound cue it helps to anchor players in a consistent feeling world and offers actionable feedback. In frantic situations, having a recognizable audio cue confirming actions is a welcome addition to any visual system. Dynamic sound design systems that vary music based on context reinforce gameplay loops like stealth, combat, and exploration. Games like Rez combine sound effects from player actions as percussive elements in the background music. Effective sound design acts as an anchor point to the game world, giving feedback and making player actions feel more powerful.
When designing sound, apply the following four principles to every element: focus on what’s important, show them why they should care, design a core identity, and reward their accomplishments. Focus and importance in sound design refers to giving actions recognizable audio cues that direct the players attention. Putting shells into a shotgun and putting a cartridge in a pistol are both reloading sounds that inform the player that their gun has successfully been reloaded. By that same principle a jamming sound effect would indicate that the player’s gun has failed to properly reload. Either way the sound becomes an intricate part of the core gameplay loop.
However sound design needs to have distinctive elements to reflect the nature of the character or gameplay mechanic it represents. Going back to the previous example, putting shells into a shotgun and putting a cartridge in a pistol are both reloading sounds, but must sound very different to be convincing. Through these principles sound design brings the gameplay loop full circle. The player performs an action, gets the appropriate response from the game, and is rewarded for their actions with the confirmation that they have a full set of shells & bullets in their gun.
10. Game design pillars
Game design pillars are a small set (typically 3 – 5) of guiding principles that define the core of the gameplay experience. Well-defined game design pillars help to keep a team focused and allow them to apply Ockham’s razor to design problems that fall outside of the original purview. There is no set list of industry-standard game design pillars and every studio operates differently, but typical pillars include core gameplay experience, player fantasy, worldbuilding, and accessibility. A project’s game design pillars are its compass throughout development and help developers to create a unified player experience.
The core gameplay experience refers to what the player does for the bulk of the gameplay. In Doom, the core gameplay experience is fast-paced, explosive combat, in Sonic, it’s high-speed, reflex-based platforming. The player fantasy is the emotional state the game intends to evoke in the player. In Doom, the player fantasy is aggression, power, and speed. The core fantasy of Dragon Age is the chance to play as a hero in a morally complex world. Worldbuilding as a design pillar explains how the world feels unique, alive, and compelling for players to explore. Mass Effect’s worldbuilding, for example, is remembered for its interconnected factions and meaningful choices and consequences. Accessibility as a design pillar describes how easy your game is to pick up and play. Not every genre is expected to be as accessible as every other. Souls-like players are conditioned for challenge, for example.
Focus on the most appealing elements that represent a game’s unique selling point (USP) when creating game design pillars. Use audience expectations for the genre to guide you. Freedom, choice and consequence, and support for multiple playstyles appeal to players of sandbox RPGs and open worlds. Player power fantasy is at the heart of action-heavy FPS, fast-paced action games, and many racing and flying titles, while CRPG gamers expect top-tier worldbuilding with interesting characters, factions, and compelling progression systems. When players hear about a game, they create an idealized fantasy of what that game offers. Game design pillars represent this fantasy and help to align the team by providing a clear reference point.
11. Playtesting
Playtesting is necessary to get feedback from real players on accessibility, fun, mechanics, systems, UI, design decisions, and fun. Designers and developers working on a game are too close to the project to effectively assess it from a player perspective. Playtesting sessions let designers see how players respond to and adopt the game’s systems and mechanics. Design intent is not the same as reality. Playtesting content, mechanics, and skills reveals weaknesses and overpowered items/abilities, and identifies fun, unintended uses of design features. Knowing the rules and mechanics before playing the game creates blind spots for designers and developers. Playtesters fulfill the role of a fresh pair of eyes.
Successful games are intuitive, easy-to-learn, and feature gameplay loops that are fun to repeat. Game designers intend to tick all of these boxes, but are too involved to accurately assess their own success. Knowing the system tends to reduce the challenge of a game, so designers struggle to get the difficulty curve correct without playtesters. Maps and levels suffer the same issue – the people who created them know how to navigate them. Playtesting reveals friction points, poorly designed levels, poorly explained mechanics, exploits, and any other areas that lead to player frustration.
A guiding principle of playtesting is test early, test often. It’s not necessary to wait until you have a polished build to test your ideas. Even paper prototypes are testable with a group of friends or colleagues. Don’t narrow your testing to a single audience. There are many types of gamers: casual, hardcore, and fans of specific genres. A hardcore RPG fan is more likely to have a favorable view of your crunchy CRPG than a typical Call of Duty player. See how different audiences respond to your game. Focusing each session on specific feedback goals (combat, story, UI, etc) helps identify issues and iterate quickly. The Funsmith Tavern Discord server host regular playtesting sessions where designers share ideas with the community and get feedback.
12. Game progression
Game progression is the structured way a game compels the player to keep playing by increasing challenge in accordance with players ability. The elements designers use to create progression systems are challenge, player skill, narrative, and content. Different genres feature more of some elements than others. Adventure games often feature a strong central narrative that the player feels compelled to progress through suspense, peril, or danger. Arcade games focus on progression through increasing difficulty curves as players develop muscle memory and skill.
Games must increase challenge over time to maintain interest. Depending on the genre this increased challenge means tighter timing, more powerful, durable enemies, smaller platforms, or more complex puzzles. The introduction of chain chomps in Mario, enemy level-scaling in Skyrim, or boss encounters in Dark Souls are examples of progression through challenge. Corresponding player skill comes from real skills like learning timing and control schemes, or abstract improvement like stat increases in an RPG. In story-focused games, the narrative is a progression system because the player continues playing to see what happens next.
When designing progression systems, start simple and layer complexity at a structured pace. Designing this way makes sense because it’s also the order the player engages with the game’s mechanics and systems – simplest first. Progression must teach fundamentals, increasing the stakes before the player gets bored. Progression systems work best when they vary the difficulty curve occasionally, creating easier encounters where the player feels the power of their new skills and abilities. The best progression systems feature a mix of short, medium, and long term goals. Players want to unlock a new ability to traverse a difficult part of the map to progress to the next plot point to finish the campaign – it’s all connected.
13. Game depth
Game depth is a measure of how much meaningful complexity a game offers through mechanics, strategic choices, or expressive potential. Game depth is not simply about complex rules and mechanics, but how those rules and mechanics create interesting choices and options for the players. Chess doesn’t feature a complex system of rules, but the way its rules interact creates a deep, strategic experience. Street Fighter follows a similar model, using few input options that overlap and interact with each other to create many possible outcomes.
Players of different genres expect depth across different vectors. Sports games on yearly update schedules like Madden and NBA need skill-based mechanics, tactical depth, and consistent rules to keep players engaged in competitive modes. RPG players expect to be able to build a deep, unique character with customization options. RTS veterans want strategic options like science, military, trading, and diplomacy that overlap to create deep, living economies and factions. Minecraft is deep because of its expressive potential, giving players a blank canvas to create anything they think of. Crusader Kings 3 is deep because of its many options, outcomes, variables, factions, and conflicts. Skyrim is deep because the player has the option of engaging with a myriad of systems and mechanics to complete objectives in different ways.
People often mistake complexity for depth – but just as a toolbox of 100 screwdrivers means little in a world where only flathead screws exist, design with many unrelated, specialized elements matters far less than a few tools with nuanced layers of ways to solve problems or express the player’s needs. Effectively designed games are often “easy to learn, hard to master”. Players understand what’s going on in Tetris within seconds and with no tutorial, but Tetris remains a deep game. Its rules and mechanics are immediately apparent, but the way those rules and mechanics create emergent outcomes make it infinitely replayable.
14. Iterative process
The iterative process in game design is the development cycle that allows designers and developers to build and improve a game step by step. The iterative process has developed to reduce risk, improve player experience, discover new potential, and support a balanced, deep game. Design intentions don’t always result in the outcomes their designers wanted. Only through cycles of designing, implementing, testing, evaluating, refining, and repeating are problems and shortcomings hashed out. Ideas on paper are an excellent starting point for design ideas, but they can’t be stress tested or interacted with.
The first step of the iterative process is design. Create the concept, mechanic, item, character, or level from your imagination, sticking to the design pillars you’ve created. Then, implement your design. Use a paper prototype, gray box, block out or whatever works for the situation. Playtest the prototype with a range of different players to evaluate the design. Gather feedback, observe problems, and note successes before refining the design through balance, optimization, or pacing. Repeat this cycle until the game is balanced, rewarding, and fun.
Priority setting is one of the keys to optimizing the iterative process. Early in the cycle, prototype fast. Polishing early builds and features that mightn’t make the cut is a waste of time. Build prototypes quickly. If the concept works, polish later. The priority must always be the core loop. A game can’t succeed if the core loop is weak. No one ever said “the gunplay in this FPS is terrible but the crafting system makes up for it”. Test often. Player experience is more important than designer intentions every time. Know when to quit. If a mechanic or feature isn’t working after a certain number of cycles – cut it. Don’t try to fix everything at once. Establish clear goals for each iteration and focus on reaching those.
15. Game physics
Game physics simulate movement, interaction, and collision within a game world. Game physics range from the semi-realistic in hardcore simulations to the wacky and fantastical in platformers, shooters, and some RPGs. Physics must feel natural, consistent, and believable according to the fiction. “Realistic” is not the same a natural-feeling. Players of the Tony Hawk’s series don’t want realistic physics. In many cases they’ve tried and failed to skateboard under the earth’s standard gravity with limited success. Players of video games expect some fantasy, and in many cases, this means higher, faster, and more exaggerated movement.
In many genres, physics define core gameplay. Shooting, driving, running, and jumping are inherently physical acts. Half Life 2’s gravity gun is a deliberate use of a physics system in an unusual way. Angry Bird’s gameplay loop is entirely built around projectile physics. Feedback and satisfaction from in-game actions derives from both their animation and the physics used. Games physics fall into realistic, stylized, and hybrid categories. Flight Simulator uses realistic physics to mimic the real world activity of flight as closely as possible. Sniper Elite uses a hybrid of realistic and exaggerated physics to ramp up the collisions and make the experience more engaging. Mario Kart uses stylized physics to create fun, accessible gameplay.
Exaggeration increases clarity. The way a video game character swings a sword doesn’t have to please your local HEMA instructor, but it needs to successfully transmit the intended action in a responsive and satisfying way. Amplify feedback with screen shakes, speed blurs, and any techniques that reinforce the movement on screen. A little physics goes a long way – be careful to make sure it doesn’t undermine or replace the core of your gameplay. A fluid, physical movement system that never cheats makes sense for Ori, a series about momentum and smoothness. However, it might undermine a multiplayer game by introducing needless complexity or uncertainty that leads to desyncing gameplay or difficult to debug online sessions.
