Tag: game development

Juice Up Your Game

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Jan Willem Nijman – Vlambeer – “The art of screenshake”

“Just fill your game with love and tiny details.”

Jan Willem Nijman

The 30 little Tricks from Jan Willem Nijman to Juice up your Game

I collected all the 30 tricks on the youtube video from Jan Willem Nijman in this article. Basically the trick name and a little tiny explanation. It’s actually just for my own convenience. But hey if it’s helpful for you, you are welcome.

1. Basic Animations & Sounds

Makes walking, jumping, picking up things, and shooting more fun. It doesn’t really matter if it’s high quality or simple. It makes it alive.

2. Lower Enemy HP

It’s more fun. It’s super frustrating if you need to shoot ten times on an enemy before he dies, makes your weapon feel feeble and boring.

3. Higher Rate of Fire

It’s a video game about shooting so put more bullets in there. You hardly can overdo it. Really. Just add more bullets. Give your weapon a higher fire rate.

4. More Enemies

Because of juice number 2 you need more enemies to shoot. It’s satisfying if they pop like popcorn.

5. Bigger Bullets

Don’t use realistically sized bullets as it looks so silly, make them big. The player wants to see those badass killer bullets. The weapon feels much more powerful.

6. Muzzle Flash

Just make the first bullet frame a circle. Very simple, very effective.

7. Faster Bullets

Slow bullets are lame, make it faster.

8. Less Accuracy

If your gun is not too accurate it looks more realistic and is more fun.

9. Impact Effects

Let the player know he hit something, don’t just remove the bullets. Like fragments falling off the wall if a bullet hits it or blood strains if a character gets hit by a bullet.

10. Hit Animation

Let the player know that he damaged the enemies. The simplest trick is to make the enemy flat white for a fraction of a second.

11. Enemy Knockback

But knockback force if you hit enemies. Your weapon feels so much more powerful and makes it more realistic from a physical point of view.

12. Permanence

Don’t remove dead bodies, it helps you remember if you come back in a room with a huge pile of dead bodies in it.

13. Camera Lerp

Smoother cameras make the character feel more in motion.

14. Camera Position

Your camera focus on important things in your video game. This is one of the hardest part and takes a lot of trials and testing.

15. Screen Shake

This is an important rule add screen shake on explosions it looks so much more powerful than without.

16. Player recoil

Shooting feels much more powerful with recoil on the player and you can use it to avoid that player do not shoot all the time as it has a drawback.

17. Sleep

If you set a deadly hit sleep for about 20 ms, you can hardly see that but it puts more meaning in that action.

18. Gun Delay

Make the character and its props look like they have weight/momentum when moving.

19. Gun Kick

Add recoil to things that would have it.

20. Strafing

If you shoot and change the direction the shooting will be still in the same direction until you stop shooting to turn around the gun.

21. More Permanence

Put ejecting shells in your game and make them permanent. It also helps to remember that you were in that room and that you did shoot a lot.

22. More Bass

Add bass to your shooting and explosions they get much more meaning and power.

23. Super Machinegun

Try ridiculous variations on how shooting performs, maybe three bullets a time, go crazy.

24. Random Explosions

That is a funny one but it puts more action in your game if you put some random explosions to your game when you shoot enemies, don’t overdo it.

25. More Enemies

You tuned up your gameplay so that you got the feeling you do have not enough to shoot at.

26. Even Higher Rate of Fire

Because it is more fun to shoot

27. Even Higher Rate of Camera Kick

Make your camera kick in the direction of the action/shooting.

28. Bigger Explosions

Seriously, who doesn’t like explosions?

29. Even More Permanence

Put some dust after your gigantic explosions and let it fade slowly.

30. Meaning

Let your player win or loos. It’s an obvious one.

Lens #17: The Lens of the Toy

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The lens #17, the lens of the toy from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

This lens is about my little character which can pick up weapons, ammo, and other stuff, which can walk, jump and shoot.

I have to answer the following questions

  • If the game had not goal, would it be fun at all? If not, how can I change that?
  • When people see my game, do they want to start interacting with it, even before they know what to do? If not, how can I change that?

It’s fun for me to walk around and shoot enemies. It is simple enough to “get it” and interact with it. Due to the COVID-19, there are no gameshows where I could test if people would like to interact with my game. But the bar should be pretty low to give it a try. But the game world is not interactive enough to just enjoy walking around and explore the levels without any goal.

The game world needs more things we can interact with. Like flying paper in an office space or dust and little debris when walking around. Also shooting should have more impact on the game world.

The outcome of this chapter will lead to a couple more topics for Lens #16: The Lens of Risk Mitigation as I have to try them out quickly which means more prototyping. Prototyping is a fun thing to do actually and with ESC (see also my articles about ESC) it is a piece of cake.

A selection of ideas

  • Destructible stuff
  • Attacking dash
  • Water which includes swimming and diving
  • Whirling paper when rushing through an office space
  • Whirling dust and debris along the way when we shoot
  • A sleeping animation if just standing around
I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Risk Mitigation: Add more Details to Death Animation

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

I tried quickly if more details for death animation would give the game more depth.

And it does. Need some more fine-tuning and random but the idea is there and looks good and funny. But I need to add some random explosion if I kill a mass of soldiers. The blood fragments have to be more random in the depth axis so the helmet is not all behind the blood fragments. But this is fine-tuning for a prototype this is enough.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Risk Mitigation: Test Primary and Secondary Weapon Switch

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

The next idea I tried quickly to pitch was having a primary and a secondary weapon for more advanced levels. But I needed first the implementation, was only an hour to implement this and define the primary and secondary weapons, so cheap enough. I tested with an M4 and a semi-automatic handgun (Glock).

If I use a gamepad, I will have to separate the switch button from the shoot button, so that I can shoot and independently switch the weapon. Feels good. But at the moment the handgun doesn’t give any advantage over the rifle for melee attacks or in any other situation than running out of ammo with the rifle. This isn’t too exciting. I have to extend this test and see if it is a good idea to make a rifle not operatable in very close range so that the player just has to switch to a melee weapon which is the main purpose of a secondary weapon. I made as well the handgun ineffective for long-distance, the bullets lose their power over time.

One thing I observe is if my rifles are not working in melee it is not visible or clear it just does not shoot. I need some feedback. Could drop some curses from the player. This leads to another test besides just implementing the weapon switch between rifle and melee weapon. I will test this idea shortly and see if I like it. I tried ejecting some skulls and bones when he curses.

It gives now an indication that something bogs this little man when he tries to shoot at something too close. Looks cute in a way so I will go with that.
And last but not least a mini level where a weapon swtich makes sense.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Risk Mitigation: Test Bloodstain for Bullet Exit Wounds

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

In this blog article I tested bloodstain for exit wounds, this makes it much crueler and in a weird way, satisfying to shoot those dummies. I took the damage into account to generate the amount of bloodstain when an enemy gets hit. But this is not just limited to the enemies but also the hero.

Looks quite satisfying but might be that it becomes a bit too violent. I apply to every character, robot, and object its own hit animation, so even when I shoot at a computer I can make some fitting nice animation for getting hit. I think this looks more interesting than just color the object flat white for one frame when get hit by bullets.

The test leads to a better-organized code and easier to add new hit and destroy animations for certain objects and characters.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Risk Mitigation: Test More Random for Shell Ejection

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

I will play with the random factor for shell ejection, they currently look a bit like a waterfall as I only have random for the vertical component of the ejection force. So I tried to add as well random for the horizontal force. I will have to do this comparison for all my weapons that I want to use in the game.

For me, B looks a bit more vivid and a bit more out of control, actually exactly what I want to achieve. Anyway, I made a tweet but this time no feedback. I guess it doesn’t make a big difference. I go with a tiny bit more random and that’s it, looks more vivid.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Lens #16: The Lens of Risk Mitigation

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The lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links int this article I will get a small commission for that.

First of all, this lens is about figuring out the worst-case scenarios, what could go wrong, or what could hold my game back from being great. This is to stop thinking positively about my game. Tim Ferriss also has this in his book The 4 Hour Workweek, to overcome the fear he suggest to write down the biggest nightmare you can imagine could happen if you, for example, quit your job and start an own business and from there mitigate those risks and find solutions. And it is also about testing your ideas with prototypes. There are similarities in these books. One is game design the other is about automating your company. About 80:20. Fascinating.

  • What could keep this game from being great?
  • How can I stop that from happening?

My levels might be boring to play. So I started a series of mini levels. My first mini levels are all about the double-barrel shotgun. I keep them minimalistic to test if the levels are fun or boring to play. they are super minimalistic and super quickly done. Perfect for prototyping. It’s already clear that this might be fun, as I can motivate people for speed runs. It’s fun because you can pick up the gun and ammo and while you jump up to the platform with enemies your gun is ready and loaded. This leads to a possible smooth speedrun through a level.

I don’t have enough surprises and interactive things. One of the problems is you can leave a room without killing anything in it. Not sure if I want that. To hinder that I could have doors that open after I killed all enemies. But is this fun? I will quickly implement a “reached goal system” to find out if this is the right way. The goal system can be triggered by enemies linked to it or a simple switch. The goal system simply opens the door to the next level.

The graphical appearance is probably my main problem. I will experiment with different styles of simple blocks. And make the battle engaging the player with massive effects. Keep an eye on small details like papers that whirl up in the air will you pass. Make the ejected shells more vivid by adding a bit more random.

So there are a couple of things I would like to test:

The levels have to be addictive and be playable in many different ways. This is not just the look but also the feel of it. The player needs a reward for every accomplished goal.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

M163 Vulcan from Sketch to Model

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I modeled my M163 Vulcan tank with blender 3D for my game. The plan is that a soldier can control that tank alone, which of curse in reality it needs more people at least a gunner and a driver. And because one soldier can control this tank the player can take out that soldier and take over the tank. The next step is to bring the tank into my game and do some shooting prototyping to see if it looks cool. The real old M163 Vulcan does eject the shells visibly which fits in my concept so well.

Lens #14: The Lens of the Problem Statement

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The lens #14, the lens of the problem statement from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell.

Design is about solving problems, but if you don’t know what problem you solve then it is pretty hard to design something, it’s like designing in a vacuum. This lens can be applied over and over again. Game development is based on iterations. I will just evolve this article over time.

The better the problem statement the better the solution for it. So what are the questions I have to answer

  • What problem do I really want to solve?
  • Did I make assumptions about these games that have nothing to do with its true purpose?
  • Is a game really the best solution?
  • How do I know if the problem is solved.

What problem do I really want to solve? How can I make an enjoyable gun game using minimalistic graphics?

Did I make assumptions about this game that has nothing to do with its true purpose? The assumption I made is it has to be a platform game as I initially wanted to explore this genre from a programming point of view. But it has nothing to do with its true purpose, I guess I could make even a full 3D game. But this is kind of a limitation I have as a one-person studio, I simply need a very simple way to do that game as I have to fill it with game content. So better it is a packed small platformer than an almost empty 3D game.

Is a game really the best solution? This is entirely about a video game. I think the question should be more is a platform game really the best solution? I just use a platform game as it is the cheapest way to make a game as a single person studio. But I want to focus on the action part and use the platform environment as battlefields and story elements.

How do I know if the problem is solved I think I only will know that by playtesting. I have to focus on playtesting very very soon with playable levels and evaluate the feedback.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Lens #11: The Lens of Unification

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The lens of unification of The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses is the next lens I want to look at through on our game All Fucked Up. The book was written by Jesse Schell and is one of the most useful books about game design with its unique approach of lenses.
Unification is about finding a theme for All Fucked Up and reinforce that theme.

  • What is the theme of All Fucked Up?
  • Do I reinforce that theme in all ways possible?

Finding the theme is an important part to design All Fucked Up. Because it will help me to filter all the things which do not fit with my theme. A great decision tool. But it’s not easy to find a theme.
My game is about guns and ammo. It feels good to fire the guns. It feels good to shoot stuff in pieces. The player should have a lot of occasions to fire the collected guns. The theme will be gun-related. The theme is also about being cool and funny, like Eddie Murphy or Will Smith. Being highly skilled with guns like John Wick or Jason Bourne. The theme is about being a guy which is at the wrong time at the wrong place.

"Guns, Ammo, and Being a Funny Hero"

The guns feel good, the ammo has to fit the guns. The focus is on guns, ammo, and the hero. The environment should not be too distractive. Guns fired in the dark looks very cool. The following will reinforce the theme:

  • Dark levels
  • The guns with its kickback, shell ejection, and power
  • The relatively weak opponents make the guns feel very powerful
  • To have an excuse to use the weapons there will be plenty of enemies to shoot
  • The hero is minion like and funny, he loves collecting ammo and is skilled with the guns
  • The enemies have to be mean to make the hero look funny if he screams in fear or surprise
  • Jump, double jump, wall jumps, roles (dashing) to have improved action scenes

I would like to have a different environment which fits the theme but very simple

  • Concrete
  • Fire
  • Neon light
  • Dark
  • Tubes

Enforce the destruction with contrast like silence, action free transitions, butterflies, crickets, and more

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought