Gamefeel is the assembly of sounds and visuals that create the amosphere ur game targets and transmits the emotion to the player. It is an important feeling in videogames, especially in horror ones.
Here is an example:
This is a 2 seconds sound, yet, u already feel a bit uncomfortable.
If u want to achieve great gamefeel u will need: Logic, Atmosphere and Psychology.
Logic:
Here are 2 sounds that represent a blaster firing. U will have to turn the volume up for the 2nd one.
Which one is better according to logic?
- First one
- Second one
0 voters
Believe me or not, but the second one is better. The reason why it is better is because a real laser would move too fast for u to hear it being fired and the pitch that decreases is it getting farther.
Atmosphere:
I’m a Composer/Sfx designer, I think a builder would be better to explain this part. The point is that the atmosphere the player is set in influences the gamefeel by displaying the secenery, sounds and the style of the videogame. A very popular trick that uses the notion of gamefeel is setting a light source in a dark area to attract the attention of the player.
Here is a question for u: Imagine a manor, every room and corridor is well illuminated, outside is night and there are no sounds, except ur footsteps and the doors u open. What is the feeling someone would get if he was in that manor?
- Eerie feeling
- Tensioned feeling
- Neutral feeling
0 voters
The correct answer is “Eerie feeling”. The slight difference is that eerie implies a feeling of fright and being afraid by something that has yet to be found, tensioned is when u have a reason to be tensioned. It cannot be Neutral feeling because I doubt anyone walks in a seamingly abandoned mansion that is well maintaned and thinks that this is normal.
Psychology:
If u want to influence the feeling u should always reffer to sounds. Music and sounds can influence how somebody thinks (Fact check this).
Remeber this sound?
There are 2 easy to remember and work with psychological meters that u should know:
- Awareness
Awareness is how much the player is actively focusing on the game. - Anxiety
Anxiety is how much the player is affected by the sound (most of the times in horror games).
The sound starts a bit loud to increase awareness and make the player focus on the sound, then it makes a distorsioned sound that gets quieter, in order to increase anxiety and pops up the question “What was that?”. Click on the sound at around 0:01 and then click play, u will find out that it isn’t that uncomfortable anymore, more likely annoying and easy to ignore.
This is everything I had to say. Hope it will help u on ur actual project and the future ones.
Bonus:
Somebody tried to scam me like a few days ago. I don’t have anything else to do with them, so ur free to use them. If u could ask for my permission and credit me it would be perfect.
U can also take the scary sound