Game Developers Are Lying To You

this is my game when I'm being honest with you but by the end of this video I'm going to trick you into thinking it actually looks good see my job for the last 15 years of making games has been to lie to you in fact I just want to become the best master whoa watch it best master manipulator in town a great game developer is a fantastic liar he knows how to bring the player from the physical world into a digital world with game feel let me explain it's really about reactivity when a player presses a button what should happen something anything something should happen when they press a button there should rarely be a moment where the player presses an input and there is a delayed output there needs to be something that lets the player know that they have an influence in this world here are some examples of this working doors when I run to a door and I press e the door immediately plays a sound and the door

opens it when you can pick up an object it plays a sound and when you throw an object it plays a sound when it hits the ground it plays a sound when I can't open a door and it's locked it immediately plays a sound when I can't throw an object it plays an error sound when I collect a key it plays a sound things are immediate in fact I would argue that it's much more valuable to have immediate sound effects that are much more classic in arcadey foreign then trying to create some clever animation that is delayed away with really crappy animation with really great sound this is the shotgun barrel breaking when you've just shot the shotgun so it's cool I guess but it's not super clear what's happening here it is with sound the sound actually informs what's happening with the animation or what about just animating across a floor moving the player across the floor

laterally here it is without sound now here it is with footsteps well prestige enrolled in Thomas's free courses there's no gimmicks it's just a free online course below two free online courses a 2d course and a 3D course it's my treat to you because I love you okay you might be wondering where the heck do you get great sounds since I was 16 I've been using freesound and I am 32 now I still am on free sound every day looking for sound effects where where so you can sample these sound effects and put them into audacity and make your own sounds which is honestly what I do all the time however lately I use pre-made sounds a lot and there's plenty at artlist.io and by the way they're the sponsor of this I'm just kidding artless.io has some awesome sound

effects this is actually one of my favorite sound designers and these sounds are so classic and they feel so good there's something about juicy sound effects and oftentimes you can try your very very best to replicate that sound by sampling sounds from freestyle.org but there's some artists out there like this one they just know how to create great sounds and I'm going to use them foreign lazy Thief now I also just record sounds on my own typically I just use my own voice [Music] side note just because you feel cringy doing it doesn't mean it's not going to turn out awesome let's talk about screen shake this one's not gonna take very long you know why this is important when you shoot a gun check it hard when you get hurt check that screen now really quick you might think well my body is always sort of

shaking right you're always sort of moving should I put that in my game probably not so it's not always the case that you're trying to replicate The Real World what you're trying to do is make the player feel like the world matters and that they matter it's the yin and yang of game feel the player matters and the world matters AKA is it challenging right is it actually important to play the game right this means that enemies are challenging this means that guns have an impact when you swing an ax does it break a board and break a box when you shoot your gun is there an immediate impact from an enemy does blood come out of the enemy does blood go on the floor just blood go on your screen when you get hit by a Teletubby with dynamite on his chest does that hurt more than getting hit by a spider again you're a master manipulator you want to manipulate the player into thinking they just got hurt I flashed the screen red I do some screen shape I play an ear ringing sound

when it's not annoying I play a big Bassy boom sound when I get hit in the face is there a Bassy boom in real life actually yes my whole body just vibrated and that really hurt when I'm really really hurt when I have 20 Health left I want to play a heartbeat sound because in reality is my heart beating a little bit faster yeah give me a sec my heartbeat is faster now that I've had some damage you want to punish the player because ultimately that's what happens in real life oh geez Thomas after throwing in some additional sounds some Ragdoll animations some lighting and some post-processing effects and those are just camera effects basically Instagram filters for your game this is the final result this is what game feel can do for your game okay

ultimately guys your goal as a game developer should be to well lie to the player and I want you to do it really really well and by the way if you want to learn how to lie as a game developer check out my free courses below there's a 2d course and a 3D course they're yours free my treat to you I just want to see you guys succeed be sure to leave a like subscribe leave a comment do all that cool stuff and I'll talk to you later cheers [Music] hello [Music] yes yes I put a picture of you in my devlog no you said you would wire the million dollars now you said immediately after I put you in the devlog yes you're eating an ice cream cone