GameMaker Studio 2 - How To Make Attacks Feel Good (Juice Tutorial)

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In this video I'll show you how to implement juice in your GameMaker Studio 2 game by taking the example of my game Lost Potato.

STEP 1 - Make the player's attack instantaneous. The less delay there is between the moment the player presses the attack button and when the effect appears on the screen, the better your game will feel to play and the more your player will feel in control.

STEP 2 - Add some sounds. Sound effects are probably the most important part of making your game feel good to play.

STEP 3 - Add a hit effect object. Draw a quick effect in Krita (or in your drawing application of choice) that lasts 3 frames and create an object out of it. Then create that effect every time your enemy gets hit to accentuate the impact.

STEP 4 - Add screenshake. Don't go overboard with this but it's a good tool to make your hits feel even more impactful. You'll need to add a few variables to your camera object and tweak the camera's position a bit to apply the shake.

STEP 5 - Add particles. I created 2 simple particles in Krita (a ball and a smoke) with thick black outlines to fit the style of my game and I created a particle system in my main game object. I use it to burst out some blood when the enemy collides with the spikes.

STEP 6 - Make the enemy flash white when he gets hit. We can create a very simple shader and use it the Draw Event of our enemy object to display him in white for a few milliseconds when he's taking damage.

STEP 7 - Make the enemy's body bounce. Although it brings nothing gameplay-wise (and even adds a bit of visual clutter) it just feels so much better to be able to push it around and it makes it look smoother than just turning the enemy into an immovable body.

STEP 8 - Add some permanent visual effects. When an enemy dies on a spike we can turn the spike red and add some blood to it. In general, the more permanent effects we can add (i.e. having the bodies stay around instead of disappearing) the better. It makes the player feel like they have a real influence on the game world.

STEP 9 - Add a lot of enemies. The more enemies there is, the more juicy it'll feel. For the least amount of input from the player (pressing a single button) we want to have as much output as possible on the screen: that's juice. So add a lot of enemies and make them die easily.

Don't overlook juice. Your game will work without it but it won't be nearly as fun to play and it can make a real difference to its success. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWkMsD2WUz8