Jan Willem Nijman - Vlambeer - "The art of screenshake" at INDIGO Classes 2013

[@dutchgamegarden]

Unfortunately, JW has most likely removed the playable presentation from his Dropbox.

[@RealRushinRussian]

So I found it online elsewhere but the downloadable archive is behind some "wait to skip ad" crap so I've reuploaded it to my own Dropbox. I hope that's alright with Vlambeer. All this stuff is still as relevant as ever. www.dropbox.com/s/d9f9apq8dv6dmxj/controlconf.zip?dl=0 The art seems to be a bit different (for unknown reasons) but otherwise it's the exact same thing. The controls can be found in the readme file: FIRST PART CONTROLS: left/right arrow keys to move through slides R to restart SECOND PART CONTROLS: left/right arrow keys to move up/Z to jump X to fire R to restart D for next trick A for previous trick S for current trick P to pause

[@igpaygames]

@@RealRushinRussian Thank you!

[@skub22do]

@@RealRushinRussian Hey, the link doesn't work anymore.

[@RealRushinRussian]

@Anne Bras sorry for that, I fixed the link and edited the comment, should work now.

[@DragonJawad]

@@RealRushinRussian Just wanna say you a hero, thank you

[@dixego]

"Just fill your game with love and tiny details." What a beautiful quote..

[@samhblackmore]

"If you have a button that does something in your game, you need to give the player a reason not to press it, otherwise you may as well perform that action automatically all the time" I liked that point!

[@mikloslorinczi227]

Seems the creators of Vampire Survivors also liked it.

[@victorma038]

markmark

[@nucleartide]

List of game feel additions mentioned by JW: 7:24 shitty platform shooter 8:28 basic animations and sound 9:03 lower enemy hp 9:28 higher rate of fire 9:45 more enemies 10:13 bigger bullets 10:39 muzzle flash 10:58 faster bullets 11:19 less accuracy 11:46 impact effects (when bullets collide, add an effect) 12:10 hit animation 12:42 enemy knockback 13:18 permanence 14:49 camera lerp 15:27 camera position 16:36 screen shake 17:15 player knockback 18:06 sleep (momentary pause when hitting enemy) 19:52 gun delay (animation) 20:01 gun kickback (animation) 20:23 strafing 20:36 little shells 21:43 more bass 23:16 super machine gun 23:54 random explosion 23:59 faster enemies 24:40 more enemies 25:09 even higher rate of fire, camera kick (move camera in opposite direction of shooting) 26:47 bigger explosions 27:54 even more permanence (smoke in explosion) 29:04 meaning (player can die), death animation 31:00 game balancing

[@iannnavas]

@Dutch Game Garden please pin this comment 📌 And thank you Jason Tu for commenting this. It helped a lot.

[@TheZetaKai]

You are doing the work of angels. Well done, and thank you.

[@idle.observer]

Thank you for the timestamps!

[@AlexVoxel]

Thank you for gathering the info!

[@Z3R0_K00L]

"You might as well put a lot of shooting in there, because it's my only way to communicate with this sad world."

[@thetastefultoastie6077]

Jan: _I put a sleep(20) when every enemy dies_ Also Jan: _Put more enemies and more bullets because it's more fun_ Me playing Nuclear Throne: _Why does it freeze when lots of enemies dies at once? wtf This is a powerful computer_

[@IchBinKeinBaum]

"Don't put things in your game that hurt people physically". Best advice ever.

[@dannyclear685]

what does it mean? (i'm not good as english)

[@anthonymoran5601]

@@dannyclear685 neither is he

[@ddmmrr103]

Like the New Nintendo 3ds C-Stick

[@kitten-inside]

@@dannyclear685 Strong screen shake makes many players nauseous. Flashing lights can trigger epilepsy attacks. Inconvenient controls or lots of clicking may hurt your hands. Tiny UI or unreadable is bad for your eyes.

[@mastershooter64]

bennet foddy: nope

[@mia_bentzen]

"All i did was move them back a couple of pixels, because that's what happens when you get shot in real life too" Jan Willem Nijman 2013

[@NickiRusin]

As an aspiring gamedev, I've learned a lot. I'll put a meaningful triple machinegun that shoots explosions in my game.

[@lnsflare1]

Nick Nirus I'm hoping that you are making a Dating Sim.

[@SepehrKiller]

@@lnsflare1 xDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[@rambunctant556]

How’s it goon

[@ArchTalko]

"There are way more other peoples than yous" -Jan Willem Nijman 2013

[@elektra81516]

I re-watch this video religiously when I need to beef my game up

[@elektra81516]

@TheGameUniverse yes

[@WtbgoldBlogspot]

This has to be one of the most awkward, yet beautifully quotable talks I've ever heard. My favorite: "Games should have meaning, and triple machine guns."

[@NathanRiveraMelo]

Whether you find this interesting or not, I think everyone can see that this presentation is innovative and very effective at communicating its point. Excellent presentation.

[@TooWongCool]

So much great information. Thank you! @30:58 the game enemy was pretty much synced up with the guy walking across the stage.

[@theonlycatonice]

OMFG LMAO

[@carelesslabs]

😂😂😂

[@Nopp3]

at 17 minutes in, he mentions give the player a reason NOT to hold the button inn. in Luftrausers, they accomplished this beautifully with both the shooting and the throttle control. not firing allows your plane to repair (a second or two is enough) and not throttling allows you to stall and tumble. like turning around and firing behind you at pursuers.

[@hootinrooting]

In Super Crate Box, they made the disc-gun.

[@DavideNastri]

Actually they made it in Unreal but I get your point :)

[@frankwashburn6680]

This is one of the best, most in-depth, most immediately helpful talk I've ever seen on improving gameplay. Thank you Jan and Rami.

[@HunterJE]

I got a chuckle that the camera was on such an unstable and often-jostled mount while filming a talk about screen shake...

[@forresthenry297]

This presentation is genius. Really great points. The one thing I disagree with is the screen movement. A few times as he quickly moved back and forth it started to make me feel sick. I think it was just for demonstration, because the moving camera works great in Luftrausers. Maybe it shouldn't be controlled directly by the player's button inputs and rather the screen as a whole (which is what he said it does in Luftrausers).

[@davepermen]

it _does_ make it much more action-oriented that way as you have to "actively look out" to both sides. but it's much more stressful/kinda sickening indeed.

[@TheGameXaminer]

Tiny Tiny Things but it makes a huge difference

[@Yuuzhan]

I think with regards to screenshakes (related to one of the questions at 32:30) most of the recent games have them as configurable and even can be disabled. Adding details with game feel is great, but allowing the player to customize his game feel is even better. If screenshake or any other visual detail is part of your wanted game feel, have it less (or not) customizable.

[@supersathanas4642]

I've just been browsing through game math and concept videos for about a month as I work on a top down shooter in good ol VB6 (because making the game is just for relaxation and VB6 being my first IDE back in the day is my go-to comfort zone). I had been adding in more and more forms of feedback to the player, such as screen shake, adjusting brightness around muzzle flashes with alpha blending, moving the player sprite based on the "weight" or recoil of individual weapons, finding ways to move it change the sprite to indicate the amount of "sway" or inaccuracy you'll have due to recoil or walking/running, variable blood spray based on damage received, shading the screen red when receiving damage, etc... and then I realized that even if I'm probably the only person who is going to play this, all of this output could be jarring or distracting to someone and there should be an option to limit or disabled things within reason. The game as it is now, is fast and chaotic and requires that you try to plan ahead for the most likely scenario as well as possibly contingencies, and my thinking was that all of this feedback would be useful to send you messages about specific things without necessarily needing to track everything on the screen. But without all the feedback, is it still playable, like can you still understand and keep up with what's going on? That's where I'm not now, deciding if all the feedback is necessary or a distraction. And if it's a distraction, is that bad, or does the overwhelming amount tell you that you fucked up and need to get out of the situation?

[@RizzRaz]

Still one of the best talks on game design ever presented. When even Balatro, a friggin' card game seeing immense success, shares DNA with your ideas, you know you've tapped into some kind of truth. Brilliant stuff.

[@RamonRedCat]

About the 'sleep' trick, I was playing 'Risk of Rain', which usually ends up with the player being incredibly overpowered and doing massive damage to a lot of enemies in the map, and at some point the game was moving incredibly slowly. I thought it was the game not handling all the damage I did, having to calculate all lifesteal I had and such, but it might possibly have been that they didn't limit their sleep effect; effectively creating lagg when you do too much damage to too many enemies. Anyway, interesting talk, good points to use in games, even those that do not use guns.

[@willschannel_]

+RamonRedCat Nice avatar

[@RamonRedCat]

Thank you!

[@Pinkiepyro1]

+RamonRedCat For what it's worth 3 months later, I'm pretty sure it's just the shitload of enemies in the level.

[@zerbgames1478]

Same, plus sleep was removed in GMS which is what they ported it too for performance. Not sure what version you played though. This is about a year later....

[@AlessandroSartori86]

the file is offline for some strange dropbox policy, someone can upload a backup ?

[@GuitarInPractice]

Only the response of the audience to the addition of more bass at 21:53 proves its effectivity. I love it.

[@fyndor]

I'm not convinced the sleep feature is a good one personally. But I will steal all the rest for sure. Played the demo. I love that he even polished the transition buttons to add sound and a background color and as viewport animation. I think it is just so ingrained in him to juice everything that he even juiced buttons that weren't part of gameplay.

[@boreddev9252]

I don't know if it's a language barrier, but he brushes over some really deep concepts that seem like they are stunted mostly by a struggle for words. I love this talk, and I've watched it a few times now. I actually got luftrausers after I first watched this, and now I see all those little bits, and I like the game even more for it. these bits are totally design parts. some of them definitely change the game mechanic, but mostly they really just make the game more compelling. I'm definitely taking these concepts to my development.

[@Fodi_be]

This is very much the 2D action game bible. The only thing I might add to the list are parallax backgrounds.

[@DStecks]

The reason why the camera lerp and the gun lag feel good is because it makes both of those objects act like they're physical objects with inertia.

[@inceptional]

Almost all of those however many "quick things" could simply be explained by saying you need to make a good "sandbox" for your game-even games you don't think of as "sandbox" games (be it puzzlers or platform games or whatever). Everything that makes sense to the player, that they'd expect to be there, that they'd expect to see or have happen if they shoot something, jump on something, break something etc, should be present in a good sandbox. It's all the little details. If something dies, leave them there. if a guy gets shot, show some effect of that on him. Show some effect of the gun shooting, and have a proper sound for it. If something looks like it should be breakable, make it breakable, and make it actually break into parts. If it looks like a player should be able to climb a small wall then let them. All that kind of stuff. And, if you have all that stuff-it's mostly all just common sense stuff that you simply have to be observant about to realise it probably needs to be added to whatever bit/thing in your game-you'll already be well on your way to making a game that is at least fun in and of itself just to play (and watch and listen to). Also, I agree with most of what he showed, but when he added in that "better camera", the one that quickly moved to the side the player was facing to show more of the screen, it was too much imo. It moved way too quickly from side to side when you turned and was slightly sickness inducing. The underlying principle was correct but that specific execution was a wee bit OTT. That's where a really good game designer would continue to tweak the values over and over until it just "felt" perfect-which I presume he does in his actual games. It's the kind of thing Nintendo nails on a regular basis; all that little stuff that if you make it just a little bit faster or slower, or less or more, or whatever, can make a game go from feeling good to feeling great-in terms of how it simply "feels" to control that player and move around in and interact with the world. And, the same issue is true of the screen-shake at times also. Once he added in the random explosions on the enemies it became a little bit too much, to the point it can once again just be a bit headache inducing. Watch your game, play it over and over, try a few different amounts of shake, turn it off and off, and find the precise balance that adds to the game but doesn't overwhelm it. It's funny how it seems like basic and obvious stuff, but most game creators miss a lot of it; certainly a lot of indies just churning out games in a few weeks or months using simple game creation software like Unity and Game Maker. And absolutely the vast majority of developers shovelling out stuff on the likes of iOS and Android. I should know . . . but at least I try to add as much of that stuff as possible in my games (within my admittedly limited art and coding abilities).

[@emilrostad9720]

He doesn't like the term of """"""Game Feel"""""", yet has a long talk where he uses the term talks about how the games feel, and how small additions changes the feel of the game... so yeah, Game Feel is a good catch-all term for how games feel.

[@theodorurhed]

Holy shit, this explains why Liero is so awesome

[@MIDImorphosis]

Was about to make a comment about Liero as soon as he started talking about permanence. We used to make towers out of shells and corpses, and there were 2 guns that would make permanent terrain. And in terms of knock back you could use a machine gun as a way to get around the levels quickly. Actually the more I think about that game, the more I realize how, not exactly ahead of its time, but how great it is even with modern standards.

[@Tutterzoid]

Liero looks like an awesome game to have had to play :)

[@vulkanosaure]

it's funny, it's like the answer is always "more, more, more", if you go further in his phylosophie, you end up with a crazy game, i'm wondering where's the limit in adding fx and stuff like this...

[@actiongamemaster5218]

There is a limit to it. I think, he went too much with the gun spread. I like all of his other suggestions, but overdoing "more enemies" and "even better gun" isn't really a solution to anything. Doing it is smart, yes, but overdoing it is going to make a boring game.

[@gakulon]

ActionGameMaster52 It seemed overdone in this game, but in the actual games Vlambeer has released, they've done it well. Nuclear Throne has a difficulty meter that increases for every level you enter, and spawns more enemies and gives better weapons based on the meter. Super Crate Box's challenge is from the crazy amount of enemies.

[@actiongamemaster5218]

CreaturePlaysGames That's a fair point. I just think that it's overdone here, and someone might take this example directly, which would be bad. I know it's for comedic effect and I acknowledge that, it's just that there may be dangers.

[@gakulon]

ActionGameMaster52 Yep. Someone could create a game that is too complicated and full of enemies and it is unfinished, or it is not fun to play when it is finished.

[@Taencred]

It's nice to see someone constantly working on games essentially confirming my own thoughts on game design.

[@文友发]

30个Tricks： 1、基础的动画和音效。 2、降低敌人血量。 3、增加攻击频率，因为是仅有的攻击方式。 4、放一个很多血的敌人，不如放很多血量低的敌人。 5、子弹得做大一点。 6、添加枪口动画，在开枪的第一帧。 7、子弹速度更快。 8、减少一些射击方向上的精度。 9、添加子弹撞击的特效。 10、添加敌人被攻击的特效。 11、 敌人受到攻击有被击退的效果（游戏中是偏移两个像素） 12、重要：战斗过的场景要永久保存，哪怕你已经切换了地图。这样子能告诉玩家他曾经来过这个地方（这也是为什么电影中的枪战会选择在酒吧拍摄的原因） 13、相机插值移动，轻微的滞后于角色移动。 14、因为这是一个射击游戏而非主角的的游戏，相机的移动应该随着移动提供更开阔的视野。 15、相机的射击抖动。 16、射击时角色被击退，给了玩家增加了更多的交互。 17、sleep：子弹打中敌人后会让游戏暂停20豪秒，让玩家大脑接受已经打中了的信息。 19、武器滞后于角色移动，呈现捏在手机的效果。 20、武器开枪动画。 21、开枪阶段不能进行角色翻转，未开枪阶段进行角色翻转。 22、留下弹壳。 23、更多的低音。 24、超级武器。 25、敌军死亡时，33%几率产生爆炸。 26、敌人速度更快。 27、更多的敌人。 28、相机抖动方向和射击瞄准方向成反方向。 29、更大的爆炸特效。 30、可以添加一些烟雾特效。 31、玩家需要死亡，将死亡帧数放慢来做死亡慢动作。

[@thebat735]

This guy is rad (and clever) and I haven't played a bad game by Vlambeer. They understand that gameplay has to feel good and they know how to get it there.

[@theendcreep]

rad

[@octopussy1771]

Kleeny The Ill if you like this guy check me out im an indie developer. all by myself. 18 started when I was 13 so ive been around with my games and im putting my heart and soul into this game. it's all of the elderscrolls games combined daggerfall Skyrim cyridile elseweyer Morrowind all expanded into a massive open world RPG with a twist you never heard of.... it's a sidescroller everything is detail I mean detailed to the pixel I care about my art tremendously and this game is picking up speed all of the races man and female and oceans secret caves other realms dungeons castles whole detailed city states it's like a super Nintendo sidescroller Skyrim on crack! im putting my life into this. the combat is realistic your armor gets scratched and sliced through and collides with swords like your armor is made of metal. watch sparks fly as you see swords cut through your armor and stab you to death with skills and magic and RPG stats which means some armors have stats and are stronger and with each own special thing about it detail is a must for me I am the creator of this and I have full creatistic freedom this game will be the best sidescroller you ever played the world will be massive and quests and story about medieval warriors and dragons and hidden mystery's that lurk within the shadows. kings queens wars and battles thieves and stealth. homes are realistic sized castles colossus and the world massive all within the biggest pixel art sidescroller you ever seen in your entire life and will ever see with detail and quality that can't be surpassed

[@GautamSingh-yn9cb]

here.. after announcement.. that he is back with 100% ownership of Vlambeer.. can't wait to see what he will launch ...

[@UltimoGames]

thanks for the tips JW, now I can make my own Vlambeer games!

[@UltimoGames]

***** think again, think twice, or more if you want to discover the secret of the hidden mystery inside my devious anfractuous words.

[@Extrone]

My inspiration has been restored

[@CrazyRiverOtter]

This is an interesting tutorial for aesthetics rather than design. It doesn't apply to everyone, but it can help out.

[@AlexVoxel]

This is the best talk about game feel that I ever saw

[@igorthelight]

Luftlasers and Nuclear Throne became popular and recognizable in indie gamemarket )))

[@AntonQvarfordt]

Wow I just sort of haphazardly thought I'd check out this video a bit, and now I have a favorite person in the world... I didn't even know that was a thing.

[@zipzap8937]

5:50 is the only part of the video you need to watch to understand the presentation. That flash animation to make it "more exciting" is literally the whole point and it probably wasn't even meant to be an intentional meta thing, he's just that good at it.

[@elektra81516]

Fun fact: Jan Willem Nijman was the first ever person to upload a video on Minecraft in 2009

[@moikayuso9700]

Its basically a how to make a Michael Bay movie...

[@asboll]

This is like the Age of Empires cheat "bigdaddy". Speedy exploding men in black cars

[@Velor5]

Ahah I remember that! And the other one about Laser Rifles guys! Good times

[@SamsungGalaxy00176]

I maded a shooting game i also included everything he said gameplay feels amazing

[@Shill870]

This is the best talk I've ever watched.

[@jpixelart8472]

When my mom arrives with a specific perfume on my side, I remember gunbound at his best time. So, I think you can apply smells to games.

[@anfanger4]

where can we download the presentation? 19:02

[@arturitoproductions]

8 years later, still actual

[@Tutterzoid]

Super Awesome presentation :) My screen is still shaking with excitement - from all that feel good game-play :)

[@riotxxx]

Press "D" for meaning

top stuff!!! thank you very much :)

[@itzdcx]

I'm a slow artist so I feel it's gonna take me a long time to program and create art for the game I'm not really good at pixel art or animation it's something I really wanna try ....Does anyone have any tips

[@markemerson98]

would someone please elaborate on the SLEEP dynamic a little more? does it pause game play for x msecs or just pause the enemy movement for x msecs? thanks 

[@Mackievellian]

Man Cave Story got this right aaaaages ago. Love the video.

[@thetemsku_5736]

Interesting. Little things make so much difference

[@jamiemorrison1256]

This is an excellent presentation. All of the stuff in here is stuff I will use (when i work out how to do it of course!). Juicing up games is vital. Top quality stuff. Jan seemed very nervous here, but he seemed to rise above those nerves, make everybody laugh and get across a bunch of vital information in an extremely elegant and eloquent manner. Keep up the good work. Oh, and Vlambeer stuff is wicked awesome.

[@alaslipknot]

great presentation, awful camera view :/

[@sniperkitty3000xx]

ala slipknot not for me

[@robiniekiller45]

It needed more screenshake

[@user-lh7mt7zo7l]

Lmao the story about the sound around 23:00 reminds me that in one game (I think maybe day of defeat?) people said that one of the guns was more powerful than it's german counterpart or something but it turned out that they both had identical stats it was just that one of them sounded better. So the guy nerfed the audio of the gun and then everyone stopped saying it was OP and that it was balanced lol.

[@nathanempty]

I think you may be referencing the same game he is. Wolfenstein

[@tibbevandun1017]

awesome talk man, some really practical tips about making games as opposed to the vague general advice about game development you often see devs talking about.

[@blah_ji]

Wow!! loved this video. Amazing talk! SO GOOD.

[@cskhard]

Awesome video!

[@figgeldorpe1053]

This video is gold

[@SilverTabbyGaming]

ty ty great tips..im only 20 mins in and very enlighted

[@jackfox9893]

JW can you flip the super plasma cannon switch?

[@viveknegi4243]

This is by far the best video I have ever seen about game development. Really changed my perspective!

[@kraphik3d]

great presentation showing the development of the game feel. It´s not about the age it´s about the passion for games.

[@FreshDeus]

Thanks Jan...learned a lot today =)

[@talitaferrarifraga]

He reminds me of Lex Luthor from Batman vs Superman... Some reeeeeally great simple advices though.

[@alvin_row]

Yeah but why does he think they're zombies

[@guyunger]

nice to see this video and know i figured most of the tricks out myself :)

[@AmitGinniPatpatia]

What sound software did he use to make those sound? I didn't catch what he said.

[@IchBinKeinBaum]

sfxr

[@OfTheiAm]

Wait... So he's *NOT* Pewdiepie?

[@demondevilmon980]

Person on the phone but sitting in the front row.

[@foldupgames]

Still brilliant. I need to memorize the entire thing.

[@artjom5617]

try to advance this stuff instead memorize the entire thing :p

[@allenwang15]

Dose anyone know "gun delay" and "gun kick" mean? I didn't get the point

[@ucanhle3092]

Maybe it's so late. But until now I just watch the video, "Gun delay" is when the player jumps, the position of "Gun" moves a little bit up with the position of "Player" (not always stick to the player). "Gun kick" ...hmm, let's focus on the "Gun" sprite only, you can see it changes a little bit on the muzzle part, kind of knockback.

[@CraftyMaelyss]

The poor guy sounds so nervous at the start.

[@zeyadjy7229]

Most amazing advice I ever heard for making games thanks man you are cool.

[@limageur]

Skip The Intro : 7:22

[@blowingupcasinos]

Is there a way to get the playable file anymore?

[@robbydomino]

you can get the source here drive.google.com/file/d/0BzRDev8MAFcaSWZnWm84U0VrOGs/view

[@Danjovisagat]

Thank you so much for sharing. :) Its great to try whats presented.

[@cskhard]

THANKS

[@mikolanimator]

Thank you sooo much!!!! All the other links in the comments are broken. Yours still up

[@m0zzy71]

Has anyone got the Source code for this.?

[@willschannel_]

screenshake

[@johnroberts8088]

How can I make a games?

[@kingworrell]

Get a game making software. Clickteam, Game Maker, RPG Maker, Game Salad. Construct, Unity. Check em' out.

[@sartipekcs]

wow thats quite complex

[@refaatelhajj341]

i think Shaun's platformer shooter was inspired by this?

[@metaDeWeta]

erg inspirerend

[@Gerokero]

im so in love with him, he'd already got me by minut 1:10

[@Jalecko]

Gun godz is awesome

[@csahmet]

Awesome :) Tnx

[@googleboughtmee]

Link in description is dead :(

[@PandamonkBleu]

Its a real shame, I really want to try it out.

[@dirtroadgames1406]

nice video,but something missing:BLOOD,a lot of blood and gore

[@SrKing-dm4ku]

NO vlambeer games have that and they feel amazing!

[@artjom5617]

yeah, if u are not going to publish the game or u dont want make money with the game, add blood.

[@takestuff]

does anyone have that cactus talk where finishing your game is like giving birth

[@funkyb6598]

I learned a lot, thank you!

[@twoteesful]

Go to 6:50 to skip intro

[@Danjovisagat]

JW Did Micheal Bay inspire you?

[@citizengoose1342]

the Michael bay of video games

[@nullismyname9573]

How old is JW ?