See all glossary termsJuicing is the process of improving the feel of a game using animations, special effects, sound effects, and generally any visual or auditory improvement that supports the gameplay.
How you experience a game does not only depend on the game's rules. Everything contributes to making the experience more engaging or immersive. Be it the art style, the quality of the writing, the fact that the game doesn't have too many bugs, the level design, and this, the "juice".
Juicing can include:
And generally combining and multiplying the use of these techniques.
Here's a popular talk that shows a game with and without this juicing applied and all the different layers the developer adds to improve the feel:
Juicing
- Adding tween animation.
- Improving the spacing and timing of hand-made game animations.
- Using particle systems.
- Shaders.
- Adding screenshake to the game when a collision occurs.