game-feel

1# Game feel (juice)
2 
3The difference between a mechanic that *works* and one that feels *good* is feedback: the
4layered, slightly-exaggerated response an action provokes. This skill covers the engine-
5neutral techniques — screen shake, hit-stop, easing, squash & stretch, knockback, and stacked
6feedback — and tells you how to apply them without burying the underlying simulation. It
7**adds polish on top of** an existing mechanic; it does not implement the mechanic.
8 
9## When to use
10 
11- Use when an action (hit, jump, dash, pickup, death, button press) is mechanically correct
12  but feels weak, weightless, or unsatisfying, and you want it to feel responsive and punchy.
13- Use to add screen shake, hit-stop/freeze frames, eased motion, squash & stretch, knockback,
14  flashes, or to layer multiple feedback channels onto one event.
15- Use to decide *how much* juice is enough and where it crosses into noise.
16 
17**When *not* to use:** for the raw controller math (jump height, coyote time) use the
18`platformer` genre and the engine movement skill. For camera *follow/deadzone/orbit* framing
19use `camera-systems` (this skill only triggers the shake). For mixing, ducking, and adaptive
20music use `audio-design`. For shader-based dissolves/flashes use `shader-programming` and the
21engine shader skill. For the concrete tween/particle node APIs, use the engine animation skill
22(`godot-animation`, `unity-animation`).
23 
24## Core principle: feedback is layered and exaggerated
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