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

Dutch Game Garden · talk · Watch on YouTube

Game designIndie game development

What it is

Vlambeer's Jan Willem Nijman shows how to make an action game feel great by stacking small effects like screenshake, recoil and particles onto a basic shooter. It was presented at INDIGO Classes 2013.

Why Hacker News recommends it

A perennial recommendation for anyone learning game feel and juice, praised for showing concrete steps that turn a bland prototype into a satisfying game.

  • 10 people recommended it
  • 11 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “I absolutely love their "art of screenshake" lecture.”

    Shows the high ceiling for polish and feel in interactions

    ncallaway, 2022-12 · Strong recommendation · in “Twitter Suspends PG's Account”

  2. “one of the best videos I've seen on this is "The art of screenshake" by J. Nijman of Vlambeer”

    Walks through adding effects to a basic shooter until it feels fun.

    abetusk, 2024-03 · Strong recommendation · in “How do you make an addictive video game?”

  3. “One of my favorite game dev talks of all time would be perfect for you to watch and iterate with”

    Teaches adding juice to a game's core loop.

    auto, 2025-09 · Strong recommendation · in “DOOMscrolling: The Game”

  4. “it's a bunch of interesting points on how to make action games feel more responsive and fun”

    Making action games feel more responsive and fun

    drhayes9, 2014-01 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: I'm building one HTML5 game per week, need feedback”

  5. “Another great one is this Aztez post on fighting game effects”

    Vlambeer's demo of game effects in the screenshake talk

    Vermeulen, 2014-04 · Recommendation · in “Game Mechanic Explorer – examples for game mechanics, algorithms, and effects”

  6. “Here's Jan Willem Nijman of Vlambeer discussing a large number of small improvements that make games feel good”

    Many small improvements that make games feel good

    polm23, 2016-05 · Recommendation · in “I Have Created 50 Games in 2014”

  7. “talks about it through a simple iterative process of improving game mechanics”

    Iterative process of improving game mechanics and feel

    jean_claude, 2016-08 · Recommendation · in “How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days (2005)”

  8. “Art of screenshake”

    Suggested for making bland games more engaging

    yetihehe, 2022-08 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: How do I get started to game devevelopment/design?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: screenshake, juice, vlambeer, game polish, indie games

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