Expectation Modulation
Same ball. Same WASD. Three emotional states. The controls change how movement feels — not what it does. Uniform juice = uniform emotion. Contrast = range.
High acceleration, low friction, snappy response. Particles trail. Screen shake on wall hit. This is the expected feel — juice as baseline.
Mechanical Subversion. Input lag delays your commands by 8 frames. Random drift pulls you off course. Low max speed. Heavy friction. The ball resists you — communicating exhaustion through degraded controls.
Conscious Interaction. Heavy interpolation smooths all input. Low acceleration, no screen shake. Soft glow. The ball glides instead of snapping. Forced slowness creates deliberation — the Celeste feather moment.
FDG 2025 (Bhatnagar et al) identified 9 techniques for modulating player expectations. All our games juice identically — shake, hitstop, particles — targeting one emotion: satisfying. Emotion requires contrast. The transition between states IS the feeling.
Controls: WASD or arrow keys
Auto-cycles through FLOW → STRUGGLE → CALM every ~8 seconds
Based on: Expectation Modulation research (FDG 2025)