Do Control Input Metrics Capture Game Feel and Skill-Challenge Balance?

Game feel - virtual sensation during the real-time control of virtual objects - is considered a central element of game design. A growing body of research investigates its impact on player experience. However, questions remain regarding how to study and analyse game feel, complicating evaluation and impeding our understanding of this phenomenon. Drawing from ecological psychology, we report on an experimental study to understand whether measures used in the study of skilled movement have potential in characterising game feel.We find that metrics derived from player control input distinguish between player skill levels and different kinds of game-feel in the same game. Among these, multifractality - a measure of complex nesting in player control movements - shows sensitivity to skill-challenge balance. We discuss the relationship of these measures to player experience and game feel experience. Collectively, our findings point to more fine-grained approaches to capturing game feel related to real-time control.