I'm going to be honest here. Slime road is a casual game that doesn't bring anything new to the genre. It's near the top of the download charts probably because of a big marketing budget.

In the game, the player moves the ball right and left as it bounces down a road. The player aims to hit certain targets to gain points. This looks very similar to the popular game Color Road.

I decided to write about this game because of the mass amounts of game juice. There are many particle effects and ample tweening to make the game feel responsive to the player's actions.

Since I'll be talking a lot about game juice I want to explain exactly what that is.

Game juice is anything that makes the game feel more responsive without changing the mechanics of the game. This is usually in the form of animations and sound. Another term people use is 'game feel'.

The juice could occur when the player touches the screen or when a certain event happens within the game.

This game follows some basic tenets that make the game 'feel good'.

1. Nothing appears out of no where

Everything is animated on and off screen. This can mean objects slide in from off screen, or that it pops up in the middle of the screen.

2. Use easing functions for moving everything around

If an object moves from one position to another, the most basic way it can do this is at a linear speed. Meaning the speed is the same from start to end. For example, one easing function may move the object really fast in the beginning and slow it down when it nears it's destination. These functions can also be used for tweening numerical values, like a score.

3. Particles. Particles everywhere.

It's hard to deny the excitement that particles bring. It makes the screen look busy and is used as a celebration. This game liberally applies this tactic whenever the player is rewarded.

Remember these tenets as we take a look at the juice in Slime Road.

Title Screen

Animate In

Like I said, nothing appears out of nowhere. All the items here are set to a size of 0 and grow into the game world. It happens one at a time starting from the top.