15 Hidden Video Game Design Secrets That Are Total Genius

7. Forza Manufactures Speed With Subtle Screen Effects

Here's a question to break your mind - how do you know how fast you're going in a game, and what correlation does a speedometer actually have if you start crunching the old speed=distance/time formula?

Well, luckily, various developers get around such things by creating the illusion of speed - something the Burnout franchise perfected, but is seen more uniquely in more recent Forza titles.

Literally down to the game camera pulling focus and framing the action with a very light vignette effect (you can see above on the bottom of the shot), it goes hand in hand with something like the speedometer and your car's engine firing on all cylinders, to psychologically convince the player they're achieving impressive speeds.

The faster you go, the more the screen represents tunnel vision, and the more you'll struggle to maintain control - quite the effective trick.