Game feel
The tactile, moment-to-moment sensation of controlling something in a game — the sum of response, animation and feedback rather than any single mechanic.
The term was coined by Steve Swink in the book Game Feel (2008), which splits it into three layers: real-time control, a simulated space to move through, and polish — all the feedback that changes nothing about the rules but makes them feel like something. A jump that is mechanically identical can feel sluggish or springy depending on frames of latency, acceleration and the landing animation.
In practice game feel is built from many small tricks at once: screen shake, hit stop, particles, sound and camera follow. Vlambeer's Jan Willem Nijman called it "the art of screenshake" in an often-cited 2013 talk. It is hard to measure and easy to feel — a game with bad game feel feels wrong before you can say why.