Juice it or lose it - a talk by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho

"Juice it or lose it" is the best presentation I've seen on the matter. It's really funny and it clearly show how adding some bouncing or some particles can completely change the feel of a game (or UI) [VIDEO]

[VIDEO] Here's the presentation. It's a pretty fantastic watch that shows what just a few small design decisions can do for a product's impressions on an audience.

The talk juice it or lose, by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho, is all about this. Gotta be one of the best talks for anyone trying to make things interactive that also feel good. [VIDEO]

People normally call that making it "juicy". There's this awesome presentation on YouTube showing how a boring game can look awesome with some "juiciness", even if the core gameplay is unchanged: [VIDEO]

Looks like google needs to watch this video on how to make a good breakout game: [VIDEO] -- Juice it or Lose it.

Regarding your second point, there is this talk by Petri Purho (Noita) about making a bland game feel fun to the user: [VIDEO] As for your first point, I would suggest aspiring devs to try to prepare themselves to take part in "game jams". The constraints (including a time constraint) help focus on important parts. [LINK]

I'm reminded of the talk "Juice It of Lose It" < [VIDEO] >. This looks like a very juicy game. There's also an excellent video by Mark Brown, a fantastic resource for game design discussion < [LINK] >

I had periods of time where I played nothing but a single game, though those were never more than a few months. Definitely seems like it would be good for your son to broaden his gaming horizons somewhat. Re: "Juicing" - I saw the word and immediately assumed you were using the definition from this classic gamedev talk, well worth a watch: [VIDEO]