Feedback is used in three distinct senses in game design literature and conflating them causes confusion:
1. Player feedback (game feel sense): the audiovisual and haptic signals a game returns to the player in response to input — screen shake, sound effects, particle bursts, controller rumble. This is the polish layer of game-feel (Swink 2009, see source-game-feel).
2. Feedback loops (systems sense): circular causal relationships within a game’s internal economy. A reinforcing (positive) feedback loop amplifies change — the rich get richer, leading to runaway leaders. A balancing (negative) feedback loop resists change — catch-up mechanics, resource caps, difficulty scaling. Both are design tools with trade-offs (Sellers 2018, see source-advanced-game-design).
3. Designer feedback (process sense): information returned to the designer about how players experience the game — the output of playtesting. This is not a game system property but a production practice.
When a source says “feedback,” check which sense is intended.
Related: game-feel, internal-economy, systems-thinking, game-balance, playtesting, foundational-vocabulary