Many people have used the word "polished" (or something like that) to describe something in video games. To some, it means the game was well-tested and has very few to no bugs at all, while some seem to use the word in order to refer to the high-quality of the visuals and audio. Though, is there an official definition to polish in games? What to do you think polished means when it comes to video games? I personally think it mostly means a lack of bugs, although I think high-quality visuals and audio kind of count for polished. I also think that polished refers to games that feel and look really complete. I could be wrong, but if there is no official definition to polished when it comes to games, then that's how I think what polish means.

There isn't really a formal definition for what "polish" is. It's something you just have a feel for. I don't know how to explain what polish is, but I know what an unpolished game looks like. At the most basic level, if something doesn't look good then it's unpolished. If things glitch out with little provocation, that's unpolished. Jerky animations, image artifacts and bad camera angles another other tell-tale signs. These types of games are usually so bad they're infamous, like Sonic '06. At a higher level, an unpolished game doesn't have good "game feel". The presentation is fine, but the controls are unresponsive or stiff-feeling. It's perfectly playable but the way you interact with the game world isn't satisfying. The first Silent Hill game is an example of this. At the highest level, a game is unpolished if it's mechanics don't hold up after hours of gameplay. It looks good, it plays good, but thought clearly did not go into making the game last. Content starts to drag and the player quickly becomes burnt out. I've heard Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch described as this.

Polish is really subjective. To me it means going the extra mile to make a good game great.

Yes, its certainly subjective. I suppose the best way to explain it is the more work you put into it, the more polished it will be.

what it means the attention to detail a game has man, like

Yeah as most said, with games you can just "feel" that it's polished when you play it. Like there's areas or aspect of the game that the developer/s went the extra mile to make sure it felt or looked right.

To me, an unpolished game would be one where the developer put in the bare minimum to produce a playable game. The experience would be hampered by frequent bugs and some roughness in the visuals, audio, and writing. In contrast, a highly polished game would be thoroughly tested, with glitches rarely (if ever) disrupting the game. Graphics would show a high level of care and attention to detail - not just the big things, but little things like animations that appear when you skid or collect a coin. Writing is another crucial component of a polished game - help screens would be helpful and easy to understand, and all dialogue would be carefully-reviewed for errors. In addition, a polished game will probably have some of the "nice-to-have" gameplay features - extras like adjustable controls, online high scores, achievements, or post-game content. Generally speaking, polished games are good games and unpolished games aren't so good. However, some unpolished games are still enjoyable experiences, and not all highly-polished games are fun to play. Pokemon Go would be an excellent example of a fun but unpolished game. Since most of the games on MFGG are made by one-person teams, it's possible to drive yourself crazy polishing and optimizing things that aren't important to the people playing your game. Since we all have finite time for making games, sometimes you'll reach a point where you have to decide when enough polish is enough.

[quote="VinnyVideo"]Since we all have finite time for making games, sometimes you'll reach a point where you have to decide when enough polish is enough.[/quote] I can't. [s]Stop me before I add cinematic motion blur and lens flares to Flashback.[/s] I mean, I pretty much agree with everyone here. I also think polished games show the developer actually cared while making the game. It shows love and effort that's put into the game and I always appreciate it.

[quote="Mors"]I also think polished games show the developer actually cared while making the game. It shows love and effort that's put into the game and I always appreciate it.[/quote] :agree: I feel like you can always tell when a developer has poured their heart into their creation, and it makes the game more enjoyable overall for me.

Polish is attention to detail. It's about going that extra mile to fix the little niggles and tiny issues to make the game feel as great as it possibly can.

Nice answers, guys! In addition to what I think counts as polished in the original post, polished, to me, shall mean everything that has been said before this post, plus a couple things that I would to add... [quote="VinnyVideo"]In addition, a polished game will probably have some of the "nice-to-have" gameplay features - extras like adjustable controls, online high scores, achievements, or post-game content.[/quote] This is true, although I think the "nice-to-have" gameplay features should at least work well, and not be broken or anything like that. The game would then probably be less polished if the latter happens to be the case. [quote="VinnyVideo"]Since most of the games on MFGG are made by one-person teams, it's possible to drive yourself crazy polishing and optimizing things that aren't important to the people playing your game. Since we all have finite time for making games, sometimes you'll reach a point where you have to decide when enough polish is enough.[/quote] Yeah, that is true, in fact, I have fell into this pitfall before for one of my games, where I'd constantly polish the game instead of actually finishing it. It can be a rather bad pitfall too, sometimes, since if you were to focus on polishing the game instead of actually finishing it, you may possibly get tired out at some point before you got what's actually necessary in order to make the game feel complete done. That's what happened to me at one time, and I'd hate to see something like that happen to others in here.