Theory of Fun for Game Design

The Art of Game Design:A book of lensesThe most important skill for a game designer is listening.

You will need to listen to your audience You will need to listen to your game You will need to listen to your client And last, you will need to listen to your selfLens #1: The Lens of Essential Experience

To use th is lens, you stop thinking about your game and start thinking about the experience of the player. Ask yourself these questions: What experience do I want the player to have? What is essential to that experience? How can my game capture that essence?master the nature of human experience.Lens #2: The Lens of Surprise

Surprise is so basic that we can easily forget about it. Use this lens to remind yourself to fill your game with interesting surprises. Ask yourself these questions: What will surprise players when they play my game? Does the story in my game have surprises? Do the game rules? Does the artwork? The technology? 27 Do your rules give players ways to surprise each other? Do your rules give players ways to surprise themselves?

Lens #3: The Lens of Fun

Fun is desirable in nearly every game, although sometimes fun defies analysis. To maximize your games fun, ask yourself these questions: What parts of my game are fun? Why? What parts need to be more fun?

Lens #4: The Lens of Curiosity

To use this lens, think about the players true motivations not just the goals your game has set forth, but the reason the player wants to achieve those goals. Ask yourself these questions: What questions does my game put into the players mind? What am I doing to make them care about these questions? What can I do to make them invent even more questions?

Lens #5: The Lens of Endogenous Value

To use this lens, think about your players feelings about items, objects, and scoring in your game. Ask yourself these questions: What is valuable to the players in my game? How can I make it more valuable to them? What is the relationship between value in the game and the players motivations?

Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

To use this lens, take stock of what your game is truly made of. Consider each element separately, and then all of them together as a whole. Ask yourself these questions: Is my game design using elements of all four types? Could my design be improved by enhancing elements in one or more of the categories? Are the four elements in harmony, reinforcing each other, and working together toward a common theme?Lens #11: The Lens of Infinite Inspiration

When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru. Ram Dass To you use this lens, stop looking at your game, and stop looking at games like it. Instead, look everywhere else . Ask yourself these questions: What is an experience I have had in my life that I would want to share with others? In what small way can I capture the essence of that experience and put it into my game?

Lens # 13: The Lens of the Eight Filters

Does this game feel right? Will the intended audience like this game enough? Is this a well-designed game? Is this game novel enough? Will this game sell? Is it technically possible to build this game? Does this game meet our social and community goals? Do the playtesters enjoy this game enough?

Game design loop 1. Come up with a basic design. 2. Figure out the greatest risks in your design. 3. Build prototypes that mitigate those risks. 4. Test the prototypes. 5. Come up with a more detailed design based on what you have learned. 6. Return to step 2. Prototyping Tip # 1: Answer a Question

Every prototype should be designed to answer a question and sometimes more than one. You should be able to state the questions clearly. If you cant, your prototype is in real danger of becoming a time-wasting boondoggle, instead of the time-saving experiment it is supposed to be. Some sample questions a prototype might answer: How many animated characters can our technology support in a scene? Is our core gameplay fun? Does it stay fun for a long time? Do our characters and settings fit together well aesthetically? How large does a level of this game need to be? Prototyping Tip # 2: Forget Quality Prototyping Tip # 3: Dont Get Attached Prototyping Tip # 4: Prioritize Your Prototypes Prototyping Tip # 5: Parallelize Prototypes Productively Prototyping Tip # 6: It Doesnt Have to be Digital: paper prototype

Tetris: A Paper Prototype Doom: A Paper Prototype

Prototyping Tip # 7: Pick a Fast Loop Game Engine

The traditional method of software development is kind of like baking bread: 1. Write code 2. Compile and link 3. Run your game 4. Navigate through your game to the part you want to test 5. Test it out 6. Go back to step 1

The Formal Loop: 1. State the problem. 2. Brainstorm some possible solutions. 3. Choose a solution. 4. List the risks of using that solution. 5. Build prototypes to mitigate the risks. 6. Test the prototypes. If they are good enough, stop. 7. State the new problems you are trying to solve, and go to step 2.