What makes games fun?

Sara Jensen SchubertIGDA Microtalks

August 2014

• I’m a senior systems designer at Spacetime Studios• Previously,

• Design lead on Pirate101 at KingsIsle• Primary designer for rewards and advancement on DC Universe Online at SOE• Worked on a canceled space shooter at Spacetime (again)• Live lead designer on Shadowbane at Ubisoft

About me

Pirate101

DC Universe Online

Blackstar

Shadowbane

Games are puzzles that have patterns

“Cheating” is finding the optimal path, even if it’s not intendedPlayers seek to make the gameplay “as predictable as possible”

Raph Koster’s Theory of FunAll games are “edutainment”“Play is about learning life skills”Most games only teach a few things:

“mostly they are things that were useful to us when [we] were first evolving”

Nicole Lazzaro’s Keys to Fun

4 Keys 2 Fun, 2004

Hard fun

“personal triumphover adversity”

“Emotions from meaningful challenges, strategies, and puzzles”

Easy fun

What happens if I do this?

“Grabs attention with ambiguity, incompleteness, and detail”

Nicole Lazzaro’s Keys to Fun• Serious fun• “relaxation and excitement”• “enjoying changes in their internal state during and after play”• The flow state

Serious fun“relaxation and

excitement”

“enjoying changes in their internal state during and after play”

People fun

“amusement”

Teamwork and camaraderie

It doesn’t have to bemultiplayer

For more, see xeodesign.com

ConclusionWe should strive to create puzzles that delight; that offer meaningful challenges, mystery, flow, and social play; before we start to think about the story or the context of the game.