Fun Game Design

Casper van EstAmsterdam University of Applied Science

DoubleDutch Games

What makes a game Fun?

Not this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRO-UVW0uVE

Then what?

• Ralph Koster & Dan Cook say: Learning is Fun!• We use Skill Atoms, the fundamental building

blocks of Game Design• Useful for:– Analysis: looking at the structure of a game– Design: helps in designing challenges in your game– Testing: provides quantitative questions

Learning is Fun!

Learning more is even more Fun!

This is the first screen.

What are skills that the player can learn just by looking at this screen?

Learning Basic Skills

Learning Basic Skills

This is the ‘second’ screen.

What are skills the player learns in this area?

Learning Basic Skills

Learning Basic Skills

• What has the player learned so far? – That mario is heading right– That he’ll need to jump (A button) to get there – That he can use his jump to..

• avoid or kill enemies • collect coins • make power-ups appear (by hitting blocks)• smash bricks when big to open new passages• climb over obstacles

• All in the first two screens – probably minutes of play! and without once explicitly telling the player anything

This is good level

design!

Learning Basic Skills

A Reward for Learning

http://vacuumflowers.com/star_guard/

Learning Complex Skills

Learning Complex Skills

Learning Complex Skills

• While IWBTG is fun is a sado-machochistic kind of way, it’s mostly frustrating and more fun for the audience than for the player.

• Why? Because it doesn’t teach you anything. In fact, it actively forces you to un-learn everything you’ve ever learned about this game (and games in general)!– The Skill Chain is very wide and extremely shallow

So, what makes a game bad?

1. Identify skills you want to teach the player2. Stack skills into chains3. Create a deep and wide skill tree4. Use smart level design to teach and test

these skills

How to make a fun game:

• Raph Koster – A Theory of Fun• Dan Cook – lostgarden.com

Recommended Reading

Q&A