"How do you go about designing 'fun' into a game?"

Submitted by: Mark Oehl

Answered by: Lori Cole (designer, Sierra On-Line)

"To answer that question, you almost have to have the one-hour lecture. We have given a couple of talks at the Computer Games Developer Conference and other conventions with the title The Fun Factor. These hour+ talks include topics like:

1. Rule Number 1 -- The player must have fun.
2. Enjoy games -- you have to figure out what you yourself enjoy and find fun in a game.
3. Remember Rule Number 1 while designing a puzzle or a setting up a situation. The designer has got to judge between challenging and frustrating the player. A little frustration is fun. Too much, and the player quits the game.
4. Know your audience, and design the game for what they want and expect -- don’t put a lot of twitch in an adventure game, don’t have too many easy monsters in an action game.
5. Most games must be winnable by most players. If it can only be won by a few very skilled players, then they will be your only real audience. Make the game challenging for a wide range of players. Don’t make the game easy, but don’t make it too hard, either.
6. Constantly reward the player for playing. Have lots of different types of rewards -- funny moments or new inventory items in an adventure game, new items or spells or skills in an RPG, new monsters or traps in an action game, etc.
7. Surprise the player. If a game is predictable, it becomes dull. Give the player a wide variety of things to do.
8. Playtest your ideas of what is fun, even if it is only by discussing things with others. Get feedback and refine the fun. Then -- when the game is playable -- have it played with the question of fun in mind. (Few game companies can enjoy the luxury of this in the race to get the game to market, but the theory is good.)
9. Enjoy your job of game designing! If you aren’t passionate about what you are doing, you won’t put any passion into the game. Make the game that you would love to play.

Thanks,
Lori

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