The document discusses various factors that contribute to fun in games, including surprise, anticipation, progress, rewards and punishments, meaningful choices, and avoiding issues like micromanagement, stagnation, and arbitrary events. It also examines specific examples of fun mechanics in games like Monopoly, Tetris, and World of Warcraft. Game designers are advised to get feedback from playtesters and address issues that are preventing their games from being fun.

1. Level 10
David Mullich
Game Design 1
The Los Angeles Film School

2. Designer Perspective: Sid Meier
G4 Icons Episode #12: Sid Meier

4. The Fun Factor
 Play
 Living Out Fantasies
 Story
 Social Interaction
 Exploration and Discovery
 Collection
 Stimulation
 Self Expression and Performance

5. The Fun Factor
 Challenge
 Reaching and Exceeding Goals
 Competing Against Opponents
 Stretching Personal Limits
 Exercising Difficult Skills
 Making Interesting Choices
 Construction / Destruction

6. Surprise
Jesse Schell defines “fun” as
“pleasure with surprises”.
Surprise is one of the most powerful
tools in a game designer’s toolbox.
Randomness adds a level of drama
in not knowing how an event will turn
out.

7. Surprise
Does the story in your game have
surprises? Do the game rules? The
artwork? The technology?
When do you know when to surprise
the player or to telegraph the
situation? The trick is to find the right
balance between the randomness of
surprise and the importance of
making player choices meaningful.

8. Anticipation
The more clearly you allow players to
see and anticipate the consequences
of their actions, the more meaningful
their choices will be.
Games with closed or mixed
information structures can create
anticipation by giving players quick or
limited information. This can actually
increase the game’s tension.
Fog of War

9. Progress
Nothing is as satisfying as seeing
the choices you make result in
progress, giving the player a sense
of achievement.
One approach for structuring
progress is to design milestones for
players. However, there is no reason
why you cannot measure progress in
several ways at once.
Pace the game’s progress so that
the player achieves a milestone or
has a memorable game event during
each play session.

10. Rewards and Punishments
Operant Conditioning: the
frequency of performing a
given behavior is directly
related to whether it is
rewarded or punished.
The timing and quantity of
rewards is critical. If you
give the player a steady
stream of small rewards, it
becomes meaningless.
Skinner Box

11. Reward Schedules
 Fixed interval schedule:
not very effective
 Fixed ratio schedule:
more effective
 Random ratio schedule:
most effective
The Skinner Box approach
works well for game
mechanics that are repetitive
and likely to become rote.
Skinner Box

12. Rewards in Games
 Rewards that are useful in
obtaining victory carry
greater weight.
 Rewards that have a
romantic association, like
magic weapons or gold,
appear to be more
valuable.
 Rewards that are tied into
the game’s storyline have
added impact.

13. The Resolution
After the player has spent
many hours playing your
game, do you reward them
at the end?
Multiplayer games have the
built-in reward of the
satisfaction of beating the
other players, but in a
single-player game, can you
reward the player with a
meaningful animation?

14. Punishments
Game designers often
emphasizes the rewards while
limiting the punishments.
However, the threat of
punishment, if not the actual
punishment itself, carries
dramatic tension.
Getting killed is not fun, but
sneaking past the guard and
avoiding that threat can be a
lot of fun.

15. What’s Fun About Monopoly?

16. Fun in Monopoly
 Goal of owning all the property
on the board
 Competition among players
 Fantasy of being a real estate
tycoon
 Socializing with other players
 Construction/destruction of
houses and hotels
 Collection of property sets

17. What’s Fun About Tetris?

18. Fun in Tetris
 Goal of clearing all your line of
blocks
 Simulation of catchy music,
colorful blocks
 Collection of all the blocks in a
single row
 Construction/destruction of
row of blocks

19. What’s Fun About World of Warcraft?

20. Fun in World of Warcraft
 Main goal of growing your character with
smaller goals of quests and adventures
 Competition among players
 Fantasy of being in a sword and sorcery
world
 Social interaction with online players
 Exploration of huge fantasy world
 Stimulation with 3D graphics and sound
 Self-expression through role-playing
 Huge story and cast of characters
 Character construction and monster
destruction
 Collection of inventory items

21. Is Your Game Fun?
Here’s how you can tell if your
game is fun:
ASK THE PLAYTESTERS.
If there they say “no”, here are
some things to look at to find
out where your game may be
lacking in the Fun Department.

23. Micromanagement
There is a fine line between
granting your hardcore players
control and burdening your
average player with unwanted
chores.
Micromanagement takes place
when a task becomes repetitive
or tedious to the player. The
best way to find this out is to ask
your playtesters.

24. Micromanagement
Possible solutions:
 Simplify your game system by eliminating
lesser decisions
 Combine many microdecisions into one
macrodecision
 Give the players the choice of automating
certain tasks

25. Stagnation
Stagnation is where nothing new
seems to be happening for a long
period of time and choices stay at
the same level of importance and
impact.
One source of stagnation is when
players are forced to do the same
task over and over. The game
designer needs to find ways of
varying the action and
communicating to the player how
progress is being made.

26. Stagnation
Another type of stagnation is when the balance of power
between players keeps shifting so no one achieves victory. The
solution is to create a condition that tips the balance of power so
far in the favor of the winner that he can defeat the other
players.
A third type is a reinforcing or balancing loop where the player
gets so far behind, he can never catch up. One solution is to
create a random event that can shake things up.
The last type is where it feels like nothing is happening because
nothing is happening due to poorly define goals. The solution is
to make the game’s goals clearer.

27. Insurmountable Obstacles
Insurmountable obstacles are
situations that appear to be impossible
to solve to many players.
The best solution is to make sure that
the game has some way of
recognizing when the player is stuck
and provide them with help for
overcoming the obstacle without
ruining the challenge for them – such
as game characters placed in strategic
spots to provide clues.

28. Arbitrary Events
Arbitrary events are random situations
that disrupt the player experience. Bad
surprises need to fit in with the players’
expectations for the game and be
telegraphed in advance so that they can
make preparations.
A good rule of thumb is to warn the
player at least three times before hitting
them with anything catastrophic.
Random events that have lesser impact
require smaller warnings or even no
warning at all.

29. Predictable Paths
Games that give the player
only one path to victory can
become predictable. Consider
giving each object in the world
a simple set of behaviors and
rules for interaction rather than
scripting each encounter
separately.
Another solution is to give
players a choice from among
several objectives.

31. Consequence
For a game to engage a player,
each choice must alter the course of
the game. The decision needs to
have “risk vs. reward” potential.
 What type of decisions are your
players making?
 Are those decisions truly
meaningful or are they tangential
to the main objective?

32. Consequence
You shouldn’t have too many choices in your game
that are inconsequential. But not every choice needs
to be life or death either. An engaging game has
peaks and valleys in its tension level.
CRITICAL
IMPORTANT
NECESSARY
MINOR
INCONSEQUENTIAL
Life and Death
Direct and Immediate Impact
Indirect or Delayed Impact
Small Impact. Direct or Indirect.
No Impact or Outcome..

33. Decision Types
 Hollow Decision: No real consequences
 Obvious Decision: No real decision
 Uninformed Decision: An arbitrary choice
 Informed Decision: Where the player has ample information
 Dramatic Decision: Taps into the player’s emotional state
 Weighted Decision: A balanced decision with consequences
on both sides
 Immediate Decision: With an immediate impact
 Long-Term Decision: Has an impact will be felt down the
road

34. Dilemmas
A dilemma is a decision in
which no matter what the
player chooses, something will
be gained and something will
be lost.
A well-placed dilemma and
tradeoff can resonate
emotionally with a player when
encountered within the
struggle to win your game.

35. Cake Cutting Scenario
The cake cutting scenario
is an example of a zero-
sum game – the chooser
gains the crumb lost by
the cutter. The Minima
Theory states that there
are rational ways to make
choices in a zero-sum
game, and these are
scenarios game designers
need to avoid.

36. Cake Cutting Scenario
Chooser gets
a slightly
bigger piece.
Chooser gets a
slightly smaller
piece.
Chooser gets a
bigger piece.
Chooser gets a
smaller piece.
Cut as
Evenly as
Possible
Cut One
Piece Bigger
Cutter’s
Strategies
Choose Bigger
Piece
Choose Smaller
Piece
Chooser’s Strategies

37. Prisoner’s Dilemma
Neither Rats: Both get 1
year in jail
Both Rat: Each gets 3
years in jail.
One Rats: Rat goes free,
the other gets 5 years in
jail.

38. Prisoner’s Dilemma
Temptation > Reward > Punishment > Sucker
The question put before the two prisoners does not have an obvious or
optimal decision. Games in which players can communicate and negotiate
can make for even more compelling strategic gameplay.
Mario = 3 years
Luigi = 3 years
Mario = 5 years
Luigi = 0 years
Mario = 0 years
Luigi = 5 years
Mario = 1 year
Luigi = 1 year
Rat on
Mario
Don’t
Rat
Luigi’s
Strategies
Rat on Luigi Don’t Rat
Mario’s Strategies

39. How Much Agency do Games Need?
Extra Credits: How Much Agency do Games
Need?

40. The Lens of Meaningful Choices
 Which choices am I asking the player to make?
 Are they meaningful? How?
 Am I giving the player the right amount of choices?
Would more make them feel more power? Would
less make the game clearer?
 Are there dominant strategies in my game?
Jesse Schell, Lens #32

41. Course Evaluation
 Go to the following link and fill out the
course
https://goo.gl/forms/huWBxcAuGhlSZeqG2

42. 1. Playtest 3 of your fellow students’ games
2. Fill out playtesting form for each