Fun

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Fun

• Some thoughts on Game Design Andrew Glassner

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Why do games stop being fun?
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Why do games stop being fun?
Stagnation Obsolescence (new game improves on old
) Plateau in skills Pacing or difficulty Why re
turn to a game Nostalgia Forgetting the bad thi
ngs Taking a break to think offline
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Design to Achieve Flow

• Pace difficulty
• Allow control
• Dont make things too hard
• Dont make things too easy

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Glassner

• Avoid
• Making it easy to cheat
• People will always exploit bugs
• Flight sim
• Multiplayer sim
• etc. etc.

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Repetition

• Make it easy for users to repeat things
• Interactivity ! Participation
• The raw count of mouse clicks is not a good
  measure of quality!
  
• Not all actions taken by the user are desirable.
  Has to be fun.

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Detail

• Too much detail
• Required actions overly detailed
• Eg. Potions in Ultima Online
• Under-detailed
• Don't take control away from the user
• "A game should offer the fastest and easiest
  possible way to do everything unless there is
  some entertaining or informative reason to
  prevent it."

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Deception

• Faulty scuba gauge

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Deception

• Faulty scuba gauge

Only discover by death Too severe, plus save gam
e often is the simple, tedious solution
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Large-Scale Randomness
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Multiple-Choice Conversations
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Multiple-Choice Conversations
Probably OK between Non-Player Characters
Should have a realistic memory
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Agency

• "Don't trick players into providing a personality
  description."

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Agency

• "Don't trick players into providing a personality
  description."

This is reasonable for Role-Playing Games
The conflict is over first person vs. third
person play Information about the character is im
portant Cant play a role without knowing what th
e role is
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Choices

• Label them well
• Dont keep them guessing

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Complexity

• Need to have picked up pencil 100 turns ago
• Brick example need to click on 100 bricks to
  find the right one

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Paste-On Interaction

• Design the game and the UI together

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Character Control

• Don't take control of the user's character
• Avoid "cut scenes"

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Character Control

• Don't take control of the user's character
• Avoid "cut scenes"

Can use them as a reward Must have a plot require
ment Problem is primarily with first person agenc
y
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Interactive Fiction

• Respect for the player.
• Player's time will never be wasted
• Dont insult or deny her individuality,
  intelligence, or creativity
  
• The player will always be engaged in fun or
  interesting events
  
• passively
• interacting with them