Here's an essay on fun in games.

[Zarel]

Here's something on fun in games, written by my friend Josh. I dunno; could be helpful for us.

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A Theory of Psychological Fun in Feature Design

Josh Smith
[email protected]


Contents:


Using this Index


Prologue


Introduction


Fun Factors:

1) Short Term Goals

2) Personal Distinction

3) Random and Fixed Rewards

4) Distinct and Meaningful Choices

5) Longterm Goals

6) Twitch or Adrenaline based Gameplay

7) Discovery


Examples Explained





Using this Index:


As I've yet to get the time to convert this into an HTML file, the best I can offer to those wishing to skim is the contents section above. You can skip straight to the examples or the examples explained section of a factor by adding .e or .ee respectively. 1.e leads to Short Term Examples and 1.ee leads to Short Term Examples Explained.




Prologue:



I'd like to make a note that this document contains little to nothing about plot, narrative, user interface, graphical design, game balance, AI or any other game feature that doesn't revolve around "fun". This isn't meant to be a design bible and I don't want to demean those aspects of game design by poorly covering them. I'd also like to make a note that this document is under full copyright for the time being. Please get the author's permission before distributing it. This copyright status may change in the near future once the document is complete, but for the time being I'd like to keep it to a small, select group of readers. Thanks, and enjoy!





Introduction:


This document is essentially a short list of elements I believe make up "fun" in gameplay features. They're primarily psychological in nature, although not so far as to go academically, and were meant to be the guidelines for feature creation in casual games. When I talk about features I'm talking both about individual gameplay features such as combat or base build, and about entire games in and of themselves (such as Tetris). Many of the examples given in this document actually have explanations in the "Examples Explained" section for those of you wanting further context or a bit more information. This was done to keep the general gist of the document light on the eyes for skimmers, but allow for more indepth explanations further on.


Due to the absence, or my ignorance, of language describing the factors that make up fun, for the intent and purposes of this document I will call them "fun factors". Ideally, a game system should be designed with these factors in mind and each feature should be analyzed for appropriate amounts of factors and if any new ones need to be added or can be refined. Different factors apply to different market types and have been analyzed through hundreds of games over the years either throguh personal experience, observation, or the accounts of others. Each of these fun factors have been through a preliminary research trial consisting mainly of (as unbiased as possible) interviews and small focus groups delving into the level of "fun" that they create for different playertypes. However, since this is very much a soft science, nothing can be definitive. The author welcomes feedback at [email protected] .



That said, here are the factors:


Fun Factors:




1) Short Term Goals: Short term goals are essentially what tell the user "What next?" They're what make up the user's experience from the core and it's a good idea to make sure you have many of them. In order to prevent boredom there should be a wide range of goals in varying difficulties, but make sure to include easily achieved ones early on and sporadically throughout the game in order to keep players interested and playing. It's always nice to get that quick and easy gratification.


One of the biggest reasons I've observed for people getting bored with a game is lacking something obvious for them to do/achieve that still provides a worthwhile return for them. Another problem can be an abhorrently large amount of time (whether through failure or sheer amount of work) to actually achieve the goals they currently have. This isn't to say that all goals should be easily or quickly gained, but if you have some that eventually get time consuming (such as levelling) it's a good idea to have many other easily gained ones to supplement the fun. This can't always be handled efficiently without a lot of new content, but depending upon your game design you might be able to fit some things in. Below are a few examples of Short Term Goals commonly found in games:


1.e)

• Defeat the Foe
• Solve the Puzzle
• Acquire the Item/Equipment
• Level Up
• Uncover the Plot Element
• Match Three of the Same Item
• Perform an Aspiration
• Grab a Power-Up
• Gather Appropriate Resources
• Kill the Boss
• Uncover New Content

2) Personal Distinction: Personal distinction has a lot of meanings in this context, but I think they all fit the same essential factor. From the appearance of the player, to the choices they make during quests, all the way down to the distinctive way they play a level or react to a situation. Even their level or rank within a system can be seen as a form of personal distinction. This factor isn't about meaningful choices, it's about the different ways the player can distinguish themselves from their peers. It's also about the way we design our features to allow their personality or egos to seep into their gameplay.


Essentially, the more a player is able to distinguish themselves, even through non-tangible gameplay gains (such as clothing), the more enjoyment a player can get out of this factor. This isn't to say that personal distinction can't be merged with increased player power to grant even more fun, but I see them as two very seperate factors. Here's a few examples which might further elucidate my viewpoints, if I've failed to explain my point thoroughly, you can find more information in the "Examples Explained" section.


2.e)

• Clothing
• Unique Items
• Houses
• Character Level
• Medals/Awards
• Equipment
• Character Customization
• Multitude of Weapons (Not necessarily the best though, think Chainsaw in Doom)
• Powerups (See Previous)
• Branching Quest Paths
• Player Plot Advancement
• Base/House Design
• Scriptable Content/ Content Creation

3) Random and Fixed Rewards: This particular factor should be obvious to 99% of game developers, and for good reason. It is by far the most important aspect of player fun and gameplay design. Simply put, we provide a worthwhile reward for completing a goal and sometimes we provide an occasional reward for completing another goal. It's imperative that rewards are appropriate for the activities we intend players to complete. A sidenote, proper reward design can even be used as a way to discourage players from performing a particular activity. One example goes back to text based MUDs where a few choice MUDs would give less "experience" for killing the same enemies repeatedly.


As far as randomly scheduled rewards go, extra care is needed to ensure that they're worthwhile enough for players to not cause frustration due to the large amount of work involved. An exception to this rule is rewards that the player knows may not be worthwhile all the time, but do have a potential to be extremely worthwhile such as random objects from Diablo. This isn't to say that every random reward should be the best item a player can get, but the designer should design the system in a way that the reward has some value to the player, whether for power, resource collection (selling), or even just vanity. This examples section is split into two parts, Fixed Rewards and Random rewards. Here's the Fixed:



3.e)

• Experience Gain upon a Kill
• Gold/Resource Gain
• Bright Lights/Loud Sounds upon Winning at Slots
• Levelling upon Reaching the Experience Quota
• Goal Achievement Indicator (Platinum Aspiration Bar, Next Level after Boss Defeat, etc)
• Promotion of a Chess Piece
• Scoring of a Goal
• Healing/Powerups (In most cases)

And now the Random:

• Rarely Dropped Items (The Ogre has a 1% chance of dropping the Club of Elf Bashing)
• Rarely Dropped Powerups
• The Jackpot
• Bonus Prizes/Games
• Secret Content (Levels/Bosses)
• Randomly Generated Items
• Surprise Reinforcements
• Bonus Plot Development

4) Distinct and Meaningful Choices: This one has been the mantra of the industry for years, and it's no surprise. There have been many great articles on this subject, so I'll keep this short and sweet. The game, and by contrast the game's features, should be constructed in a way that the player is put into situations with a wide range of possible reactions. Ideally, there should be no "most efficient" solution, otherwise it's no longer a choice. If the player finds the most efficient solution and it remains so over other situations, they'll have no reason to look for new choices and the "choice fun" will be pretty well equal to that of web browsing (point and click).


Upward advancement is the method typically used to increase the range of choices, as well as increase the difficulty and modify the "most efficient" solution. This typically requires new content, but depending upon the overall design of the game it may be justified. Outward advancement is also an option, albeit not as heavily used as upward. Outward advancement focuses around giving the players new options that are just as powerful, but open up new lines of strategies to tackle the same problems. Basically, it creates the opportunity for a few new solutions, but each new solution is no more efficient than what the player already has. This of course requires a bit more initial thought than just upgrading weapons and enemies, but it can work as a nice reward and it adds to "Discovery" which is covered a few sections below.


The example set below focuses more on the tools we can give players to increase their choices rather than the situations designers should be developing to require them:


4.e)

• Chess Pieces
• Better Buildings
• Chess Promotion
• Unique Weapons/Items
• Special Skills
• New Furnishings for Sims
• Unique Pets
• Unique Allies / Friendly Characters
• Special Physics/Items (Rubber Grenades that bounce depending upon thrown angle)

5) Long Term Goals: This is one of the most overlooked factor I've seen in a lot of games today, especially "casual games". Just because it's casual doesn't mean we shouldn't make it replayable. I've observed that the best way to create proper long term goals is through open ended systems by which players can create their own goals. This isn't to say designer created goals aren't significant, they're very much significant and worthwhile for replayability and can add a lot to any game. However, extending our systems to be condusive towards player contrived long term goals can be an efficient way of attaining the coveted "replayable" mark. Here's a few examples of both:


5.e)

• Collect All Weapons
• Unlock the Hidden Character
• Unlock the Special Endings
• Score at least X Points
• Beat the High Score
• Raise Sim from Baby to Old Age
• Reach Maximum Level
• Buy Everything in Game
• Create Own Challenge Mode (Materia Free in FF7 is one I remember)
• Create a Theme Character/House (Assuming it's costly to do so)
• Beat All Mini-Games
• Reach Top Rank in PK
• Complete all Side-Quests
• Do every Side/Branch of a Quest (Evil, Good, Neutral, Main Character, Auxillary Character, etc)

6) Twitch or Adrenaline Gameplay: Twitch, or fast paced gameplay, is probably one of the most obvious of all the fun factors I've listed here. It's used heavily in FPS, RTS, MMOs, and just about any other abbreviated gametype name we have. This goes hand in hand with meaningful choices, but it also has its own unique sides. When we talk about twitch, we're not just talking about quickly responding to a situation. Even hitting the button at the right time can end up a fun experience for players, often times due to the adrenaline from having to make such a quick response. There's many ways that this factor can be worked into a game, but its primary use is in the moderate - hardcore gamer market. Here's a some examples:


6.e)

• Aim and Shoot
• Save the Hostage
• Turn the Sharp Corner
• Dodge the Cops
• Hit the Middle of the Meter
• Jump the Fireball
• Heal Just in Time (Usually due to sliding damage)
• Steal First Place
• Land the Instant Kill
• Jump the Platform
• Evade the Attacks

7) Discovery: This is probably the least time efficient of all the fun factors to create, but one of the most important for long term fun and a nice feeling of depth. Discovery not only gives players something to do while they're in the midst of the game, it also offers a wide range of replayability if you have to make distinct choices in what you choose to discover in your first few playings. However, that's not all there is to discovery, it can also be as inadvertant as a player trying to discover the game balance formulas or the gears behind a system. Designing discovery can be tricky and time consuming, but the examples I give should hopefully open up a few ideas:


7.e)

• Plot Discovery
• Different Endings
• New Items
• New Content
• Character Discovery
• Best Weapon
• Most Efficient Route in a Situation
• Balance Formulas
• Fighter "Styles"
• Hidden Quests
• Mix and Match Systems (Rikku's Mix from FF10)
• Best RTS Base Design
• Multiple Solutions
• Actions Having Long-Term Affects

[Zarel]

Examples Explained:



This section contains a few of the most relevant examples with further clarification. Most of the examples I'd like to think are obvious enough that they need no explanation, but feel free to email me if you need more clarification.



1.ee) Short Term Goals:


Solve the Puzzle - This example depends on the difficulty and scope of the puzzle, but a lot of casual games revolve around a large set of dynamically generated puzzles which the player attempts to solve. It's a quick and easy short term goal that fits within the scope of that particular game.


Acquire the Item - Capitalism at its finest. This sort of goal usually falls under the dreaded "Treadmill" of MMOs where players must continually upgrade and get better to fight stronger monsters to afford/find better items to upgrade to get better to fight stronger monsters, etc.


Level Up - Levels in a standard RPG or MMO are one of the most obvious short term goals I've seen, at least initially. Eventually they start becoming more of long term goals and experience gain or item acquirement tends to take their place. Many of the prepackaged MUDs out there have Levels as the primary goal, but the shallowness of them often leads to players getting bored and the game quickly losing its luster. I believe it's important that a designer strive as much as possible to include a large variety of short term goals.


Uncover the Plot Element - Follow up with that last point, this can be an excellent way to provide further short term goals and draw players into the universe and storyline. A common way to incorporate further plot elements is through quests or side quests. The less important the quest are in the grand scheme of things the more these goals can come up when/if the player is interested.


Perform an Aspiration - For those of you that missed it, this is a reference to one of the best short term goals systems I've seen, Aspirations from the Sims 2. With the Aspiration system, you're given 4 mini-goals to attempt to achieve with your sim. Reaching these goals will give you points which can unlock rewards, but it also helps to give your Sim a story, a purpose, and a bit of a life. Kudos to the designer that thought this one up.


Gather Appropriate Resources - This example was hard to give a good, concise name to. By appropriate resources what I mean is gathering resources for a specific task or objective. Gathering iron to make a steelplate, gathering lumber to build a farm, or shipyard, or academy. This example ties in well with distinct and meaningful choices if there is enoguh use for the resources, such as in an RTS.



2.ee) Personal Distinction:


Clothing - Clothing can provide a wide range of personal distinction and even status symbols depending upon the way they're implemented. In the free MMO MapleStory, most players have very basic and indistinguishable gear dependant upon their class. The diffrentation in gear selection is very minor between levels and the real big way to make yourself stand out is to buy statless clothes which overlap your equipment and give your character a different look. They take this as far as hats, hair, skin color and more and many player create themed characters with price tags up to $40 USD or more a theme.


Character Level - When we're talking distinction, we're not just talking cosmetic but also tangible distinction such as distinctions in player skill or time spent. Level is a good way of displaying either that Player A is drastically better at the game than player B, or has spent drastically more time, depending upon the game's design. It's also a nice facet for the players to consider about themselves and gives a further identity to their character and the potential to show off. In essence it becomes a small (and sometimes not so small) part of their personal identity, much like clothing.


Medals/Awards - Similar to character level, medals/awards provide a distinctive way to show the merits and/or history of the player. This could give a bit of extra depth in helping to define a character and can really show what the player has achieved and even what they've went through to achieve it. This is more common in war games and the like, and not extremely widespread just yet but I'm sure in time it'll pop up more and more. This example isn't meant to be a substitute for level as they can both exist independantly in a game's design.


Equipment - Not only is new equipment good for short term goals, rewards, long term goals, meaningful choices and discovery, but it's also a great way for players to distinguish themselves as long as there is a large enough variance of it. Similar to clothing it can be cosmetic and rather intangible, but it can also be more of a power gain like level. It can show how good a character is, but also allow their sense of style and personal identity to leak through. The more open the system is for equipment, the more potential equipment has for personal distinction.


Multitude of Weapons - When we talk of a multitude of weapons here, we're not talking about lots of shiny new things to choose from so much as a player having the ability to choose their "favorite". The power of the weapon is irrelevant if each one provides unique tactics and is equally useable in a given situation. This goes with outward advancement, but can also be upwards in some instances. The chainsaw in doom and many different weapons from GTA and others are good examples of this. Sometimes players don't use the best weapon for the job so much as they use the weapon which best fits their personality or they likes (Shotgun vs Flamethrower in GTA).


Powerups - Along the same vein as weapons, powerups that create cosmetic differences such as in Super Mario Brothers 3 can easily become a part of the player's playstyle and their way of showing off their personality. Generally, powerups are design in a way that one is more efficient than another in a given situation, sot his factor doesn't always come itno play, but that doesn't mean it can't.


Branching Quest Paths - Usually only seen in RPGs, this is one of the ultimate vehicles for personal distinction (along with Discovery and Long-Term Goals). If the goal is to rescue the Princess from the Orcs and you have several options, some of which resort to violence, or cohersion, or subterfuge, you've provided the player many ways to explore their personality and many different options for unlocking content that fits the experience they want to receive from the game.


Scriptable Content/ Content Creation - Second Life covers this example more than I could ever hope to.



3.ee) Rewards: This section doesn't really need so much of an explanation of examples as much as it needs an explanation of the source of the examples. Rewards are highly tailored to the design and implementation of your game. If your game feature's level and skill increases which require "experience points", then experience points are a good reward. IF you have a casino game on the other hand, then some form of currency would be a big reward. The example of Chess Promotion shows this well in that it's a very unique reward that's highly tailored to the game. Your promotion can give you a large range of new tactics almost instantly, and can turn a relatively tight game into a quick endgame.



4.ee) Meaningful Choices:


Chess Pieces - Anyone who's played chess should know the effect different pieces can have on gameplay. Each piece and its placement opens up a wide variety of tactics which the player can use to reach his or her goal. Keeping this in mind, a lot of games could stand to benefit from this sort of benchmark as an example fo the range of effect a "choice enabler" should have.


Better Buildings - When talking of Real Time Strategies in particular, better buildings can lead to better troops or advancements for current troops. But in many RTS games, they can also open up choices between the particular type of troop to use: Is it better/more efficient to attack with 5 knights, or 15 foot soldiers?


Unique Weapons/Items - Back on the subject of the "Treadmill", new weapons/equipment can provide a new range of choices if designed properly. Sometimes these choices are just what NPCs to attack, but when done properly it can open a whole new player field of player attacks. Rather than just shooting in a straight line, this new gun shoots in an arc but with less range.


Special Skills - This falls right in with Unique Weapons/Items. A well designed skillset, whether innate or slowly gained can open up all sorts of opportunities for player tactics. For example: The player starts out with crouch, but can eventually unlock roll, and from there unlock roll and fire providing 3 unique skills. Assuming that each one has a different amount of time/stamina/negative affects involved in their use, you've opened up a wide range of tactics just in responding to a quick dodge.


New Furnishings for Sims - Going back to the Sims 2, different furnishings can provide new choices for what your Sims can do. Should you improve your body score, or work on your knowledge? Spending time in the hot tub can increase relaxation and hygiene and also add to fun, but playing chess can add to your fun and boost your knowledge skill. There's a mix and match of furnishings that affect one, two, or even three stats which can provide the players a wide range of tactics for efficiently playing their Sims.


Special Physics/Items - Going with the Rubber Grenade sub-example, this sort of system can provide a range of new tactics assuming the player learns the ins and outs of it. Grenades can bounce at geometric angles, bullets that ricochet appropriately, landing a quadra/tetris line drops the line above down and fragements parts of pieces opening up the potential for large combos.




5.ee) Long Term Goals: Since I believe the majority of my long term goals examples were obvious, I'll refrain from giving too much commentary on the matter. The essential point behind this factor is that we should design the game in a way that players can continually entertain themselves even after the "meat" of the game content is devoured. A lot of the ways we currently use revolve around new or seperate content, but proper systems design can also be a time and resource efficient way for designers to encourage more long term goals.



6.ee) Twitch or Andrenaline Gameplay: Again, I don't think I'll cover the examples in this one too much due to the obvious nature of the point. Twitch based gameplay is handled by creating situations or systems where the player often has to react within split seconds. Anticipation can have a big affect on the fun gained from twitch, and twitch doesn't always require meaningful choices to be fun. They can add to it though, and twitch can overwhelm players whose minds aren't attuned to split second decisions or who suffer from weak hand-eye coordination. I've seen very few twitch based casual games, and I think that's due to the skills of the target market.



7.ee) Discovery:


Plot Discovery - A very common element in RPGs, plot can add a lot to a game. Not just in terms of depth, but in terms of excitement in discovering or "unlocking" the plot. Character discovery fits right in here, and branching plotlines in particular can lead to a lot of discovery fun and replayability in the long run. Final Fantasy 7 hit this one off minorly in how your dialogue choices decided who you rode a particular ride with. Not only did this add a slight amount of extra discovery when replaying the game, it allowed for personal distinction. ( I recall many times making sure I got Barret as a joke.)


Different Endings - Another RPG staple, different endings are a good way to move people into further exploring the game. The RPG that did this the best in my mind is a classic, Chrono Trigger. Unlocking all the different endings provided hours and hours of extra fun, even after I'd grown bored with the rest of the game.


New Items - While this one is kind of a given and not extremely time efficient, new items can add a whole range of discovery depending upon your game's design. In games where items can have a vast range of affects, discovering new items can add a lot to gameplay value. You can also even design the items and systems in such a way that discovery minded players might try to further discover the attributes of each item.


Hidden Quests - Hidden features are pretty well the name of the game when it comes to discovery, and quests are no exception. Unlocking new content not only focuses as a discovery aspect, but also as a short (and sometimes long) term goal and can serve as a reward in itself.


Mix and Match Systems (Rikku's Mix from FF10) - While these can be difficult to design, usually revolving around varying levels of mathematics, it can provide a wide variety of things for players to play with and discover in your system. A common theme in RPGs I've seen is herbalism, but other themes could be item building, house creation, or any number of things relying on multiple parts, some of which can be different.


Actions Having Long-Term Affects - I remember first seeing this in Spiderweb Software's Exile 3 title years and years ago. If the major plagues weren't solved quick enough, different NPCs around the land would die, cities would crumble and even a few good side quests would disappear. You could also hurt your possibility of completing the game by making the wrong choices in certain areas. Long term affects like these can add to the discovery, depth and huge replayability. The ones in Exile 3 could be rather harsh, but it came with software which would let you reset the days so that all the destruction could be reverted.

[whippersnapper]

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A fine and useful essay indeed.

That he uses Spiderweb Software's "Exile 3" to illustrate a point amazed me - would have never thought to see it referenced in these bbs. I still have the original CDs of their games i bought direct from Spiderweb in 1997. I always liked how they gave you their editors to make changes and experiment.

Regards, whip
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