Design Update : Aspects of fun

There are many models out there that try to designate specific catagories of fun that can help developers in giving their target audience what they want. One of these models, in an article written by Pierre-Alexandre Garneau highlights fourteen different forms of fun that apply to all forms of media. In this blog post we are going to narrow down which of these applies to the kind of design our game represents and what kinds of fun our game might give to players. The game is about giving players a certain experience that will lend itself to certain forms of fun, not the other way around.

There fourteen types of fun are…

• Beauty
  
• Immersion
  
• Intellectual Problem Solving
  
• Competition
  
• Social Interaction
  
• Comedy
  
• Thrill of Danger
  
• Physical Activity
  
• Love
  
• Creation
  
• Power
  
• Discovery
  
• Advancement and Completion
  
• Application of an Ability

Out of these 14, we’ve identified 6 forms of fun that our game in it’s current state represents

• Immersion
• Comedy
• Power
• Discovery
• Advancement and Completion
• Application of Ability 

Let’s detail how our game is compatible with these forms of fun

Immersion

Immersion, involving engrossing the player into the world is based on how that player’s experience and view of the world is. We’ve chosen a lego, happy go lucky theme and pretty much made all of our models, to represent that sort of feeling. Everything from the appearance of creatures like lions, the ground (with little bumps like lego), and even the animations of our hero try to stick with limitations and/or goofiness of the appearance of lego creatures.

Lego is also very simplistic in nature, and so we’ve incorporated that into our game as well. We didn’t make it too complicated and it’s easy to the hang of the controls and battle system. Any aesthetics related to battle is simple as well and lego like. We will have a lego block effect come out of someone that is hit by an attack to enhance that lego feel. Any other effects we have are planned to be lego like in nature. In this sense we are trying use immersion as a source of fun to engross the players of the game and bring them into the world of UGC.

Comedy

We can relate this one to immersion, since we are going with the lego style. Not every game has to have comedy but due to the fact we are making a lego-style game, it’s pretty much necessary. If you take a look at any Lego game, such as Lego Star wars, they always have comedic moments all over. So since we are going with a similar style, it’s pretty much a must. We’ve incorporated that into a lot of the aesthetics of the game. Every character has a face that’s ridiculous and slightly scary. We’ve made sure to make even the animations of all the characters humorous in some manner as well so that battles can be both intense and intentionally silly looking. It’s a good form of fun to make sure players have a laugh while enjoying a game and we are making sure our game doesn’t take itself seriously so that people can play in such a manner.

Power

Power, being gaining more power is something we’ve added into the design of our game in the form of upgrades. As we explained in our upgrade system before, we made it so  that the players who work harder in performing quests to gain more gold to purchase items would have an advantage. So that means we are giving these players more power and a desire for more power to overthrow the opponents of the arena. For many people, there is a certain enjoyment in being able to become more powerful than what the average player would achieve or those that want to get through as quickly as possible. To give our game more depth, we made the upgrade system and in turn, it lends itself to this form of fun.

Discovery

Discovery of some form is in every game, but our game does not focus on discovery in the sense of massive exploration of a large world. We have made sure to however have certain elements of discovery as they are always fun. Easter eggs are always a bonus to add for players and to reward them for looking around and paying attention to their surroundings, so we are adding that. Aside from exploring our forest area, easter eggs are our game’s main form of fun through discovery.

Advancement and Completion

Our game is tailored in such a way that it won’t be impossible to get through to the end. We want players to be able to advance through the game and hopefully get to the end. In a lot of games, advancement and completion can be thwarted by difficult sections where players may be stuck for a long time and can give up. We have always wanted players of any kind to be able to beat the game and thus feel a sense of advancement and completion. All games pretty much strive for this and our game is no different, we don’t have the intent on frustrating the player, just having a fun, but still challenging at times, experience.

Application of Ability

Any game that’s not completely luck based will have this, to make sure that players have fun by applying the skills they have learned. Although the mechanics of our game are simple, we’ve incorporated several factors that will still make players think more on their toes, especially as the game goes on. The game is all about positioning, so knowing where and when to attack, when to block, making sure not to be in the path of a projectile or anything of that sort. We want players to master the skills of the game, apply it and have a good time. This is a sort of fun that any game needs to truly succeed in drawing players in. If this isn’t working than the game won’t do well.

Conclusion

In ending this post, I want to reinforce that the focus on crafting a certain experience in the game, not focusing on just performing these methods of fun. A game should have a certain goal in mind and fun should follow it and that’s what our game is striving to achieve. I hope that we are able to provide the experience we want players to have and that the methods of fun we have identified will be provided.