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9 Essential Elements for Fun in Games

Abhijit Kadle | Game Based Learning | January 31, 2011 | 4 comments

9 Essential Elements for Fun in Games I’ve been obsessing about the design of games lately and have attempted to study some of the patterns of good games. First off, these observations are driven mainly by the games I’m playing on and off currently – Patapon 1 & 2, Crysis, the Sims 3, Civilization 5, Angry Birds, and Need for Speed. Of these, Patapon is the one I’m enjoying the most as I compete against my six-year-old, and more so because it’s a very quirky, interesting game that runs on a portable platform with a very cool game mechanic.

Patapon is really ‘fun’; and it set me thinking about what makes it fun. The perception of fun is a moving target, and it’d be difficult to say X element in a game promotes fun, but I’m hazarding sharing my thoughts. We’ve all seen games that are visually appealing, contain numerous game elements and aren’t ‘fun’ to play at all. Then there are those games that don’t have sophisticated visual appeal, appear simple in mechanic but are still spell-binding and sap hour and hours of one’s time due to their fun and addictive game-play.

So these are – IMO, 9 essential elements in fun games:

The opportunities to allow for various types of game-play within a solid mechanic. For example, in a real-time strategy game, a player is able to formulate varied strategies depending on the challenges that face him/her. This response is targeted at a particular juncture in a particular situation that has formed as a result of player action within the game environment.
The game environment needs to provide the space, or rather a sense of space that prompts the player to explore. The game environment need not necessarily be a 3D high-fidelity representation of reality. As I saw in Patapon, a simple layered 2D approach can work very well.
The game mechanic needs to be solid and add infinite ‘replayability’. The rule set that defines the game structure must be logical, and allow for unique instantiation within the environment and the player’s interaction with it. If I look at Patapon as an example, the song/rhythm for an action mechanic is simple yet evocative and allows for a variety of interaction with the environment and non-player characters and elements.
Every game must necessarily include a range of challenges. This is perhaps the simplest observation, to be commonly found in most commercial games. On the other hand, I have found this to be quite rare in learning games.
Every game must target a range of abilities – the combination of abilities required to solve a game problem must progress incrementally. As the level of difficulty goes up, not one but a combination of abilities must be used to win. This sort of ‘ability scaffolding’ is important when players are expected to master the game as they play through levels.
Every game must require varied levels of skill when using the abilities that the game provides. So while I mentioned a combination of abilities previously, its equally important that game requires an increment in the level of skill for abilities within the game.
Rewards must be commensurate to the combination of abilities required and the appropriate skill level to solve a game problem/challenge. Too much reward for too little in relation the in-game demand abilities and skill levels vs. too little reward in relation to the in-game demand for abilities and skill levels. A balance has to be maintained and the player must find the reward fair when contrasted to the abilities and skills required to win in-game.
Failure should never be cheap or free. There must always be a cost associated with it. While this cost may not seem like much and a player will repeatedly pay that cost to learn. Pricing failure encourages players to try out different strategies (combination of ability/skills) in attempt to avoid the price of failing.
There must be multiple ways to win a game. Simple enough; this ties to the mechanic allowing for a variety of strategies to emerge during game-play. If there is typically a single and repeatable way to win, this would be more like a puzzle and not a game. Allowing for multiple win strategies or paths also provides good motivation for strategy exploration. “I can win using this combination, but can I win using another different combination?”

What other elements would you add to this list? Share your elements in the comments below!

About The Author

Abhijit Kadle

AVP - Learning Design

The 'Google' of Upside Learning, as he is fondly called, Abhijit plays a key role in guiding the Instructional Designers and is a chief member of the Innovation team. With over 15 years of professional experience in multimedia design and development, he has been active in the field of digital learning design for the past 12 years, and has worked on design driven projects for multimedia kiosk software, interactive CD–ROMs, multimedia instructional simulations, game-based learning environments, computer–based training, web–based training, and learning management systems and standards. He has managed multiple technical instructional design and development projects for various Fortune 500 companies at another eLearning company and also has presented learning sessions at various L&D events like mLearnCon, co-hosted webinars alongside leading industry experts, co-authored an eBook on Mobile Learning, and authored whitepapers on Mobile Learning and Game–based Learning. A Mechanical Engineer from the University of Pune, Abhijit is interested in multifarious subjects ranging from genetics, evolutionary biology, biochemistry, engineering, technology, computing to electronic games, media, communication, and the design of user experience and interaction.

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Comments ( 4 comments )

ted curran February 1, 2011 at 12:10 am

Hi Abhijit–
I have been getting back into games in a big way since we got a PS3 at the house (and I’ve been out of work sick) so it’s been a good excuse to study game mechanics.

I have a comment on #8 above: “Failure should never be cheap or free. There must always be a cost associated with it.”
A good friend who knew I was a longtime devotee of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video games bought me Sony’s Skate 2 for my birthday. I was amazed to find out that Skate 2 actually REWARDS wipeouts– you earn extra points for the most fantastically gruesome crashes your skater can get himself into. You crash hard and crash often in this game, and it never really gets “fun”. It reminds me of what low-skilled learners must experience in a high school classroom.
I went out to get Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground to compare, and sure enough, I found it so much easier to enter a state of “flow” in Tony Hawk. Tricks came easily after carefully scaffolded lessons, and mistakes were punished in the most minimal way– the “flow” of the game is interrupted. You stop for a moment and you can’t move past a certain point. There is no “penalty” in points or anything, but there is a dead stop in your progress until you meet a challenge.
I’d argue that this is the same basic penalty present in Angry Birds– you just don’t move past the levels you don’t beat. To me, this is different than a “penalty” in which, say, you lose points for every time you try and fail.
Another game I love is Word Ace http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=251011185370 , which is basically Texas Hold ‘Em poker with letter cards. In this game, every round that you play and lose actually deducts points from your total. I’m usually pretty successful at this game, but if I go on a “losing streak” (or ‘start losing too many points without making progress’) I definitely stop playing. Again– reminds me of some of my struggling readers and writers.

Great thread–
Ted
Kris February 1, 2011 at 11:34 pm

Beneficial information and facts! I have been previously hunting for something like this for a little bit now. Appreciate it!
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