“Fun is a chemical response. It comes from the same place as chocolate and orgasm,” said Raph Koster, game developer. According to one researcher he cited, there are four types of fun: hard, easy, visceral, and social. Games, he said, are mostly hard fun. Raph then moved into telling us how magic works. “It’s about structure,” he said. “It’s the same in nature, physics, and social media.” Another word for structure is grammar, he said. “All it means is how things fit together. It’s not a bad word.” He showed slides of the structure of blues music — and even sang us some blues — telling us songs are really made up of other songs, overlapping. And visual compositions are made up of spaces. Similarly, games are made up of games — lots of little ones are in any good game, he said. Building games is about good “interaction design.” Then he ran us through a quick lesson in designing for fun, or applying game design to, for example, social media applications. He said you should have statistical features and opportunities for competition. “Never start an interaction with no context,” he said. And the participant must be able to prepare for the next encounter. Users should be able to solve challenges with a choice of tools, he said. “Reward them with different feedback. Variable feedback keeps things lively. And it should be visible to everyone.” Raph closed by telling us to check out his book site for more: www.TheoryofFun.com.
Tag: Raph Koster
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