Fun is a serious business

Whether you're running a game or designing one, how do you come up with "fun"?

Greetings fellow wizards,

Today’s question is probably an ancient one: “What makes a game fun?”
Do not worry, my bathroom-reading warlocks, we will not attempt to find an answer in such complex and neverending subjects. We will instead try to understand from a Game Design perspective how to understand “fun”, and how we can handle it as GM.

What makes a game fun? What is fun?

When we say the word “fun” all that comes up in our minds is often a simple picture of someone laughing and visibly having a good time.
Then why is it so complex to explain “fun”? Well, that picture is actually not truthful, if you think about it.

I first realized it when I was watching my 1 year old nephew play. My nephew is a very smiley kid, he laughs a lot, and smiles even towards perfect strangers.

However, when he plays with his toys, he has a dead serious face. Why?
Because fun is a serious business.

I immediately realized that is the same face I do when playing video games like Elden Ring or Fallout, or when I design a new adventure for an RPG I am planning to play with friends.
I am having a lot of fun. But fun is a serious business. We are busy, we are concentrated.

We are making sure every block fits perfectly.

And we are loving it.

So my personal answer to “What makes a game fun?” is “When you know your destination, and you are enjoying the journey”, and that is pretty much how I design games and run my RPGs.
That may sound like a banal perfume advertisement, but let me explain more.

The “Destination” is the objective, the goal. The “journey” is whatever it takes to get to that goal.
Let me make an example to show how this applies to a game.
I was playing Horizon 2 Forbidden West on PS5, and I’m really enjoying it. In this videogame, I had to find some pieces scattered in the map to upgrade my bow. That is basically, for all intents and purposes, a chore to get a better weapon.

However, I had a ton of fun doing it, because the pieces I had to gather were only obtainable by hunting various machines with different abilities, that I had to defeat by using different techniques.
This made a chore into a very fun experience, or if you will, a destination with a very enjoyable journey.

You could say the same about paying your house debt in Animal Crossing, or clearing out a difficult dungeon to save a town in D&D.

The journey may be even difficult, but as long as it is fair and not extremely frustrating, you got yourself a fun game.

Once players of your adventures (or games) see that every block falls in place, they are going to have fun, even if they dealt with serious business to get there.

So here’s some key points that will serve us as reminders when making games and adventures:
- Make sure you know your destination: Know the purpose, or what’s happening in your setting.

- Know your crowd: Talk to your players about what type of adventure you plan on running to see if you are all on the same page, or understand what type of audience is going to play your game.

- Stay open to random fun: It may occur that players find something in your game or adventure that you never thought could be fun. Instead of staying on your rails, try to be open, and explore that possible new feature or plot hook.

Well that’s it for today, fellow game wizards. Thanks for rea-

Oh wait, what’s that? A game filled with ducks?

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Thanks for reading!