Discussion What makes a videogame fun?

[Soygoy]

Looking for ideas for a new game project, ideally I'm thinking something simple, easy to make, but ultimately fun to play.
As of right now, I feel like I want to make a dark and mysterious yume-nikki styled exploration game with low poly ps1 graphics. The concept is not unique, but there could be potential for something.
Perhaps the mere idea of exploration itself is so simple, yet so fun at the same time that all I would need to focus on is writing a cryptic but interesting story and creating beautiful areas and scenery in the game for it to be fun.

But, regardless of that, what actually makes a videogame fun? How can I make a project that I can absolutely ensure would get people to play it and be happy with the experience? Why do people even play videogames? I myself have forgotten the answer to most of these questions.

 

[basil]

endless replay-ability, most "gamers" (people who have too much free time) get tired of videogames because they play so many of them, i only play 3 games, one of them, being jurassic world: the game. it is free and you can play it basically forever.

 

[Ree Vannin]

People play games for escapism

 

[basil]

People play games for escapism

this, so much this, video games are inherently an evil, only to be played if you have the time for it, wasting all of your time on one is to be shamed for.

 

[Soygoy]

I'm personally looking to create a project that is as stripped down as possible, free from the garbage that modern videogames contains, like complex inventory systems and obnoxious character dialogue, overcomplicated combat systems and obnoxious HUD and UI designs with like a thousand different settings to choose from.

endless replay-ability, most "gamers" (people who have too much free time) get tired of videogames because they play so many of them, i only play 3 games, one of them, being jurassic world: the game. it is free and you can play it basically forever.

Replayability is cancer in my eyes. If you're making a game for the purpose of having it be the game that everyone is sinking hours into 24/7 then you're not creating a memorable experience. It only works for games that are good in nature like TF2, which I don't think was designed to be replayable, its just that multiplayer games in general are always replayable and TF2 is just a good game. People rarely play singleplayer anymore these days.

 

[Hagon]

endless replay-ability

stupid advice if you want to make something actually memorable. Cry of fear is one of my favorite games (2nd, I'd say), and I played it one single time. It's not even a long game.

 

[basil]

well fine guys i guess both of you are right because all games i play are endless in a sense i'm sorry i'm not a TRUE gamer.

 

[Soygoy]

stupid advice if you want to make something actually memorable. Cry of fear is one of my favorite games (2nd, I'd say), and I played it one single time. It's not even a long game.

You can go through all of that, but what makes it satisfying, the feeling of completing it, or the story it tells? The environments it shows you? What about the gameplay itself? Is that even important, or does it kind of just get in the way of all of that?

well fine guys i guess both of you are right because all games i play are endless in a sense i'm sorry i'm not a TRUE gamer.

Stop being overdramatic, you bastard.

 

[Spasoje's Revenge]

Good feedback

 

[X Immigrant]

Sovl, as in a good, unique idea that wasn't churned out through a gorillion hours of brainstorming. If you have what it takes it will come to you.

 

[Hagon]

You can go through all of that, but what makes it satisfying, the feeling of completing it, or the story it tells? The environments it shows you? What about the gameplay itself? Is that even important, or does it kind of just get in the way of all of that?

Well, In cry of fears case it's both the gameplay and story/atmosphere as to why it's good. But what makes it "Fun", which was your original question, is the actual risk of losing. You can't save whenever you want and healing + ammo are very limited, all of the enemies are fricking scary, you have no idea where they might come out and rush you from. So it gets very tense, but is fun. But that likely might not be a good approach for your game, since there are a lot of people who don't want to redo the same 40 minutes over just because they died once.

Good feedback

this, obsessed game needs to fukking respond to my actions o algo,,

 

[Brainstorm]

let people be evil or something

 

[Soynic Hedgehog]

Tons of different tools so you can play the whole game just switching out your weapon of choice when you get bored of it for something different

 

[bowl]

games that are easily moddable to add new stuff

 

[Soygoy]

Tons of different tools so you can play the whole game just switching out your weapon of choice when you get bored of it for something different

Intersting

So far people have suggested
- The ability to play how you want
- Overcoming obstacles set by the game
- Game responding well to your choices
I think these make a lot of sense, for example, having an obstacle or a puzzle with mutliple ways to solve instead of just one allows for creative thinking. I suppose that is kind of what makes Terraria fun in a way, there is no class system, you can kill a boss any way that you want, and even then, they're not an obstacle, more like an optional challenge. But I've always hated Terraria boss fights, they feel more like a checklist really, like a runescape quest you have to complete just to get to the next one, doesn't really feel impactful to me, I hate that in games, I hate the feeling of hating a section in a game and just wanting that specific section to be over and done with.

Personally, I think I struggle a lot with the idea of playing games these days, because I don't really see why I should, theres not a lot of videogames out there that really make me feel like I have to play them for some reason. I like making games, but, I can't see myself playing any of them ever really. I think Cry of Fear is cool, but I can't really play it, I just can't. I mean, it's a horror game at the end of the day, that in of itself is boring to me, done a million times.

Games are just so weird, I don't really understand them anymore. It felt like I used to, but something changed. I don't have fun while playing them and I also don't see the point of them, they don't provide anything to anyone, they're barely entertaining. I suppose people play games for the same reasons they watch TV shows or something, this might sound weird but I think that Undertale is a pretty good game, it has it's flaws, but it has a great story and very unique game mechanics, aswell as the idea that you can make multiple choices and find secrets. But it doesn't achieve that very well. But atleast you can actually make more than one choice.

games that are easily moddable to add new stuff

This kind of defeats the purpose of the entire game.
Why even make a game if you're going to rely on others making the game for you?

 

[Neutralplier]

For me, its the satisfaction of getting good at something through practice, which is why i despise puzzle games

 

[Soygoy]

I feel like this thread may have helped me narrow it down, the most fun that you can have in games comes from the ability to make multiple choices and do what you want to do and overcome obstacles in creative ways. Every fun game has an obstacle, whether that be a zombie or other players. And also a sense of risk.

stupid advice if you want to make something actually memorable. Cry of fear is one of my favorite games (2nd, I'd say), and I played it one single time. It's not even a long game.

Probably the best games I've played are the games I've only played once to be honest.

For me, its the satisfaction of getting good at something through practice, which is why i despise puzzle games

I hate skill based games, they lock out a lot of players based off of arbitrary bullshit and statistics and are often over competitive, like CSGO etc. Competitiveness ruins fun in my opinion, if you're playing a game and you die, its not like a "too bad, oh well" situation now you have your teammates threatening to kill you IRL for deranking them or something.

I think puzzles are cool, but if they're too complex, they might lock out a lot of players because how do you expect someone to dehash a string into base64 to image to scan a qr code that says nigger, nobody is doing that, apart from like redditors or something.

I feel like I want to make a game that solves all the issues I have with games these days, it has to be fun to make but also fun for me personally to play but the issue is that I rarely play games anymore because I just can't be bothered to do so, all games these days are just so many gigabytes that I have to go download and then I have to deal with their complicated mechanics and it's just too much for me, honestly at this point, I'm so tired of shooter games, man, I wanna play something for once where perhaps you can't defend yourself, you know? Where the only thing you can do is move perhaps. Not every game has to be this stupid god damn quirky ahh shooter game with a fucking 100 different ways to move system bhop surfing air dash air hop bullshit garbage, you know?

I'm personally wondering if the best way to make a game is to focus on aesthetic and story and actually forgo gameplay completely in favour of exploration, but perhaps unique puzzles involved with that, like sections of the world that require a certain item, or areas that require critical thinking to accomplish, like moving ladders around in Reisdent Evil 2 to get to different places. I feel like we used to be in a state where games have to be so hard, but nowadays I don't care, I just want a game to show me something cool or perhaps say "If you're not interested, don't play, I don't care" but provide something for someone who does actually care, but i dont know, the more I hear myself talk, the more I realize that there might be something wrong with me, I'm not sure if I can even make games anymore if I have actually forgotten why I used to play games in the first place.

 

[Donald McDonald]

Looking for ideas for a new game project, ideally I'm thinking something simple, easy to make, but ultimately fun to play.
As of right now, I feel like I want to make a dark and mysterious yume-nikki styled exploration game with low poly ps1 graphics. The concept is not unique, but there could be potential for something.
Perhaps the mere idea of exploration itself is so simple, yet so fun at the same time that all I would need to focus on is writing a cryptic but interesting story and creating beautiful areas and scenery in the game for it to be fun.

But, regardless of that, what actually makes a videogame fun? How can I make a project that I can absolutely ensure would get people to play it and be happy with the experience? Why do people even play videogames? I myself have forgotten the answer to most of these questions.

PS1 imitation style graphics is redditcore troonslop unless it's actually running on the PS1 o algo

 

[Donald McDonald]

Not reading all that

 

[Donald McDonald]

Many are hyper-obsessed with focusing entirely on the graphics and le fuckin' cinematic experience and forget to make something actually fun