Trimming out features that are no fun

Published December 12, 2019
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I recently added a tag to my Trello. I was working through my active coding items when I came across a ticket for my "Return Home" button. Which is basically a hearthstone that will return you to your shop's bedroom. The feature is intended to tether the user to their shop allowing them to venture deep into unknown territory with an easy out. I haven't found walking back to my shop to be an enriching or fun experience.

The tag I added to my Trello is "Not Fun":

Hurdles and challenges are one thing for your game, but have you ever felt like some things exist in a game for the purpose of just being not fun? I'm not talking about Dark Souls difficulty or anything like that. I'm talking about obtuse features or poor design which should have been tagged "Not Fun".

It's easy to prune features out, or mark them for review with this tag. Adding the ticket to the backlog for later review is also super effective, allowing you to be mocked by your past self into rethinking or reinventing this feature. Maybe returning home should cost money? Or an item? How can you improve this feature to shake off that horrible tag. Just a thought.

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