Over the past couple years I periodically have seen various studies being conducted on what makes a game fun popping up in the literature. I thought it would be nice to have a thread topic that brings some of these articles together. Please do not simply post your personal ideas about what makes a game fun. I'd like to keep this thread on the topic of linking together results from more professionally controlled studies on the science of fun, addiction, and learning curve, in games. So if you happen across a publication dealing with these issues, please link it here for us all to see.

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Original post by yahastu Over the past couple years I periodically have seen various studies being conducted on what makes a game fun popping up in the literature. I thought it would be nice to have a thread topic that brings some of these articles together. Please do not simply post your personal ideas about what makes a game fun. I'd like to keep this thread on the topic of linking together results from more professionally controlled studies on the science of fun, addiction, and learning curve, in games. So if you happen across a publication dealing with these issues, please link it here for us all to see.

Not a terrible idea. Why don't you start by posting some of the links that you've found?

I agree this is also a good idea. In addition to studies that have been conducted, I think you can get some ideas from looking at the stats of flash games. Many sites (armor games, newgrounds, kongregate) not only show the number of times a game has been played but also user ratings. The nice thing about using flash games for this purpose is that they usually only have a couple of core gaming characteristics (unlike, say, a console game), so you can obtain a stronger correlation between these characteristics and how well the contribute to a 'successful' game.

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Original post by dunstantom I agree this is also a good idea. In addition to studies that have been conducted, I think you can get some ideas from looking at the stats of flash games. Many sites (armor games, newgrounds, kongregate) not only show the number of times a game has been played but also user ratings. The nice thing about using flash games for this purpose is that they usually only have a couple of core gaming characteristics (unlike, say, a console game), so you can obtain a stronger correlation between these characteristics and how well the contribute to a 'successful' game.

Keep in mind, on Newgrounds your target audience is probably 10- to 15-year-olds. Not to mention users are encouraged to vote based on "effort," so a very pretty-but-boring game will likely have a high score, while a good game that's very simple is less likely. Not to mention any game that makes front page will have its views skyrocket.

Check out Raph Koster's book on the Theory of Fun.

It is a great and interesting read from someone with a lot of experience in the world of game design.

It is true that you have to watch for bias in your fact gathering. I would comment that the age is not that big of a drawback unless you're looking to develop a game with mature content. There are many games that adults enjoy as well as a 10 year old.

Regardless, Google Scholar can help find some good papers.
The paper "Heuristics and usability guidelines for the creation and evaluation of fun in video games" looks interesting.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.89.8294&rep=rep1&type=pdf