Making Fun: A Practical Design Toolkit for Building Games That Work
Great games are not accidents. They are deliberate constructions built from choices that shape what players feel, think, and do. Designing for a generic idea of fun is like trying to build a house on fog. Players disagree about what is fun, and what delights one player may bore another. Instead of designing for everyone, the smarter approach is to design for someone. That means choosing an intended audience and defining the exact feelings the game should produce for them. Fun is just dangerously subjective.