Practical Game Design

Finding the fun

What do you think about this?

A game where you play as an astronaut who watches Planet Earth being destroyed from a space station?

Or this?

An augmented reality game in which you use your phone to find clues and solve mysteries.

These may sound like good hooks for a game concept (if you think about that first one, that could be a hook for a book or a movie as well), but the most important thing when you are ideating your game is: How can this be fun? What do you do in that game? Is the space station game a survival adventure or a horror? Is it about managing resources or survival? Is it a space shooter? Think about the games you love, what makes them fun? And what is fun anyway? Is it the joy of learning and mastering new ...