Flow Theory and What Makes A Game Fun
This week, I did some research into Flow Theory and what makes a game fun for the player. Finding the perfect mix of challenge that tests the player’s abilities is one of the hardest parts of being a game designer. Make your game too hard, and the player won’t be able to complete it. Make it too easy, and the player will get bored and not want to play it. Finding that perfect difficulty curve is one of the main aims of a game designer.
Flow Theory:
Flow, according to Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, names the feeling of complete and energised focus in an activity, with a high level of enjoyment and fulfilment. From that, we can say that the components of a flow-producing activity are:
We are up to the activity.
We are able to concentrate on the activity.
The activity has clear goals.
The activity has direct feedback.
We feel that we control the activity.
Our worries and concerns disappear.
Our subjective experience of time is altered.
We can note that we don’t need to have all of these points together to create a flow-producing activity.
There are many characteristic experiences that are associated with fun: the sense of timelessness, of being at one (with mind and mountain), of exhilaration, focus, immediacy. And all of these are characteristic of what we, regardless of activity, call "fun."
There’s near-universal agreement that when there isn’t a high correlation between the challenge, and the ability to meet that challenge, fun is something that we aren’t having. Having to face a difficult challenge without the abilities and skill to meet that challenge leave us anxious, and potentially dead (in game). Conversely, if the challenge is nowhere near our abilities we become bored, and potentially dead (from boredom). Maintaining the dynamic balance between challenge and abilities is the key to making a fun game, and one of the hardest things to get right. Having that perfect flow where the challenge rises at the right speed as the player’s abilities get better is an incredibly difficult thing to get right, but by successfully doing it, you can create a game that the player will find enjoyable and challenging without being unfair.