2015-05-19

Making games funny


So I read an interesting blog post on Funny Games by Grant Rodiek.  While a lot of writers out there have been talking about depth, luck, accessibility, and so on in game design, I like that someone has been thinking about games that make people laugh.

And we're not really talking about games that have comedy elements in them -- they often wear thin quite quickly -- rather about comparatively serious games that just hit you with something where the only response is to laugh.

A lot of the time, the laughter comes from player interaction, but Grant suggests some other elements that could lead to real laughs.  Now I am thinking about this I'm remembering assorted incidents.  Like the time when we were playing Coup and everyone decided that I was an untrustworthy cur who must be bluffing, but every time I was called on it, I was able to innocently reveal the correct card.  Or the many times we played Robo Rally and had a robot's program taking it inexorably to its doom thanks usually to a small nudge from another player.  Or getting stuck at the top of the mountain in K2 thanks to the swine camped below me as a storm rolled in.  All good stuff.

I think the games I have designed in the past do not really lend themselves to being funny, but I would like them to, so many thanks to Grant for getting me thinking along these lines.

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