Fun (and funny) is usually a spontaneous event. Nobody talks about "having fun at 6pm" the way we talk about eating or going to work. How do game designers (and comedians) take a randomly occurring thing like fun and make it a consistent experience?

It's a good question, and one we were recently asked by students at a talk we gave at IUPUI. There is some science to it, but it's an arcane science. Nobody is exactly the same, but these three basic tricks will greatly increase your ability to create fun on demand.

1. Get rid of stuff that isn't fun. This is the first, most obvious step and yet it often gets overlooked. When you're heading out to the park to have some fun, you don't take your taxes along with you. Don't ask your players to accompany your fun with un-fun. Make getting started as simple as possible. A simple "type your name and hit play" is immensely better than "type a character name (oops, taken), type a new character name, enter your email address, verify that, hit play." It's true once the game starts as well. Some definite gameplay downers are slowdowns, unclear directions, "unfair" deaths, and waiting. Try to cut those entirely or mask them with something that is fun.

2. Start simple and get complex (if you have to). It's a lot easier to take a simple, fun concept and give it depth than to take a complex, un-fun game and make it fun. Make sure you've got fun in your game from the start. If your basic unit of gameplay isn't fun, maybe you should try something else. For example, Entropic Space originally had Astrocrash attached to the mouse with a spring, which made bouncing planets around frustrating. Tightening that spring up tightened the gameplay up a lot as well, making the basic "hit the planets" mechanic fun.

3. Get other people to play. You're the best usability guy you're going to have, since you work on it all the time. Unfortunately, by the time you're ready to test your intro levels, you'll be so good at the game that everything will be too easy. Grab some friends and family and give them the game. Watch them start playing without saying anything. Even if they ask questions, just tell them to experiment for themselves. Any time they have a problem, ask a question, or hesitate, mark whatever they're doing as an area that needs smoothing.

And here's a bonus suggestion for those of you who are already masters of the first three: watch yourself as you play other games. What annoys you? What gets you to keep playing even after being annoyed? After you've done this for a while, you'll build up a toolbox of tricks that will help you make games fun for you.

And once you can make fun games for yourself, you can make them for anybody.