Even though I already had the book for three years, I’ve only just read it. A Theory of Fun has been a real eye-opener for me. Analyzing the world and categorizing it in patterns, something I’ve subconsciously been doing all my life, and only just became aware of. Funny how, for me, gaining new knowledge always makes me think “it’s so obvious why didn’t I think of this before?” Which makes my admiration for the people that actually manage to put these revolutionary thoughts on paper even bigger.

Now that I became aware of this way of analyzing life (the universe and everything), game design became a lot easier and so much more fun for me. All the things I do and think about during work and in my personal life became a lot more organised and fun to analyze. Everything consists out of patterns, and if that seems not applicable to a certain subject, you haven’t been looking hard enough or are just overwelhmed by the immense complexity of it all (which is awesome).

Who’s awesome?                                                                       from: station79.files.wordpress.com

The cool thing about games (and the reason I love making them) is that they constantly aim at breaking the established patterns in order to entertain and stimulate learning within its users. Something that, if done right, helps people become happier and better at life (what could be more fulfilling?).

My favorite games (Portal 1 and 2) do these things insanely well. So well even that I decided to observe my, at the time, new-to-gaming-girlfriend™ play both games from start to (the song-filled) finish.

An activity I’d highly recommend to any designer who is looking for a way to spend 30 hours in silence (and learn how to properly ‘tutorialise’ an entire game… that is fun as well).As you might have noticed by now, I absolutely love learning new things, and A Theory of Fun certainly has taught me a lot of valuable lessons. If there are any other cool theories out there (or there is something you would love to talk about) I’m always up for a conversation on twitter!

Have a great day!