Psychology That Stands Behind FUN In Games

Content Manager at RetroStyle Games | Mar 10, 2025

One of the most important questions in game development is how to make your game fun. Because if your game does not bring joy – no one will play it. There are just so many ways to make your game fun. But to be effective, you need to learn a bit about the “system” that stands behind it. This “system” is psychology. Basic psychological tricks will help your game become way more popular.

“Game developers can use the principles of evolutionary psychology to create game mechanics that leverage the unconscious part of the human mind to keep players engaged. One particularly popular approach is to look at what kinds of instincts might have developed when living in hunter-gatherer societies.”

Do primal instincts explain engagement in location-based games? A hypothesis-forming focus group study on territorial behavior

Have you ever played any Dark Souls or Fallout New Vegas game longer than expected just because there is a boss you want to beat today? Or have you ever played The Witcher 3 and declined the reward because you thought that would be the right thing to do?

Each example here is how those feelings mess with you while you play. That’s where game developers can hook you to make you play more, actually enjoy it, and genuinely HAVE FUN. Let’s discuss how game developers use psychology to help us feel happy hormones pumping.

Emotions in Video Games

First of all, let’s define what an “emotion” actually is. According to Merriam-Webster, an emotion is “a conscious mental reaction (such as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as a strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body”.

Most scientists in different fields (psychology, evolutionary studies, etc.), outline different sets of emotions for us. For the sake of making this article understandable, let’s outline those that make us feel fun while playing video games:

1
Aggression
Drive for survival and dominance. A mechanism for securing resources, protecting oneself and one's group, and establishing social hierarchy.
2
Competition
Drive to excel and achieve. It's related to status-seeking behaviors and can be motivated by the desire for resources, mates, or social position.
3
Conformity
An alignment of attitude, beliefs, and morality according to other people around you.
4
Autonomy
The need to make your own decisions and choices.
5
Altruism
A call to help others selflessly. Evolutionary theorists have proposed several mechanisms for altruism, including kin selection and reciprocal altruism, which suggest that helping others, especially those related to us or those who may reciprocate, has survival benefits.
6
Peacemaking
The desire to maintain harmony and avoid conflict. A strategy to enhance group survival.
7
Cooperation
The natural need to work together towards a common goal. It was hard to survive on your own during the Stone Age. Because it's in our DNA, some games use this tactic to keep players interested. In coop games like Stardew Valley, Sniper Elite 4, or any other, players are required to cooperate if they want to win.
8
Selfishness
The right to prioritize your own needs and desires.

That’s what helps us feel a dopamine rush when we play. Let’s discuss each of them separately.

Altruism

Altruism is the need to selflessly help others. Do you remember the village in The Witcher 3 that was slaughtered by another witcher, where you saved the girl and went to her relatives? There is a choice to give them some money to buy food.

This choice does not lead you anywhere, you just do that because you may think it is the right thing to do because you were taught this way or for some other reason. But naturally, humans just like to help others in need. That’s why there are so many pet shelters and charity organizations that do something.

In the Dark Souls side quests, there’s a co-op system that’s especially useful for defeating tough bosses. Even years after its release, Dark Souls 2 has active players ready to assist at starting locations and before challenging DLC bosses. For some covenants (think of a covenant as a Clan in other games) this is essential, because by helping others you receive items that can help you level up in the covenant thus getting some unique items, like a very good PVP sword or the most powerful miracle in the game, etc.

From the game development perspective, this need isn’t the most important one. Firstly, because there are not too many ways to implement it. And secondly, because the desire to help must come from the players themselves, it cannot be forced. You can design a system to promote such behavior, like the Karma system in Fallout New Vegas, but do not “overdo” it — it shouldn’t force players to play the game YOUR way.

Peacemaking

A total opposition to aggression and competition, the need for peacemaking is one of three less important ones. Fulfilling this need can make your game a more engaging and fun experience overall, but isn’t strictly required. Just like altruism, it may be implemented via different systems, balancing features and mechanics. For example, if you play a turn-based strategy like Total War or Civilization, you will eventually end up being in a state of war with someone.

It’s a bit different from how to make an RTS game, as they require players to be in a state of battle with each other constantly (just think of Starcraft, Command and Conquer, etc). But even if you play an RTS game you still may have an unspoken peace agreement with other players. This is especially popular in multiplayer for the CnC series when 2 or weaker players unite against the strongest opponent on the map to defeat him together because they don’t have any chances at 1v1.

But making peace isn’t just somewhat satisfying, especially if you genuinely like the other side, but in some cases may be more beneficial since you can’t develop your country if you’re constantly at war with all your neighbors. You’ll just end up spending most of your money to maintain the army.

Conformity

Lots of years ago conformity was highly important, because if you were all alone — you were most surely about to die. Surviving as a part of a group was way easier. Right now, conformity is somewhat less important in terms of survival but still can be highly beneficial.

In RPG 3D games, this pretty much turns into the “We live in a society” meme. If you stand out too much, you can get kicked out. It may be found in MMOs as well. For example, if you’re being too aggressive, you can get kicked out of a raiding group. This way, you won’t get the best gear in the game. So you won’t be as successful as other players.

In solo games this translates to, for example, the GTA “police stars” system. If you’re being too silly — they will come after you.

Aggression

In the industry aggression was always a controversial thing. We, humans, were always brutal. A couple hundred of thousands of years ago aggression was widespread and wasn’t really regulated compared to now. Later on, we moved to killing each other because we wanted more resources, useful space, etc. In some cases, it was done just because it was “fun”. Right now, aggression is more of a choice.

We can experience aggression through video games. For some people, it’s a way to relax. So if you play Call of Duty, kill dozens of people and enjoy it, and “Remember, no Russian” is your favorite mission — there is (most surely), nothing wrong with you.

“…while the inability to accumulate and store many worldly possessions prevents significant material hierarchical structures from developing in modern hunter-gatherer groups and ancient human ancestors, status, prestige, rank is awarded to individuals based on their individual achievements, and particularly from hunting skill.”

The Evolutionary Psychology of Video Games: Michael T. Astolfi

Most people don’t like being aggressive if not triggered though. So before you make a game where you need to shoot someone, you must give a reason why the player must do this. Some of the most common reasons are because aggression is the only way to win, or because it was justified by most common moral tricks, like killing “bad guys” is cool, just go and do this. All in all, games that fulfill this need tend to be more popular than “peaceful” games, that’s why satisfying aggression is important if you want to make a video game that would make a profit.

Cooperation

In video games, it translates to some of the most common examples:

Raiding in a group to get better gear.
Surviving with your friend(s) in co-op.
Dominating the world in Victoria against AI with your friend(s).

This was (and still is) one of the most important traits. Because, you know, killing a mammoth solo without a save button is pretty difficult. In video games, this one is not the most important, but it is always nice to have a co-op feature. It can greatly boost engagement.

Competition

We are highly competitive. Thousands of years ago it was a competition for reproduction and food, later — for useful resources. Right now — for a better salary, bigger home, cooler car — you name it. Seeing your neighbor having something better or doing something better that you like doing as well can trigger the need for competition. That’s why even most peaceful and casual games usually have at least some sort of a “Top players chart”.

The feeling of competition can also cause the issue with loot boxes. They are like mystery boxes you pay for, hoping to get something cool inside, but you aren’t sure what. They’re a big way for TOP game companies to make money, but a lot of people are worried about them. Some say they’re unfair because they can make people feel like they have to keep spending money to get the items they want, kind of like gambling. This is especially a concern for young gamers who might not understand the risks. You want to be better and have cooler stuff, so you keep spending all you have to get it.

The reason loot boxes are so tempting is because of the excitement of not knowing what you’ll get. It’s like a game within a game, trying to get rare items or rewards. Game developers have ways to make these loot boxes even more tempting, like making some items super rare or making the boxes look and sound exciting when you open them.

But because loot boxes can encourage people to spend more money than they intended, there’s a lot of debate about whether they should be allowed, especially for kids. Some people think there should be clearer rules about how they’re used in games.

In the future, video game outsourcing companies might need to find new ways to make money that don’t cause these problems. For now, it’s important for gamers to be careful with loot boxes and for parents to keep an eye on how much is being spent on them.

Also, that’s why games like DOTA and Counter-Strike are always in the Steam top-played games chart. They may occasionally leave the top with a release of some awesome titles like Dragon’s Dogma 2 or Baldur’s Gate 3, but they always return. Because defeating enemies and doing something you like better than others does so many things to your brain. Like, activating the dopamine, adrenaline rush, etc. That’s also the reason why Call of Duty went from being a game with a somewhat compelling story first and competitive multiplayer second to the complete opposite.

There are several ways to satisfy this need. Adding multiplayer or co-op, “The Best Player” chart, awarding players with something awesome for beating the results of other players, and so on. There are also many examples:

Just Cause 3 with its “live” competition feature where you can see the results of other players completing mini-games and challenges.
Survival games with that thrill and need to find better items to beat the game and be better than your friend.
Pretty much every MMO with PVP.

Adding competition to your game is one of the most important decisions. And also the reason why games with close to no competition aren’t popular. Like, they never have been.

Autonomy

Autonomy is the need to make choices and decisions. Choosing the side of conflict and seeing the result is one of the most satisfying things in video games. But it doesn’t necessarily mean something that is “global”. Choosing where to go — left or right, what weapon to use — assault rifle or shotgun, blue or pink paint for your car, building a potato farm or a rice farm, killing the main bad guy, or siding with him. In video games, choices are literally everywhere.

It’s a great trait for survival games, like The Forest or Rust where you can do anything, but if you do it wrong, you die. Game development is in such a state now that making a game without at least a certain degree of Autonomy is just impossible. But if you still somehow manage to “achieve” it, be sure that nobody will ever play your game. Just because it’s not fun.

Adding autonomy into the game, on the other hand, is extremely easy. If you want to make a shooter — add more than one gun. If you’re making a military strategy game — add more than one unit. Racing simulator? Having more than one vehicle would be nice.

At its peak, Autonomy leads to multiple endings in quests, quest arcs, and games as a whole. This is one of the reasons why games like The Witcher 3, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Dragon Age are popular — they allow choosing between A and B, C, D, etc while also showing you the actual results of your choices. Just be sure to not make “the Telltale level” of choices, when your choices don’t matter and you can do whatever — the ultimate result was written well before you even launched the game.

Selfishness

The need to prioritize one’s needs above others leads us to be dominant and outlive competition. While selfishness is often viewed negatively in a social context, from an evolutionary standpoint, behaviors that prioritize one’s survival and reproduction are beneficial.

Right now, being a bit selfish is not a crime. Donating $10 to charity while buying $50 something to make yourself comfortable is OK, you helped others anyway, right?

In video games, this translates to keeping all the diamonds for yourself, even though you have enough for two diamond pickaxes. Or keeping that last bottle of water for yourself while your friend is already dying (in a survival game of course, not in reality). Or when you put the best gear on your main character while giving your pawns something worse. All that is selfishness, but a healthy one. For example, in KOTOR 1-2, altruism is mostly unrewarded. Playing as a selfish character will make you much wealthier, and money is a necessary thing there.

Why are survival video games so popular: psychology behind it

There are two main reasons. Firstly, they simulate natural survival. Something that is embedded into our DNA, which makes us feel better, more relevant, and more successful.

And also because most survival games include all of the emotions stated above — you can kill other creatures with your friend, split the loot while keeping something better for yourself, get more and better stuff than your friend to show off in co-op, while also giving him something you don’t need anymore because he died and lost all of his loot.

We can help you to design a survival game if you are interested in exploring this topic.

Just look at games like Valheim, The Forest, Sons of the Forest, and others — they all play the same but still so uniquely different. Every game in the list fulfills every need stated above at the same time. Without even a need to say that games like Minecraft, Roblox, and Terraria are not just survival games, they are cultural phenomena.

If you want to make a successful game try to fulfill players’ natural needs without sacrificing on things like story, choices that matter, etc. Making Android games or a good PC game is like constructing a car — to make it run smoothly there are just so many things to consider. But if there is a car that not just drives well, but has some extra perks like heated seats – most people will choose the second option.