Emotion, humour & the last laugh
Designing for emotion and humour: emotions as reactions to designed triggers, five core emotions, arousal and the Yerkes–Dodson curve, emotion through mechanics; four theories of humour (incongruity, superiority, relief, benign violation); scripted and systemic humour, physical, clever and satirical forms; audience, culture and comic timing. In the practical your group adds one humour beat to a game you designed this term and tests it on another group.
Slides: use the arrow keys or swipe; press F for full screen and Esc for an overview.
- Design for a target emotion by designing its trigger, through mechanics as well as story.
- Explain why something is funny using incongruity, superiority, relief and benign violation.
- Choose a form of humour, scripted or systemic, and deliver it with set-up, timing and payoff.
- Check a joke for audience, age and culture, then test it by watching real reactions.
Finish your humour beat and its test results. Play something that made people laugh this year and name the theory it uses.
Activity files
Key reading
McGraw, A. P. and Warren, C. (2010) 'Benign violations: making immoral behavior funny', Psychological Science, 21(8), pp. 1141–1149.
Lazzaro, N. (2004) 'Why we play games: four keys to more emotion without story'. XEODesign.
Schell, J. (2008) The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.
GDnD wiki: Humour in Game Design. Link