Forem: Lucas Martins Ribeiro

Making games is fun, but... What makes a game fun?

Lucas Martins Ribeiro — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 19:11:45 +0000

On this game development journey I decided that instead of being only a game developer I would become a Game Designer. Games are indeed fun, but not because of the code, but because of what it makes the players feel. And to me, that's the best part of the process.

Don't get me wrong, I love coding and I won't stop coding games for as long as I live. But just coding games is too easy. Honestly, anyone programmer could write a piece of code and call it a game. But coding fun games is something else. Not anyone is capable of making games that truly touches other people. Well, I accept the challenge. Partly because I'm arrogant enough to blindly believe I'm actually one of the people that can make games like that, but mostly because I believe that a truly good game can save a person's life.

So, the first question I want to answer as a Game Designer is: what makes a game fun? This question has been answered before in a lot of discussions across the universe. There's a lot of answers: good mechanics, nice background story and narrative, exploration, the world development, good controls, possibility to play with friends (or strangers), and, most of the time, a combination of all these factors and much more.

It's really a subjective matter, thinking about it, because two people can find the concept of fun being served in two completely different games. I, particularly, love the Kingdom Hearts games (including Chain Of Memories, which people usually think it sucks), but my stepson can't stand the thought of playing it - even though he likes the characters!!!

And there's a few layers when we talk about factors that makes a game fun. We can go even deeper, asking questions like: what is a fun racing game? And a fun fight game? Is an arcade soccer game more fun than an physics-based soccer game? RPGs are fun because of the battle, the narratives or the exploration? We probably won't ever have an answer for that as long as humans keeps evolving as species.

Another thing I like to point out is: how much AI influences the fun factor of a game? Nowadays, with the advances we have, is AI required to make a fun game? I don't think it is, but I honestly feel happier when the game feels responsive to my actions.

There is a lot of stuff that can make a game feels fun or not fun at all, but to you, what makes a game fun? Is there anything that is a must when it comes to a fun game? Or you're the kind that is just happy to make things move on screen?

We need to talk about gamedev! Or at least I do.

Lucas Martins Ribeiro — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:04:17 +0000

In the last few years I've been feeling tired of coding. That actually sucks a lot, because coding is one of the things I like the most to do. I like to describe coding as some form of modern magic. Developers mix up a bunch of words and something neat happens - nobody can convince me that's not some magical shit happening right there. But then I started working with web development and after a few years things kinda got boring.

Not because web development sucks or something like that, but because it wasn't because of web development that I started coding.

I have a long story with videogames. I watched a lot of action movies with my father, but when my grandma gave me a Master System, I felt something different. I could actually move stuff on screen in any way I wanted. I was only a kid and couldn't calculate the magnitude of that moment, but I can guarantee now that it has shaped a lot of my career as a developer.

Years later, as a teenager, I tried making some games and noticed it was harder than it looked. I used a lot of RPG Maker back then, from 2k to VX, but couldn't finish any game. I gave up on that for years, but sometimes would still have an idea for a game.

Then I started working as a Web Developer, and tried a few more times to make small games, but failed miserably. Well, it was still hard as I remembered, and even though I had more technical skill, I gave up again on that.

But then I started thinking a few months ago: "I started coding because I wanted to make games. Why haven't I done it yet?"

Well, and the answer is quite simple: I was a goddamn coward.

Finishing a game just the way I wanted always felt like too much. I had ideas, but in the end always thought "shit I don't know if I can handle all that shit". But well, guess what, I probably can't. But being a coward, I couldn't admit that.

So I decided to do something brave - some would call irresponsible -, because that's what courageous people do, right? Right? No? Anyway... I decided to create a game dev company.

Yeah, it's real. It's called MagicOwl Games, and the motto "Making Games Smarter". It already has a site that I'm still working on. Here you go: MagicOwl Games

Today, there's only me working on the studio. And because I still suck at making games, I decided to take some baby steps. I created an account on itch.io. It is a place where I want to post prototypes and smaller projects of the company. I already posted some learning stuff there. And I also accept donations.

Nowadays, 3 projects that I intend to work: the biggest one and planned to have some playable stuff by December is a MOBA with some mechanics of control points. By now, I have the written concept of some characters and some ideas on the map and the main mechanics. I'll be telling more about it as soon as I have updates on it.

There's a second project, I have less thing about it, it is a monster capture with some vaporwave twist on it. I plan to work on this in parallel with the moba, but I'll see. Sometimes I think I should work on this one first because it seems easier than the moba, but I also feel like this thought is some kind of self-sabotage. Tell me what do you think about it.

And the current project I'm focusing on is a simple tower defense to help me get a grip on some core game development knowledge. I don't have anything public from that project yet, but I can talk a little bit about it.

It's a game called Defenders of The Wise Horn. The plot, essentially is:

There is an artifact called Wise Horn. The story of its true origins is lost, but it is believed that it belonged to a godly goat, and people believe it grants wisdom to the King.
This artifact must be defended from the army of goblins. That's it. I honestly didn't think much about the background story because it is not relevant to this project.

DotWH is a game with the main purpose of teaching me stuff about pathfinding, collision management and reusability in game development. I gave myself the deadline of less than three months, so I have to finish by the end of March and publish on GOG.

What can be expected from this game is:

10 waves of enemies.
Use and upgrade of 1 to 3 turrets.
At first, only 1 kind of map.

I feel like this is something pretty achieavable for a little more than 2 months, but sometimes it seems a little overwhelming, I'm not gonna lie. I'm in a place where I still have to deal with everything, from code to art.

I'm using Godot Engine to develop this project. I chose it because I'm not stuck to a specific kind of game without having to rewrite a lot of stuff (like RPG Maker), but it has a better learning curve than Unity. Sometimes I think I should have picked Unity, but I don't have much time nowadays, and it felt just so much to use it that I decided to go with Godot.

For the future, besides working on the other two projects I mentioned, I plan on participating on some game jams under the company's name, to know people and to be seen, basically. I also what the company's games to have strong, robust AI systems, that will make gameplay feels like living entities interacting with the player, not just being played.

But let's finish this here for now. I'm writing this on the go, and I'm getting out of ideas, so it's better if I just stop. But tell me, game developer reading this, did you try building a game studio by yourself? What was your biggest challenge?

Game Dev Journal: Press Start

Lucas Martins Ribeiro — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 14:07:03 +0000

I played my first video game when I was 4. I was fascinated when I found out that I could move stuff on TV. I still remember what I felt and how I felt. It's like my strongest memory — and maybe the happiest. I was kinda used to the idea of television, my father was heavily addicted in action movies and we used to watch together a lot. But the fact of pressing some button and then stuff starts to move as you wish opened a whole new perspective of life for me. I needed to know how to make stuff like that.

I was 12 when I discovered that games are created with computers, and obviously I bothered my parents to buy one — even though I knew we couldn't afford one. But they actually did buy a computer, because they were convinced that it would be an investment on my future.

The first lesson that I learned about game development: it was hard. Not the kind of hard that I was used to. I learned english all by myself translating video games before getting a computer, so I was able to deal with some pretty tough stuff. But I drowned in my first dive in this new ocean.

The second lesson was: it took time for a game to be made. A lot of it. And I was entering in a bad moment in my life, I needed to focus on other stuff, which lead me to the...

Third lesson: it was harder to get a job. They all expected someone with a few games made, and I couldn't finish a single one.

And then I gave up for a while, going in a different direction until the pandemics. I lost my job as soon as it started, and then I came back to coding, but now for a living. I'm currently working as a web developer, but my inner child deserves to have his dreams fulfilled.

And what would make this journey different than what it was fifteen years ago? I got a plan, and I'm more stubborn than ever.

Now, the fourth lesson: I need to be an AI specialist to make the games the way I want. I like to play hard games, and hard games requires good NPCs, which leads to a strong AI system.

I'm tired of writing, so this is it by now. Next time I'm here, I'll talk about what I've been doing with AI.