Serious Fun: How Silly Mechanics and Easter Eggs Win Over Gamers

Humans are deeply unserious beings. We’re silly geese; goobers; just people making our way through a world often seen as in shambles. In the pre- and early-social media eras of the 90s-2010s, escapism from the crumbling edifice of society manifested in gritty shooters and high-fantasy RPGs that presented worlds beyond, and often worse, than our own, where players were given straightforward paths toward survival and herosim. These hideaways offered clear solutions in a world full of ‘futile problems’.

But, as I said, we’re inherently, deeply goofy: we pivoted to memes, breathed new life into the Impact font, binged so-bad-they're-good movies like Sharknado and Yoga Hosiers, and introduced silly mods into somber games like Skyrim purely for the laughs rather than embellished gameplay.

A Skyrim mod turned dragons into fire-breathing, near-indestructible ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’s.

Which brings us to today: we’ve shifted from serious games, to modding serious games for unserious hilarity, to games that are intentionally unserious. Lighthearted games like Fall Guys and "dumbass shooters" (non-derogatory) like Fortnite prove that lighthearted experiences can be just as deep and engaging - and at times, more profitable - than conventional, gritty titles. Their successes demonstrate that silliness and delight can coexist with mechanical depth and high production values, and that modern audiences are gravitating towards this exact combination.

Folks, this isn’t a blogpost: it’s a love letter for the silly little games that spread delight. After all, what’s a better ode than a thoughtful essay on what makes something just so great?

First, let’s define ‘silly’ here. We’re talking about games that lean into whimsy, humor, or absurd premises rather than polished realism and dark themes. We’re not talking about effort or quality: across the entire spectrum of ‘seriousness’, developers devote care to story, visuals, and engaging UX. We’re honoring those whose care manifests in comedic timing, eccentric art, and delightful, designed chaos.

Take the aforementioned Fall Guys: a battle royale in the form of a game show that leans on “adorable chaos” where players storm obstacle courses with quirky physics. Or Party Animals, whose players fight as wobbly creatures flinging themselves at each other with reckless, floppy abandon; Untitled Goose Game and Goat Simulator, which revolve entirely around being an absolute menace of a creature; or my personal favorite, Thank Goodness You’re Here!, featuring a single mechanic - slap! - that unravels an entire storyline. The distinctive art styles, stories, and behaviors make everything feel like a delightful, unexpected easter egg. These games are built for players’ fun, and they feel like the creators had fun making them too.

From customizable beans to flailing animals to Cartoon-Network-style Brits, the characters in Fall Guys, Party Animals, and Thank Goodness You’re Here! perfectly illustrate the chaos that makes these games great.

Market and cultural shifts accelerated this change, rewarding fun-fueled, no-skill-needed chaos with instant virality. The simplicity of the mechanics make them more accessible to wider audiences than classic fighting-driven games, where leveling and weapons play are key to enjoyment. Inclusive gaming demographics allow families and casual gamers to get as much out of them as the hyper-competitive players - try mixing gaming novices with Valorant grinders in Overcooked!: it always results in comedic disaster, which is half the fun. Meanwhile, streaming platforms amplify these silly moments and let the personalities of both players and the games shine, fueling a stream of endlessly shareable content.

We can't ignore the philosophy and psychology that drive this shift. Specifically - why do lighthearted things have such sticking power?

First and foremost, who doesn’t love to laugh? Humor triggers dopamine, rewarding those goofy moments with a dog treat of delight. The more unexpected, the better: the first surprises drive us to search for more. Plus, dopamine enhances memory retention of small but funny gameplay moments (who could forget Skyrim’s iconic “arrow to the knee” meme!).

This simple soldier used to be one of the most prolific memes in gaming communities. Then he took an arrow to the knee.

These little joys offer respite from the mundane day-to-day. Many players who seek happy escapism after stressful days use games as a way to stimulate parts of brain that aren’t typically active, or even to ‘turn off’ the anxieties that overactive by shifting focus to absurd, manufactured conflicts. Mobile games of the early 2000s paved the way here with hypnotic casual-play masterpieces like Plants vs. Zombies, Doodle Jump, and Flappy Bird. Nowadays, production quality and game time has skyrocketed, building on those foundations to extend the bounds of easy-to-digest, cozy-gaming quality.

Casual-play mobile games (pictured: Plants vs. Zombies and Flappy Bird) owned attention spans in the mid-2000s/2010s.

Couch co-op and competitive gaming also plays a huge part in this. Thinking back to countless team-building sessions spent yelling our way through Ocercooked, Pico Park, or Super Smash Bros, I find that the most memorable moments are those in which everything went horribly wrong in the most wonderful way. A kitchen on fire; plummeting into the void and pulling the team down with me; deaddropping off of the edge of every damn platform - the list of moments met by headclutching, maniacal laughter, goes on. Those moments of absolute shambles, born from games designed for success or failure together, make a perfect combination of sticky, entertaining gameplay that forge the most memorable experiences.

Nothing brings people together quite like an assembly line aflame in Overcooked!.

Silly casual play is fun, accessible, and enduring, especially, those games with high production value and large studio backing. One of the earlier instances of this was Valve’s Team Fortress 2, a cartoonish shooter which combined slapstick character interactions and adult-focused humor with highly refined class mechanics, regular developer updates, a lively competitive community, and one of the biggest and most impactful game economies. Fortnite is the modern title that takes this to a new level with mechanics like grenades that force an opponent to dance (not to mention the dances themselves), frequently reinvented ‘seasons’ and styles, and collaborations with other IPs and musical artists (I’m not saying the Peter Griffin skin but…. the Peter Griffin Skin).

In a landscape with a ton of grim shooters and epic RPGs, all competing for attention, comedy and silliness can be a unique, refreshing selling point. Rockstar excels at this; the core mechanic itself makes something so seemingly simple as trying to drive in a straight line a comedy-rich, nearly impossible endeavor (at least if you’re me). By steering players towards chaos and ambient interaction rather than strict boundaries, the GTA world is a sandbox for literally off-the-rails behavior - which keep players coming back for more. Other blockbuster titles like Death Stranding insert easter eggs with celebrities like Conan O’Brien, building to cackling moments of surprised realization that stick on the internet and in player memory. These easter eggs add a layer of delight to otherwise serious games and reward players for exploring off the beaten path.

Talk show and podcast host Conan O’Brien surprised players with an appearance in post-apocalyptic action game Death Stranding.

From a business standpoint, this can be super helpful as it creates more of those viral moments. Untitled Goose Game - arguably the posterchild (postergosling?) for unserious gaming - drove organic outreach with its “honk” button, which became a social media soundbite; Among Us plushies and Fall Guys bean costumes prove silly aesthetics translate to real-world revenue; and even in-game purchases for games like Fortnite rack up as people happily pay for custom visuals. (I repeat, Peter Griffin skin.)

Silly design is here to stay. It’s not just in games - the Konami code found its way onto Vogue’s website in the form of an endless stream of dapper dinosaurs; Apple’s gesture-driven reactions bring smiles to any Facetime, especially when wildly mistimed; and Google’s many easter eggs, from ‘Comic Sans’ to ‘do a barrel roll’ turn a simple search into a happy surprise. Balancing delight and depth is proving so rewarding across all mediums that more studios, both large and small, will incorporate lighthearted elements into otherwise serious titles or invest resources into letting whimsy and silliness shine as a core pillar of the game. It’s what the people want!