lol. welcome to my world and probably most devs! :) Keep at it! Watching with interest...
Viewing post in Does it have to be fun comments
Right? When coding for the day job there's always some deadline imposed that it needs to happen by. Doing this on my own always has me going "But I can do better... " and not wanting to just wrap it up because I know tomorrow I'll have an even better plan.
It took every ounce of self control to keep from scrapping my entire input routine yesterday because I realized I could make the code tighter. No one would see it, no one would notice, and most of this will get reworked again in a few weeks, but I was putting off progress for vanity. It's a hard habit to break when it's just you.
When ever I think about how to get fun into something, I think about the video I'm linking here.
For me, key rule is the player has to feel in control. That's how you get them to respect the system and be willing to over invest in it. (see video) They need to feel like they're making the decisions on what's happening, and that their decision is informed enough that their choice has results. Even one decision Run or Fight? will add fun if the rest of the game is compelling enough to warrant making the decision. If they don't want to explore the dungeon, they won't care if they run or not. If they do, they'll think very carefully about the best way to approach that decision. Which as I'm rambling here, the most fun part of combat is not combat?