If you know your game design theory then you have heard the principle that game design must be anti fun. Because you cannot design for fun. Fun is subjective. No matter what you make, there will always be someone who thinks it isn't fun. Worse yet, trying to design for fun often leads to chasing homogenous trends on the basis that that's what people are currently having fun with and that's what your game needs to have in order to be fun.

I however propose the opposite taken to gratuitous excess.

Game design for fun, where fun is whatever horrible thing you love and that everyone else hates.

My game must have puzzles in it. And players must get stuck for hours at a time. And players must find themselves performing every possible combination of actions and searching every pixel. Because this is what I find fun.

Indeed, it's even what our playtesters (people I sought out specifically for having the same taste in games as me) most keenly responded to.

My game must exhibit all the latest design trends of 1996. Retro gaming is very popular right now. This is fun and games must be fun so we must design our games for fun.

My game must have traumakink in it, because no one is having more fun than the dolls and the babyfurs and the girlfags. This is what fun is and games are supposed to be fun.

And so on and so on, you get it.