Tips for an aspiring indie developer: Difficulty

[Reyold]

Hey, how is everyone?

You may recall that I had a thread some time ago asking for...well, look at the title. "But Reyold, the word, 'difficulty' wasn't there before." Hush, I know, I know.

The point of this thread? It's exactly what it says: tips for the aspiring indie developer, except this time the focus is on difficulty rather than general advice. I love difficult games, so it only makes sense that I want to make hard games.

Considering the number of Dark Souls threads as of late, I imagine its fans have something to say...

Oh, and if you like, you can find the thread I mentioned earlier here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.391425-tips-for-an-aspiring-indie-developer

Your advice doesn't absolutely HAVE to pertain to difficulty, but if nothing else, please try not to repeat anything that was already mentioned in the last thread.

 

[hazabaza1]

Watch this:
Got some great advice about how to convey ideas, reducing the "durrr whadda I do" aspect of difficulty and keeps the flow going.

Genre of game would also help.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Difficulty has so many facets that it's extremely difficult to use them all in one game and it still be entertaining and engaging.

Find one style of difficulty that you like and stick to it.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

For most games, difficulty options aren't a bad idea. They allow you to make the difficult, punishing game that you want to, but also allow gamers that aren't into difficult, punishing games to enjoy it. One genre where difficulty options don't really work, however, is platformer. There's usually no real way to make the game easier without redesigning a lot of the levels. In this case, your best option is simply to have a variety of levels, some easier, some more difficult, and some super challenging, with a decent difficulty curve in there. This also applies to certain types of puzzle games (along the lines of Portal, for example).

A few other things. Unless you're trying to make death a mechanic (like Dark Souls), then try to make failing as painless as possible. Super Meat Boy does this really well, where the levels are fairly short and you get to start playing again almost instantly.

Checkpoints should be very frequent, even if you do allow a player to save at any time. This makes the game far less frustrating, and eliminates the "oh shit I forgot to save I wasted an hour of my time" feeling.

Separate challenge levels are a great thing. They allow you to make something as difficult as you want without putting off potential players. Additionally, they also give players that are good at your game more to do, which is always a nice thing.

Bottom line though, your game should be fun to play regardless of difficulty. A hard game should have something going for it beyond being hard (good example, Dark Souls, with it's great atmosphere and fun and unique combat system).

 

[Reyold]

Watch this:
Got some great advice about how to convey ideas, reducing the "durrr whadda I do" aspect of difficulty and keeps the flow going.

Genre of game would also help.

I've actually seen that one already, but yeah, that's great advice.

Are you asking for my game's genre? 'Cause I was thinking more of general advice pertaining to difficulty, like how to avoid being unfairly difficult, or creative ways to make the game harder (Bastion's idols, anyone?). Although, considering that different genres of games are difficult in different ways, I suppose there's only so much general advice before we need to delve into specifics, right?

I haven't started on it YET (I'm still learning the ropes), but I was thinking of a vertical-scrolling shooter for my first game. Except instead of your average spaceship, you're cruisin' on a motorcycle with two sidecars. You pick three characters, each one giving the motorcycle different abilities when they're driving, while the others shoot. It's not totally thought out yet, but it's a start.

 

[Rack]

There's a lot, an awful lot to learn, I'm sure there are resources out there that you should tap rather than asking us. If I was to offer one tip though it would be that it's easier to make Fable than Dark Souls. If your systems are only loosely balanced, there are issues with consistency in how your game works or any of a thousand other small issues in how it was designed and developed those issues will be much more obvious if the game is difficult. If your design allows for simple challenges that are made engaging by a core concept other than challenge you'll be able to get away with more.

It was mentioned before but you should have seen all the Extra Credits videos, but they also do podcasts and one of them is focussed on difficulty in games. You should read much deeper than a few hours of video and audio but they have some very important touchpoints.

 

[Reyold]

Bottom line though, your game should be fun to play regardless of difficulty. A hard game should have something going for it beyond being hard (good example, Dark Souls, with it's great atmosphere and fun and unique combat system).

Admittedly, my first thought reading this was more or less, "But the difficulty IS what makes it fun!" but in reality, that's an excellent point. Anyone can make a generic (insert genre here) game, but it won't stand out from the crowd too well. I can make a generic platformer and jack up the difficulty, but VVVVVV is also hard and lets you FLIP FREAKIN' GRAVITY. I can make a generic roguelike, but Spelunky is a roguelike/platformer hybrid that has you plumbing the depths of various locales for loads of treasure.

I'd say about the only exceptions to the rule is Super Meat Boy, Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins, and I Wanna Be The Guy, and even then not with absolute certainty. If you take out what made the games so hard, you don't have as good of a game, since difficulty is such a central aspect to them.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I'd say about the only exceptions to the rule is Super Meat Boy, Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins, and I Wanna Be The Guy, and even then not with absolute certainty. If you take out what made the games so hard, you don't have as good of a game, since difficulty is such a central aspect to them.

I'm not trying to argue that certain games can't be improved by difficulty, or that difficulty isn't a central aspect to many games. Super Meat Boy wouldn't be nearly as much fun if it wasn't hard as hell. The point I was trying to make was that you can't design a game based on difficulty alone, which I think you understand.

 

[Lugbzurg]

Sequelitus looks brilliant and people have already mentioned Extra Credits. So, I think I can recommend the Errant Signal series on YouTube. There's also another (shorter) one I've seen called "Is Banjo-Kazooie a good game?"

Now how about some examples?

Doom. In this game, you have five different skill levels (not in some of the oldest 1993 releases). Notice what's different between them. Different amounts of enemies, they deal different amounts of damage, they move and attack at different speeds... There are various things that make up the differences. But once you get to the Nightmare skill level, there's a new gimmick added on top of cranking up everything else previously-mentioned: Resurrection. Around thirty seconds after you kill an enemy, they come back to life. When they do, there's two warping lights. One of them is the "portal" that the enemy pops through. The other is just a decoy to confuse you. Simple mechanic that makes the game much harder than simply cranking everything up that's been cranked up before.

Sonic Heroes. Each team's story is at a different level of skill. Team Sonic is medium, Team Rose is easy, Team Dark is hard, and Team Chaotix is... different. It's various objectives, usually about "collect/destroy X amount of specific objects". There's obvious stuff like the amount of enemies you fight corresponding to the difficulty. But then there's other more carefully-designed aspects, as well. As Team Rose, you go through a much shorter version of each level, with you either starting each level further ahead than the other teams or with the Goal Ring being closer. Team Dark also has at least one level in memory (Hang Castle) that is a bit longer, ending with a section where you freefall in reversed gravity, dodging pumpkin ghosts. Also, depending on which team you play as, new enemies will be introduced at certain points. For example, shortly through the level, Lost Jungle, every team but Team Rose (the easy mode of the game) will run into these gigantic blue hammer-wielding robots. Team Rose does eventually come across these things, but not until a later level. (I don't remember exactly when or where, as it's been a while.)

Another thing I could bring up is when you want to take a gameplay element that happened previously and apply it to a later "level", but being much harder. Your options don't just rest at making it longer, adding more enemies, or anything else that amounts to simply cranking up what was already there. Combine elements, pout together two things at once, like how that Megaman Classic vs. Megaman X video brought up about the spiky drop enemies and the falling platforms. You don't just have to use the whole "teaching through play" in combining elements as the video pointed out. You can also fuse different gimmicks together at any point after they've been properly introduced.