Difficulty is, pun intended, a hard topic to take to task in terms of videogames. The difficulty of a game can depend on numerous factors, from the game’s genre, to how well it’s designed, to other aspects such as restrictions or gimmicks that the developers may enforce on a player. Quite often, particularly in recent years, the videogame industry has been trying to reach out to a wider and wider audience, and that means that many games have had their inherent difficulty reduced in various ways. However, difficulty has an effect on more than simply the player’s enjoyment of a game, and if used in conjunction with other parts of a game, can actually enhance the experience.
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Decisions, decisions...
Difficulty’s greatest strength, however, is also its greatest weakness: the fact that it can cause players to struggle. This struggling can lead to frustration, which can lead to players quitting the game. However, this struggle is what allows games to create memorable experiences, and this can be performed in a number of ways.
Take, for example, a horror game. Horror games, by nature, are supposed to evoke fear and, aptly, horror from the player. To most people, the first step towards pulling this off would be to make the game have dim or dark lighting and moody sound, and having some sort of serious tone or setting. And while these are good first steps, they can and will be undermined if the game they’re in isn’t difficult. When a game is difficult, a player struggles, the tension grows, and the player is vulnerable. This vulnerability is perhaps the core target that a horror game should aim for: a vulnerable player, in a game where the stakes are clearly against him, is a player who is more likely to be afraid of the odds, to think twice when confronted with a challenge they may or may not be able to handle, or to be horrified when the tension bubbles to a peak.
A great example of making, one that was partially intentional on the part of the developers, are the three Thief games (more well known for being one of the inventors of the stealth genre).
Thief was born originally as an Arthurian game with sword combat; however, playtesters found the swordplay to be clunky, and so the game was scrapped. Later, when Thief began development, the unwieldy swordplay was given to the player character to encourage being stealthy. To add to this, they also make the enemies the player could face in combat deal large amounts of damage. However, since the game was about stealth and not combat, enemies only became hostile to a player if the player was unstealthy. Combined with the usage of dark lighting to make shadows for players to hide in, and the usage of sound, with different materials causing different amounts of noise (which enemies could hear, and then investigate), this encouraged stealth gameplay.
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"...for their visage is wrought to strike terror into the enemies of Karras... or, those who might consider becoming enemies."
What this did was not only make the Thief games into stealth games, but also into horror games as well: the game’s tension was always simmering, as making a wrong move could lead to enemies being alerted to the player’s presence, and consequentially to the player’s quick death. Accidentally making a noise and hearing a guard say “Who’s out there? Show yourself!” only served to increase the tension, and it was up to the player to keep themselves from panicking and easily making their situation worse. The high difficulty of the Thief games not only encouraged playing properly (ie: stealthily, like a thief would), but enhanced the dark, tense tone of the game’s setting.
On the other hand, Pokemon is a great, if predictable, example of low difficulty fitting a game's tone.
Pokemon has always been inherently designed as a cheerful, lighthearted series, with a very idealistic setting, bright and colorful graphics, and upbeat, catchy music. While the games have a general appeal that anyone can enjoy, the easy difficulty of the games contributes to its nature: the games aren’t meant to be tense experiences that leave a player on the edge of their seat (at least, the main stories aren’t), and the easy difficulty allows for a player to relax, without needing to worry about huge consequences or ramifications of certain actions. Even the possibility of a Game Over is omitted, as you are always sent back to a Pokemon Center upon defeat.
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"Your Pokemon are fighting fit! We hope to see you again!"
This also encourages the other aspects of the game’s RPG nature: actions like exploring routes, engaging in battles and other activities are not typically risky due to the low difficulty, meaning that players are more likely to go ahead and do these things because they understand that it’s safe to do so. In turn, this makes areas that are clearly more difficult more apparent due to the abrupt tension they put on a player; in a game where tension is low, if an area makes a player feel tense or vulnerable, it’s a signal that tells the player that they may not be ready for this area yet, and may want to explore elsewhere.
The curve of difficulty, ie: starting a game off easy and increasing the challenge as a player continues, thus depends on the difficulty of the game itself. If a game is meant to be dark, serious and tense, it ought to be difficult and grow more difficult as the player continues. If a game is meant to be happy and simple, it ought to be easy, and either stay fairly easy throughout, or grow more difficult as the player continues.
That being said, here are some tips on what to consider when trying to decide how difficult you want your game to be:
Decisions, decisions...
Difficulty’s greatest strength, however, is also its greatest weakness: the fact that it can cause players to struggle. This struggling can lead to frustration, which can lead to players quitting the game. However, this struggle is what allows games to create memorable experiences, and this can be performed in a number of ways.
Take, for example, a horror game. Horror games, by nature, are supposed to evoke fear and, aptly, horror from the player. To most people, the first step towards pulling this off would be to make the game have dim or dark lighting and moody sound, and having some sort of serious tone or setting. And while these are good first steps, they can and will be undermined if the game they’re in isn’t difficult. When a game is difficult, a player struggles, the tension grows, and the player is vulnerable. This vulnerability is perhaps the core target that a horror game should aim for: a vulnerable player, in a game where the stakes are clearly against him, is a player who is more likely to be afraid of the odds, to think twice when confronted with a challenge they may or may not be able to handle, or to be horrified when the tension bubbles to a peak.
A great example of making, one that was partially intentional on the part of the developers, are the three Thief games (more well known for being one of the inventors of the stealth genre).
Thief was born originally as an Arthurian game with sword combat; however, playtesters found the swordplay to be clunky, and so the game was scrapped. Later, when Thief began development, the unwieldy swordplay was given to the player character to encourage being stealthy. To add to this, they also make the enemies the player could face in combat deal large amounts of damage. However, since the game was about stealth and not combat, enemies only became hostile to a player if the player was unstealthy. Combined with the usage of dark lighting to make shadows for players to hide in, and the usage of sound, with different materials causing different amounts of noise (which enemies could hear, and then investigate), this encouraged stealth gameplay.
"...for their visage is wrought to strike terror into the enemies of Karras... or, those who might consider becoming enemies."
What this did was not only make the Thief games into stealth games, but also into horror games as well: the game’s tension was always simmering, as making a wrong move could lead to enemies being alerted to the player’s presence, and consequentially to the player’s quick death. Accidentally making a noise and hearing a guard say “Who’s out there? Show yourself!” only served to increase the tension, and it was up to the player to keep themselves from panicking and easily making their situation worse. The high difficulty of the Thief games not only encouraged playing properly (ie: stealthily, like a thief would), but enhanced the dark, tense tone of the game’s setting.
On the other hand, Pokemon is a great, if predictable, example of low difficulty fitting a game's tone.
Pokemon has always been inherently designed as a cheerful, lighthearted series, with a very idealistic setting, bright and colorful graphics, and upbeat, catchy music. While the games have a general appeal that anyone can enjoy, the easy difficulty of the games contributes to its nature: the games aren’t meant to be tense experiences that leave a player on the edge of their seat (at least, the main stories aren’t), and the easy difficulty allows for a player to relax, without needing to worry about huge consequences or ramifications of certain actions. Even the possibility of a Game Over is omitted, as you are always sent back to a Pokemon Center upon defeat.
"Your Pokemon are fighting fit! We hope to see you again!"
This also encourages the other aspects of the game’s RPG nature: actions like exploring routes, engaging in battles and other activities are not typically risky due to the low difficulty, meaning that players are more likely to go ahead and do these things because they understand that it’s safe to do so. In turn, this makes areas that are clearly more difficult more apparent due to the abrupt tension they put on a player; in a game where tension is low, if an area makes a player feel tense or vulnerable, it’s a signal that tells the player that they may not be ready for this area yet, and may want to explore elsewhere.
The curve of difficulty, ie: starting a game off easy and increasing the challenge as a player continues, thus depends on the difficulty of the game itself. If a game is meant to be dark, serious and tense, it ought to be difficult and grow more difficult as the player continues. If a game is meant to be happy and simple, it ought to be easy, and either stay fairly easy throughout, or grow more difficult as the player continues.
That being said, here are some tips on what to consider when trying to decide how difficult you want your game to be:
- Not every game carries a “tone” like a horror, adventure, or RPG does. Take a puzzle game, for example. Tetris is simple and gets more difficult, and doesn’t have to worry about “tone” because it lacks one (are “lighthearted” or “dark and edgy” ways you would describe something like Tetris?).
- Juxtaposing difficulty (and, similarly, seriousness) in a cheerful setting can also create a memorable experience in its own way, but be wary of how well these aspects meld in your project. Making a lighthearted-on-the-surface game difficult and dark can potentially backfire by attracting an audience through a first impression, and pushing it away later on.
- Having sections of a game where the difficulty eases up can be a boon on players, especially if a game starts off difficult in the first place. These breather sections often take pressure off of a player and allow them to relax somewhat, and if these sections introduce the player to a new ability or function, affords the player a safer section to learn how to use the ability.