Game designer Daniel Boutros looks at how to give games a challenging difficulty without frustrating the player in a feature on Gamasutra. The article, originally published in Game Developer magazine, establishes two tenants for how effective levels of difficulty.
- A player must always feel like the failure of a challenge is entirely his own responsibility, and not a fault of a poorly designed product.
- “The player must understand how and why he failed, so that he can learn from his mistake and increase the feeling of failure being his responsibility.
Boutros traces the traditional method for increasing difficulty to Rare’s shooter GoldenEye, where higher difficulty levels simply meant enemies do more damage. “In the tough mode,” says Boutros, “the game becomes very classically rooted in trial and error, using memory play as the core consistent play type. The only way a player can survive with meager resources and a damage disadvantage is by trying, dying, remembering, and restarting.”
In other words, play through and die until you’ve figured out where every sniper is, know which doors hide enemy ambushers, and know exactly where to point your rifle to take them all out. That’s not fun, and it does not create an immersive experience.
Increasing enemy damage or numbers, charging AI aggression, implementing a time limit, and restricting player resources like ammo or health are the simplest ways to increase difficulty, but the easiest solution is never the best. Rather than simply doubling enemy damage, Boutros argues that developers need to integrate these techniques thoughtfully and budget time for testing and fine-tuning them.