Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Difficulty settings
Another aspect to mention regarding game balancing and tuning concerns the diffi-
culty settings of your game. Most games offer the opportunity to choose the degree
of difficulty at which to play the game. This is a key element of any game because it
has to do with the degree of gratification that your players will get from playing, and
hopefully beating, your game. As personal satisfaction is a highly subjective matter, it
can be pretty hard to decide which settings better fit the needs of a specific player.
It is also very important to consider that different game genres and platforms target
different audiences. First Person Shooters mainly target hardcore gamers, who ex-
pect to be highly challenged by games. On the other hand, the average mobile audi-
ence is usually a casual one, so they expect the game to be pretty forgiving and rarely
punishing at all.
While setting the difficulty curve of a game, always keep in mind the audience you
are targeting and the time you want them to invest in your game. Have different cat-
egories of testers play it at different difficulty settings. If you succeed in adjusting your
game variables to different audiences, you can exploit the advantage of addressing a
broader audience for your game, increasing its potential revenues.
The following general list displays the most common parameters which affect the dif-
ficulty of a title:
• Enemy number
• Enemy accuracy
• Enemy rate of fire
• Enemy toughness
• Enemy speed
• Player's health
• Player's speed
• Weapons range
• Weapon reload time
• Frequency of power-ups
• Time limits to complete levels
• In-game hints
• Navigation directions
• Consequence of player's death
