Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
for example, designers normally give the enemies more health, allow them to do
more damage, and make them more numerous. Designers also sometimes adjust
the AI of enemies and artificial opponents, making them smarter or more aware of
threats. Chapter 9 discusses how to adjust the absolute difficulty of different kinds
of challenges.
WHY OFFER DIFFICULTY MODES?
Offering multiple difficulty modes allows the player to set the difficulty of the game in
keeping with the two factors you cannot know or control: the player's previous experi-
ence with similar types of games and the player's native talent. Although nobody buys a
game specifically because it offers multiple difficulty modes, a great many people
don't
buy games that they think might be too hard for them to play. Including multiple diffi-
culty modes increases the market for your game by making it accessible to a broader
range of players. In addition, difficulty modes give the player better value for the money
at comparatively little development cost. Once players complete the game in an easy
mode, they might enjoy playing it again in a harder mode. If it has only one mode,
they're less likely to enjoy playing through it a second time.
Not all genres are suited to difficulty modes, and some designers feel that they are an
outdated way to handle the variation in the players' native talent and previous experi-
ence. An alternative is to use techniques of dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA), also
sometimes called
adaptive difficulty
. (Dynamic difficulty adjustment appears in a later
sidebar.) Although it might be desirable to only use DDA in an ideal world, in practice not
all teams have the resources to build and tune a DDA system. Furthermore, players like
having difficulty modes and are used to them
—
which is a good reason to offer them.
DESIGN RULE
Easy Mode Means
Easy!
Some games, usually those built by game developers who are also hardcore gamers, offer
the player an easy mode that isn't really easy at all. If you're going to call it “Easy Mode,”
it really should be easy for even an inexperienced player. Players choose Easy Mode for a
reason; if they want a more challenging experience, they can choose a harder mode. Don't
assume that you know what “easy” is. Try your game out on some inexperienced players
and see how they react, then tune your Easy Mode for them.
In some cases, you may not be able to adjust the difficulty level of a challenge at
all. With something like a static obstacle, such as a cliff the avatar must climb, the
challenge is built into the shape of the cliff, and adjusting its difficulty would mean
redesigning the landscape on the fly. Instead, give the player an alternative route
that avoids the cliff climb in the easiest mode, but lock off the easy route in the
harder modes.
