TL;DW: Mark lays out 3 reasons why a game dev might choose to make a game challenging, discusses why it is difficult to balance difficulty, and then talks about how Silksong balances difficulty by always giving players another path to explore when they hit a boss that seems impossible.
What's The Point Of Hard Games, Anyway? [Game Maker's Toolkit, 12:22]
Submitted 2 days ago by theangriestbird@beehaw.org to gaming@beehaw.org
Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
some people live the challenge in games.
some people enjoy cozy games just to have fun
both are absolutely good and correct in their own light.
jonathan7luke@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
As someone who likes the difficulty of Hollow Knight and Silksong (despite being pretty bad at the game), I think the best point in the video is that it would be really nice to give the player options. I would still play on the hard setting, but there are friends I have who would love exploring the map and seeing all the amazing art, but I can’t recommend the game to them because I know they’d be super frustrated within an hour or two.
FlihpFlorp@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Dead cells has something called assist mode. Doesn’t disable achievements or anything. Personally I use it as a second chance, the only setting I’ve touched is lives. Normally in the game you die, get sent back the start. With assist mode you can respawn (either at the level start or door you crossed). I usually have it on one life extra to avoid the “that was so bullshit” deaths but still keep death an actual consequence
It also has some stuff like bigger parry windows, lower enemy health and damage.
IMO it’s great because people can make the game as causal and forgiving as you want