The Game Designer’s Watch: The Issue of Difficulty – An Opinionated Piece

Throughout the last 10 years I have found the overall difficulty in games to be decreasing at an alarming rate… Of course, this is a sentiment felt with many long-time gamers, and has been complained about in many forums, news post, and blogs…

If it’s so unpopular to make a game easy in the beginning, why do game designers continue to include an ‘Easy Mode’ right from the start? The obvious answer is to make it accessible to gamers who are not yet adept at that type of game, which is an understandable concern. However from my personal perspective as a Game Designer, it seems to be the easy way out.

Let’s look at some examples at how certain games’ have handled different difficulty levels.

Onimusha

Onimusha was personally a favorite game of mine during the PlayStation 2 era, and believe me, I played a lot of PS2 games. The reason I mention this game first is because of how Capcom handled its ‘Easy Mode’. The first boss fight of this game was a Demon named Osric and if a player was killed by this enemy 5 times, Easy mode was offered. In this mode, the player received less unlockables for completing the game, but was given ample opportunity to enjoy the game and learn it. The reason I list this game here, is because an Easy Mode was available, but the developer wanted the player to at least try the game in its normal settings first.

MegaMan

I’ll be the first to admit, MegaMan has a long history of frustrating platforming, and oftentimes frustrating enemy placement. MegaMan 10 was designed in a way that the normal game modes retained this frustrating game-play. When easy mode was turned on, platforms appeared above the pits, and traps to prevent new player’s from getting killed so often. I mention this, because the Easy Mode was designed to make the game a little easier, rather then the game being designed to be easy from the start. There’s a big difference there, and one designers should always keep in mind.

Shinobi

Anyone that has played this game probably remembers dying… a lot. I reference this game because it’s on the other end of our argument. It was too hard. The sheer number of deaths I amassed probably outweighs any other title I ever played. It went above and beyond to frustrate and infuriate. When the final boss was finally taken down, the feeling of accomplishment was overshadowed by “I never want to play this game again!”

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Ahh, Morrowind. For those of you who didn’t catch this amazing game, it was an amazing little world, packed with content, mystery, and above all, challenging. Yes, there was a difficulty slider you could use to make everything Godawfully Hard, or Painstakingly Easy. When played in its basic setting things are just challenging enough to make it worthwhile to play. The leveling system was my favorite part of this game series because it required a certain degree of effort to get anything done. Even in the easiest mode, you still had to practice to make perfect. Unless of course, you cheated!

Every First Person Shooter In History

I’m listing this simply as an example. Most First Person Shooters (not all), offer up an easy, normal, and hard mode at the start, and have an unlockable “very hard”.

So here we have 5 different examples of how Game Designer’s have handled game difficulty.

1. Let the player play, if it’s to hard, THEN we offer an easier mode.
2. The game itself is hard, and will frustrate. If the player want’s challenge it is indeed there… However an easy mode is included if the player just wants to romp through a few levels.
3. If someone’s going to play this game, they’re going to play it till their thumb’s bleed. Overcoming the challenge is a reward in itself.
4. The game will always start at a set level of difficulty, and the player can choose how easy or hard it will be. Either way, they must still train their character to achieve greatness.
5. Because this type of game relies a lot on set-pieces, we need a way to add challenge. With higher difficulty, enemy’s take and deal more damage, and are more numerous. The core game-play is not changed.

Each of these methods are unique in its approach and execution. Personally, I preferred the way Onimusha handled its difficulty. The important thing to keep in mind for any designer, is that you have to keep the player in a happy middle area. Think of it as a chart, with one spectrum being Frustration, and the other being Challenge. The player is always the happiest when in the middle of these two scenarios, feeling both challenged, but not frustrated.

Again, this is a more of an opinionated piece, and I welcome anyone to discuss their thoughts about this topic in the comments section.

– Travis W. Thompkins