bike tory posted:

https://i.imgur.com/mCc3bSU.mp4

bike tory posted:

https://i.imgur.com/mCc3bSU.mp4

theflyingorc posted:

Fiddling with numbers a bit is one of the easiest game design tasks.

There's corner cases where it's a problem, but it's rarely gonna be that hard of a thing to do

theflyingorc posted:

Fiddling with numbers a bit is one of the easiest game design tasks.

There's corner cases where it's a problem, but it's rarely gonna be that hard of a thing to do

ImpAtom posted:

It really isn't.

Finding the correct balance between "easy" and "boring" is difficult and varies heavily from game to game, and making an easy mode that keeps the game fun to play is actually really really hard. You need to figure out what the main appeal of your game is and figure out how to preserve that. Just raising/lowering numbers can actually make the experience worse.

For character action games for example it's usually a barrier not just to finish stages but to feel cool while doing so. If you put in a mode where everything dies in one hit anyone can finish your game but they don't feel strong while doing it and thus come across with a poorer feeling of the game. That is why games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta have "automatic" modes where button mashing makes cool combos automatically for you. However making sure these combos work right is an involved task.

Likewise, for example, a racing game is difficult to rebalance because 'make everything go slower' isn't really very fun because part of the appeal of racing games is the back and forth. You need to adjust the racer AI so it still seems to provide a challenge, which usually involves adjusting rubberbanding and finding the sweet spot there is very hard.

Or look at something like Silent Hill, where the story and atmosphere are a big part of the game. Maybe someone enjoys SH for the puzzles and the atmosphere but isn't big on the (usually pretty crappy) combat, or alternately maybe someone really enjoys the atmosphere but doesn't like getting roadblocked by puzzles. Silent Hill resolved this by having separate difficulty levels for combat and puzzles but that isn't just 'adjusting numbers' and a mere easy/normal/hard doesn't necessarily solve what is blocking people.

In fact that's a big problem with a lot of easy modes. They adjust enemy HP/damage and nothing else which only really works for pure combat focused games. Mega Man for example isn't going to necessarily be easier for people who have trouble with it if all the enemies have half health and you do double damage if the thing people have trouble with is the basic platforming. Mega Man 10 tried to solve this by reducing the number of pits on its easy mode but it arguably went too far and had a negative impact on the game.

Regardless, you can't just tweak numbers and be done with it. You need to figure out how to make the game easier while retaining your game's strengths and that can be a real challenge.

ImpAtom posted:

It really isn't.

Finding the correct balance between "easy" and "boring" is difficult and varies heavily from game to game, and making an easy mode that keeps the game fun to play is actually really really hard. You need to figure out what the main appeal of your game is and figure out how to preserve that. Just raising/lowering numbers can actually make the experience worse.

For character action games for example it's usually a barrier not just to finish stages but to feel cool while doing so. If you put in a mode where everything dies in one hit anyone can finish your game but they don't feel strong while doing it and thus come across with a poorer feeling of the game. That is why games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta have "automatic" modes where button mashing makes cool combos automatically for you. However making sure these combos work right is an involved task.

Likewise, for example, a racing game is difficult to rebalance because 'make everything go slower' isn't really very fun because part of the appeal of racing games is the back and forth. You need to adjust the racer AI so it still seems to provide a challenge, which usually involves adjusting rubberbanding and finding the sweet spot there is very hard.

Or look at something like Silent Hill, where the story and atmosphere are a big part of the game. Maybe someone enjoys SH for the puzzles and the atmosphere but isn't big on the (usually pretty crappy) combat, or alternately maybe someone really enjoys the atmosphere but doesn't like getting roadblocked by puzzles. Silent Hill resolved this by having separate difficulty levels for combat and puzzles but that isn't just 'adjusting numbers' and a mere easy/normal/hard doesn't necessarily solve what is blocking people.

In fact that's a big problem with a lot of easy modes. They adjust enemy HP/damage and nothing else which only really works for pure combat focused games. Mega Man for example isn't going to necessarily be easier for people who have trouble with it if all the enemies have half health and you do double damage if the thing people have trouble with is the basic platforming. Mega Man 10 tried to solve this by reducing the number of pits on its easy mode but it arguably went too far and had a negative impact on the game.

Regardless, you can't just tweak numbers and be done with it. You need to figure out how to make the game easier while retaining your game's strengths and that can be a real challenge.

ImpAtom posted:

It really isn't.

Finding the correct balance between "easy" and "boring" is difficult and varies heavily from game to game, and making an easy mode that keeps the game fun to play is actually really really hard. You need to figure out what the main appeal of your game is and figure out how to preserve that. Just raising/lowering numbers can actually make the experience worse.

For character action games for example it's usually a barrier not just to finish stages but to feel cool while doing so. If you put in a mode where everything dies in one hit anyone can finish your game but they don't feel strong while doing it and thus come across with a poorer feeling of the game. That is why games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta have "automatic" modes where button mashing makes cool combos automatically for you. However making sure these combos work right is an involved task.

Likewise, for example, a racing game is difficult to rebalance because 'make everything go slower' isn't really very fun because part of the appeal of racing games is the back and forth. You need to adjust the racer AI so it still seems to provide a challenge, which usually involves adjusting rubberbanding and finding the sweet spot there is very hard.

Or look at something like Silent Hill, where the story and atmosphere are a big part of the game. Maybe someone enjoys SH for the puzzles and the atmosphere but isn't big on the (usually pretty crappy) combat, or alternately maybe someone really enjoys the atmosphere but doesn't like getting roadblocked by puzzles. Silent Hill resolved this by having separate difficulty levels for combat and puzzles but that isn't just 'adjusting numbers' and a mere easy/normal/hard doesn't necessarily solve what is blocking people.

In fact that's a big problem with a lot of easy modes. They adjust enemy HP/damage and nothing else which only really works for pure combat focused games. Mega Man for example isn't going to necessarily be easier for people who have trouble with it if all the enemies have half health and you do double damage if the thing people have trouble with is the basic platforming. Mega Man 10 tried to solve this by reducing the number of pits on its easy mode but it arguably went too far and had a negative impact on the game.

Regardless, you can't just tweak numbers and be done with it. You need to figure out how to make the game easier while retaining your game's strengths and that can be a real challenge.

Edit: For some reason I thought this was a different thread, please forgive me lack of meme and wall of boring text.

ImpAtom posted:

It really isn't.

Finding the correct balance between "easy" and "boring" is difficult and varies heavily from game to game, and making an easy mode that keeps the game fun to play is actually really really hard. You need to figure out what the main appeal of your game is and figure out how to preserve that. Just raising/lowering numbers can actually make the experience worse.

For character action games for example it's usually a barrier not just to finish stages but to feel cool while doing so. If you put in a mode where everything dies in one hit anyone can finish your game but they don't feel strong while doing it and thus come across with a poorer feeling of the game. That is why games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta have "automatic" modes where button mashing makes cool combos automatically for you. However making sure these combos work right is an involved task.

Likewise, for example, a racing game is difficult to rebalance because 'make everything go slower' isn't really very fun because part of the appeal of racing games is the back and forth. You need to adjust the racer AI so it still seems to provide a challenge, which usually involves adjusting rubberbanding and finding the sweet spot there is very hard.

Or look at something like Silent Hill, where the story and atmosphere are a big part of the game. Maybe someone enjoys SH for the puzzles and the atmosphere but isn't big on the (usually pretty crappy) combat, or alternately maybe someone really enjoys the atmosphere but doesn't like getting roadblocked by puzzles. Silent Hill resolved this by having separate difficulty levels for combat and puzzles but that isn't just 'adjusting numbers' and a mere easy/normal/hard doesn't necessarily solve what is blocking people.

In fact that's a big problem with a lot of easy modes. They adjust enemy HP/damage and nothing else which only really works for pure combat focused games. Mega Man for example isn't going to necessarily be easier for people who have trouble with it if all the enemies have half health and you do double damage if the thing people have trouble with is the basic platforming. Mega Man 10 tried to solve this by reducing the number of pits on its easy mode but it arguably went too far and had a negative impact on the game.

Regardless, you can't just tweak numbers and be done with it. You need to figure out how to make the game easier while retaining your game's strengths and that can be a real challenge.

ImpAtom posted:

Ghost Leviathan posted:

That said, it has come out of a few videos of people whose job it is to play and review games being worse at them than your tech-illiterate grandmother.

bare bottom pancakes posted:

meme: https://twitter.com/itanimeirl/status/1112790459682684929

Karate Bastard posted:

In the easy mode for Planescape torment everyone just says yes.

Karate Bastard posted:

In the easy mode for Planescape torment everyone just says yes.

bike tory posted:

Irradiation posted:

God those hanger comments really are always loving trash.

Karate Bastard posted:

au contraire

Karate Bastard posted:

au contraire

Ghost Leviathan posted:

That's exactly the kind of difficulty setting everyone hates and is considered lazy and ineffective, especially since it rarely makes the game significantly easier or harder but just more tedious. And it wouldn't work for a game like say, Cuphead, where changing the difficulty is a matter of changing attack patterns and such, which requires additional playtesting.

Platystemon posted:

That’s not it, Commander.

Jerry Cotton posted:

Powered Descent posted:

I see the problem, we were talking about easy mode but some of you made a typo and went into essay mode

Son of Thunderbeast posted:

theflyingorc posted:

That is not most games.

Controlling difficulty can be done pretty easily through numbers, especially in numbers-driven titles like Sekiro. Modifying the damage you do and take by 20% would have a huge impact on difficulty.

A lot of games do this horrendously by just giving the enemies more health - literally the worst way to do it - but it's seriously not a huge burden.

But yeah, i probably didn't learn anything during my ten years in the industry, thanks for explaining it to me

Edit: thanks other guy for bringing up racing games like that's relevant for some reason