UNITY'S PROFILE

unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I don't want to wake up because I'm happy here.
Izrand Allure
A JRPG-style WLW romance adventure. Monsters have invaded Izrand! Heroes Vivica and Lynette find love and despair as they seek to save a continent.

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How to Beat the Map Tree Break (the Easy Way)!

Wow, super cool! Teenage me could have really used this, but ultimately remaking all those maps with a tighter focus improved my skills, so it all worked out

The PRO of PROCRASTINATION

This article is amazing, and really made me think about procrastination in a new light. And I absolutely love that Andrew W.K. quote! Thanks, kentona :DDD

Featured Game, Featured Dev: Indra, Fomar0153 and Frogge

What a nice interview! Thanks for the shoutouts, and hope you enjoy Weird and Unfortunate, Fomar :DDDDDDDD

A Different Approach to Difficulty

But that does raise a question: Do players generally choose the easiest difficulty automatically because its the most rewarding? While I'm sure there could be people out there that do that, but I personally like to find the difficulty that suits me best: hard, but not so hard that it's super frustrating.

I think most people are like that. And, hey, if people aren't like that and just want to power through the game easily, then why not let them? If that's the way one person most enjoys playing the game, then I think that's fine.

A Different Approach to Difficulty

author=EvilEagles
Thanks for the replies, everybody. Your thoughts are all interesting and made me think a lot more about this. I'm glad I shared with you RPG folks.

author=unity
However, I don't think there's enough here to spell a death knell for difficulty modes, especially in RPGs, unless I'm really missing something. There are players who simply want a more casual experience, and don't want to have to completely master the system or trial-and-error classes to find which ones are easiest. If making the game easier for the player costs them hours of banging their head against the game's systems to see what works when they just wanted to have a leisurely playthrough, less comfortable players will quit the game. Some of them just want an easy way to pick up the game and play, and I think a lot of what's being discussed here doesn't really help them.


Thanks for the kind words, unity. A lot of the concerns you addressed are exactly the reason for this model. But perhaps I didn't elaborate it clearly enough to easily apply to RPGs. People looking for the casual experience ARE on the Effectiveness side of the spectrum. I made an effort to put an entire section to the other end of the spectrum simply because it's more often overlooked. In no way did I mean there wasn't room for casual players. It's a spectrum for reason.

What I'm saying can be basically translated into the RPG language as something like these:
  • To support the more casual players, instead of using difficulty modes, perhaps you can try immediately giving them a leg up with the option to obtain easy-mode-exclusive items that give them some moderate advantages: A ring that reduces all incoming damage. A ticket that lets players save anywhere instead of having to reach a save point. A lantern you can buy at any town which reduce the stats of all bosses by 30%. These are all ideas for an organic easy mode that is not a menu-based option. The point is to stop thinking of them as imbalance factors.
  • To support people who seek challenge by arranging things in such a way that hints at the possibility of an unconventional yet elegant approach. Think of something like FF8 allowing players to obtain Squall's Lion Heart right from Disc 1. It's possible, just incredibly tedious and difficult.


Thank you very much for clarifying! ^_^

Do you suggest labeling these things as in-game easy modes? Otherwise, I can see some players using them even when they don't need them and then complaining that the game is too easy. I know that seems counter-intuitive, but do you just tell them "then just don't use that item?" Or do you discourage them from asking by putting something in the description like "for players who struggle with combat" or something in the description?

A Different Approach to Difficulty

Really enjoyed this article and it really made me think about difficulty. Very well constructed and very informative.

However, I don't think there's enough here to spell a death knell for difficulty modes, especially in RPGs, unless I'm really missing something. There are players who simply want a more casual experience, and don't want to have to completely master the system or trial-and-error classes to find which ones are easiest. If making the game easier for the player costs them hours of banging their head against the game's systems to see what works when they just wanted to have a leisurely playthrough, less comfortable players will quit the game. Some of them just want an easy way to pick up the game and play, and I think a lot of what's being discussed here doesn't really help them.

I understand that difficulty modes are an inelegant solution to the problem, but there's no one size-fits-all difficulty for any game, and I'd much rather have players be able to tweak the game's difficulty than quitting in frustration.

That's not to say that we shouldn't be looking for better solutions and trying new things. I just personally don't think game difficulty options in RPGs is as terrible as its often made out to be.

Have you considered being more interesting?

Wonderful article. :DDDD

A lot of these are things I have to take to heart because I'm terrible at anything resembling marketing XD

Best of Blogs #022

Pffffft XD

[RM2K] [RM2K3] "Item Order" Design Advice & Rant

This is great advice, and I totally recommend doing it with the newer RMs, too! :D

I've gotten where I do something similar with Skills (after some advice LockeZ gave me after I was really sloppy about how I ordered skills in the database ^^;;)

Quick and dirty dithering

Wow, neat! I've spent hours putting in all the dots by hand, and it certainly adds up to hand cramps on more than one occasion. I'll give this a try ^_^
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