When Difficult Is Fun - Challenging vs. Punishing Games - Extra Credits
Why Game Development Stack Exchange recommends it
Game Development Stack Exchange answerers link it when discussing difficulty, failure rates, and how to keep players challenged without frustrating them.
Recommended by 2 people across 2 different months, 2014 to 2019.
What it is
A 2013 Extra Credits episode on game design that separates games that are hard in a fun way from games that are merely punishing. It uses classic arcade titles and replayable difficulty as examples, in the channel's short narrated, illustrated style.
What people said
Recommends Anko · 2014-06 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “What is an optimum failure rate that will keep people coming back to my game?”
*Extra Credits* did a great video on the topic of *difficult versus punishing* games [this video] , which summarises many of the points raised here and gives many more examples.
Recommends Theraot · 2018-05 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “Does bad AI lead to more sales?”
Addendum : When Difficult Is Fun - Challenging vs. Punishing Games - Extra Credits [this video] . What is good A.I.? If we can agree on bad A.I. is one that accomplishes nothing. Then the problem is defining good A.I. because that will depend on what is the objective of A.I. Often times, the objective is not to beat the players. Usually, we are not making games expecting players to pay to be defeated, and if we were, we would just make the game unfair. Instead, the objectives of A.I. in games are to keep the game: Interesting. Believable. Fun. Usually, game are more successful when A.I. can simulate the skills of a regular human player – instead the best human player. I will remind you that human
Cites Theraot · 2015-12 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “How do I make educational games engaging not boring?”
Consider: "How do I make educational games engaging (and) not boring?" Everything that can be used to make a game engaging in general - and there is a lot to do - should apply to educational games too. The matter is that if you set to create an educational games you are placing upon you an extra set of constraints that may make it hard to desing engaging game mechanics. Yet, not knowing the gnre, I gotta cover from cooperative to competitive, from single player to massive multiplyer... so, gotta go the abstracts and the generalizations. To see how to make games engaging, go back and look at how individuals play. Not just video games (and not just humans). A common theme of all play time is m
Cites Mr_Rockers · 2016-07 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “What should developers do when they receive conflicting feedback about their game?”
All the previous answers here have been great! But I want to add one thing: What's the demographic of the people who like/dislike your game? This is another thing you'll have to find out when you create and design software and video-games. You may want to ask yourself some questions. Here are a few examples: Are the people that liked your game younger or older? Are the people that liked your game into casual or challenging "hardcore" gameplay? Do the people that liked your game enjoy playing video-games in general or do they not play video games often? You can then decide if you want to make the game more accessible to people who don't fit within the answers to these questions; people who do
Cites Theraot · 2017-06 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “How to build repetition into a game that won't ruin the experience”
What kind of mechanic to focus on? You need to decide how you will fit Planning, Practice and Improvisation [LINK] in the game: Planning. This is the stage of the game where the player is building the strategy. This often happens in the player’s head (rarely you layout the strategy in the game, although some games do that). Yet, the game needs to support it. For example, by letting the player browse the inventory deciding what to equip, what to sell, etc. In card games, this is where you build your deck. Some games let you see what collectible you do not have, and may even give you clue on where to find them. All before you go into… Practice. This is the stage of the game where the player is
Cites Theraot · 2019-06 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “How to address players struggling with simple controls?”
Are your test player having trouble discovering the controls or using them? If they have trouble discovering them, you can add a prompt that explains them. To make it unobtrusive for players that don't need it, you can have it appear if the player stays there doing nothing. Which, brings me to the next thing: probably all your game needs is a practice/creative/free mode, where players feel free to experiment with the controls without any pressure. That will get them used to the controls in the case that the trouble is using them and not discovering them. While a game can do well without instructions or tutorials, they could help you reach more people (because not everybody is keen on experim