so I actually don’t know if this is a general or a help? But here it goes
What do you guys think is a general rule for how players should perform in stressful situations? Im making a rhythm minigame right now, im almost done, and i need the player to pass a certain score on the game to pass (you passing or failing has a huge impact on the story)(or whatever very small story i have lol). This would be the first and last time the player sees it, assuming they’re on their first run through. Its kind of hard, but there’s only fifty notes (think medium level songs on either fnf or guitar hero)(its based off of fnf though and uses arrow keys)
This doesn’t have to just be about that, i mean everything. Like, what do you guys think is a reasonable expectation for peoples first run through? I’ve seen developers just forget the player doesn’t know everything like they do, how do you all recommend you miss that mistake?
As with most things in game design: there is no general rule.
Most mainstream recommendations would probably be to start really low. With early success and step by step increase of difficulty, you help new players understand the game and also cultivate a dopamine release cycle (instead of frustrating the player and leaving them practically out of a achievement experience).
Then again, if you lack much content and your game is set in a genre that people already know (or even direct line of equal games, clones, etc), you can leap-frog right into action.
Best advice, I think, here is once again: set up your prototype and just let people play it. Listen to them, carefully, and iterate on your game. Repeat.
Id have to second that on letting people play it. Ask some friends or family members to give it a try. I’d presume you’ve been play-testing it yourself while making it, so you’re likely pretty good at it. That may make you a poor judge of how hard/easy it actually is.
For a specific example: horror games have a terrible pitfall where dying makes the game less scary.
If you are in a really tense moment and you die and have to re-do the same thing again, it gets less scary each time, and by the time you succeed you might have lost all the tension. In some cases it’s better to have the game be sneakily easy and make sure the player succeeds (unless they ruin in on purpose) because succeeding means you keep the inertia. Also horror games tend to be story-heavy, so forcing the player to re-do things is not great…
For rhythm games tho, it’s quite different. There is a much greater interest in doing the challenge perfectly, and re-playing a level or a song does not really feel like having to go through the motion just to get back to where you were.
I’d say it depends on what experience you want the player to have - a sudden spike in difficulty is usually unwanted, but it can mark a challenge as very important (like a boss), and the satisfaction when clearing it is higher than with something trivial.
Since this is currently a one-off thing in the game, I’d advise against making it difficult. For one, the player will not have developed the skill to play, and it will probably feel like an unfair / unexpected jump in difficulty. For another, the hard-won skills the player does acquire playing it are not useful afterward.
The cardinal rule is that if it’s fun, it’s good
Theories and opinions fall short when it comes to things like this. Best to make something you think is right and then give it to as many people as you can to try it out, listen to their feedback, adjust accordingly and repeat the process. Aka playtesting.
100% this, but do not forget your target audience also. Try to get playtesters from your intended target group, for best results. (As an extreme example, imagine playtesters for a casual puzzle game, playtesting a souls like game)
You never know, they might start to like getting “You Died” message every 15 seconds
This reminds me of time when I tried to get my wife to play Doom Eternal. Her previous gaming experience consisted mainly of sims and hidden objects. Needless to say it was futile but still fun to observe.
I had a similar experience when we played It takes two together, and one of the boss battles came up. The instant stress on her face was, to reuse your words, fun to observe.
