I've received a ton of good feedback regarding scaling difficulty, and I've reconsidered how to address this. There will definitely be an option to turn it off, or opt into Master mode where the game is locked at max difficulty. I'm still open to more feedback on this.
I'm struggling with the first boss fight, and ngl I kinda rage quitted. Every time I wanted another go, i had to wait about another 2mins before I could have another try. Really annoying and I think you should add a save point near the bosses.
As a fan of harder games I’d like to see an option to have persistent difficulty so when beating a hard boss it’s clear beating it was a result of my own skill improving rather than the game getting easier
Yeah, if I didn't know the game had adaptive difficulty and then finished it and found out that I didn't improve the game just got easier as I went I would be super bummed. I feel like transparency with difficulty and being able to switch and change stuff is always the best route for player experience.
I agree, but then the adaptive difficulty wouldn't be a hidden mechanic anymore. I don't like adaptive difficulty, but for now it seams that is what Challacade is checking out and this solution would make the adaptive difficulty know to all players, leading to a lot of them turning it off. And at that point it's just a glorified choose your difficulty option
Maybe bosses shouldn't have adaptive difficulty applied to them, only normal enemies. Since bosses usually have mechanics that you're able to learn, and you can actually get in the mindset of trying to beat them, instead of just having annoying normal enemies that make your day harder. Just an idea ofc.
I like Nintendo's typical approach to this (which i think GMTK made a video about at one point) whereby there is the main sequence of objectives (i.e. progress to the next level, beat this boss, etc) and then there are optional more difficult objectives (collect all the stars, beat a secret boss, etc). I think this solves the problem in an interesting way by allowing players seeking an easier challenge to find that easily, and those seeking more difficult challenges will find them as well with just a little bit of effort, and it's clear that the experiences are separate. It's also more seamless than having to commit to an explicit difficulty setting right off the bat.
A good rule of thumb is to frame everything you want players to like as a reward. So instead of it lowering when you struggle, have it start at the low level and quickly rise to meet you. Additionally instead of letting players use strats or item that are easier but with less rewards, let them use strats or items that are harder but with greater rewards. Ultimately it is an identical system content wise, but its presentation and progression is different. Also I would still add accessibility options that the players has to toggle on or off, as no system will be perfect, so its better to cover your bases instead of investing into just 1 system.
the main problem I have with difficulty in games is that more often than not a higher difficulty just means higher stats. High difficulty should be a test of skill, not patience. A game that I believe does this really well is Dan the Man in which hard mode enemies do have slightly higher health, but more importantly they all have new or evolved attacks.
Terraria also does this very well, and rewards the player with higher difficulty exclusives items, which is a touch that I really like. You learn the game at a lower difficulty if it is daunting to you, and then get rewarded for playing at a higher difficulty when you feel more confident.
I've seen comments on evolved attacks that are more than just stat increases. You could learn from FFXIV, where they design the hardest difficulty of a fight first and then remove mechanics for the lower difficulty. Additionally, I think you could implement something like Smash Bros or Kid Icarus Uprising with a visible difficulty meter that you can only completely fill up by playing well. By not keeping the difficulty a secret but presenting the highest difficulty as an achievement, you could keep the challenge aspect of playing a high difficulty without sacrificing adaptive difficulty.
I’m not physically disabled myself but it makes me very happy to see that you consider the experience of people that are for your game as well! The game is looking great so far, I can’t wait to play it :}}
Maybe the player can equip difficulty medals which can increase in game rewards, and to unlock bonus content for additional replay value. The Boss medal makes fighting bosses super hard but you’ll get an overpowered weapon for winning which will spawn even more enemies in dungeons and teleporting out is disabled so you have to fight for your freedom. For me personally each difficulty mode need to be unique to keep the game fresh.
Bug fables does basically exactly that. there is no difficulty slider, but in the begining of the game you get a badge that you can put on that makes the game harder in exchange for increased exp and loot (and special items for beating bosses with it on.) And you can remove it or put it back on any time you want. Obviously as a turn based RPG difficulty scaling in that is different and is limited with what it could do, but I think it's a good concept as it's a risk reward system that is encouraged from the beginning without taking away intent of the original difficulty of the game (nor does it lock you into that difficulty)
Another possibility to scale difficulty is providing more/better items. The extreme case of this is the Invincible super leaf in Mario 3D world. In your game I guess mobs could drop more healing items, weapons, etc
It's a good idea but unfortunately many users may find that the difficulty varies and would give the game the feeling of being less real. Furthermore, even if few players notice, they will tell others. An alternative method could be the following: 1) the initial difficulty is fixed (obviously) 2) the difficulty gradually increases during the game (obviously) 3) If a player is very good, the difficulty will increase faster. If a player is weak, the difficulty will slowly increase. The difficulty never diminishes additional technique: in addition to the main plot you could add secondary missions: if the player is good, these extra missions will be difficult; if the player is weak, these missions will be easier
I think having certain challenges increase the difficulty for the rest of the game is also a good thing, but I do agree that the difficulty should never decrease below the baseline, it just doesn't seem fair even if ultimately it's the same thing. Completing certain sections flawlessly or generally going a long time without dying could change the whole in-game world, and it could be both a noticeable or hidden effect, with maybe the option to revert these changes if you just got (un)lucky
Something you can do is to also adjust the rewards depending of the difficulty level. For example, in harder mode, enemies may be smarter or have harder patterns but drop more rewards and in easy mode give less rewards but be easier. That's easy to implement if your game has a form of loot and/or enemies that drop coins when defeated.
i think changing the abilities of the enemies might be confusing. like all of a sudden it takes an extra hit to kill an enemy you've fought before, or it catches you off guard because their faster than they used to be. i think a better way to do it is to spawn more or less enemies.
As a Dev who been making enemies for the last few months it's very reassuring watching this since I was doing a lot of this for simplification purposes since I can c&p the code for new enemies but yeah, can totally make these values variables to not only adjust difficulties/mod support but also you could add a complex bonus menu to allow players to crank the difficulty up in a lot of ways after they best the game. Almost like a in-depth kind of cheats menu from classic games. Good stuff. 👍
I think that "Adaptive difficulty" should be an option to choose when I start a new game and not the only and definitive way to play your game: if a player want a challenge, he would like to have the same difficult for all the game, otherwise you "are ruining" his experience imho.
I really liked this difficulty feature in Bastion. Basically you could unlock these totems, then after you'd unlocked a totem you could choose to toggle it on and increase the difficulty in some way like enemies dealing more damage, or more hp, or more of them, or something. You'd also get more currency with more totems on, but honestly I think I would've used them without the currency bonus. It sounds like it's the same as difficulty toggles/sliders/modes in the settings menu, but it felt very different and I actually used it and enjoyed using it.
Good point. I think the main complaint is the lack of agency and this feature adds that. Also reminds me of "How Game Designers Solved These 11 Problems" video (ua-cam.com/video/rJZyPdYIbZI/v-deo.html) where the game attuned to player behavior based on skill level. I wonder instead of a in the face toggle, the game can adapt/design around behavior that more skilled players exhibit.
@@guksungan1267 "the game can adapt/design around behavior that more skilled players exhibit" This is a cool idea, reminds me of speedrunning, or highscore systems. If there's some thing you're trying to optimise for like speed or score, then a better player might take the more risky option to perform better. You just have to figure out what thing players want to optimise for and if it makes sense to have that incentive in your game. There could be natural ones, like saving time grinding for money, exp, or fighting a boss. If you're a better player you might take the more difficult strategy that happens to save time. But if you're a weaker player you can do it the easy way, improve your skill, then become good enough to do it the faster way maybe. Gotta make sure the slower safer way isn't better than the faster riskier way, or the good players will choose the slow way. Then of course there's the cost of designing and implementing, basic things like the totems that change stats are usually super easy to implement compared to, say designing combat with good risk reward strategies for example. There's nothing stopping trying both either.
I gaurantee you, people WILL find out about adaptive difficulty one way or another- usually via steam reviews. This will 100% result in some negative reviews. People like me (someone that plans on buying this game) absolutely hate being fooled like this- and many other players as well especially since you're making a souls-like that doesn't really need adaptive difficulty. I'd highly caution against implementing this as folks in your target audience aren't going to like it. OR if you are going to implement it- be upfront about it and let those that play be able to turn it off.
Maybe also add a way to change how much adaptative difficulty is changing the game, but ye overall adaptative difficulty is not rlly nice so you either make your game accessible or you make it so that people have the choice to change the difficulty
@@anorthkey Ye I think a good way is to have 1 'Normal' mode and 1 'Easy' mode Like Furi OR just have accessibility settings that can dial down some things.
One alternative I like to adaptive difficulty is ranking systems. For example, in the Mega Man Zero games, you get better ranks on the levels by taking less damage, completing mission objectives, beating the level fast, defeating lots of enemies, and using few cyber elfs (permanent powerups). I'm not sure how suitable it would be for your game, but it's an option I'm personally a big fan of. Players trying to get though the game can just ignore ranks, but experts can try to get the best rank possible.
I think you should add a cool-down to weapons, by giving each weapon a max amount of uses before needing to wait for it to recharge gives the player a reason to switch weapons while still letting them have a favourite and allowing for more strategic gameplay when it comes to using and switching weapons, also you should saturate the colors in your sprites and backgrounds, just make them a bit lighter and tint their colors a bit like make the grass a bit on the yellow side, I think it’d help the feel
Adaptive difficulty is an interesting concept, and one that I contemplated for my own game at one point. It definitely has a lot of pros and cons, but ultimately I decided to go with a more traditional difficulty selection screen. It is kind of interesting how difficulty is one of those big game design problems that has never found a perfect solution, nor do I really think there CAN be a perfect solution given how the difficulty of any given task is super subjective.
Another good way to add difficulty options that feel natural, is to have items or skills that can give you advantage for a price. Like having an item that makes your attack stronger but lowers defenses. And for players who want the game to be easier then can use items that give then small benefits without any disadvantages. Like something that boosts defenses or gives more health. The price for using that items is that it takes up a slot that could have been used for a stronger but harder to use item.
I'm gonna piggy back off of what @jrose705 said and be upfront about adaptive difficulty, and give the player an option to allow a set difficulty setting instead. I'm always going to vouch for more options in any game, because that means you're going to have a wider audience to please. When you force a player into one experience, many people may enjoy that experience, but others won't. That's where a toggle will seriously save you. Make the auto difficulty default, warn the player about it, and then let them choose if they want a specified difficulty in settings. Otherwise, this is super cool!
1:46 Adaptive Difficulty is fun, in theory. For players, in most games, it's not fun, because player "feels" like he was cheated, and most players will notice it, and don't like it. 0:19 Difficult Options is unfair, because player doesn't know is it too easy or too hard before starting game, plus he can't change it mid-game. As a dev myself, I did lots of research, most interesting option, is having no difficulty, but allow player to choose difficulty seamlessly. For example: in some games, you can pick a long-range weapon, which allows player to easily kill/damage most enemies (so that's easy difficulty), while he could pick another close-range weapon, which player need to attack/dodge/parry most attacks (hard), and then there's mid-range weapon (medium). Another thing is, difficulty by paths, like Megaman & Mario. For example, there's the main path (normal difficulty), and there's optional path where there's a chest, but there's some difficult platforming and enemies guarding that chest (hard), and there's a path that has less enemies but also less items (easy path).
I played your demo and watched several of your videos, and I love the aesthetic of your game. I died a bunch as I was playing your demo, and, to put in perspective, I can SL1 Dark Souls. One way to influence the difficulty of a game is the HP pool. You could scale difficulty by giving the player more HP. I also suggest more than 3 hearts initially.
I think it would be important and interesting to have different types of adaptive difficulty based on playstyle. Such as if a player is doing poorly because they keep getting hit vs they are wiffing their shots, then you need to adapt in different ways
I really like your idea of difficulty. Normally I hate when "harder" just means more damage and more health but making the enemies actually faster, both on walking speed and reaction speed sounds like a great way to keep combat engaging. Great work :>
I discovered the channel recently, I loved the videos :) I definitely recommend leaving the game for a more difficult direction (of course not to the point of being impossible),I think if the enemies are mechanically good and the game controls are smooth, people will still play and feel more rewarded,After all, every great enemy is a challenge At least that's my opinion, good luck I hope the game works out
I really want to start making games and you talking about modding your game sounds really fun. I would love to try to make mods for this game when it comes out!
I used to have a somewhat standoffish perspective to difficulty before I made games, very pro dark souls approach, but after having players play test things, it really makes you sensitive to the scope of players and the learning process for games. great video, its definitely a tricky subject :)
Reading these comments I totally understand the different perspectives. It’s tricky finding a solution that makes everyone happy, and the feedback is helpful
@@ChallacadeThe problem stems from the idea that every game should be for everyone. This is the path to generic mediocrity. There should be games for everyone but not every game should be for everyone. Targeting a niche audience is how we get diversity and variety
I was searching for indie games then I stumbled upon your video of a devlog for this game, it looks so cool, what I hope you'd do is to make it available for mobile, I don't have a pc and I really want to play this game ❤❤
There's also this thing on mega man zero games, if you complete stages with an s rank, the boss fights are slightly different with new attack patterns.
My main issue with this system is that if you get used to the way an enemy behaves, but then die, the changes on your "how many hits this enemy takes" "how fast it moves" and so on can get invalidated and it might frustrate some people, but great idea nonetheless c:
Really interesting. I can already see some of the backlash in the comments, but also a direction to address them. I would say it's a presentation problem. Because technically one can play hard mode by just playing better. The challenge is that players have certain expectations, and simply hiding the adaptive difficulty may be abrasive to those assumptions. Hopefully that helps and good luck!
You could add different endings or some easter eggs based on the difficulty level a player completed the level/game with. At the same time, you might want to think about the effect of cheese strategies to overcome difficult monsters. If a player has to cheese their way through your game due to difficulty, but is "rewarded" for it by increased difficulty, which in turn prompts more cheese, they will not be able to enjoy the game. You could keep track of the performance of the player on the input side, i.e. how many times did they swing the sword, how many projectiles they shot, etc.
Could you add a Serpentine (Draconic Snake) as another opponent or even a level focused around some kind of dragon? It would be really interesting to see such enemies.
While it may be more effort to create a system where certain areas/missions are simply more difficult and optional may allow skilled players to feel rewarded for their skill
Hi I like your videos. You totally nailed that telling people about an adaptive difficulty system might lessen the experience for them and you can kind of see that response here in the comments. I do think one thing that's important for this kind of system is making sure that players are getting challenged and that might be hard if the game scales difficulty after a couple minutes of poor gameplay. Another way you might be able to gauge skill of the play is whether they seek out stuff like secret bosses, or whether they tey to sneak past enemies or fight every one they see. My two cents is that it's important to listen to feedback, but you are also the game developer here and you have obviously put a lot of thought into the system, so you gotta trust yourself. Like you said, if you do it right most people won't even notice. Idk why I wrote all this. Good video i guess. Bye
I like what time crisis did where if you beat a certain part of the game fast enough or skilled enough you unlock alternative routes that were more difficult but faster for people who wanted to speed run. The main route was much easier but slower.
This is a good approach, nice work. However its a good idea to let the player be aware of this future, by making an option that can be turned off and on.
as an idea, i would recommend a "nightmare mode" where the gameplay starts harder, and goes up naturally without dropping. would make for a fun "hard mode" without too much extra coding required additionally, i would say for the nornal gameplay that the amount the difficulty can go up should be much more than the amount it can go down. eg it starts on the second lowest setting, but can go up 3 or 4.
10 місяців тому
The concept of adaptive difficulty and visible to the player is present in Demon Souls, something to explore if you want to keep that route
I think the best way to go about it would be something like hollow knight the difficulty is fixed throughout the game. But there are hidden rewards for players who accomplish the harder platforming sections. And there are options to rematch bosses at s higher difficulty later. The less skilled gamer will be satisfied with what they can accomplish and beat the game. And the more skilled player will take on the more difficult challenges.
I like your idea of secret difficulty adjustments in code based on player performance. Looking forward to testing this out. I am someone who typically always picks the easiest difficulty when given the option. I don't care about challenges when playing games, I am more interested in the story and the world I am playing in. If a game is too difficult to play, I simply loose interest and stop playing. There are plenty of other games to put my energy in. I feel the harder the difficulty the greater the rewards but a difficulty setting should never limit the ability to complete the game.
That’s a cool system! One thing I’m pondering: how do you implement a modular attack system? Like for a projectile, wouldn’t you have to do checks for whether it’s a straight shot, boomerang effect, orbiting, sine wave, etc.? Or would that behavior be pre-coded and one just picks and chooses
New behavior will need to be custom coded, but even now there’s already a good number of options, where different combinations can make some unique attacks without anything custom
On the topic of increasing difficulty, I caution against changing enemy health or damage resistance too much. Skyrim has this problem, where difficulty is “increased” by making fights insanely long. I also don’t personally vibe with adaptive difficulty, but I think difficulty changes should affect other things, like enemy attacks and damage, and less so their health bars. I think the key is to try the various difficulties for various enemies, adaptive or no, and see for yourself if they are enjoyable experiences.
maybe think of adding a similar, more complex pattern for the stronger variations of enemies. If you simply change one of their stats, maybe make it so the stat modified is random from one mob to the other (like if dog A has more health, but later on dog B has more speed) it might make the enemy feel ever so slightly different and refreshing from one to another
I find adaptive difficulty usually very disruptive to my gameplay, especially in games like Crash Bandicoot or Rocksmith where it is very noticeable for me as a player. I much rather prefer to disable that option. It always feels to me as if the game is pitying me to a degree of condescension. Often it causes me to be stuck longer on parts as it forces me to reload old saves to reset the difficulty and start over.
I don't like the adaptive aproach, it's just the same old settings (easy, medium, hard), but instead of letting the player choose it, it does it for them sneakily. BTW your game looks awesome!! I would recomend worring about diff settings at the later stages of development, get the baseline ready first. GL!
What if you had a difficult meter and add a little bit of randomness to what the enemy values are. You could just change the random values of new enemies based on how well the player is doing.
What if the difficulty selection was done AFTER the tutorial instead of at the beginning of the game? Modify the tutorial (I haven't watched all of these blogs so im not sure what its like atm) to present the player a fair challenge, then present the player with different difficulties, and they can choose based off of how difficult the tutorial was for them. I'd be a lot more confident in my decision if i got a taste of the game beforehand. Then you can keep the adaptive difficulty incase things are too easy/hard, albeit scaled back. Also agreeing with @billydrink, i personally prefer difficulties do more than higher stats. Higher stats aren't a bad thing, but i dont think it's the best solution to have health be the only difference between easy and hard. As he said, High difficulty should be a test of skill, not patience.
I personally really dislike adaptive difficulty. There is no way I wont notice an enemy being slower or taking less hits to defeat, and if I were to find out the game was "playing nice" that would make me quit or restart as I didn't beat the game at normal or higher difficulty/however the game was intended to be beaten. I think a lot of people will feel robbed from the sensation of overcoming a difficult challenge. But if you where to implement this, maybe slightly increase your range and the enemies hit box size? I feel this is less noticeable then decreased health and speed, but it can still lead to "WHY DID THAT NOT HIT!?" moments if the difficulty has gone up. I hope whatever you decide on makes the game closer to what you want it to be.
knee jerk reactions aside. Adaptive difficulty is great but there is an important caveats. Everyone have a different flow zone. I am not good at games, but I love brutally challenging games still. A game is in its flow state when I die to the same dark souls boss 15 times in a row. Or when I start my 100th attempt of getting an achivement in spellunky. Meanwhile I got a friend who is sigificantly better who will flat out give up after 4 attempts claim its near impossible. Adaptive difficulty would garentee that at least one of us are unhappy.
add a grapling mechanic that makes enemys cling to you that you have to mash a button to get released from, i just got inspired from castle crashers and thought it would fit in with this game
Maybe beating the game will be sorta like a “hero mode” like Legend of Zelda. You’ll have increased enemy health and damage and maybe the player will be weaker. Attacks could be faster too.
You mentioned creating multiple different version of the same enemy, rather than doing that why not making the enemies stats derived values? for your carnivorock example this could be en.health = n * DIFFICULTY_VALUE; en.walkSpeed = n * DIFFICULTY_VALUE / 4 etc. This would let you have one place to update the difficulty instead of having to make a bunch of new instances of enemies where the only difference is their stats.
Hi im new to the game (love your work btw) how do i swim? it seems that some areas in the game are out of reach unless i swim but the problem is that i drown after a few seconds, im just wondering whether this is completely part of code or something is wrong?
The game looks awsome and from what i've played it seems like it is a metroidvania and that is very good tho it is very hard to aim with the bow on a controler cuz when you stop aiming with the right stick it stops aiming that way. The fact that you can change your weapon anytime is kinda broken cuz you can stack spells. Also I don't think spells shloud recharge by itself. It would be better if it will charge after hitting a enemy. And the hook or somethink shloud not attach to walls cu it is very annoing in the dungeon. The fire and the ice spell are not very useful cuz there is not that much enemies to surroud you in one room.
Adaptive is something I will never ever do in a game I make. It might be fine for some games, but I can see the lack of predictability totally ruining the player experience when the line between life and death is finely balanced at a higher difficulty. If the player is bouncing between variations without these differences being telegraphed (eg; elite monster vs normal monster labels) then, depending on the game's mechanics, the player could end up taking damage they could not have reasonably predicted. And I see difficulty-reduction as a punishment for bad gameplay. Overcoming hardship is a reward that is partly robbed from the player with this design choice. It's not easy to design a game that can satisfy a wide range of skill levels, and in some cases, this should not be a dev's aim. You can end up sacrificing something greater by doing so, and would have just been better off making a game with a consistent difficulty level. I think a good practice for determining difficulty is to compare the most highly rated games and their difficulty levels and try to replicate the difficulty level of some similar subset of these. Another thing I can't stand is locking hard mode from the very start, and having the player unlock it only after they've beat the game on normal. I am looking for the challenging experience now, why are you forcing me to play the boring version first?
Could make the game a medium or a bit easy difficulty but naybe add like optional challenges guven by npcs like receive less than x hits and that could give an extra reward and challenge to better players
Elite versions of monsters are better than just changing the stats of regular enemies--no one enjoys getting to the late stages of a game and having their super powerful character taken down by "what appears to be" a level one crab. Anyone who has played the witcher series knows this feeling. Its your game, and you've had a great experience with adaptive difficulty, but be prepared to learn that your experience with adaptive difficulty is not universal, or even popular. There are reasons why global adaptative difficulty didn't catch on in favor of isolated dynamic difficulty; a one time speed debuff is applied to an enemy after five player attacks miss and is lifted once the player lands an attack, coyote time effects, etc This reminds me of your problem around weapon durability. The difficulty of your game can reward players for doing more difficult tasks, like not taking damage in a stage, instead of adjusting the entire game until it's impossible to not take damage--which may be a goal of your players. If thrown weapons are more powerful than not using thrown weapons could have a reward or an unlock. The difficulty is then in the player's hands.
What about automatically setting the game difficulty to adaptive but still giving players the choice to change difficulties on the go. Making the game adaptive is fine but just limiting it to that more-so benefits casual players than other types of players. Regardless, I like the concept.
GREAT IDEA! I love that, it’s really frustrating picking a difficulty and then not being able to change it. All and all great idea. Maybe at the end you could tell the player what difficulty they spent the majority of the game in? Or what difficulty each boss was? Idk just a little thought.
I'm sorry but I too am not a fan of adaptive difficulty, I like the challenge of trying again and again until I'm good enough to beat the level. I think instead of creating stat variants, you should create some new abilities or attacks that the monsters use at a higher difficulty. I know you may not like adding difficulty levels but the nice thing is that difficulty a levels also provide the opportunity of re-playability. Maybe items behave differently or there are new enemies all together, or new items, maybe the bosses have extra phases.
A month late but please have the option to have a set in stone difficulty. If I beat a challange I want to beat it because i got better at the game. not the game letting me beat it
I personally think adaptive is the worst option. Its like the easy medium hard choice but instead of being able to overcome the challenge the game forces you into something you don't want.
I think adaptive difficulty is a great idea, but one suggestion I have is to implement a challenge mode that unlocks after you beat the game. this mode would let you crank the difficulty up to max level
I REALLY don't like this difficulty mechanic for a number of reasons: First off, it creates an environment where the player never learn form their mistakes, and instead, might actually get worse at the game as they play. This might even go against your own design philosophy, as I imagine you want the player to get better as they play. This will be much harder as timings and stats change dynamically as you play, making it almost impossible to learn and play around them, even for a skilled player. Imagine Dark Souls, but the bosses attack speed changes from fight to fight for example. It might also teach the player "bad habits" where they don't get discouraged by taking damage for example. we learn by making mistakes. If the difficulty changes without us knowing, that nullifies those mistakes, and basically erases, or at least reduces the possibility to learn. Secondly, it makes the player feel cheated, if/when they find out the game has been "adjusted" for them, literary behind their back. There are also other potential issues where players might feel invalidated of their achievements, because they didn't really defeat that one hard boss, but rather the game "let them win" . It might actually enforce toxicity in communities, where other players can invalidate someone's achievements by saying they played the "easy version" of the game, instead of the "real version". keeping this mechanic a secret could be even more dangerous, as players WILL find out, and feel even more cheated. I would be VERY transparent with this up front if this is the path you choose to go, and even let players choose if they want adjusted difficulty in the beginning or not.
I've received a ton of good feedback regarding scaling difficulty, and I've reconsidered how to address this. There will definitely be an option to turn it off, or opt into Master mode where the game is locked at max difficulty. I'm still open to more feedback on this.
How did you achieve this adaptive difficulty in code terms?
I'm struggling with the first boss fight, and ngl I kinda rage quitted. Every time I wanted another go, i had to wait about another 2mins before I could have another try. Really annoying and I think you should add a save point near the bosses.
As a fan of harder games I’d like to see an option to have persistent difficulty so when beating a hard boss it’s clear beating it was a result of my own skill improving rather than the game getting easier
Agreed
Yeah, if I didn't know the game had adaptive difficulty and then finished it and found out that I didn't improve the game just got easier as I went I would be super bummed. I feel like transparency with difficulty and being able to switch and change stuff is always the best route for player experience.
I was about to reccomend this.
I agree, but then the adaptive difficulty wouldn't be a hidden mechanic anymore. I don't like adaptive difficulty, but for now it seams that is what Challacade is checking out and this solution would make the adaptive difficulty know to all players, leading to a lot of them turning it off. And at that point it's just a glorified choose your difficulty option
Maybe bosses shouldn't have adaptive difficulty applied to them, only normal enemies. Since bosses usually have mechanics that you're able to learn, and you can actually get in the mindset of trying to beat them, instead of just having annoying normal enemies that make your day harder. Just an idea ofc.
I like Nintendo's typical approach to this (which i think GMTK made a video about at one point) whereby there is the main sequence of objectives (i.e. progress to the next level, beat this boss, etc) and then there are optional more difficult objectives (collect all the stars, beat a secret boss, etc). I think this solves the problem in an interesting way by allowing players seeking an easier challenge to find that easily, and those seeking more difficult challenges will find them as well with just a little bit of effort, and it's clear that the experiences are separate. It's also more seamless than having to commit to an explicit difficulty setting right off the bat.
A good rule of thumb is to frame everything you want players to like as a reward. So instead of it lowering when you struggle, have it start at the low level and quickly rise to meet you. Additionally instead of letting players use strats or item that are easier but with less rewards, let them use strats or items that are harder but with greater rewards.
Ultimately it is an identical system content wise, but its presentation and progression is different. Also I would still add accessibility options that the players has to toggle on or off, as no system will be perfect, so its better to cover your bases instead of investing into just 1 system.
the main problem I have with difficulty in games is that more often than not a higher difficulty just means higher stats. High difficulty should be a test of skill, not patience. A game that I believe does this really well is Dan the Man in which hard mode enemies do have slightly higher health, but more importantly they all have new or evolved attacks.
Terraria also does this very well, and rewards the player with higher difficulty exclusives items, which is a touch that I really like. You learn the game at a lower difficulty if it is daunting to you, and then get rewarded for playing at a higher difficulty when you feel more confident.
This was touched upon with added projectiles and attack speed.
@@Legendary_Honeylaughs in master mode
@@Oofator laughs in Death Mode (Calamitty exclusive)
I've seen comments on evolved attacks that are more than just stat increases. You could learn from FFXIV, where they design the hardest difficulty of a fight first and then remove mechanics for the lower difficulty.
Additionally, I think you could implement something like Smash Bros or Kid Icarus Uprising with a visible difficulty meter that you can only completely fill up by playing well. By not keeping the difficulty a secret but presenting the highest difficulty as an achievement, you could keep the challenge aspect of playing a high difficulty without sacrificing adaptive difficulty.
I’m not physically disabled myself but it makes me very happy to see that you consider the experience of people that are for your game as well! The game is looking great so far, I can’t wait to play it :}}
Maybe the player can equip difficulty medals which can increase in game rewards, and to unlock bonus content for additional replay value. The Boss medal makes fighting bosses super hard but you’ll get an overpowered weapon for winning which will spawn even more enemies in dungeons and teleporting out is disabled so you have to fight for your freedom. For me personally each difficulty mode need to be unique to keep the game fresh.
I do like the idea of voluntary debuffs.
Bug fables does basically exactly that. there is no difficulty slider, but in the begining of the game you get a badge that you can put on that makes the game harder in exchange for increased exp and loot (and special items for beating bosses with it on.) And you can remove it or put it back on any time you want. Obviously as a turn based RPG difficulty scaling in that is different and is limited with what it could do, but I think it's a good concept as it's a risk reward system that is encouraged from the beginning without taking away intent of the original difficulty of the game (nor does it lock you into that difficulty)
Another possibility to scale difficulty is providing more/better items. The extreme case of this is the Invincible super leaf in Mario 3D world. In your game I guess mobs could drop more healing items, weapons, etc
It's a good idea but unfortunately many users may find that the difficulty varies and would give the game the feeling of being less real. Furthermore, even if few players notice, they will tell others.
An alternative method could be the following:
1) the initial difficulty is fixed (obviously)
2) the difficulty gradually increases during the game (obviously)
3) If a player is very good, the difficulty will increase faster. If a player is weak, the difficulty will slowly increase. The difficulty never diminishes
additional technique:
in addition to the main plot you could add secondary missions: if the player is good, these extra missions will be difficult; if the player is weak, these missions will be easier
I think having certain challenges increase the difficulty for the rest of the game is also a good thing, but I do agree that the difficulty should never decrease below the baseline, it just doesn't seem fair even if ultimately it's the same thing.
Completing certain sections flawlessly or generally going a long time without dying could change the whole in-game world, and it could be both a noticeable or hidden effect, with maybe the option to revert these changes if you just got (un)lucky
Something you can do is to also adjust the rewards depending of the difficulty level. For example, in harder mode, enemies may be smarter or have harder patterns but drop more rewards and in easy mode give less rewards but be easier. That's easy to implement if your game has a form of loot and/or enemies that drop coins when defeated.
i think changing the abilities of the enemies might be confusing. like all of a sudden it takes an extra hit to kill an enemy you've fought before, or it catches you off guard because their faster than they used to be. i think a better way to do it is to spawn more or less enemies.
As a Dev who been making enemies for the last few months it's very reassuring watching this since I was doing a lot of this for simplification purposes since I can c&p the code for new enemies but yeah, can totally make these values variables to not only adjust difficulties/mod support but also you could add a complex bonus menu to allow players to crank the difficulty up in a lot of ways after they best the game. Almost like a in-depth kind of cheats menu from classic games. Good stuff. 👍
I think that "Adaptive difficulty" should be an option to choose when I start a new game and not the only and definitive way to play your game: if a player want a challenge, he would like to have the same difficult for all the game, otherwise you "are ruining" his experience imho.
Yes but, i think you could change middle game like Minecraft do
I really liked this difficulty feature in Bastion. Basically you could unlock these totems, then after you'd unlocked a totem you could choose to toggle it on and increase the difficulty in some way like enemies dealing more damage, or more hp, or more of them, or something. You'd also get more currency with more totems on, but honestly I think I would've used them without the currency bonus.
It sounds like it's the same as difficulty toggles/sliders/modes in the settings menu, but it felt very different and I actually used it and enjoyed using it.
Good point. I think the main complaint is the lack of agency and this feature adds that.
Also reminds me of "How Game Designers Solved These 11 Problems" video (ua-cam.com/video/rJZyPdYIbZI/v-deo.html) where the game attuned to player behavior based on skill level.
I wonder instead of a in the face toggle, the game can adapt/design around behavior that more skilled players exhibit.
@@guksungan1267 "the game can adapt/design around behavior that more skilled players exhibit"
This is a cool idea, reminds me of speedrunning, or highscore systems. If there's some thing you're trying to optimise for like speed or score, then a better player might take the more risky option to perform better.
You just have to figure out what thing players want to optimise for and if it makes sense to have that incentive in your game. There could be natural ones, like saving time grinding for money, exp, or fighting a boss. If you're a better player you might take the more difficult strategy that happens to save time. But if you're a weaker player you can do it the easy way, improve your skill, then become good enough to do it the faster way maybe. Gotta make sure the slower safer way isn't better than the faster riskier way, or the good players will choose the slow way.
Then of course there's the cost of designing and implementing, basic things like the totems that change stats are usually super easy to implement compared to, say designing combat with good risk reward strategies for example. There's nothing stopping trying both either.
I love the fact that you listen to all feedback and take time to read comments❤❤
I gaurantee you, people WILL find out about adaptive difficulty one way or another- usually via steam reviews. This will 100% result in some negative reviews. People like me (someone that plans on buying this game) absolutely hate being fooled like this- and many other players as well especially since you're making a souls-like that doesn't really need adaptive difficulty. I'd highly caution against implementing this as folks in your target audience aren't going to like it. OR if you are going to implement it- be upfront about it and let those that play be able to turn it off.
Maybe also add a way to change how much adaptative difficulty is changing the game, but ye overall adaptative difficulty is not rlly nice so you either make your game accessible or you make it so that people have the choice to change the difficulty
@@anorthkey Ye I think a good way is to have 1 'Normal' mode and 1 'Easy' mode
Like Furi OR just have accessibility settings that can dial down some things.
Having enemies/nodes that read themselves as data is so helpful. Great job. Game is looking great
One alternative I like to adaptive difficulty is ranking systems. For example, in the Mega Man Zero games, you get better ranks on the levels by taking less damage, completing mission objectives, beating the level fast, defeating lots of enemies, and using few cyber elfs (permanent powerups). I'm not sure how suitable it would be for your game, but it's an option I'm personally a big fan of. Players trying to get though the game can just ignore ranks, but experts can try to get the best rank possible.
I think you should add a cool-down to weapons, by giving each weapon a max amount of uses before needing to wait for it to recharge gives the player a reason to switch weapons while still letting them have a favourite and allowing for more strategic gameplay when it comes to using and switching weapons, also you should saturate the colors in your sprites and backgrounds, just make them a bit lighter and tint their colors a bit like make the grass a bit on the yellow side, I think it’d help the feel
Adaptive difficulty is an interesting concept, and one that I contemplated for my own game at one point. It definitely has a lot of pros and cons, but ultimately I decided to go with a more traditional difficulty selection screen.
It is kind of interesting how difficulty is one of those big game design problems that has never found a perfect solution, nor do I really think there CAN be a perfect solution given how the difficulty of any given task is super subjective.
Another good way to add difficulty options that feel natural, is to have items or skills that can give you advantage for a price.
Like having an item that makes your attack stronger but lowers defenses.
And for players who want the game to be easier then can use items that give then small benefits without any disadvantages.
Like something that boosts defenses or gives more health. The price for using that items is that it takes up a slot that could have been used for a stronger but harder to use item.
I'm gonna piggy back off of what @jrose705 said and be upfront about adaptive difficulty, and give the player an option to allow a set difficulty setting instead. I'm always going to vouch for more options in any game, because that means you're going to have a wider audience to please. When you force a player into one experience, many people may enjoy that experience, but others won't. That's where a toggle will seriously save you. Make the auto difficulty default, warn the player about it, and then let them choose if they want a specified difficulty in settings. Otherwise, this is super cool!
1:46 Adaptive Difficulty is fun, in theory. For players, in most games, it's not fun, because player "feels" like he was cheated, and most players will notice it, and don't like it.
0:19 Difficult Options is unfair, because player doesn't know is it too easy or too hard before starting game, plus he can't change it mid-game.
As a dev myself, I did lots of research, most interesting option, is having no difficulty, but allow player to choose difficulty seamlessly. For example: in some games, you can pick a long-range weapon, which allows player to easily kill/damage most enemies (so that's easy difficulty), while he could pick another close-range weapon, which player need to attack/dodge/parry most attacks (hard), and then there's mid-range weapon (medium).
Another thing is, difficulty by paths, like Megaman & Mario. For example, there's the main path (normal difficulty), and there's optional path where there's a chest, but there's some difficult platforming and enemies guarding that chest (hard), and there's a path that has less enemies but also less items (easy path).
I played your demo and watched several of your videos, and I love the aesthetic of your game. I died a bunch as I was playing your demo, and, to put in perspective, I can SL1 Dark Souls. One way to influence the difficulty of a game is the HP pool. You could scale difficulty by giving the player more HP. I also suggest more than 3 hearts initially.
I think it would be important and interesting to have different types of adaptive difficulty based on playstyle. Such as if a player is doing poorly because they keep getting hit vs they are wiffing their shots, then you need to adapt in different ways
I absolutely love the aesthetic of this game.
I really like your idea of difficulty. Normally I hate when "harder" just means more damage and more health but making the enemies actually faster, both on walking speed and reaction speed sounds like a great way to keep combat engaging. Great work :>
I discovered the channel recently, I loved the videos :)
I definitely recommend leaving the game for a more difficult direction (of course not to the point of being impossible),I think if the enemies are mechanically good and the game controls are smooth, people will still play and feel more rewarded,After all, every great enemy is a challenge
At least that's my opinion, good luck I hope the game works out
I really want to start making games and you talking about modding your game sounds really fun. I would love to try to make mods for this game when it comes out!
I had to like instantly in the first 3 seconds because I heard Pikmin music haha
The more if these I see the more excited I get for this game
I think if you could try something like in BOTW or TOTK, where after a while stronger versions of the enemies appear, such as the silver bokoblins. :)
I used to have a somewhat standoffish perspective to difficulty before I made games, very pro dark souls approach, but after having players play test things, it really makes you sensitive to the scope of players and the learning process for games. great video, its definitely a tricky subject :)
Reading these comments I totally understand the different perspectives. It’s tricky finding a solution that makes everyone happy, and the feedback is helpful
@@ChallacadeThe problem stems from the idea that every game should be for everyone. This is the path to generic mediocrity. There should be games for everyone but not every game should be for everyone. Targeting a niche audience is how we get diversity and variety
I was searching for indie games then I stumbled upon your video of a devlog for this game, it looks so cool, what I hope you'd do is to make it available for mobile, I don't have a pc and I really want to play this game ❤❤
There's also this thing on mega man zero games, if you complete stages with an s rank, the boss fights are slightly different with new attack patterns.
My main issue with this system is that if you get used to the way an enemy behaves, but then die, the changes on your "how many hits this enemy takes" "how fast it moves" and so on can get invalidated and it might frustrate some people, but great idea nonetheless c:
Really interesting. I can already see some of the backlash in the comments, but also a direction to address them.
I would say it's a presentation problem. Because technically one can play hard mode by just playing better.
The challenge is that players have certain expectations, and simply hiding the adaptive difficulty may be abrasive to those assumptions. Hopefully that helps and good luck!
You could add different endings or some easter eggs based on the difficulty level a player completed the level/game with. At the same time, you might want to think about the effect of cheese strategies to overcome difficult monsters. If a player has to cheese their way through your game due to difficulty, but is "rewarded" for it by increased difficulty, which in turn prompts more cheese, they will not be able to enjoy the game. You could keep track of the performance of the player on the input side, i.e. how many times did they swing the sword, how many projectiles they shot, etc.
Could you add a Serpentine (Draconic Snake) as another opponent or even a level focused around some kind of dragon? It would be really interesting to see such enemies.
While it may be more effort to create a system where certain areas/missions are simply more difficult and optional may allow skilled players to feel rewarded for their skill
Hi I like your videos. You totally nailed that telling people about an adaptive difficulty system might lessen the experience for them and you can kind of see that response here in the comments. I do think one thing that's important for this kind of system is making sure that players are getting challenged and that might be hard if the game scales difficulty after a couple minutes of poor gameplay. Another way you might be able to gauge skill of the play is whether they seek out stuff like secret bosses, or whether they tey to sneak past enemies or fight every one they see.
My two cents is that it's important to listen to feedback, but you are also the game developer here and you have obviously put a lot of thought into the system, so you gotta trust yourself. Like you said, if you do it right most people won't even notice. Idk why I wrote all this. Good video i guess. Bye
I like this idea a lot! Adaptive Difficulty makes for a great experience when its done correctly.
I like what time crisis did where if you beat a certain part of the game fast enough or skilled enough you unlock alternative routes that were more difficult but faster for people who wanted to speed run. The main route was much easier but slower.
This is a good approach, nice work. However its a good idea to let the player be aware of this future, by making an option that can be turned off and on.
Awesome video as always :)
To be honest it's a little bit off topic, but this video was randomly recommend to me but I have to say, your game looks nice
I really love the graphics
as an idea, i would recommend a "nightmare mode" where the gameplay starts harder, and goes up naturally without dropping. would make for a fun "hard mode" without too much extra coding required
additionally, i would say for the nornal gameplay that the amount the difficulty can go up should be much more than the amount it can go down. eg it starts on the second lowest setting, but can go up 3 or 4.
The concept of adaptive difficulty and visible to the player is present in Demon Souls, something to explore if you want to keep that route
Yeah except it's like the opposite, since the game gets harder the more you die xD
I think the best way to go about it would be something like hollow knight the difficulty is fixed throughout the game. But there are hidden rewards for players who accomplish the harder platforming sections. And there are options to rematch bosses at s higher difficulty later.
The less skilled gamer will be satisfied with what they can accomplish and beat the game. And the more skilled player will take on the more difficult challenges.
I like your idea of secret difficulty adjustments in code based on player performance. Looking forward to testing this out. I am someone who typically always picks the easiest difficulty when given the option. I don't care about challenges when playing games, I am more interested in the story and the world I am playing in. If a game is too difficult to play, I simply loose interest and stop playing. There are plenty of other games to put my energy in. I feel the harder the difficulty the greater the rewards but a difficulty setting should never limit the ability to complete the game.
What do we think about optional content? Harder content/bosses that exiat but are not required to beat a game.
That’s a cool system! One thing I’m pondering: how do you implement a modular attack system? Like for a projectile, wouldn’t you have to do checks for whether it’s a straight shot, boomerang effect, orbiting, sine wave, etc.? Or would that behavior be pre-coded and one just picks and chooses
New behavior will need to be custom coded, but even now there’s already a good number of options, where different combinations can make some unique attacks without anything custom
On the topic of increasing difficulty, I caution against changing enemy health or damage resistance too much. Skyrim has this problem, where difficulty is “increased” by making fights insanely long. I also don’t personally vibe with adaptive difficulty, but I think difficulty changes should affect other things, like enemy attacks and damage, and less so their health bars. I think the key is to try the various difficulties for various enemies, adaptive or no, and see for yourself if they are enjoyable experiences.
maybe think of adding a similar, more complex pattern for the stronger variations of enemies. If you simply change one of their stats, maybe make it so the stat modified is random from one mob to the other (like if dog A has more health, but later on dog B has more speed) it might make the enemy feel ever so slightly different and refreshing from one to another
I find adaptive difficulty usually very disruptive to my gameplay, especially in games like Crash Bandicoot or Rocksmith where it is very noticeable for me as a player. I much rather prefer to disable that option. It always feels to me as if the game is pitying me to a degree of condescension. Often it causes me to be stuck longer on parts as it forces me to reload old saves to reset the difficulty and start over.
I don't like the adaptive aproach, it's just the same old settings (easy, medium, hard), but instead of letting the player choose it, it does it for them sneakily. BTW your game looks awesome!! I would recomend worring about diff settings at the later stages of development, get the baseline ready first. GL!
I like the adaptive difficulty concept, never really thought about it. Makes tutorials almost like an intro test 🤔
What if you had a difficult meter and add a little bit of randomness to what the enemy values are. You could just change the random values of new enemies based on how well the player is doing.
What if the difficulty selection was done AFTER the tutorial instead of at the beginning of the game? Modify the tutorial (I haven't watched all of these blogs so im not sure what its like atm) to present the player a fair challenge, then present the player with different difficulties, and they can choose based off of how difficult the tutorial was for them. I'd be a lot more confident in my decision if i got a taste of the game beforehand. Then you can keep the adaptive difficulty incase things are too easy/hard, albeit scaled back.
Also agreeing with @billydrink, i personally prefer difficulties do more than higher stats. Higher stats aren't a bad thing, but i dont think it's the best solution to have health be the only difference between easy and hard. As he said, High difficulty should be a test of skill, not patience.
I personally really dislike adaptive difficulty. There is no way I wont notice an enemy being slower or taking less hits to defeat, and if I were to find out the game was "playing nice" that would make me quit or restart as I didn't beat the game at normal or higher difficulty/however the game was intended to be beaten. I think a lot of people will feel robbed from the sensation of overcoming a difficult challenge.
But if you where to implement this, maybe slightly increase your range and the enemies hit box size? I feel this is less noticeable then decreased health and speed, but it can still lead to "WHY DID THAT NOT HIT!?" moments if the difficulty has gone up.
I hope whatever you decide on makes the game closer to what you want it to be.
knee jerk reactions aside. Adaptive difficulty is great but there is an important caveats. Everyone have a different flow zone. I am not good at games, but I love brutally challenging games still. A game is in its flow state when I die to the same dark souls boss 15 times in a row. Or when I start my 100th attempt of getting an achivement in spellunky. Meanwhile I got a friend who is sigificantly better who will flat out give up after 4 attempts claim its near impossible. Adaptive difficulty would garentee that at least one of us are unhappy.
Thank you for the feedback!
Could you dedicate the video on the architecture of your game/code? It would be interesting to hear how you keep thinks modular and extensible.
add a grapling mechanic that makes enemys cling to you that you have to mash a button to get released from,
i just got inspired from castle crashers and thought it would fit in with this game
I cant wait for the mobile to come out
Great devlog, if only I could remember what it was about..
Thank you for watching and forgetting! 😉
Maybe beating the game will be sorta like a “hero mode” like Legend of Zelda. You’ll have increased enemy health and damage and maybe the player will be weaker. Attacks could be faster too.
You mentioned creating multiple different version of the same enemy, rather than doing that why not making the enemies stats derived values?
for your carnivorock example this could be en.health = n * DIFFICULTY_VALUE; en.walkSpeed = n * DIFFICULTY_VALUE / 4 etc. This would let you have one place to update the difficulty instead of having to make a bunch of new instances of enemies where the only difference is their stats.
3:40 am new to coding and gamedev. And I have a question.
How do you structute your game code ? What programming paradigm is best for game dev ?
What resolution are your scenes? The pixelart is great but looks so crisp on the video.
Hi im new to the game (love your work btw) how do i swim? it seems that some areas in the game are out of reach unless i swim but the problem is that i drown after a few seconds, im just wondering whether this is completely part of code or something is wrong?
Instead of making different versions of the enemies make the enemies' stats change
make a eazy game that you only reveal the real final if you beat in the hardest dificulty like deadcells is a option
A good rule of thumb, if it is just rigth for you (the developer) it is a bit too hard for players.
The game looks awsome and from what i've played it seems like it is a metroidvania and that is very good tho it is very hard to aim with the bow on a controler cuz when you stop aiming with the right stick it stops aiming that way. The fact that you can change your weapon anytime is kinda broken cuz you can stack spells. Also I don't think spells shloud recharge by itself. It would be better if it will charge after hitting a enemy. And the hook or somethink shloud not attach to walls cu it is very annoing in the dungeon. The fire and the ice spell are not very useful cuz there is not that much enemies to surroud you in one room.
Adaptive is something I will never ever do in a game I make. It might be fine for some games, but I can see the lack of predictability totally ruining the player experience when the line between life and death is finely balanced at a higher difficulty. If the player is bouncing between variations without these differences being telegraphed (eg; elite monster vs normal monster labels) then, depending on the game's mechanics, the player could end up taking damage they could not have reasonably predicted. And I see difficulty-reduction as a punishment for bad gameplay. Overcoming hardship is a reward that is partly robbed from the player with this design choice. It's not easy to design a game that can satisfy a wide range of skill levels, and in some cases, this should not be a dev's aim. You can end up sacrificing something greater by doing so, and would have just been better off making a game with a consistent difficulty level. I think a good practice for determining difficulty is to compare the most highly rated games and their difficulty levels and try to replicate the difficulty level of some similar subset of these.
Another thing I can't stand is locking hard mode from the very start, and having the player unlock it only after they've beat the game on normal. I am looking for the challenging experience now, why are you forcing me to play the boring version first?
Could make the game a medium or a bit easy difficulty but naybe add like optional challenges guven by npcs like receive less than x hits and that could give an extra reward and challenge to better players
Great vid, I 100% agree with the adaptive difficulty.
Elite versions of monsters are better than just changing the stats of regular enemies--no one enjoys getting to the late stages of a game and having their super powerful character taken down by "what appears to be" a level one crab. Anyone who has played the witcher series knows this feeling.
Its your game, and you've had a great experience with adaptive difficulty, but be prepared to learn that your experience with adaptive difficulty is not universal, or even popular. There are reasons why global adaptative difficulty didn't catch on in favor of isolated dynamic difficulty; a one time speed debuff is applied to an enemy after five player attacks miss and is lifted once the player lands an attack, coyote time effects, etc
This reminds me of your problem around weapon durability. The difficulty of your game can reward players for doing more difficult tasks, like not taking damage in a stage, instead of adjusting the entire game until it's impossible to not take damage--which may be a goal of your players. If thrown weapons are more powerful than not using thrown weapons could have a reward or an unlock. The difficulty is then in the player's hands.
2:57 where am i ?
When are you planning to relese the game?
I think just purely from a business standpoint, people who would play a 2d pixel art game would not appriciate this feature.
What about automatically setting the game difficulty to adaptive but still giving players the choice to change difficulties on the go. Making the game adaptive is fine but just limiting it to that more-so benefits casual players than other types of players. Regardless, I like the concept.
did you use a 2d or 3d engine/template to make the game?
hi i still wating for release on steam or other in shops
GREAT IDEA! I love that, it’s really frustrating picking a difficulty and then not being able to change it. All and all great idea. Maybe at the end you could tell the player what difficulty they spent the majority of the game in? Or what difficulty each boss was? Idk just a little thought.
The jellyfish could be used as weapons I actually never knew xD
I'm sorry but I too am not a fan of adaptive difficulty, I like the challenge of trying again and again until I'm good enough to beat the level. I think instead of creating stat variants, you should create some new abilities or attacks that the monsters use at a higher difficulty. I know you may not like adding difficulty levels but the nice thing is that difficulty a levels also provide the opportunity of re-playability. Maybe items behave differently or there are new enemies all together, or new items, maybe the bosses have extra phases.
Thank you for the feedback!
which game engine have you used?
will u release this game on unity?
Great job!
A month late but please have the option to have a set in stone difficulty. If I beat a challange I want to beat it because i got better at the game. not the game letting me beat it
Will it have a mobile version??
every copy is personalized real
I personally think adaptive is the worst option. Its like the easy medium hard choice but instead of being able to overcome the challenge the game forces you into something you don't want.
What are you using to make this game?
I use a framework called Love2D
what's the game name
I think adaptive difficulty is a great idea, but one suggestion I have is to implement a challenge mode that unlocks after you beat the game. this mode would let you crank the difficulty up to max level
I REALLY don't like this difficulty mechanic for a number of reasons:
First off, it creates an environment where the player never learn form their mistakes, and instead, might actually get worse at the game as they play. This might even go against your own design philosophy, as I imagine you want the player to get better as they play. This will be much harder as timings and stats change dynamically as you play, making it almost impossible to learn and play around them, even for a skilled player. Imagine Dark Souls, but the bosses attack speed changes from fight to fight for example. It might also teach the player "bad habits" where they don't get discouraged by taking damage for example. we learn by making mistakes. If the difficulty changes without us knowing, that nullifies those mistakes, and basically erases, or at least reduces the possibility to learn.
Secondly, it makes the player feel cheated, if/when they find out the game has been "adjusted" for them, literary behind their back.
There are also other potential issues where players might feel invalidated of their achievements, because they didn't really defeat that one hard boss, but rather the game "let them win" . It might actually enforce toxicity in communities, where other players can invalidate someone's achievements by saying they played the "easy version" of the game, instead of the "real version".
keeping this mechanic a secret could be even more dangerous, as players WILL find out, and feel even more cheated.
I would be VERY transparent with this up front if this is the path you choose to go, and even let players choose if they want adjusted difficulty in the beginning or not.
Thank you for the feedback!