The Fine Balance of Difficulty

 The Theory First

Difficulty in videogames is sadly not the easiest thing to balance. The experience and skill varies so wildly between players, that it is next to impossible to balance a game to be enjoyable but challenging to everyone. As Wild West Racing is a multiplayer racing game though, it kind of balances itself, as good players will just reach the goal faster. Regardless of the pure "difficulty" of  a track, like the amount of obstacles it has, etc.  So my main goal is to make the game accessible for less experienced players, while still providing the good players with enough possibilities to show their skill and further improve at the game. 

In this blog post, I want to focus on the first of those two problems, making the game more accessible. Another more fitting term would be to lower the skill floor of the game. Meaning, the amount of skill needed to be able to play the game effectively. A kind of barrier to entry. Any player needs to be able to comfortably move the character and should be able to reach the goal in a reasonable time to have fun with the game.  The challenge then has to come from reaching the goal before your competitors do so. If the players are already struggling to play the game by itself, the experience is most likely more frustrating than anything else. 

Of course, one does not want to dumb the game down too much, otherwise the skill ceiling is effected too. The skill ceiling describes the kind of maximum amount of mastery one can have for a game. Really simple games, like Tic-Tac-Toe can be mastered fairly quickly, after a certain point there is nothing left to learn or to improve at. While complex games allow such a level of mastery, that some players are able to make it their job to be good at the game. An example of a well-known game that strikes that balance pretty well is Tetris, anybody can pick it up and have some fun with it, but at the same time, masters of the game  continuously break their records to this day. 

So, what does that mean for us?

The old version

For the second level of my game, I wanted to give the better players chances to shine with careful maneuvering around trains and well-timed jumps. But upon letting people test the game, I noticed that some parts were just frustrating when the player does not have experience in playing the game. 

One of the places were frustration quickly rises is the final section of the level, where the player has to cross a few train tracks. The train tracks are relatively thin and landing consecutive jumps from track to track is really hard. While trying to nail the jumps, the player can only hope not to get hit by one of the trains moving along some of the tracks. 

My idea for improving this passage was to add little bridges between the train bridges, so that the player does not need to jump anymore. The catch is, that these small bridges are few in between and you have to walk along the tracks to get to the next one. A player that still jumps from track to track will be able to be much faster. 

Another change I'm doing, is to remove one of the stair-like platforms leading to the goal at the end by a slope to walk up on, so you don't have to redo the whole passage should you miss one of the jumps.

Placing the new bridges

The new slope leading up to the goal.