At long last, episode 15 has arrived! This time, Despain and Reynard talk about game endings. What makes a good ending to your story—and what makes a bad one? And what’s the best way to end with satisfying gameplay? There’s some spoilers for older games, but Despain manages to stop himself from spoiling Bioshock Infinite.
This week’s Play or Flay looks at SnowOwl’s Skinwalker. Continue reading
Today’s topic is one that is important for all sorts of game design: difficulty. There’s lots of ways to make your game difficult, but unfortunately most of those ways are shortcuts that don’t lead to appealing gameplay.
Lots of game developers will feel the need to make their game more difficult, so they add all sorts of “features” that only end up making the game more frustrating. “But the player is dying more often,” they say, “it’s a challenge.” Well, kind sir—is it really a challenge? Or is your gameplay just hard for no real reason?
Today we’re going to look at the difference between challenge and frustration, and how to add to your game’s difficulty curve while avoiding making your players feel bad about it. Continue reading
