On Auto-Dynamic Difficulty In Videogames

Thanks to Game Matters for its discussion of the problems with difficulty levels in videogames, as the weblog, authored by 3D Realms' Scott Miller, talks about why "games should only rarely allow players to set their own difficulty level." Miller argues: "One of the most common ways games sabotage their potential to appeal to larger numbers of players is by being too difficult... Practically everyone designing games nowadays is a hardcore player with elite skills. It's therefore easy for game designers to misjudge the difficulty of their own games." He describes 'auto-dynamic difficulty', related to Max Payne, as "...a few variables that rate the player's ability, and the player's rating (completely internal to the game) determines the damage that both the player's weapon delivers, and the enemies' weapons deliver against the player." Miller ends by pointing out: "If a player completes your game, they are much more likely to buzz about, spreading the word that it was a great game."

Comments

eye tou groove

[dario_moreno]

has a "dynamic" mode which seems to change between the easy, medium and hard difficulty levels.

Unreal Tournament

[shoptroll]

Unreal Tournemant implemented the option that bots would adjust to the skill level the player was playing at.

Also, they introduced the idea that the final boss of the single player "campaign" would be barely beatable by the player. Essentially if you look at the code for the final level you will find a note saying that the final boss is designed to "stay one step ahead of the player", which goes hand-in-hand with the strategy i've heard which is to stay sucky for a while and then ramp up your apparent skill level quickly at the end to over take the AI's learning curve.

I also agree with being able to set your difficulty. I like to play UT and be able to a) completely thrash the bots b) be moderately challenged or c) try to take on a higher difficulty than I'm used to in order to try and get better. Having that flexibility is nice.