Designing Difficulty Options In Games

Gamasutra is running a story about how the "hard" modes in games can be designed to include difficulty, but not frustration. They give some examples of the changes made to several games as their difficulty settings are increased, and they discuss some of the simple options, such as increasing the number of required button presses, or increasing the relevant numbers by an arbitrary amount (a boss on easy may hit you for 10 damage, whereas a boss on hard may act the same but hit you for 100 damage). They also talk about maintaining the "illusion of fairness." Quoting: "Bungie's Halo series is often praised for its excellent execution of difficult play in the form of its Legendary mode. Not surprisingly, the team took a very well-thought out approach to introducing and tuning difficult play. Halo 3 gameplay designer Francois Boucher-Genesse explains that it's not just a case of one formula fits all. 'It's not like we just cranked every enemy's health by 200% and called it Legendary,' he said. 'There was a good amount of custom changes made per mission as well. In that sense we encourage players with previous Halo experience to play at least on Heroic, since they get to see the game in its full scale.'"

Comments

Using metrics from gameplay to tweak difficulty

[drexlor]

I wrote a paper in college about how video games could evaluate and adjust difficulty based on metrics while the gamer is playing. I think a game's difficulty that is based off input from the controller and game statistics would help people have a more enjoyable gaming experience.

If the game can receive input from the gamepad/joystick they can measure heat, motion, button hitting frequencies, and things of that nature.

Software inputs can be used too. Time measured in zones, level completion times, and time to defeat creatures can be measured to add as heuristics. Death counts and locations can be used to determine what areas need work.

These inputs have been associated with stress levels in gaming and can be used to adjust creature abilities, time limits, weapon power, and directional support for the gamer. If the gamer is playing well the difficulty will become more difficult over time and if the player is having trouble then the difficulty can be toned down slowly and selectively. Directional help can also be used if the game thinks the gamer is lost.

These could help create a more dynamic game that fits to the gamer.