What makes something painful in a game?

 link to video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3InLdll3nB0

As one of the players mentioned; even if it had a bunch of people not finish it's the fact the track doesn't feel like pain rather than if it's true or not; what people feel doesn't match the reality of how difficult something is.

A track that is hard to beat/ complex and yet looks simple makes people feel less pain than a track that is complex with a bunch of elements but simple. The less info the player has to take in, the less painful the said task to complete is.

While the more info you have to take in, the more painful a track will feel even if the majority of the people beat said track or level in general. This is useful to note for future level design.

Also to further note as people are bringing up in the comment section of said video is the fact it's not even visually appealing; people like things that look good to the eyes.

Another comment in the video brought up the good fact that people finding the track pain when it's painful from step one with the other track in the video people only had trouble at the last fourth, the difficulty does build up over time.

In one of Kan's videos is the fact for the shortcut at part 1 you had a track where the shortcut was so hard, so annoying to get to that you had to slam your car into the wall.

People like difficulty ramping up, to ease into something; not to fail and face plant right away even if most people can beat it.

The other factor being on longer tracks with one gimmick people complained about with the less depth to a gimmick, the less people find enjoyment from said track. I'll note this for my own level design, if you want people to desire to play it then you must make a level people desire to play/ have fun playing, otherwise people won't desire to play it.

An example would be;

easy beginning drift ice section

a short wall riding section that last a couple seconds

Followed by more ice drifting

Then followed with a steep incline

And for last throwing the car up onto another floating ramp with the final step being a slight drift into the finish.

What not to do would be;

Overly repetitive

Long

Copy-paste with small changes

No actual changes on the idea besides style

One gimmick; such as spooky

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