Questions tagged [difficulty]

The level of challenge in the game, as determined by the relative ease of the gameplay.

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87 votes
5 answers
9k views

What is an optimum failure rate that will keep people coming back to my game?

I'm guessing some research has been done into this but I can't find much information. The question might be a bit too vague in itself as it depends on so many other factors. I'm developing a puzzle ...
Will Calderwood's user avatar
44 votes
13 answers
4k views

How to make some monsters appear more dangerous than others?

My game is an open-world co-op MMO with retro graphics, permadeath and no leveling system. The problem I'm facing, is the fact that I don't know how to make some monsters appear harder than others. ...
Nick's user avatar
  • 1,605
26 votes
12 answers
7k views

Avoid player getting stuck with underpowered character

For a sidescrolling shooter I’m working on, I got stuck on the following: The game allows the player to buy upgrades for their character. This oppertunity comes in the form of a shop that sits at the ...
tkers's user avatar
  • 393
23 votes
8 answers
6k views

What is the design rationale behind hard content that's limited to only a couple attempts per week?

There is currently a lot of discussion in the World of Warcraft playerbase about a recently added feature: Horrific Visions. Visions are personal areas you can enter alone or with a handful of players ...
Nzall's user avatar
  • 755
18 votes
7 answers
44k views

What name should I give each difficulty level? [closed]

I have a game with 4 difficulty levels (or levels of AI) and I'm wondering what to name them instead of the boring Easy, Normal, Hard, Impossible.
16 votes
4 answers
6k views

How to make a 'One Hit and Dead' platformer feel fair

I am currently making a run 'n gun platformer, in which the player dies instantly when they get hit. I'm curious how to make this feel fair. I'm aware of putting checkpoints frequently enough, ...
user avatar
14 votes
6 answers
2k views

How is game difficulty tested/balanced?

How is game difficulty typically tested or balanced so that there's a steady progression of difficulty; how do I ensure that no level is too difficult or too easy for its point in the game? Are play ...
Bob's user avatar
  • 750
12 votes
7 answers
3k views

How do I design very difficult games? [closed]

I would like to design games with very high difficulty levels. I have read these questions: How is game difficulty tested/balanced? What is an optimum failure rate that will keep people coming back ...
4rlekin's user avatar
  • 231
9 votes
2 answers
510 views

How can I make my Color Mixing game more difficult?

I am making my first game and it is coming out too simple. Are there standard "techniques" to making it more difficult? The game is pretty simple. Picture the game 2048. When you slide in a direction ...
DasBeasto's user avatar
  • 628
9 votes
3 answers
2k views

How can I scale the number and challenge of enemies in an attack wave as the game progresses?

I'm currently making a defense game where enemies will spawn and attack the player's army. It's similar to a Tower Defense game, except there is only one level. The enemies will keep spawning until ...
TommyBs's user avatar
  • 417
7 votes
3 answers
2k views

How can I prepare the different difficulty levels for my game?

I've though about creating the game for the easiest difficulty level, and from there scale up and create the other, more difficult difficulty levels, but I'm not sure it's the fastest way to go. How ...
Casanova's user avatar
  • 1,829
7 votes
4 answers
283 views

Measuring enemy "success" against player

I've been toying with an idea for a game prototype where the player must defend against waves of enemies, but between each wave the enemies "evolve" to better combat whatever tactics the player is ...
Lewis Wakeford's user avatar
5 votes
6 answers
1k views

How can I know how difficult a question is?

I'm making a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" style of game. I'm really stuck at the part where I should arrange questions from easy to hard. Isn't this subjective? How can I tell how hard/difficult a ...
user52711's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
475 views

Score balancing and progression limitation based on stars

Introduction I'm creating a game where the player can obtain 1 to 3 stars for each level based on the score it gets (based on the completion time). The levels are grouped in "worlds" each of which is ...
Carlo Moretti's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
6k views

How can I procedurally generate the right difficulty of enemy waves? [closed]

I'm programming a space-shooter mobile game with a sandbox gameplay style similar to Defender's. The player faces infinite waves of enemies moving towards his ship. The game has many upgrades the ...
glampert's user avatar
  • 3,067
4 votes
1 answer
714 views

How to determine what difficulty is right for the game?

I am targeting mass casual audience as I am developing the hyper-casual game. The problem is that I have played Helix Jump and Color Bump 3d and those games have a pretty big difference in difficulty ...
Ruslan Plastun's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
455 views

How can I estimate the difficulty of user-generated content in my puzzle game?

I'm making a puzzle game where one player makes a puzzle, and other players attempt to solve the puzzle the first player made. The puzzles are a grid of squares that may contain different kinds of ...
snollygolly's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Music Rhythm Game Difficulty Question

I have curious question about music rhythm based genre while I'm making a code for the game. Is it really better if I set a random pattern encountered on every music played or there is a specific ...
David Dimalanta's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
343 views

How to test if a level is passable?

I am making an classic 2D arcade ball game. There will be 100 levels in this game. And after the 80th level passing the level by doing some arcade stuff will be very difficult. For example level 100 ...
Tarkan Genç's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
4k views

Algorithm for game difficulty/pacing curve generation in single player RPG

I'm looking at this article about pacing in entertainment and games. It suggests that all good entertainment roughly follows a pacing/engagement curve like Star Wars(below). I'm interested in how I ...
Alex Stone's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
301 views

How can I test if my rage game's hardest levels are achievable?

I love rage games and have made a rage game too, but I always wondered how to test if levels in these types of games are too hard or not, since it's ironically too hard to test. For example: If I ...
Noodles's user avatar
  • 148
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

Balancing stats for combat difficulty in RPG Maker MZ

I'm using RPG Maker MZ to make a game but am having extreme difficulty in developing good systems for leveling my characters and making for a challenging, but fair and balanced battle (especially with ...
EmptyArray2500's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
411 views

How should I balance temporary buffs to make my game fun?

As a game developer, I understand many players (usually in RPGs) expect short term buffs to be available to them, such as potions, war cries, drugs, etc. As a player, I've never understood what fun ...
MackTuesday's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
250 views

What is the logic behind these design decisions regarding difficulty levels?

In some games you are unable to play on the harder difficulties before complete it on a lower difficulty. Why? Achievements are popular. In some games you do not get an achievement for completing the ...
Mike Hunt's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
208 views

How to increase difficulty of a catching game

I'm developing a game where products fall from the sky, and you need to catch them. A bomb also falls, and if you catch it, you die. I have 3 different products with 3 different scores. I want the ...
Diego Alcu's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

How to design simple turn based combat system with multiple difficulties?

I am developing a small, turn-based game with spaceships. The user-controlled spaceship has two modes, let's call them offense and defense mode. The user can freely switch between modes. There are ...
AerisLeg's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
239 views

Matching game difficulty

I'm currently making a matching game where the player is given a color or image type and the player has to click on all of the matching colors of images as fast as possible. My problem is how would I ...
Yatoniea's user avatar
  • 181
1 vote
3 answers
465 views

How to properly handle equipment enchants

In my game, the player starts with a set of equipment and unlike many other hack-and-slash RPG's, this base set of stuff never changes - the player never acquires a new weapon or armor. The only way ...
PeterK's user avatar
  • 373
1 vote
1 answer
118 views

Word Puzzle: Less or more difficult [closed]

I'm working on an app which is a Word Puzzle. Player has to arrange about 10 words in correct order to solve it. I have two options to build it: Give user feedback (right or wrong) when he has put ...
Balkrishna Rawool's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
187 views

Approach to puzzle generation

I have a task in hand about making a puzzle generator, that can fill a game board with colored pearls, that then needs to be solved by the player. The core rules are Pearls are placed in a grid, ...
Nils Munch's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
3k views

Connect-three game: Increasing level-of-difficulty as play progresses

I'm writing a connect-three type game (think Chuzzle, but without all those nasty locks, and with no big chuzzles) and I'm trying to figure out how to increase the level of difficulty as play ...
Raceimaztion's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
185 views

Incentive for players to choose hard difficulty

In a single-player game with difficulty settings, it seems obvious for players to choose the easy difficulty setting. How can I make incentives for players to choose harder difficulty settings?
clickbait's user avatar
  • 257
0 votes
0 answers
73 views

Creative difficulty "ascension level" options

I'm making a roguelike (not a deck builder though) heavily inspired by slay the spire. I'm looking to flesh out my ascension style difficulty levels with creative and interesting penalties for the ...
Harry's user avatar
  • 167
-2 votes
1 answer
137 views

Making a Game Like Pineapple Pen in libgdx - But game is too easy

It is kind of like a theoretical question. I was trying to make a game like Pineapple Pen just for the sake of learning libgdx more and just for fun . Pineapple Pen is pretty hard game but there is ...
Sagar Balyan's user avatar