Unit 72: C5 - Difficulty and Structure

The difficulty of a game is determined by how challenging it is to the players. In gaming there are several different genres and even more variations to how you developers can manipulate the difficulty in those genres, for example:

A puzzle game like Tetris where the challenge is too place blocks in the most efficient way with each full row disappearing to conserve space else lose if the blocks reach the top, although this task alone can prove daunting to some for more experienced players there are higher levels in which the speed of the falling blocks increase until it's finally game over.



In other genres such as Action/Adventure there are games that will incorporate a few several different types of challenges all in just one level, For instance: The game below is entitled 'Kirby Superstar Ultra', it is a Nintendo DS HD remake of a previous game in the Kirby franchise.

Kirby Superstar Ultra contains many different stories as well as mini games that all have unique challenges.

The concept of most Kirby games generally involves the player running through different environments, defeating enemies and gaining abilities as you do so (although abilities are usually only used for short periods of time). The difficulty in these situations vary like so: the obstacles become much more challenging and dangerous as you progress onto later levels, the enemies become a lot vicious, resilient and in some cases even have a life bar (mini-bosses and boss characters) and certain abilities either become scarce, are hidden or must be activated.

As you can see in this picture, 'Time' can also be crucial to  how difficult  some levels or stories are. This screenshot  has been taken during the story 'Revenge of Metaknight' and throughout the entire story you have a time limit in which you must complete it or else fail the game.

It is very important to keep the difficulty well balanced for an appealing game. Most games normally increase the difficulty gradually so the player has a chance to adapt to how the each level should be approached while still being challenged. In a lot of games however there are bonus levels mixed in that provide the player with either a slight break from the action, some cool-down time from puzzles or extras that'll assist in future levels to come.