Hello again! It feels like it’s been such a short time since the last VV Eekly Update. I guess time flies when you’re having fun making fun games!
For this week, I want to share some thoughts about difficulty, completion, progress, and player satisfaction. I’ll also share about affixes, a system I’ve made to add some difficulty to a run of Vyn and Verdan.
Difficulty
Difficulty is hard. For a roguelike like Vyn and Verdan, where players “complete” the game in each run, the difficulty of the game has to be tuned in such a way that each run feels possible, but so that there’s a reason to play again after a run is complete.
This is the crux of the satisfaction in roguelike games – players face an approachable challenge, perhaps fail a few times but get better, and then finally “beat” the game! But wait – there’s more to the game!
This basic gameplay loop makes a lot of sense in the abstract, but actually applying it to a concrete game like Vyn and Verdan is where there’s more nuance. Let’s dive into the cycle above:
Players face an approachable challenge, perhaps fail a few times but get better, and then finally “beat” the game! But wait – there’s more!
Approachable challenge: The keyword here is “approachable”. Gamers don’t like feeling like a challenge is insurmountable – that just feels unfair. In particular, Vyn and Verdan is aimed at both extremely casual gamers along for the ride and their extremely competitive gamer friend who roped them into playing.
Fail a few times: Games can vary a lot on what the consequences for failure are. Does that mean restarting the whole run? Just the level? Do you just get slapped on the wrist by losing a few gold? Since Vyn and Verdan will have difficulty levels, the consequences will vary between each difficulty. Starting difficulties will be an easy reset, while later difficulties may force you further back.
Get better: Games vary widely on how to get better. Some games will unlock powers that make the game easier, while others rely on the player getting better. Vyn and Verdan aims to be the latter. As I’ve said before, the motto is “Challenge from coordination”, and it should be satisfying for a pair to become more coordinated.
Beat the game: Beating the game should be momentous! Significant! Celebratory! The players feel good for accomplishing a large task that they’ve been aiming for! High fives all around!
There’s more: But then, there’s a reason to keep going. You’ve unlocked a difficulty level, or there’s another goal you want to achieve, or you want to try again to see more content.
With how I approached Vyn and Verdan‘s difficulty modifiers, there are two main inspirations I’m drawing from here: Slay the Spire and Dead Cells.
Both of these games follow the same basic cycle as what I’ve described above.
In Slay the Spire, difficulty comes from “ascension levels”. After you beat the game once, you unlock ascensions, in which various difficulty modifiers change the game to be more challenging. Crucially, each run feels very self-contained and satisfying in itself.
In Dead Cells, difficulty comes from “boss cells”. Similarly, after you beat the game once, you unlock boss cells, where you can make the game much more difficult while simultaneously unlocking further upgrades for yourself.
So how will Vyn and Verdan approach this?
Affixes
Affixes are a system where each room of Vyn and Verdan comes with a randomly chosen modifier. Each affix is designed to be kiss-curse – there is a downside to each affix, but there is also an upside if played well. Theoretically, players could do even better with affixes enabled, but the game will be more difficult!
Some other examples are:
- Enemies start with influence but deal more damage.
- The room alternates between Vyn’s damage being buffed and Verdan’s damage being nerfed and vice versa.
- Abilities take longer but deal more damage.
- Players are smaller and faster but deal less damage.
- Bombs spawn randomly!
If you have any thoughts or feelings about difficulties or affixes, please, as always, affix any comments into the Discord!