Difficulty

Alice Asylum will have selectable difficulty settings, but we will balance the normal setting to what is listed below.

Goals

• Limited frustration for Player
• Impossible to fail at completing the game
• Challenge reward for broad range of Player core-types

Fails

• Perceived as too EASY or too HARD
• Perceived as too heavy handed (too much hand-holding)
• Perceived as too oblique (not enough hand-holding)

Audience Assumptions

• Gender: 50/50 male-female
• Attraction: Wonderland, Alice, art, story, sequel, exploration, puzzles, combat
• NOT: Us (the developers)

Design Assumptions

• Gameplay is EASY
• Achievements are HARD
• Secrets are MEDIUM-HARD
• Alternate paths are MEDIUM-HARD

Risk Areas

Puzzles

Challenge: Player is unable to progress because Puzzle cannot be solved.
Solutions for Minimizing Risk

• Design
  • Keep Puzzles Simple
  • Progressive difficulty within puzzles types to train User
  • Make the Goal Obvious
  • Present in “puzzle box” format. One way in, one way out.
• Testing/Tuning
• Progressive Help Dialog from Cheshire Cat

Combat

Challenge: Player is unable to overcome enemy NPCs and cannot progress.
Solutions for Minimizing Risk

• Design of Combat situations (balancing)
• Design of Combat controls (ease of use, intuitive)
• Testing/Tuning
• Cat Nip – Cheshire Cat clears combat areas

Exploration

Challenge: Player is lost, unable to find next goal, cannot progress.
Solutions for Minimizing Risk

• State Goals clearly (update always, display clearly, repeat on-screen/diary)
• Offer constant guide to primary objective
• Panning camera towards correct direction, in-level highlighting (POI)
• Cheshire Cat hints, guidance

Platform Action

Challenge: Player is physically unable to complete sequence of platform gameplay.
Solutions for Minimizing Risk

• Design
• Testing/Tuning
• Cat Nip – Cheshire Cat shows user how to platform past a particular section