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
- Risk Areas
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
