In a case of great timing I managed to stumble across an article about game design relating to difficulty levels and user rewards on the same day that a few of us here at OTEE HQ were talking about the same topics. The discussion surrounding difficulty level in games and how to properly adjust the level of difficulty along with the amount of rewards to keep players interested in your games. I've played more than a few games that seemed enjoyable and played well enough until a particular level, or scene or "boss" that appeared arbitrarily difficult and the end-result being that I was put off the game. Given that experience the article in question really rung true for me:

Reward Players, Don't Punish Them!

The article above talks about the trend in game design to punish less and reward more, about how game designers need to shift their focus a bit if they want to attract a wider range of users (those outside the traditional hard core market). It's definitely worth a read if you have time, it's two pages and I think it offers some good insight. The tie-in with the work conversation comes after looking at a few games with some folks here at the office and talking about how they seemed so attractive to folks. The examples that I'd like to cite are Grow Cube and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, not only because they fit into this discussion but also because they sort of sit on far ends of the spectrum (simple 2D Flash game played in the browser on the left, and a full-on 3D console title on the right).

Grow Cube is an extremely simple game that obviously (to me) seems to target a younger audience. While it's challenging in that you must do things in the right order to achieve maximum success, it still doesn't prohibit the player from enjoying the game and achieving some success no matter what you do. Lars here in the office talked about how his daughter loved playing the game and I can see obvious reasons why: it's super cute and has good audio and everything you do gets you some sort of reward. Sure, by figuring out the exact "best steps" you maximize the reward but still, no matter what you do you "succeed" in some way.

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is a console title I have for my XBox 360 and it's a game that three people have enjoyed a lot: me (an adult male who normally thinks of himself as a "serious" gamer), my girlfriend (an adult female who's only now playing much of any video games) and my friend's son (a 5 year old kid who tries to play any game you put in front of him). The beauty here is that the game offers us all something. For me it offers enough "collect everything to maximize your advancement" challenges that I can spend hours looking for every coin, blowing up/destroying every object, etc. to get my money's worth. For my girlfriend it's pleasing as you don't really lose ground when you die, you're never really punished much for failing. For my friend's son Jack, he just likes it because it's Star Wars, it's Lego and it's dopey good fun that's not too hard for him to master.

It's a good trend, it's helping expand the games market in a nice way. So while I don't see any hard and fast rules here (you don't always have to make reward-happy hug-fest game titles), I do see some great ideas for game developers to consider when making their next great game.

Food for thought, enjoy.