Does anyone have any advice on handling situations where players progress through a story-driven game at different paces? For example, say a team of 3 players has to get from location A to B. Two players, who have played the game before, reach location B very quickly. The third player, who is new to the game, lags behind. Here are some approaches I’ve considered so far:
Wait for the third player to catch up
Teleport the third player ahead to them
Punish the third player for progressing too slowly (e.g. start draining health or start a timer)
Allow the two players to progress without the third player
if possible, balance the teams based on the experience level of the players. pairing less experienced players with more experienced ones can help ensure everyone progresses at a similar pace
tutorials for new players
dynamic difficulty adjustment, if a player is slower, the game could become easier for them, like less enemies or stuff
could even make the player faster
punishing players is bad cuz if a kid (ipad kid) is playing it, and they die due to that mechanic, they will immediately rage and drop a big dislike on your game and never play it again (most of the time)