Is there such a thing as TOO hard?

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#1

So iv been working on this pretty detailed adventure game for a good while now, and what I want out of this game is for a lot of people to play it. The problem is it seems as tho at its current state it may be to hard, or maybe because its just not finished.

The current stats for the game is about 24,000 Plays. But where it gets interesting is how many players can actually beat it(at its current state)

7,500/24k people have gotten to stage 10.
5,000/24k have gotten to stage 20.
750/24k have gotten to stage 30.
400/24k have gotten to stage 40.

Pretty much id like to get some feedback on what you guys think, should I just finish it and see what happens or should I go back and make a lot of the stages easier. Personally I think its kinda to easy but I guess after play testing it so many times iv gotten use to it.

Check it out and let me know what you think! Suggestions are welcome.

#2

You used ‘to’ where ‘too’ should be used, please fix title + page content

#3

[size=4]Yes, you can—but it is not definitive[/size]
You can have a difficult game that is still fun—look at Apocalypse Rising—but the thing is, when you’re losing at Apocalypse Rising, you are still experiencing the game. I’d say the difficulty is even core to the experience. In losing, you’re having fun, you’re learning, you’re progressing.

When your game gets too hard, I’m guessing that players aren’t coming back. They aren’t having fun any more. This is not because your game is harder, per say, than Apocalypse Rising, but rather, because your game’s difficulty doesn’t make it more fun. When you’re stuck at an Obby, there’s nothing else to learn, or do, and it is irritating, and players will stop playing.

[size=4]Solution—make your game flow[/size]
To fix this issue, I suggest you offer players a way to skip a challenge after a while, or identify the place where your game’s flow is broken and players try to quit/get frustrated and rectify this issue.

Remember: Your goal as a game designer is to make a fun game. Losing can be fun (dwarf fortress!), but losing without learning is not. I rarely learn anything new after 2-3 attempts at an obstacle. This is when you, as a game developer, step in and fix the flow, and make the game more fun.

Good luck!

By the way, you should totally post this sort of thing in Developer Discussion, and then show off your completed work here. This place is for showing off your cool creation, not necessarily asking for advice. :slight_smile:

#4

My main issue is I was LCing all the time (I’m on a fresh install of XP(just got a 1TB HDD :D), so it might be my PC) and every time I LC’d, I went back to the level in the nearest tens place, also, some stages are much harder than others, you should measure deaths per stage, and try to modify them a little until the statistics look like a gradual curve

#5

Everything Quenty said, with example A) being Skyrim.

#6

You also have to take into account that some people will always simply [size=5]become bored[/size] of your game and it may have nothing to do with being too difficult.

You should plot a chart measure how often each stage is completed to see if something after level 20 becomes too boring. Either that, or people just don’t have the time to play that far and never return.

#7

CeaselessSoul and I finished the game together, and here are some thoughts I have:

First of all, please please please DON’T have dying.
1. Racks up WOs
2. Takes 4 seconds to respawn, which becomes quite a long time when you’re repeatedly dying

Just :LoadCharacter() on the player when they hit a dying brick, and it’ll respawn them immediately. This is something I think about EVERY time I play an obby, I would absolutely love for you to implement this.

Secondly, the ending part gets pretty boring. It’s one of the best parts of the map, but finding the keys after checkpoint 45 just takes a long time and gets pretty boring.

Thirdly, there are a few mistakes in the map. At the end of the boulder drop hill, there is a large Z-fighting wall. Also, just before the bridge with the disappearing planks and ranger sword dude, there is an angled brick which you can climb to get on top of the map. I’m not sure if this is intentional or not (it kinda seems like it is, since I haven’t figured out another way to get the white key), but if you put a railing or something up top it’ll show you that you’re supposed to be up there, or, if you shouldn’t be up there, fix the brick.

Fourthly, you might want to consider doing something about the bosses. They aren’t that bad, per se, but they seem very automatic in just following you around and chopping when they get near. Also it’s pretty easy to get them stuck/avoid them, which is probably what you’re aiming for, but it feels more like, “Haha, I outsmarted the AI! Stupid game!”

Finally, I think it would be awesome if you had some sort of story here. The cutscenes and occasional bosses make it feel like it should have some sort of storyline, and it wouldn’t be hard to implement that. You could have NPCs that you talk to along the way, who guide you along the different obstacles. You could also have subplots, where you do a side obby for bonus points/badge/etc.

Overall it’s a great obby, much more enjoyable than most. Great scenery (skybox could use a bit of work, though), good job of guiding players along the path, good use of lighting, enjoyable obstacles. :wink:

And here is a picture of the two of us at the end. :smiley:

#8

Here are my thoughts of the game and some bugs (I did beat it along with this awesome guy named MightyWanderer). I recommend reading this all.

Some bugs:
[ul]
[li]Not sure if this is intended, but for some keys you can climb terrain to get to them, that may be a shortcut or just something you forgot to block off.[/li]
[li]The camera does break there are easy coding ways to prevent this rather than a button to fix.[/li]
[li]My camera broke (this is before I found out about the fix camera button), so I left. When I came back I was round ten stages BEHIND where I left off. (this also happened to another person)[/li]
[li]When you first spawn… You fall to your death.[/li]
[li]Stage I believe, 38 or 39 where you have to jump on these small platforms that disappear. They are so thin you fall into them and can’t actually jump to get out. Behold, you fall to your death.[/li]
[/ul]

Some things you may consider fixing or doing/redoing:
[ul]
[li]Key system is a good idea, but the thing is, this is highly interrupted by other players, I don’t like this, I do like to see others players in the game, just not when they interrupt the game-flow.[/li]
[li]Same thing with the boulders, I haven’t encountered problems (besides of how slow they are), but some “troll” could just hope on your boulder and really mess your day up.[/li]
[li]Please, stuff like on level 29… No fake paths, that is TERRIBLE gameplay, honestly that sort of obstacle is based off luc and trial and error (not the good kind). I’m talking about the fake paths and jumps. Funny enough, on this stage I saw TONS of people leave at.[/li]
[li]The buttons for resetting and fixing the camera (as you can see in the pictures located in the spoiler) are covered by the chat.[/li]
[/ul]

I recommend making this stuff local.

Some things I HIGHLY recommend you change:
[ul]
[li]Don’t be that cliche person and use death for every damn obstacle… Please… Just use teleportation or LoadCharacter because it’s instant and doesn’t count against your wipe outs.[/li]
[li]The way these bots work, mainly one chases you or another, possibly (not sure if this is possible, never tried it) make them local, if you can’t have one spawn each time a person comes in so each person gets a bot on them.[/li]
[li]The respawn of the bots, make them respawn at appropriate times, sometimes they are just remnants (alive mind you) where someone else left off. (possibly use magnitude from their spawnpoint, a certain distance away they respawn)[/li]
[li]I was misguided SO many times and ended up dying because of it. A good example is one of the first doors. You go in and just walk straight into water and die. Another example is when I was trying to complete a stage (big shocker) and I ended up going the wrong way because it was so dark and just fell in water…[/li]
[/ul]

It got REALLY boring after around stage 30-40 because it got highly repetitive (maybe that’s just teens, kids who will more than likely swamp the game will play it longer). Only reason I stayed through everything (even the loss of data when I left and came back) was to give you feedback, if I wasn’t going to I would just say, “screw this game for it’s crap” (no, I’m not calling your game crap, just the crap it throws at me).

Now, those are the bad things… Let me get to the good points. I love that it’s semi-original and how you incorporate some story into it (even though you really don’t continue with the story very much). I do like some of these obstacles has they do have interesting ideas. Everything is very nicely built compared to just about… ALL obbies. Keep up the good work!

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#9

This is too hard for most robloxians, the path is never really straightfoward and the obstacles in general are too difficult for most people. That being said, as a capable player I found this one of the most enjoyable obbies I have ever played. I was already on stage 20 meaning I had played this previously or your game is bugged.

Also Anaminus joined my server and I fangirled him away (sorry)

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#10

[quote] This is too hard for most robloxians, the path is never really straightfoward and the obstacles in general are too difficult for most people. That being said, as a capable player I found this one of the most enjoyable obbies I have ever played. I was already on stage 20 meaning I had played this previously or your game is bugged.

Also Anaminus joined my server and I fangirled him away (sorry)

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[/quote]

for some reason, I kept thinking you wrote “aurarus” and not “anaminus” and I thought to myself, “wait, aurarus didn’t make cmdutl.” I then took a second look and it made sense.

#11

[quote] This is too hard for most robloxians, the path is never really straightfoward and the obstacles in general are too difficult for most people. That being said, as a capable player I found this one of the most enjoyable obbies I have ever played. I was already on stage 20 meaning I had played this previously or your game is bugged.

Also Anaminus joined my server and I fangirled him away (sorry)

External Media

[/quote]
lol, this is why I never log in.

Anyway, this may just be because I’ve been playing for a long time, but I didn’t find it very difficult. Though I imagine it would be hell on a touch device. Some observations:

  • Either the checkpoints after 40 don’t work, or I missed one somewhere (I decided to skip it and risk dying). Ideally, I shouldn’t have to find a checkpoint.
  • Found a few places where I could escape the map. One of these led to a sequence break at the end where I was able to grab the green key immediately.
  • Might be intentional, and I didn’t get a chance to find out, but if you manage to not die, then you keep all your keys. Since key colors are reused in later parts, you’d be able to just skip right by the doors with the keys you already have.
  • It definitely plays as a single-player game. I can imagine it becoming tedious with multiple players. It might help to either use single-player servers, or simulate the single-player aspects (keys, doors, NPCs) on the client.

Peeves:

  • Perfectly pure crystal clear waters that kill you immediately. Throw some sharks in there.
  • Perfectly healthy perceptibly pleasant trees that kill you immediately. Throw some bees in there.
  • Blatantly obvious invisible walls. If you’re going to use these, they should be subtle, like to prevent players from escaping the map.

Overall, it was pretty neat. Didn’t find my time being wasted. Definitely wouldn’t mind it being more difficult, though. Having a definite goal would probably get people to come back. Advertising it as difficult might also help. Personally, I find myself wanting to return to complete it as quickly as possible.