I was watching some videos the other day and I stumbled upon this one :
[ Show youtube player ]
'Game maker's toolkit' and 'Extra Credits' are 2 of my favourite youtube shows regarding game design and I'm really delighted to see the above episode (published on Jun 8, 2018 btw)!
How so and what all this has to do with Worthy you may ask?
Some months ago, while we were making the game, we had a dicussion with Alex about the score system, lives, infinite continues, the different endings and how all these aspects are interconnected and affect the game's difficulty in a profound way and on a deeper level. This discussion is relevant to what we talked with hipoonios a couple posts ago. Let me get into a bit more detail:
Worthy does not have a classic difficulty set (you can choose or change from a menu). Instead, the way the game is designed, it deliberately attempts to allow the player to modulate this himself, from the the way he chooses to approach each level and the end game in general.
So on the one hand, you've got the easiest possible setting to complete the game: you can disregard score, take your time and not rush each stage (which means no time badge), pickup only as few diamonds as Ruby requires in each level (and not all), kill as many enemies as needed to clear your way (and not take further chances) and finally completely disregard lives and make heavy use of the level unlock system and infinite continues. Doing so (even if it's still not an easy task), will eventually lead you to the final confrontation with Malek and the first game ending.
Most games at this point have already shown to the player everything there is to be seen (and I mean that from a gameplay perspective, regardless of the second ending), but not Worthy!
You see if the player decides to add into his playstyle any of the above parameters, this radically changes the strategy required to complete each level!
Take for example the very first, super simple, level 1: To finish it you just need to do one loop and collect 8 diamonds, then reach Ruby. No risk involved (plus you also win the 'time badge' in the process). Now if you want to collect all diamonds (33) and win the 'diamond badge', you need to get pass some spikes, which elevates the risk. Finally to win a 'Perfect' you not only need to collect all diamonds but also do this in time. This changes once more the way the level needs to be addressed, as you now have to find the optimal path and sequence in which to collect the diamonds, in relation to the loops the spikes around the level operate.
So, simplified, level 1 has 3 distinct difficulty sets (le't say easy, normal and hard) and each one corresponds to a completely different solution and goal for the player!
This pattern becomes even deeper as more elements are introduced later into the game and especially if someone decides to take the challenge with the second ending (which alters the required approach once more). I won't spoil it further as it's all into the manual anyway.
