Hey! Depict1 was posted finally, which you can check out here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
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It's been getting a lot of great feedback from the Newgrounds community, but I'm noticing one thing that I haven't really noticed anywhere else. A lot of the reviews that rate it from 5 - 8 or so have one main complaint, and that is the difficulty. (Okay so other reviews in that score range also complain that the game lags, but unfortunately we haven't been able to reproduce that at all -- I recommend not using Internet Explorer!)
Some of the reviews seem to complain that the game is way too easy. Now this is the first game that I've ever published to Newgrounds, but it makes me wonder -- does Newgrounds really like difficult games? It's hard to judge, really. When you breeze through a game and enjoy it, you can easily feel like you want more of that game to play, so making it harder can sort of create the illusion of a longer game. (NES games are notorious for this practice, as a lot of games for that system were actually very short but the difficulty stretched out their length by a pretty big margin.) Leaving the player with the feeling of wanting more is ideal for a game developer though. In most cases it means that the game has ended on a high note, and the player left with a good taste in their mouth. I don't know why they were eating the game, though.
If Newgrounds really wants a more difficult game, then that makes me pretty excited to work on something else in flash that's a bit more challenging than depict1. I'll admit that I made depict1 pretty easy by my standards, and I did so for an experiment in difficulty. Most of the games that I make end up being pretty damn hard because I make them slightly challenging for myself. Slightly challenging for the author of the game translates into amazingly difficult for other players... so when I was making depict1, I made it very easy for myself just to see how it would be for other players. For most people the difficulty was just right. It wasn't frustrating, and not a lot of people got stuck. Most people are able to play through and at least get ending (1/2). (Although most people that do get stuck stop playing at the Walljump level.)
It seems that the audience that plays games on Newgrounds is a very specific crowd. I'm assuming that most of the people that think depict1 is too easy are hardened veterans of tough flash platformers, and probably even platformers from the SNES, Genesis, and NES days. Anyway, I'm just keeping all of this feedback in mind for my next game. I have a couple of ideas that I could pursue in flash if I choose to, and one of them is a rather hardcore fast paced action/puzzle platformer, and I'm starting to think it's right up Newgrounds community's alley.
On a related note, back in 2007/2008 I released my first big project -- Bonesaw: The Game. It's a Windows only downloadable game that can be grabbed right off my website: http://kpulv.com So if you guys want a hardcore platformer that will destroy your soul, then maybe give that a try! There are also some other games on there which may tickle your fancies. Maybe they'll come to flash some day too! I'm also working on a bigger project with my buddies at http://retroaffect.com so check that out too if you have a chance. Thanks for all the support for depict1, it's really awesome that a lot of you like it, and I hope that I can drop more flash games on you guys soon! : )
TomFulp
I've always been a fan of games that are difficult enough where you had the illusion of a challenge and some tension, but never had to repeat the same thing too many times, or at least repeat a long lead-in. Depict1 has a fun way of playing with your brain and when you die you never have to repeat too much to get where you were, which I like.
If you want to keep the main game in the same realm as Depict1 but also cater to hardcore gamers, you could put side-challenges in the levels with hard-to-reach goals that ultimately earn you medals. That's the way I've been approaching things lately.
I also wanted to say that Depict1 is one of those games that comes around every once in a while that I REALLY REGRET NG not being the sponsor of. I wasn't able to make it happen this time, but keep me posted on future stuff!
Xerus
Right, difficulty can be balanced with forgiveness of failure. Meat Boy / Super Meat Boy is a good example of this. Levels are incredibly difficult, but the time to respawn is probably half a second or something ridiculous like that. The game doesn't give you a chance to feel frustrated or put the controller down, every time is just "well, I'll give it one more shot."
Medals and achievements are a good approach, I'll definitely keep that in mind for whatever I end up doing next in flash. I'll definitely keep in touch for anything I cook up in the future ;D