When we think about the most satisfying gaming experiences, what comes to mind? Stomping a row of goombas eventually getting one ups for a combo. Skying half a mile through enemy mines and spinfuses narrowly escaping death to get a flag cap in Tribes. Getting all those denies and edging out your laning enemy to get your first big item in Dota. Dodging the missile launches of the Cyberdemon. Finding a secret area and getting the master sword!

You know what sucks in gaming? That cheesy friggin' overpowered enemy that has an insanely complex attack pattern that burns you down with waves of insane firepower, and has state of the art pathing that allows it to track you down and dismember you with inhuman precision.

Who here remembers the first time they beat the butcher? You had to go online it was so hard, couldn't figure it out yourself, maybe your classmates told you about it at lunch. You gotta get your int high enough close the door just as he reaches you and you cast the scroll of Fire Wall!

Point is, sometimes us designers forget what our job is. Our job isn't to punish the player, to create an impossible wall of impregnable difficulty. It's to create an illusion of difficulty so the PLAYER can feel like a badass, so that they can be the hero and rescue the downtrodden from the tyranny of the festering shade of evil scouring the lands!

So a while back I put off making the Big Burly, scary mutant sharks, I wanted to be better at making my game, I wanted to really polish the simple starting enemies and get them up to par before I spread myself thin. And I had these inklings of advanced and complex attack patters, more cheesy attacks that could hit from across the screen.

And knowing what I do now, and enjoying the more simple and enjoyable content that I've created with the starting enemies, I've really come to internalize what I've said in prior posts. And enjoyable game ISN'T about the player trying to figure out the one way they can survive, it's not about finding that impossible edge case so they can be among the small handful able to enjoy your content.

It's about the player having the freedom to explore limitless builds and paths to power. To find the build that they enjoy and to experiment and grow with that one. It's about packing piñatas with powerful prizes of progressions to please the player.

I don't rush things any more. I'm very much taking my time building up the core and getting these things in right. Much better to get the pipelines and play perfect and then expand on content rather than constantly playing catch up to current modus operandi's with a neverending pile of legacy, broken content. Better to have 1 perfectly tuned goomba and a few abilities and once you perfect the fabrications of your growing systems, THEN you can make your game!

Soon...

Soon there will be nothing to do but make more fish, and expand the levels and add more upgrades and work on the difficulty and long term progression. And seemingly out of nowhere this very tiny, unfun mess will rise from the trench and breach the calm seas.

But today is not that day.

Tonight, we grind in the dark recesses per usual. 5 years ago I felt like we were 2 weeks away from the game being fun. 6 months ago, I thought we were just a few days away. And now... I feel like we might just be 2 days away.

How much longer till this game is fun is anyone's guess, but progress is being made darn it!