Tumbleseed was a difficult, tricky game. Outlast 2 was an uphill march through dangerous enemies. Recently, both have gotten easier thanks to patches and tweaks. Many games have had their difficulty reduced after release. While this makes them accessible to more players, it also raises questions.
Last week, puzzle game Tumbleseed expanded with a PC patch that added themed maps avoiding the game’s difficult randomisation and tweaked player abilities. But the practice of post-release patches altering game difficulty isn’t new. Last year, indie hit Hyper Light Drifter went through various changes that made the game less difficult. The game’s tricky combat was made more bearable through the addition of invulnerability frames that protected players as they dashed around. Developer Heart Machine also added faster healing. Later, after player feedback, Hyper Light Drifter also got an easier “Newcomer Mode” that granted extra health and made enemy attacks weaker.
Prey released a day one patch that scaled enemy statistics and changed enemy abilities to make them more difficulty-appropriate. The patch also changed player abilities to make exploration easier. Horror game Outlast 2 received a patch nearly two weeks after release rebalancing the difficulty, and Has Been Heroes had abilities and enemies changed to fix the game’s balance after launch.
With the option to change games after release can help them better suit a range of players, these patches also have ramifications. Sites such as Kotaku often receive review copies of games far in advance of these patches, meaning reviews might reflect a version of a game that’s different than what players experience. Post-release patches in response to player feedback change a game over time, sometimes radically. Is the “definitive” Hyper Light Drifter the punishing original version or the version contained in “Newcomer Mode”? How much should developers be expected to alter in response to player feedback and for how long?
The “games as service” approach can be good for players, who can experience versions of games that can be less frustrating or punishing. This also means players experience different versions of a game depending on their ability to download patches or when they play. A game’s constant changes make it more difficult for players to bond over shared experiences, since a game might be drastically different from one player’s experience to the next. At the same time, a game that turned off potential players who heard it was too difficult might see new life with tweaks and patches.
Comments
4 responses to “More Video Games Are Getting Easier After Release”
I don’t think I’ve ever had an issue with balance changes via patch after launch, these are usually minor and only change the meta of a game to improve quality of life.
Major chances to mechanics/difficulty between games sours me more like how the Persona series gets easier with every game
I don’t like it, but it’s the nature of the industry.
Accessibility translates to sales.
At the end of the day, behind the PR, you are talking about a business model that looks at sales and returns over all else.
As someone who’s in the process of balancing a game right now I can tell you that a lot is going to change after the first few weeks of launch and the analytics comes back with new information
Devs cannot possibly estimate ‘accessible’ difficulty by playing their own game. It’s just not possible. They built the fucking thing, they know it inside-out the way no-one else possibly can or ever will. What seems obvious and intuitive to them, can be utterly impenetrable to the casual. I’ve SEEN that realization on the faces of indie developers at PAX, who have to watch hundreds if not thousands of people struggle at the same point, over and over and over and over, reinforcing that actually, that balance is fucked. No matter what they think. You can see them having to swallow that; no matter how firmly they believe that something is obvious, they can’t argue with having to watch literally hundreds of people needing their assistance at that point.
And that same issue of uncommon proficiency eventually goes for play-testers, too, especially if the testing stage goes for a long time, or is crowd-sourced through early-access/kickstarter/other backer beta participation.
Adjusting for accessibility for the market is not ‘selling out.’ It’s a reality check.