Difficulty Levels

Controls in a game for letting player choose how difficult the gameplay should be.

To be enjoyable, a game being played needs to have a difficulty fitting the challenge its players wishes to have. Many games try to solve this by steadily become more difficult as gameplay progresses under the assumption that players are getting more skilled - which can be described as keeping the players in the Flow channel. This does however not solve the case of games that are replayed since they start at a higher skill level. Difficulty Settings are design options that allow players to modify the difficulty to what they perceive as being their right level, which may be harder than normal if they are skilled but also easier than normal if they are not used to the type of game or simply want a more relaxing experience.

Examples

The Doom series lets players choose between five different levels of difficulty: I'm Too Young To Die, Hey, Not Too Rough, Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra-Violence, and Nightmare. These differ by the number of monsters encountered (or their strength), ammunition available for weapons, the speed of monsters and damage taken from their attacks, and how often they respawn.

The Hearts of Iron series of grand strategy games let players select Difficulty Settings ranging from very easy to very hard. These affect the number of manpower available, industrial capabilities, availability of resources, revolt risks, and efficiency of naval bases and supply networks.

Left 4 Dead series

easy, normal, advanced, expert Realism Mode

Space Alert Pandemic

Using the pattern

realism mode in Left 4 Dead 2

Consequences

Difficulty Settings are a form of Handicap System.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Challenging Gameplay, Casual Gameplay, Freedom of Choice, Game Mastery, Handicap Systems, Optional Rules,

Smooth Learning Curves

with Goal Achievements

Handicap Achievements

Can Modulate

AI Players, Ammunition, Damage, Enemies, Respawning

Can Be Instantiated By

Asymmetric Starting Conditions together with Characters or Abstract Player Constructs

Can Be Modulated By

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Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Game Mastery

History

New pattern created in this wiki.