The Difficulty Slide

In most video games as the player progresses the difficulty of the game increases, this change in difficulty is known as the difficulty curve. Some of the reasons for changing a game’s difficulty are that as players gets more experienced and skilled at playing the game they require a larger challenge to keep them interested, it lets you ‘upgrade’ the player's character enabling changes and new challenges that fit the game's narrative, and by having a mixture of easy and difficult sections you can create feelings of tension and relief for the player.

The first of these reasons is the simplest to illustrate. Consider Tetris, as the player clears more lines the speed with which the new blocks drop increases, meaning that a player must develop better and faster reflexes to progress further through the game; if however the speed didn’t change, a competent player could keep playing indefinitely, or at least until they got bored. The other two reasons are tailored to the game world and usually involve equipment and skill upgrades coupled with the introduction of new more challenging situations. It is also possible and fun to have the threat introduced before the solution, meaning that a player will have to run and hide during the early sections of the game, but later on after receiving the appropriate upgrade will be able to stand and fight; of cause after letting the player feel comfortable and in control for a while a new bigger threat should be introduced.

However, there are quite a few games, primarily in the casual/mobile gaming market, that feel the need to have large amounts of game content locked at the start. This content is unlocked not by progressing the story, but by rather by collecting specific game world items that can then be exchanged for the new features or by paying some additional amount of real world money. What really makes these games different is that the upgrades are bought after you lose your current game and apply to your future games, making them easier. For example in the iOS game Mega Jump, your progression through the game depends on collecting enough coins to not fall, after the eventual falling to your doom you can then use the coins gathered to by new upgrades such as a magnet which will pull the coins towards you making it easier to collect them, easier to progress further, and easier to buy new upgrades which will again make the game easier.

There are two main reasons for this difficulty slide. Firstly, it is a way for the developers to make some extra money off the game, as some people will want all the upgrades and features available from the start. Secondly, it can increase the replay value of the game as players try to unlock all the content. While these reasons are understandable in the casual and free games market there are plenty of full price games which also use this model. For example, in the on-rails shooter House of the Dead: Overkill as you progress you can buy access to better guns, which is fine as the levels also get harder except that these better guns can also be used in any earlier level and the high score table doesn’t make a note of what weapons were used, making them rather pointless early on. Personally I think that a better way to add replay value to such a game is by simply putting the high score table online. Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is also an on-rails shooter, but the weapons you start with are the same as the weapons you finish with and the replay value comes from the games high difficulty and online leader boards.

I will finish by clarifying that I do not consider the ‘New Game +’ feature (starting the game again with all the upgrades, equipment, and abilities you had when you won it) found in some games to be the same as the difficulty slide. This feature is to enable players who have already won the game to go back and look for secrets and bonuses they may have missed the first time through.