The slides can be downloaded here.

I recently ran into an interesting article about the gaming skills of video game reviewers (detailed answers here). It’s certainly an interesting question, how good should reviewers be at games? Usually, to become a game reviewer, you’ll be required to have a pretty broad interest in games, which means you’ll already have a skill set required by most games — that is reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

Another important thing is, of course, experience and the knowledge of conventions. There are probably dozens (hundreds?) of things so conventional in games that most gamers (and thus reviewers) don’t even realize they exist. Or that someone new to games might struggle with such conventions. A simple example is saving. If the game permits saving anywhere, gamers are used to saving quite often, and they also recognize common level patterns, like when they’re approaching a boss and should save before it.

The good news is that conventions can be taught and they very well should be if the game is aimed at a mass market audience. The problem is it’s hard to recognize the conventions. As such, a game with unexplained conventions may have a very variable difficulty across the players depending on how savvy they are with its genre.

Difficulty In Rimelands

We did notice a lot of variance per person with difficulty in the Hammer of Thor. Partly it was due to some balance issues, especially with the hybrid characters, but there were also other reasons. For one, some people struggled a lot with some puzzles which in turn were too easy for others. Puzzles are problematic in the sense that you really can’t have adjustable difficulty levels for puzzles (though you can include hints), but on the other hand to solve a puzzle you’ll just need to google the solution. If you’re stuck with a jump in a platformer, you can’t really pass the level without acquiring the necessary skill in the game (or, sometimes, with luck), which leads to frustration very easily.

Even if the game is easily adjusted for difficulty (games with lot of numerical values, such as RPGs often are), there are still problems with difficulty settings. How normal is normal, in any case? It varies greatly from game to game, often based on how skilled the game’s developers and testers have been. Because of that, it’s a very bad idea to ask the difficulty beforehand and not let the player change it. Another problem is that games tend not to be simple enough to have single metric for balance. Someone might find the platforming in a game easy (reflexes) but shooting very difficult (coordination).

Alternative Difficulty Settings

My proposed solution is to not have single difficulty setting, but several, preferably all of which very straight-forward. Some examples what this could mean in Rimelands’ case:

• Permanent death. A very hardcore setting, common in roguelikes, but in general not very fit  for most players in Rimelands.
• No free regeneration. Usually you regenerate outside battle in Rimelands. This setting would heavily emphasize the importance of Healing Potions.
• Swift enemy regeneration. Enemies would regenerate quickly if you’re not close to them. This would make ’sniping’ impossible.
• Endless enemy mana. This would mean the enemies use a lot more talents, which would make defending against such talents more important.
• Timed turns. This would alter the game’s pacing dramatically, as you could’t think too long (maybe 30 seconds?) per a single turn. Having this kind of option would require the game’s interface to be fluent enough to use with timed turns.

There could be plenty of others, but too many options will make it too overwhelming. You could also combine this with the common difficulty levels, so it would resemble the quality levels used in many games. At least it would mean it’s more transparent what the difficulty settings mean.

To get back with the original topic, these kind of transparent difficulty settings could also help reviewers, as they could better judge how the difficulty varies between the settings. One could, in theory, write something along the lines of “the potions are abundant in the game, so for a good challenge turn on the ‘No free regeneration’ option.”

One problem with this is that many of the above options are still very much tied to the player’s knowledge about game and RPG conventions. For newcomer’s they’d probably seem way too unintelligible.

Could this solve (to some degree, at least) the problem with variable player skill? Also, the ‘permadeath’ difficulty setting is something that would work with a majority of games. Are there others? Or even ones that would work with majority of RPGs?

We have a new member in the team: Mika Nurmikolu, who’ll be taking responsibility in business and community management.

It’s also his responsibility to make sure we don’t forget to post new updates every now and then, both here and in the brand new Rimelands blog. In general, all the company related information will be here, whereas strictly Rimelands stuff will be situated in the blog. The possible game design / development related stuff will probably end up here too.

So, that’s about it. Don’t forget to check out the new Rimelands website with info on the PC and Mac version of the game and whatnot – the development is in full gear now, so we will be updating it quite regularly!

Check it out for screenshots, stories and more info about the game!

We find Crescent Moon Games to be a perfect fit for our company, since they’re not only the developers of one of the most popular iPhone RPGs, but also a team that shares our ideals about producing great games.

Screenshot from the game

Combat

The combat is turn-based in the same way as in many roguelike games: on each turn you move to an adjacent tile or perform a single action. Then, all the enemies visible do the same. The basic tactical choices depend on your character build: melee path characters’ tactics involve efficient use of weapons and talents, ranged characters will find to their advantage to keep mobile and plan their routes, while magic users need to keep track of their mana reserves.

Varying enemy types will require different strategies and some enemies will work together, so you’ll need to think carefully which opponents to tackle first and with which attacks.

We are taking efforts to ensure that the game mechanics are as transparent as possible, so you’ll always have a good grasp about the consequences of your choices. The main guideline is that if you fail, you’ll have a good understanding of what actions most probably lead to your demise.

Exploration And Story

The game features both random generated and pre-designed levels, latter of which will also include some light puzzle elements. There won’t be too many mazes, but people wanting to search any nook and cranny will find their efforts rewarded by additional treasures.

The main plot in the game will be linear and there won’t be any dialogue trees, but additional side quests will be there. We’re taking care not to drown anyone in the dialogue, so all the conversations in the game will be pretty short. We’re also planning (skippable) cut-scenes in between the levels to carry out the story, but we can’t yet tell how they will be handled.

The mood of the story will be light, adventurous and slightly humorous, but with some more epic and serious undertones.

In retrospect, the Nausicaa vibe some have noticed in the forums is a good perception, although Laputa has been a more conscious inspiration. Among many others, of course.

The game’s website is currently unavailable, but we’re working hard to get the final site open to public as soon as possible.

Rimelands: Hammer of Thor

At this point, the following facts can be revealed:

* It’s a turn-based RPG, not unlike a certain Rogue

* It’s steampunk with a frosty twist

* It’s more pulp adventure than fantasy epic

Diceworks bartop arcade

Hopefully some day this could be real!