Difficulty can be a hard subject to talk about in games. Some people play a game religiously, so it all seems easier. Sometimes somebody has trouble with just navigating 3D space in games.

For instance, while some might consider it hard, I can speed-run Grey's Anatomy: The Video Game in 38 seconds. — For instance, while some might consider it hard, I can speed-run *Grey's Anatomy: The Video Game* in 38 seconds.

Difficulty is still worth discussing, though. Game designers and developers put so much work into how a game looks, feels, and plays that there’s no way they didn’t think about how hard to make it. Developers have betas and alphas to help narrow down how hard is too hard, or if a section is too easy, but sometimes the end result still feels off.

So, what makes a game hard without being frustrating? What can developers do to make an easy game still feel like a worthwhile experience?

Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland was the first Gameboy Advance game to feature the pink puffball we’ve all come to know and love since Kirby Superstar on the SNES. The gameplay follows the usual Kirby formula of “eat enemies and gain their power” and make your way through colorful and linear levels.

Look at him! So adorable. the Kirby series has always been more about the world than extreme gameplay. — Look at him! So adorable. the *Kirby series* has always been more about the world than extreme gameplay.

From the moment you start playing Nightmare in Dreamland, it’s evident that this game is not going to frustrate you will difficulty. Instead, it’s going to take you an adorable journey filled with cute monsters, interesting bosses, and oddly named levels (Yoghurt Yard anybody?). The levels are filled with food to restore health, enemies are generally easy to beat, and if you do die, you’ll only be sent back a small bit in the level. This game is about making your way through the world and trying out new powers. Watching Kirby change as you go through the dozens of forms you can find is fun and cute. The game never tries to say that it’s going to be a harrowing journey so it never feels “too easy.” It falls into that Goldilocks zone of juuuuusstt right.

On the other hand, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim always feels a bit too easy. The second you start playing the game, you see the total destructive power that the Dragons have, and the thought of taking one of them down might fill you with fear. Then, you actually fight one and it feels like a total letdown.

Look at this thing! It's terrifying! It breathes fire, can cause meteors to rain from the sky, and is crazy evil. Yet you beat it by slapping it in the face with a club.

You just run around until they land, then wail on them. Before you know it, they’re dead and you’re absorbing their soul and everybody else is staring at you in awe, like it was hard. Two hours later, you’ll see a Dragon land in the middle of a little farming village and get torn apart by peasants. Skyrim fails to present you with danger in 99% of fights, though the Dragon Priests can be tough to take down, due to their powerful masks and staves. Skyrim starts you out with a full set of armor, weapons, and potions so there’s never a time when you feel like you’re just starting out in the world, or feel vulnerable. You can pause the game a second away from death to eat 50 raw potatoes and 5 health potions and bam, you’re all better. When a game is inconsistent like this, it removes a lot of the satisfaction you might get from overcoming its “challenges.”

That covers “easy”, but how do you make a game hard without going to fuck-you-that’s-bullshit-are-you-kidding-me territory? The trick is fairness, really. You have to make the player feel like any death they experience is a result of their choices and actions, and not the game suddenly deciding that’s how things are going to be. And while there’s some definite RNG rage, FTL: Faster than Light does a really good job of showing you how proper planning and decisions can beat even the hardest enemies.

Victory here will feel better than beating 10,000 Dragons in Skyrim. — Victory here will feel better than beating 10,000 Dragons in *Skyrim.*

By defeating enemies and acquiring scrap, you upgrade your ship and crew in any way you see fit. FTL makes it clear from the beginning that you are outmatched, outgunned, and that only a clever mind will help you survive. The game is hard because of the overwhelming force against you and because things can change in an instant. One missile aimed wrong and the enemy can repair their weapons engine subsystem and get away, leading the rebel fleet to overtake your position. FTL demands your attention and concentration, and though there are times when your defeat feels undeserved, it generally does a good job of respecting your choices.

If “fairness” makes difficulty feel okay, then “unfairness” must make it feel frustrating. Bioshock Infinite was generally a fairly easy game, but it featured a difficulty option called “1999 Mode” that went too far in the opposite direction.

All complaints aside, this game is absolutely gorgeous. Columbia, the floating city where most of the game takes place, is beautiful and very atmospheric.

For the most part, the rules of 1999 Mode are pretty well thought out. Enemies inflict greater damage on you, the navigation arrow is removed, and there’s no weapon auto aim. However, enemies also gain increased health, there’s less ammunition for your weapons, you have less health, and respawn points are reduced. What ends up happening here is that the enemies can take a huge amount of punishment and stay alive, whereas you take a hit and you’re down. Enemies also know where you are at all times, as soon as you fire on them once, even if you try to hide. Some of the bosses already have a lot of health, and in 1999 Mode most firefights become a war of attrition, rather than a thrilling and bombastic experience. You also have less ammo, and given that you can’t upgrade every weapon, you’ll end up fighting a lot of bosses with whatever you can find ammo for, which will take even longer.

Anybody who's played Bioshock Infinite can tell you how annoying this boss is on normal difficulty. It gets 50 times worse on 1999 Mode. — Anybody who's played *Bioshock Infinite* can tell you how annoying this boss is on normal difficulty. It gets 50 times worse on 1999 Mode.

Increased difficulty modes are good, but they need to be implemented carefully. Increasing the amount of damage everybody does make sense because it makes combat deadlier. Increasing the enemies health while lowering the player’s makes it feel as if you’re hobbled before you even start the fight. It’s a really delicate balance and definitely hard to strike, but as long as things get harder on both sides of the equation, everything can still feel fair. You can give enemies more programming routines so they might try to flank the player,

Difficulty is tough to do well. It’s like trying to balance scales on a rope bridge in a very windy valley. There are a few things developers can do to make things easier on themselves, though. Start your game with a sense of where things are going, make player’s choices feel important to the outcome, and avoid making the enemies way more powerful while making the player weaker. Everybody has a different idea of what makes a game too hard or too easy, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think about what makes for a good level of difficulty.