So a common problem in games both in work I've designed and as a player is a large disconnect between the mechanics that give a player difficulty and the knowing where in the in game economy (or similar mechanic) where they can get something to overcome it or reduce difficulty. When it's ridiculously linear (you encounter an obstacle an npc tells you to buy x item in the shop) it definitely takes me out of the experience as a player. On the flip side if you don't give enough information as a player I often miss entire game mechanics. (I didn't know you could expand your inventory or shield surf in BotW and I didn't discover Autobuild till very late in TotK.) The non diegetic solution of hint popups when the game can detect easily you're having trouble with something is okay, but not my favorite and misses a ton of hard to detect player frustrations. I tend towards having either hard gates OR multiple solution obstacles. But I'm super curious how other designers like to fill that information gap without annoying or overwhelming the player.
Game programmer, designer, director; retired quadball player; antimeme; radical descriptivist; antilabel; Moose;
Working at Muse Games. Directed Embr, worked on Wildmender and Guns of Icarus, Making new secret stuffs
Opinions are everyone else's
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