writing about la mulana 1 and thinking my own history encountering player-hostile design…
it started with defeat and then revile fascination and finally a desire to seek out more of it.
think i like this design approach the most lol. it leads to some fascinating experiences
This is something I love with old school dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder. It’s like the DM is really out to get you lol Grimrock returned to this idea this quite well by making the DM basically the final boss - in cube form haha Grimrock 2 is probably a better example.
There was an understanding with those older games that the level designer was a bit of a bastard. I’ve just been playing Hollow Knight and there’s a bit of that DNA in there too :)