Difficulty Level: Impossible?

[Tanarex]

After accidently erasing the sewer level in Chapter 5 (Because every game has to have one.) I thought maybe I should change how it works. Before you had to light beacons to stop the 'sewer swarm' from attacking you. Lighting one beacon after the next before the previous one goes out in 10 seconds. While proceeding through the level you also have to find stuff. Btw, the sewer swarm isn't there to give you XP or gold. It's there to slap you around for not being fast enough. There are also battles at the end. So if you get into too many battles the bosses will eat you alive. Literally. Before I gave the characters enough money to buy magical rings. Each one to make up the shortcomings of each character. But they were still wearing the same old shoes they started the game with. So I thought maybe I should give them some footwear before they start accessorizing. Boring old footwear that gives a few points of armor? No. These are gonna be magical too! Much like the rings, each type is made for a different character. So if you get stuck and don't have the right person wearing the right shoes you won't be able to get past that obstacle until you do. Meanwhile, time is ticking away and the sewer swarm is right on your heels. So does this sound doable or Difficulty Level: Impossible?

 

[Wavelength]

It's hard to say how 'difficult' this would be just from the sound of it - it largely depends on the layout of the dungeon and how much 'slack' there is for inefficient movement (e.g. ten seconds of waste will get you killed vs. two minutes of waste will get you killed), as well as how easily the second round of sewer swarm will catch the player if they fend off the first.

But I think it's a bad idea to also combine a dungeon like this with obstacles that must be passed but cannot be passed unless the player has (and puts on) a certain equip - this will distract the player if they have the equip, and frustrate them greatly if they don't.

Unless, that is, the obstacles are shortcuts that save the player time, whereas the dungeon can still be completed without having the necessary equips for the obstacles (e.g. the player can take a less efficient route around the obstacle). That would actually be really cool.

Finally - always remember what your goal is as a designer. If your game is about frequent, action-packed pressure situations like this, such a mechanic will go over a lot better with players who have been enjoying your game up to this point than if your game is a standard, relatively slow-paced and cerebral RPG. Nothing is worse than getting Game Over'd over and over by a gimmick when the rest of the game has been going swimmingly.

 

[Reapergurl]

Sounds like a blast to me.

 

[Tanarex]

@ wavelength The dungeon itself is only 30 by 30. So not too big. The timer also stops when you find clues. And restarts afterward. The timer remains off if you get attacked by the sewer swarm. When the battle is over it restarts. So you have 10 seconds to light a beacon. Even the last beacon you lit. Which becomes unlit if you are attacked. But you can't light an already lit beacon to restart a timer.
I always advise what they should buy if they want to live. Although some people run past the one guy I tell them can give them information several times. The characters themselves tell you what they will need for an upcoming fight. And the old man which would give them more cryptic clues some people didn't even talk to. And the one guy that would point them to the old man, they didn't talk to him either. So I decided to have light bulb icons over their head whenever they had new information.
The obstacles aren't shortcuts. The dungeon is too small for that. And no one has ever accused me of being really cool. So no worries there. But I do give them cryptic clues on who should wear what footwear. If they can put two and two together. In more ways than one.
I did have some reviewers play my game and didn't seem to have trouble with it. I even got a 'Your game is OK.' Along with more enthusiastic responses. But that was before I made the sewer level.
@Reapergurl It's nice to know I have at least one fan.

 

[Reapergurl]

@Tanarex I enjoy these kinds of challenges as long as they're not purposely made for Rage Quit inducing (I've seen quite a few).

 

[Wavelength]

30x30 sounds like a reasonable size if the passageways are just a couple tiles apart from each other (and if they are wide and sweeping, you could even manage to go bigger safely). And I would have to play the game to know for sure, but I still feel the same way I did yesterday - that it's probably not doing your game favors to have this tense action mechanic be punctuated and possibly broken by the "you need certain equipment to get past this obstacle"-type checks. That kind of thing usually belongs in a more standard, relaxed dungeon. Do you have any other places in your game where this type of check pops up in the middle of a very tense scene or a sequence where the player needs to build a sense of flow? Have any of your playtesters commented specifically on that mechanic? (Just because they liked your game as a whole doesn't mean that they liked everything about it.)