Games should have an easy mode

For the same reason that no boxer starting out challenges Mike Tyson as their first opponent.

Any game with one difficulty isn't throwing you against Mike Tyson lmao

Even Punch-Out starts you out against easier opponents to get you to learn the gameplay.

Threads like these have made me lock in on designing my easy modes and options to be as ridiculously OP and accessible as possible. I'm talking "use this unlimited use item you start the game with and every enemy within 50ft dies, every door nearby unlocks, every puzzle is immediately solved, etc".

It's the perfect solution. People with self control won't use the item. People without it will use it as much as they want and then have no one but themselves to blame if they don't like the results. I won't have to waste time balancing multiple difficulty levels or coming up with easy mode solutions for puzzles or whatever and can just focus 100% of my efforts on making the thing I want to make. Don't like the thing? Can't figure out the thing? Skip the thing, risk free, easy, no punishment.

Games should have a "Welcome Back!" mode where, no matter how far in the game you are, those text bubbles that usually pop up explaining the controls and mechanics during the tutorial come back for a bit if it's been more than a couple of months since you last played.

Agreed.. I just want to have fun and not worry about dying

A proper tutorial is more important. I like how the Souls series tackle those, especially Dark Souls 3.

DementedDurian posted...

A proper tutorial is more important. I like how the Souls series tackle those, especially Dark Souls 3.

Some of the older Tomb Raider games did it right IMO. You could go to Lara's house from the title screen. It had a gymnasium set up with all sorts of different jumps you might run across during the game.

DementedDurian posted...

A proper tutorial is more important. I like how the Souls series tackle those, especially Dark Souls 3.

I feel like DS1's tutorial stands head and shoulders above pretty much every other tutorial except maybe Elden Ring.

But even ER doesn't give you that primal dopamine hit when you drop down onto the beast that's probably killed you several times already

TomClark posted...

Games should have a "Welcome Back!" mode where, no matter how far in the game you are, those text bubbles that usually pop up explaining the controls and mechanics during the tutorial come back for a bit if it's been more than a couple of months since you last played.

this would actually be pretty sweet, as long as there's some button to auto-skip all of them if you happen to remember well enough