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What does a good game consist of? (part 18)

Good Difficulty

Before we dive into the main subject, I want to remind you I'm still on a mission to make a definition of what makes a game a 100% classic.

One of the main problems with games is difficulty curve. Which leads to very steep learning curve.

The curves are in relation between each other.

Let me make a couple examples of the difficulty and learning curves:
-Painkiller: good difficulty four settings, but the game relies on finding secrets, which can take months to solve, and it kills the tempo in the game
 -Unreal Tournament: like many other games, there is a high jump in the difficulty-earlier levels are easily beatable until you reach a level which you can't beat for half a year plus(literally)


I think I have to say I prefer a learning line instead of a curve. Same goes for difficulty. Why?
Because an exponential curve is the opposite of a well-balanced game.

So what's the solution? In my opinion as constant as possible line, not too flat nor too steep.

A couple of examples of how the solution would be implemented:
-explanation of some sorts which gives you advice of what to do and what is required to finish a certain challenge
-a written comprehensive manual: because you can read and play on full screen at the same time
-many difficulty settings(preferably 10): for all kinds of players

Difficulty is an essential part of the game,  so treat it as so. I don't precisely know how to make a ideal/optimal difficulty curve or a line. On the other hand, the learning curve/line is similar to the difficulty one but much harder to draw. And as we said, good games are made for learning, so the second or learning line is important too. So makes sure when doing the game math, you consider making a good game difficulty line, even if you can't draw the learning one.
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