Babbling at the Counter #83 – Video Games
To Live, or not to Live
Playing Meowgical Tower, I found myself in a strange position. It happened on Full Moon Rising, too. Sometimes, I wanted to kill my character. Not metaphorically, no. It's just that, after dying, you just pop back in the same screen and with full health. So, tactically speaking, why would I try to kill enemies without taking damage?
It was far easier to just let them hit me, as there were never enough of them to kill me before I killed them all. And that took away all the challenge from the experience.
Quick aside: The final boss is fun and challenging, so play the game at least to fight him.
And talking about the boss, why was he so good? Well, because he could kill you in a single screen, thus stalling your progress.
So, in conclusion, what I wanted to say to everyone working on their own games: Make sure dying is something we DON'T want to do. Make us restart a few screens behind (so we have to be careful as we replay), use checkpoints, make every screen potentially deadly, or just punish us in some way.
I know the rationale is “players are going to keep replaying until they get it right anyway”. Yes, but make sure “getting it right” is a challenge. If not, your “game” is more or less a sight seeing tour of the levels. And that's pretty boring.
- The Storeman