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   PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷 (psychicparrot42@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Wednesday, 20-Nov-2024 23:40:21 JST PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷

   Had a bit of an epiphany this morning about how Bezerk goads you into working harder. I used to think the game was just about clearing rooms, but it's not. I mean, sure, if you *can* clear the room you'll get more score.. but the taunting from the bots is about making you feel bad if you don't clear the room.. and clearing the room is 10x harder than just wiping out a few bots and getting out of there. It's a brilliant little twist that's leading me to more tweaking of my Berzerkalike.

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     The Seven Voyages Of Steve (sinbad@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Wednesday, 20-Nov-2024 23:40:19 JST The Seven Voyages Of Steve

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     @psychicparrot42 It's interesting that a lot of modern roguelites like Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon, minus the powerups are basically Berserk but they force you to clear each room before you're allowed to continue. I think it's actually more interesting to incentivise you to clear a room (or perhaps punish you for not doing it, e.g. when you have to re-traverse the room maybe it's harder if you left things alive) but ultimately giving you the choice

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     PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷 (psychicparrot42@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Wednesday, 20-Nov-2024 23:40:20 JST PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷

     in reply to

     I don’t know how many people realized this right away or whatever, but I feel like I’ve been missing this really important thing all along.. so yeah, more tweaking for my game this week! It needs just a bit of subtle difficulty tweaking to replicate this better, but I think it’ll make a big difference and present more apparent ‘score paths’ you can take.

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     PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷 (psychicparrot42@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Thursday, 21-Nov-2024 00:12:57 JST PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷

     in reply to

     • The Seven Voyages Of Steve

     @sinbad Yeah it's like locking in for a wave shooter. You fight for a guaranteed reward at the end of each room - loot or whatever. You're locked into this faster loop of quick play followed by reward. In Berzerk, the reward for clearing is there, it's extra points, BUT I think the option to run means your personality comes into play over the game flow: Instant reward, revenge on mouthy bots, or no instant reward for a longer game? Makes for a different vibe, for sure.

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     PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷 (psychicparrot42@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Thursday, 21-Nov-2024 00:19:27 JST PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷

     in reply to

     • The Seven Voyages Of Steve

     @sinbad I'm being a little bit evil by having collectible pickups (documents) in random places in each room, too, to encourage players to stick around. They're essentially just score bonuses but it's there to manipulate people into moving around the whole screen. The best option is to ignore them and keep running, but again that personality test comes into play whenever you enter a room: Risk it for the points, or be taunted by the game for choosing the easier option? 👹