WEBVTT

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Hi, this is Mark Brown with Game Maker's Toolkit,
a series on video game design.

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Resident Evil 4 does something really clever.

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I mean, that's an understatement: the game's
a masterpiece. But I'm talking specifically

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about the way the game dynamically shifts
its level of difficulty to meet your skill

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level.

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Perform well at the game, by avoiding attacks
and shooting accurately, and the game will

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get harder as enemies do more damage and become
more aggressive. But if you suck, and keep

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dying or just keep getting hurt, the game
will ease off and the Ganados will go down

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more easily, and wait around longer to get
shot before rushing at you.

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Also, the contents of the crates and barrels
shift from being generous to being stingy

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as you become more skilled. And, sometimes,
enemies will completely disappear from existence

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if you're really struggling.

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Here I've been playing really well...

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...and I enter the notorious 'water room',
and get set upon by nine cultists - seven

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on the ground, and two crossbow snipers up
high. But then I die a few times and

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suddenly, the snipers are gone, making this
room slightly easier to tackle.

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Because the game keeps pace with your own
skill as a player, Resident Evil 4 helps you

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slip into a zone that psychologists and game
designers call "flow", which is the fabled

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middle ground between a game being so easy
it leaves you bored, and so hard it makes

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you anxious or frustrated.

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While the gradually rising difficulty curve
of most linear video games will try and keep

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players in that flow state, it can't account
for every type of gamer. And if the player

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picks the wrong difficulty option at the start,
they may instantly rob themselves of a satisfying

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experience.

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That's the advantage of a dynamic difficulty
setting, which constantly corrects itself

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to provide an experience that challenges the
player, without overwhelming them. And it

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stops them from getting stuck in a rut, but
it doesn't let them waltz through the game

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either.

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This is, however, not the most clever thing
about Resident Evil 4's dynamic difficulty.

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The smartest thing is that many gamers watching
this video right now are saying to themselves

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"Wow! I didn't even know the game did that!"

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And that may be the point. Capcom never officially
stated that the game altered its own difficulty.

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It's not an option in the menu, and it's not
in the manual. It wasn't in a trailer or a

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bullet point in a press release, and designer
Shinji Mikami - who would later turn this

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system into an entire game in the brilliant
PS2 brawler God Hand - didn't gab about it

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in interviews.

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The only real source for the feature's existence,
other than the experiences of Resident Evil

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obsessives, is from an official strategy guide
that came out almost a year after the game.

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You see, a number of games offer to help out
if you're struggling, like the Super Kong

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in Donkey Kong Country Returns, which clears
a tricky level for you if you fail too many

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times.

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But many hardcore players are too proud to
accept the helping hand, and would rather

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beat their head against the wall in frustration
than suffer the indignity of getting a free

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pass.

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Especially when the game actually mocks you
for reducing the difficulty. If you die too

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often in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5,
you'll be given the option to wear a goofy

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chicken hat, which reduces the challenge but
makes Snake look like a complete burk.

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However, by making the effects subtle and
not advertising them to the world like it

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did with Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles,
Resident Evil 4 gives players all the advantages

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of dynamic difficulty adjustment without making
them feel patronised.

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Plus, if they don't know about it, players
can't game the system by intentionally killing

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or injuring themselves to drop the difficulty
setting, which is exactly what speed runners

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do.

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Here's a top Resi 4 speed runner, Robert 'Sunblade'
Brandl, getting hit on the ski lift and purposefully

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failing QTEs, to reduce the difficulty and
therefore make certain sections easier to

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dash through.

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Resident Evil 4 did not invent the idea of
a sliding difficulty scale, of course. NES

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and arcade shmups like Zanac and Xevious were
doing it back in the eighties, and Remedy

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applied the idea to a third person shooter
in Max Payne, a few years before Capcom had

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the chance.

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Left 4 Dead made particularly good use of
dynamic difficulty, to modulate dramatic tension.

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Here's Valve's Guatam Babbar on the subject:

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"We created a system that tracks each survivor's
stress level by watching for events like 'how

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much damage are you taking?', 'how many zombies
have you killed near you?', and so on."

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"If a survivor's stress level gets too high,
the system will step in and forcibly throttle

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back the zombie population system to make
sure the team gets a break every now and then".

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Kid Icarus Uprising and Super Smash Bros have
an interesting system where you essentially

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place a bet on the difficulty level you think
you'll finish the stage at. If you succeed

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- you get a big payout. But if you fail - you
lose a bunch of your stuff and get knocked

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down to an easier difficulty level, until
you can beat the game.

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And Flow, which is named after that psychological
zone, lets you manually moderate your level

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of difficulty, by choosing when to delve into
deeper waters - by chomping on a red organism

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- and when to retreat to safety my munching
on a blue one. It's a bit like deciding whether

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or not to grind for a while in a RPG.

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But the number of games with dynamic difficulty
adjustment is pretty small, and most of them

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advertise it to the world, like SiN Episodes,
which made a big song and dance of its 'Personal

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Challenge System' right there on the Steam
description.

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But I think this is something that game designers
should keep on the down low. Don't make it

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a press release or a blog post. Keep it a
secret.

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You want to let players reap the benefits
of a sliding difficulty scale, that keeps

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perfect pace with their skill level and helps
remove areas of boredom or frustration. But

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you also want to avoid the drawbacks, of hardcore
gamers getting cranky, and others spoiling

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their own experience by cheating the system.

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And yes, I do realise that there may be many
games that use this system but have done it

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*so* subtly that no one has actually noticed.
In which case, bravo mysterious game developers.

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Thanks for watching! Think you've spotted
a game with a secret sliding difficulty scale?

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Whack it in the comments below. Plus, please
like the episode, subscribe to the channel,

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and consider supporting me on Patreon.