Developer intention can often come at the expense of accessibility and player preference. In this video, I look at some recent games that have found a middle ground.

Disclosure: Celeste Switch code was provided by the game's developer

Support Game Maker's Toolkit on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GameMakersToolkit

Have Mark talk at your studio, university, or event - https://gamemakerstoolkit.tumblr.com

Sources

Let’s Talk About the Corpse in the Room | Darkest Dungeon
http://www.darkestdungeon.com/lets-talk-about-the-corpse-in-the-room/

Heat Signature’s Fair Points Update | Pentadact
https://www.pentadact.com/2017-11-22-heat-signatures-fair-points-update-reacting-to-good-reviews/

Frictional on designing SOMA's new monster-free Safe Mode | PC Gamer
https://www.pcgamer.com/frictional-on-designing-somas-new-monster-free-safe-mode/

Why The Very Hard 'Celeste' is Perfectly Fine With You Breaking Its Rules | Waypoint
https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/d3w887/celeste-difficulty-assist-mode

Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance)

Dark Souls (From Software, 2011)
Dead Rising (Capcom, 2006)
Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal, 2008)
The Swindle (Size Five Games, 2015)
Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios, 2016)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Ninja Theory, 2017)
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog, 2016)
LA Noire (Team Bondi, 2011)
Rayman Origins (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2011)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games, 2017)
Super Meat Boy (Team Meat, 2010)
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios, 2016)
Celeste (Matt Makes Games, 2018)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (Neversoft, 2001)
Duke Nukem 3D (3D Realms, 1996)
Shadow Warrior (3D Realms, 1997)
XCOM 2 (Firaxis, 2016)
Soma (Frictional Games, 2015)
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Nicalis / Edmund McMillen, 2014)
Metroid (Nintendo, 1986)
Heat Signature (Suspicious Developments, 2017)
Subnautica (Unknown Worlds Entertainment, 2018)
Fire Emblem Awakening (Intelligent Systems, 2012)
BUTCHER (Transhuman Design, 2016)
Cuphead (Studio MDHR, 2017)
Wolfenstein: The New Order (MachineGames, 2014)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 2017)
Invisible, Inc. (Klei Entertainment, 2015)
Nioh (Team Ninja, 2017)

Music used in this episode

First Steps (Celeste OST)
Checking In (Celeste OST)
The Hamlet (Darkest Dungeon OST)
The Other Side (Heat Signature OST)
Reach for the Summit (Celeste OST)
Heart of the Mountain (Celeste OST)
First Steps (Celeste OST)
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