What Makes Celeste's Assist Mode Special | Game Maker's Toolkit

There are two things about games that I firmly
believe

One.

Designers should be able to impose a singular
vision on the player, if they so wish.

So, Dark Souls only needs one difficulty mode.

Dead Rising can put the entire game on a restrictive
time limit.

And weapons can randomly jam in a game I shouldn’t
talk about anymore.

Decisions like these might be controversial,
but if they’re an integral part of the experience

that the developer is trying to create - then
the player shouldn’t feel like they’re

entitled to be able to mess with this stuff
through options, modes, and toggles.

Because that would screw with the developer’s
intentions, and could end up ruining the game

in the long run.

Those decisions were made for a reason, after
all.

Okay. Two.

Players should be able to play games however
they want.

Whether the player has a disability.

Or they’re just not very good at the game.

Or they want to focus on the story.

Or perhaps they find one specific part of
the game unenjoyable, like action segments

or timers, and it’s ruining their experience
with the rest of the game.

I think they they should be able to skip boss
fights, turn off entire mechanics, and lower

the difficulty to whatever level they so desire.

I don’t care, it doesn’t affect my enjoyment,
do what you want.

And. Yeah.

They’re not exactly the most compatible
opinions.

And it means I’ve struggled with conversations
like, “Should Dark Souls have an Easy Mode”.

I’m in favour of giving people more ways
to play if they need them, but I also worry

that these options will lead to confusion
about what is the proper way to play - and

inadvertently lead people away from having
the best possible experience, that the designers

have tried to put forward.

But here’s what I’ve come to realise.

And this is something I briefly touched on
in that Dark Souls video, but have come to

better understand through games that have
been released in the intervening months.

I think it comes down to communication.

I don’t care how people play these games
- as long as they understand what they’re playing.

Understanding that there is this proper, intended
way to play a game that the designers have

carefully created - and other, alternative
modes, if people really want to play that way.

Now, throughout my childhood, this came in
the form of cheat codes.

If you wanted to just mess around in Duke
Nukem 3D without worrying about dying you’d

simply type in dncornholio to turn on invincibility
and give yourself an infinite jet pack.

There was no misunderstanding about what was
happening here.

This was cheating, and it was definitely not
the right way to play.

But as a stupid 8 year old kid, god mode let
me experience loads of first person shooters

for myself.

Same goes for user made mods, like the one
that removes turn timers from XCOM 2, or the

wuss mode mod for horror game SOMA which stops
enemies from being able to see you.

It’s up to you if you install these things,
and as they’re third party modifications

you’re under no illusions that you’re
messing with the intentions of the dev.

But cheat codes don’t seem to exist anymore
and were always hidden away in magazines and

schoolyard rumours.

And mods are largely exclusive to PC gamers,
and exist outside of the game itself.

But in the last few years, we’re seeing
a growing trend of games where this sort of

stuff appears inside the games.

Developers are introducing things that fundamentally
change the experience and might completely

go against the whole point of the game, but
are being very careful to communicate their

intentions for who should use these options,
and why.

I first saw this crop up in Darkest Dungeon:
a game that is purposefully punishing and

sometimes completely unfair.

Now this game was released in Early Access,
meaning that people could buy the game on

Steam while it was in an unfinished state,
and watch as the developers tweaked the balance

and introduced new features.

Not every feature was well received, though:
most notably the corpse system where dead

enemies stick around for a few turns, or until
you destroy their body.

Something that can be pretty frustrating,
when you can’t target an enemy because a

corpse is in the way.

Now developer Red Hook Studios thought it
was the right move for the game, but some

vocal fans disagreed.

And in the end, the studio decided to make
corpses optional.

In a blog post on the matter, the developers
said:

“We have been reluctant to add difficulty
related options until now because focusing

on our intended version of the game has been
our number one priority and our experiments

and changes during Early Access have all been
in support of iterating on that.”

“But it would be foolish for us to not consider
the fact that the Darkest Dungeon community

is now big enough to include diverse groups,
some of which would like to play the game

differently than we might have envisioned”

But what really stuck out to me, is how they
implemented those options.

Because to turn off corpses, and make other
gameplay changes like making it so retreating

from combat never fails, you have to go into
the options and turn on a specific mode called

“Darkest Dungeon Config”.

And when opening this menu, you’ll see a
pop up that specifically states “gameplay

settings as intended to be played.

Turning this OFF allows you to toggle the
gameplay features below”.

So by burying these options in a menu, and
explaining to the player that this will change

the intended experience - Darkest Dungeon
communicates to the player that this isn’t

the game as it’s meant to be played.

But ultimately, it’s your call.

To me, this feels very different to turning
on a game and having the absolute first thing

you see be a bunch of different modes that
can fundamentally change how the game plays.

That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, but
it can be weird.

Like, how Fire Emblem Awakening gives you
the option to turn off one of the key aspects

of the franchise: permadeath, before you’ve
even started playing.

In comparison, here’s how Tom Francis dealt
with permadeath in his game, Heat Signature.

So, initially he was reluctant to get rid
of it, saying “I’m not gonna completely

remove permadeath, it would be a totally different
game, and one that generates less interesting

stories overall.”

But then said “maybe that’s not the right
question.

It’s not: would the game be better without
permadeath?

It’s: can we help the players who hate it?”.

And so he made it optional in the game’s
first major update.

But, like Darkest Dungeon, he buried it in
the options and explained its purpose with

a clear label that reads “we don’t recommend
doing this unless permadeath is really spoiling

the game for you - it leads to less interesting
stories and less variety.”

Tom says it was important to explain that
this not a normal option, because “I don’t

want players to feel like they’re being
asked to design how the game should work.”

Oh. I like that. That’s a good way to put it. I should steal that.

Another interesting solution came from SOMA
developer Frictional who were inspired by

that wuss mode mod, which makes the player
invisible to enemies, and turned it into an

official part of the game.

The in-game mode has slightly different enemy
behaviours - they notice you, but they don’t

hurt you - and it’s now called Safe Mode.

Language is important, after all.

More on that in a bit

Frictional’s Thomas Grip says he actually
considered releasing this sort of mode at

launch, but chose not to, telling PC Gamer,
“we skipped it because we wanted to focus

on delivering a certain kind of experience.

And we wanted to have a clear message on how
exactly the game was supposed to work.”

Specifically, the underwater world of SOMA
needed to feel oppressive and scary, as you

sneak past nightmare robot monsters who want
to eat your face for breakfast.

But the popularity of wuss mode was proof
that some people really wanted to experience

SOMA’s impactful storyline, but just couldn’t
deal with the stressful game mechanics.

And this gave Frictional the push to make
the mode official.

The interesting part here, though, is the
timing.

Safe Mode was added two years after the launch
of the game.

Thomas says: “Releasing Safe Mode this late
after release feels better, because we’ve

had time to ponder various aspects of the
game’s design to make it clear what kind

of experience it is.

If we did this at the time, it might have
muddied the waters.”

So, releasing options like this as a follow-up,
instead of at launch, can help explain that

they’re not supposed to be part of the main
experience.

If you don’t want to wait, another option
might be releasing an easy mode as free downloadable

content which happened with a game called
BUTCHER.

Once again, creating a disconnect from the
main game helps communicate intentions.

But the game that really spurred me on to
make this video, due to the care and consideration

of its optional mode, was Celeste.

This is a brilliant platforming game, full
of charm and character, with top notch controls

and great level design.

And it’s also hard.

Like really hard.

And you can make the game even harder with
collectible strawberries, and secret B-side

and C-side levels.

Challenge is the whole point of the game,
both mechanically and narratively.

But if you’re finding the game too tough,
there’s this: assist mode.

In here you can completely alter the game,
changing the speed, giving yourself infinite

air dashes, making Madeline invincible, and
so on.

One of the game’s developers, Matt Thorson
told Waypoint:

“From my perspective as the game's designer,
Assist Mode breaks the game.

I spent many hours fine-tuning the difficulty
of Celeste, so it's easy for me to feel precious

about my designs.

But ultimately, we want to empower the player
and give them a good experience, and sometimes

that means letting go.”

Now the mode was inspired by the, uh, conversation
surrounding Cuphead: a brutally tough run’n’gun

boss rush game inspired by rock hard Mega
Drive titles from the 90s.

And Cuphead does offer help for newer players,
in a Simple Mode, but the execution is pretty poor.

It pops up before every fight, right next
to normal mode, and doesn’t really explain

what it does.

The mode removes entire phases from boss battles,
meaning you don’t get to see all the amazing

animations on offer.

And beating a boss on simple mode doesn’t
actually count the fight as a win, meaning

you can’t fight the final boss and see the
game’s ending if you don’t finish every

level on normal mode.

It’s not great.

And Celeste’s assist mode is different in
just about every way.

For one, you can play the entire game in assist
mode if you want.

Nothing is kept away.

Not even achievements which I’m not entirely
sure about, but hey.

Who cares about achievements anymore.

Two, it’s up to the player exactly how they
change things.

You’re given very granular options.

You can slow the game down by 10 percent if
your reaction times aren’t quite what they

used to be.

Or you can skip entire chapters if they’re
not for you.

Three, the name.

At one point it was going to be called cheat
mode, but the devs thought that felt judgemental.

They’re Canadian.

But, I mean, you never know why someone wants
to pick an easier setting, so calling it stupid

idiot baby mode or something is a bit of a
dick move.

Instead they went with Assist Mode.

And, shortly after picking the name, Super
Mario Odyssey came out, which has a mode with

the exact same name, and made the Celeste
team feel like they made the right decision.

Assist Mode in Mario, by the way, is pretty
awesome, too, because it let my four year

old nephew complete Odyssey all by himself.

Uh, anyway, back to Celeste.

Four.

The game’s developers explain the intentions
of assist mode with great care and attention,

before they let you turn it on.

Here’s what they say:

“Assist Mode allows you to modify the game’s
rules to reduce its difficulty.

Celeste was designed to be a challenging but
accessible game.

We believe that its difficulty is essential
to the experience.

We recommend playing without Assist mode your
first time.”

“However, we understand that every player
is different.

If Celeste is inaccessible to you due to its
difficulty, we hope that Assist Mode will

allow you to still enjoy it.”

This left me with no confusion about how Celeste
works.

Assist Mode is not for me.

It might as well not exist, as far as I’m
concerned, and I never used it when I played

and finished the game.

This isn’t an easy mode, that I might switch
down to if the game’s kicking my butt.

It’s an assist mode, that’s just there
for those who really feel they need it.

Now some games are, of course, completely
open about letting you change the game in

any way you desire.

That can be a developer’s vision, too, after
all.

But some games are just better served by a
more strict vision for how the game should

be experienced.

But that doesn’t mean we need to make these
games inaccessible to certain people, or completely

rule out the option of letting players customise
or turn off certain aspects of the game.

It’s just - to me - all about communication.

To make sure you’re not presenting options
that go against your vision, with the exact

same weight as the ones you actually want
people to use.

But instead, using language, placement, and
timing to make sure everyone understands what

these additional modes are all about.

You’re giving people options if they need
them, but you’re not asking them to design

how the game should work.

I just made that up. I’m very clever.

So I do believe that game designers have a
duty to protect players from themselves, by

not letting them turn off the more prickly
mechanics.

But I guess I also believe that if designers
give players good information, like the creators

of Celeste and Heat Signature did, then they
should also trust that players will make the

right decisions for how they want to play.

That’s where I’m at with this debate.

Let me know what you think in the comments
below.

Hey, cheers for watching.

I’m going to do a rapid fire FAQ right now, okay?

1) Will you do another Game Jam this year?

Yes!

Ours was the biggest jam on itch.io in 2017,
and I can’t wait to do another one.

It will probably happen late summer, early
autumn.

2) When is Boss Keys coming back?

You should hear about that in May, is my current
plan.

3) When do you stream?

I stream every Wednesday at 8PM GMT, here
on YouTube.

4) Do you have a Discord?

Yes, but it’s only for Patrons.

5) Do you make games?

No, my background is in games journalism.

I’d maybe like to make a game one day but
right now I’m super focused on the channel.

Okay, thanks! See ya!