Devlog 5-10-20: Forgiveness and Boss Fights!

Hello Everyone!

Another devlog coming in HOT. I worked on some really exciting stuff over the past few weeks. Strap in for a long devlog: This one's a lot more blog-posty in nature.

Forgiveness and Frustration

Last weekend I was playing Bloodborne, and I remember once screaming at my TV during a particularly tough boss: "Wow that oneshots you! What a shit developer!". Upon dying, I lost all of my in-game currency (called Blood Echoes), and stopped playing for the day.

At least in my game, I have the option of nerfing the boss every time I die

I love Bloodborne, but I decided to try and understand why I was so mad. I concluded the following:

A game will typically make players frustrated if:

• Mistakes are common AND punishment is severe
• Mistakes manifest themselves visibly AND mistakes are persistent.

If you lose half of your health but heal it back in a second, you're unlikely to get frustrated (mistakes are visible BUT mistakes are not persistent). Similarly, if making a mistake just means you lose 1 health out of 1000 health, you probably won't even notice your mistakes (mistakes are common BUT punishment is not severe).

So just don't kill the player in one hit! Easy, right?

The last thing that told me something was wrong in Dreams of Dark was the following playtester behavior:

After many deaths to a boss, the playtester would frequently restart the entire fight if they got hit even a single time at the start of the fight. In their mind, getting hit at the start of the fight meant that "that attempt was a bust", because the fight has only just started and they're already at a disadvantage.

This is a case where the mistake is common, visible, permanent, but not severe. When you get hit in this game, you only lose 1 HP. However, you get hit a lot, and there's no way to heal yourself.

Until now!

Grey Health

Once you learn how to "reflect", you will have the ability to heal yourself under certain conditions.

When you take damage, the health you just lost will flash for a few seconds. If you reflect any attacks while your health is flashing grey, you will receive a small heal.

This allows players to top off their health if they take damage early on in a fight provided they can reflect an attack shortly after taking damage.

Keep an eye on the top left of the screen

This should make boss fights and enemy fights significantly less frustrating. I'm also considering an "Easy Mode" where reflection will always heal the player, regardless of grey health.

Another feature I've created in favor of 'forgiveness' is...

Reflect Hitboxes

Previously, to reflect an attack, you would need to press "reflect" while in the hitbox of the attack. This means that if an attack narrowly misses you and you press reflect, you would be punished. While this is technically fair, it feels awful to prepare your reflect only to have the attack miss you, putting your reflect on cooldown. It also meant that the timing on your reflect needed to be REALLY REALLY precise.

With the introduction of separate "reflect" hitboxes, I can make attacks easier to reflect without changing their damage hitbox. I think the above two features will greatly reduce frustration for new players.

New Content

I've finished the first boss of the game! I'm gonna hold off on showing the boss's new attacks, as I'd like to avoid spoiling them. Just know that I've given the boss a devastating "Desperation Attack" that the boss only uses when it's low on health.

Also, here's a preview of the new "Boss Finisher" animation:

Closing Thoughts

This game is taking a long time, but that's OK. I think it's important to avoid rushing out content; I want to make sure this game represents the best piece of content I can produce at my current skill level.

The first area is starting to get closer and closer to being finished, at which point I'll send the game out to tons of folks for feedback. I'm considering creating a "Combat Showcase" demo to put on the web so people can just try attacking/reflecting, but that's further down on my to-do list.

Anyway, thanks for listening!

Abhi