The first developer diary for Lords of the Fallen is out and the highlight is how to balance challenge and fun so as to avoid frustration. It’s a very delicate balance and a goal every developer must wrestle with on their own.
I was actually pretty down on the game early on as a fan of the Dark Souls approach, I’m a masochist and Lords of the Fallen prides itself on not punishing players for mistakes. However, while it is generously forgiving Lords of the Fallen is not necessarily going to be an easy game. Seeing the developers speak of their efforts to balance fun and frustration really helped improve this Souls fan’s outlook on the game. It shows they want to put the effort into balancing mechanics instead of settling for making a cool looking hack and slash that’s a simple faceroll or Square Square Triangle fest.
It’s also nice to hear that special care is being taken to the leveling. The grind is one of those divisive issues in these types of games, some people love it and become addicted (see every MMO in history) while others absolutely hate it. Providing several options to modify pacing is extremely important here and again we see Deck13 at very least paying good lip service to the idea.
The video ends with the ideas behind the story. Their goal is to play up the dual nature of our hero: He’s simultaneously the world’s biggest criminal and its greatest hope. They go on about illustrating it by exploring both the human and demon realms to show exactly why this is the case. If anything it seems there’s good synergy between game play, setting, and what Deck13 wants to accomplish in their telling of Lords of the Fallen‘s story.
It’s a good watch for an interesting game so feel free to check out the developer’s diary for yourself:
