How to make a hardcore gaming experience

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Hardcore is more than just difficulty.

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Many players are familiar with the concept of a "hardcore game," but they don't always understand how it is embodied in game design and what tools are used to achieve this effect. Let's discuss how a game designer can design a hardcore gaming experience and what patterns and techniques can be utilized. In other words, let's examine the "design pattern for a hardcore gaming experience."

A **design pattern** is a general, frequently used solution to a commonly encountered problem in a given design context.

We will focus solely on the aspects of game design, excluding visual style, plot, music, and other game components.

The article is structured as follows:

1. Criteria for the pattern in designing a hardcore experience
2. Components of a hardcore experience and ways to apply the pattern
3. Conclusion

# 1. Pattern Criteria:

* **Universality** \- this pattern should be applicable to any type of game, regardless of the genre, style, or other elements.
* **Autonomy** \- this pattern should not depend on unknown or dynamic variables such as a player's skill.
* **Applicability** \- this pattern should have practical feasibility within the game development framework.

# 2. Components of a Hardcore Experience

**Entry Threshold**

* **RulesVolume**: the number of game rules that a player needs to grasp to understand what is happening.

**Cognitive Load**

* **CountOfDecision**: the number of available decisions or actions a player can make per turn or unit of time.
* **TimeRate**: the interval between a player's decisions, or in other words, the speed of the gameplay.
* **DecisionCost**: the ratio of the cost of making a mistake (loss of progress) for a player's action to the player's progress in the case of a correct decision.

**Randomness**

* **Random**: the factor of randomness and unpredictability of events in the game.

Any of these components of this formula may be absent in your game, depending on the game type.

So, what does a hardcore experience entail?

Hardcoreness is a special balance of these elements in the game to create a gaming experience that requires players to dedicate a significant amount of time to the rules, stay highly focused on the gameplay, make timely decisions, and punishes them for mistakes while also having a high level of unpredictability.

# 2. Methods of Creating a Hardcore Experience

>The author does not claim to be the ultimate authority but shares their perspective on game design for hardcore games, which, in their view, should be adhered to in order to achieve an engaging yet fair hardcore player experience.

The author also acknowledges that there might be enthusiasts for games with broken or unfair balance, such as "gacha" games. However, they strongly recommend considering game design with the average gaming audience in mind rather than catering solely to the "gifted."

**Disclaimer**

The sense of hardcore is achieved through a balance of the factors mentioned above. In general, the following methods for increasing the hardcore nature of a game can be described:

* Raise the entry threshold (e.g., EVE Online).
* Increase the cognitive load on the player (e.g., Dota).
* Make the player pay for their mistakes (e.g., Rogue).
* Introduce unpredictability into the game (e.g., Darkest Dungeon).

**2.1 Raise the Entry Threshold**

When creating games with a high level of complexity, a multitude of in-game rules and mechanics take center stage. However, it's not always apparent that an essential component of this experience is educating players right within the game. To reduce the entry barrier and not deter potential players, it's important to skillfully integrate educational elements for beginners.

**Craft Your First-Time User Experience (**[FTUE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-time_user_experience)**)**

To ensure that players spend enough time preparing for the core gaming experience, it's crucial to provide a gradual and systematic introduction, rather than throwing them into an ocean of information from the very beginning.

*For example, in the game Path of Exile, a novice is likely to make mistakes when choosing their first character build due to the vast number of classes and options. To avoid this issue, the player will need to invest a lot of time in studying materials before starting the game to avoid obvious mistakes.*

**Let Players Get a Feel for the Game**

A proper game design would imply that players are provided with content either gradually or are allowed to try out each of the builds in test runs so that they understand what experience they can expect and what combinations they can develop overall.

In this regard, the game Overwatch serves as a good example. Here, players can easily familiarize themselves with different heroes in test conditions without risking their main game progress. This allows players to better understand their preferences and choose the optimal path of development.

An analogy can be drawn with the education of students. The ideal approach involves introducing students to basic knowledge first and then providing them with challenging tasks. Throwing them directly into deep mathematical intricacies without preparation often only discourages their interest in the learning process.

**2.2 Increase Cognitive Load**

Someone might say that creating a bullet hell on the screen is enough, and there you have cognitive load on the player with a frantic pace. But it's not that simple.

**Important and Less Important Decisions**

Make the player handle a large number of tasks within a limited time and require them to make decisions quickly. However, the key point is the sequential presentation of tasks of varying degrees of complexity and danger. This way, the player will truly feel that their mind is not working in vain and that they are genuinely forced to take important steps necessary to achieve the game's objectives.

**Don't Forget About Rest**

The brain, like any other organ, needs breaks. If you increase the pace and intensity of the gameplay, requiring the player to multitask and make important decisions in a short time, provide them with the opportunity to relax and engage in less intense strategic tasks.

This approach is often seen in real-time strategy games (RTS), where the game rhythm is characterized by alternating phases. For example, a phase of intense combat is followed by a phase of preparing new troops or developing new tactics, where the player's demands are reduced both in terms of volume and decision-making speed.

**2.3 Pay for Your Mistakes**

Implementing a high cost for mistakes may seem like a straightforward and logical solution for a game designer. Loss of progress upon failure motivates the player to "suffer" and encourages them to recover their lost achievements. Conversely, reducing the cost of mistakes to a minimum makes the previously mentioned methods less effective *(hello to the developers of cyberpunk games with their important leveling system)*.

However, as with everything, there are certain pitfalls in this case. A too high cost for mistakes can lead to the abuse of the save and load mechanism, undermining the fairness of the game. On the other hand, if there are no save points *(unless justified by the gameplay)*, the game may be perceived as unfair. Both situations can disrupt the player's flow. So, what should be done in this case?

**Choose One Thing**

It's important to emphasize that an unreasonable disproportionate balance between the cost of an mistake and progress should not be accompanied by excessive cognitive load. A high level of stress caused by simultaneously increasing both the cost of an mistake and the intensity of gameplay can create a negative experience, punishing the player twice for a single action.

This means that you should not simultaneously increase both of these parameters without reasonable proportion. Maintaining balance is essential, and if one parameter is high, you should handle the other carefully to ensure player comfort.

**The Player's Pain Is Your Job**

You need to maintain control over the player's experience, managing it rather than allowing chaos. When the game designer keeps the situation under control, the gaming experience remains intense but consistent. Even in the most intense moments, players prefer to feel stimuli in a measured and predictable way, much like how a person wants to experience even pain, considering dosage and predictability.

When a player embarks on an ultra-hardcore adventure, they expect not only the validation of their emotional expectations but also the opportunity to discover unique and wonderful aspects of the new gaming experience.

**Risk & Reward**

As mentioned earlier, the concept of "DecisionCost" represents the ratio between the penalty for an mistake and the reward for a correct decision. By increasing the penalty, you can create the desired gaming experience, but that's only half of the equation. To keep the game fair, you need to increase the rewards for correct decisions, especially when the stakes are high. Fair distribution implies that the higher the risk, the higher the reward should be.

However, in the context of a hardcore experience, it is recommended to maintain a slight bias toward risk. In a standard game, where high risk is twice the norm, the high reward corresponds to 1.75x the norm. In a hardcore experience, you can slightly reduce the reward, so the risk level is 2.25x, and the reward is 1.5x.

Naturally, balancing will be adjusted multiple times during game polishing, but the general principle is that **when increasing the cost of an mistake, you should also increase the reward for a correct decision**.

**2.4 Randomness Is Fun**

Oh, that darn Korean RNG! Make the player hit less often, while the enemy crits more often, and you're good to go! This is how games are designed, as it seems to me, by idiots. Or, more accurately, lazy game design looks that way. Crank the player's chance roulette to a minimum and increase the chance of positive effects for the enemy to the maximum. But how to make good randomness?

**Unpredictable Conditions, Not Results!**

The best kind of randomness is the one that creates unpredictable conditions, not results! If a player is used to shooting goblins in a cave while sneaking through a narrow passage, great, add a chance for a goblin to spawn with laser eyes. Manage the player's expectations and habits, not the outcome or result. Randomness should push the player into unusual situations, not determine whether the right decision will work or not. Yes, it's also one of the tools of game design, but for heaven's sake, don't overuse it. You'll only create an unfairly frustrating gaming experience where there's no point in planning your decisions if the outcome is still uncertain.

# 3. Conclusion

It's important to strive for creating an enriching gaming experience for the player rather than making games with impossibly difficult levels. The essence of hardcore gaming is not solely about extreme health or damage values but rather focuses on cognitive load and player concentration during the game. This implies the need for quick and precise decision-making and the creation of a sense of real punishment for mistakes, seasoned with a dose of randomness.

* A game with an extensive set of rules that requires the player's knowledge can raise the entry threshold. However, if other aspects of the game are severely limited, the hardcore experience may not reach the expected level.
* In games where the player is provided with a multitude of decision options in a unit of time or turn, such as in real-time strategy games (RTS), high cognitive load is guaranteed. Nevertheless, if the time for decision-making is excessively stretched, this load will simply be evenly distributed over time and won't provide the expected concentration.
* In the case of high-paced games like shooters but with a low cost for errors, the experience can be dynamic but not hardcore enough, as seen, for example, in Counter-Strike (CS).
* If the cost of error is too high, but the game is too simple and has few solution variations, the result will be overly simplified and not sufficiently interesting, as in games like "Russian Roulette."
* When events are almost entirely random but do not pose a threat to the player and do not present any challenge, this also does not contribute to creating the desired hardcore experience.

The article has been translated with the help of ChatGPT, and some of the author's narrative style may have been lost, and there might be a lack of necessary context.

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