Today I attended a design talk by Derek Yu, creator of Spelunky. However, I was surprised to find buried in Yu's talk was an aside about what makes a game satisfying in terms of difficulty. What should be the difficulty level of a game and what should be the accessibility of a game is an eternal theme, and every time it recurs, it is a sign to log off Twitter for a few days. But instead of the usual exhausting discussion about easy mode, I found Yoo's breakdown, built on spicy food analogies, to be really insightful. I'm hungry, too.

For Yoo, difficulty is just one element of what he calls "spikey" game design.

"Spiky games are often thought of as punishing, but for me, difficulty, while an important part of the design philosophy, serves the goal rather than the goal itself. The real goal is to keep the player focused on the game, really caring about what they are doing at any given moment." It's about making them feel that the world existed before they came and will exist after they leave. It's about making it feel real. In my opinion, winning or finishing the game is not the main goal of the spikey game, even if that is what you are ultimately aiming for."

The bullet points that accompany this portion of Yoo's article indicate some of the core elements of the spiky design, all of which can be easily found on Spelunky.

In other words, spiky games are not just a matter of difficulty. However, just like the spiciness of spicy food, difficulty is often the first impression one gets when trying to play a game like "Dark Souls" or "Spelunky."

"For those who don't like spicy food, it can be difficult to understand why spicy food fans love it so much. 'When people just start eating spicy food, they can't taste it; it's just too hot. And pain. Similarly, a spiky game gets a lot of enthusiasm from fans, but for those who haven't gotten there yet, it just feels spicy.

"Difficulty is only one part of the equation. It is the spicy part of spicy food. I don't eat spicy food to feel pain. But the spiciness is what wakes me up and is my gateway to interesting tastes that I can't get anywhere else. Taste is what makes spicy food delicious. And the more I experience it, the easier it becomes to endure the spiciness."

The "flavor" of spicy game design is the feeling that the game world can exist without you, and the big rewarding consequences surrounding how you relate to the game. By comparison, what Yoo calls "soft" design emphasizes player comfort and progress and minimizes negative feelings about their interaction with the world. For me, the biggest takeaway is that soft design makes the player feel like he or she is at the center of the game world, not an inhabitant of it.

Yoo also pointed out that games are not only spiky or soft, but always contain elements of both designs. He wanted to make "Spelunky 2" softer without making it less spiky, and he did so by expanding the base camp. As a result, players now have a place to relax and practice in between runs, and they can feel that they are making progress, even if they die.

Yu's description of spiky vs. soft game design is similar to the common phrases "hardcore" and "casual," but he believes these terms are now "too loaded" and not necessarily necessary in spiky design He stated that there is too much focus on difficulty. He cited Nintendo's Animal Crossing as an example: while Animal Crossing is not a difficult game, it does have elements of spiky design. Its user interface forces players to slow down, which many find frustrating, but the point is that their island "feels more like a place to live than a place to minimax and optimize and get the biggest house possible as quickly as possible."

"The great thing is that there isn't just one spicy dish you can eat to improve your ability to eat spicy food," Yu says. 'You can eat one and it makes the other dish taste better.' The same goes for the spiky game. If you learn how to enjoy the spiky game, you will have a wider range of games to enjoy."