Adventurers! What do you think about that move

Hi peoples and peoplettes!

I'm making an adventure game with puzzles and I'm including bits of action elements in the game (ex.: you get attacked by birds you must swipe away, environmental hazards, you've got a health bar...)

I know the usual audience for adventure and puzzle games is not used to that.

So I added a "Casual" mode where you can remove any enemies and cut the damage in half.

I also added a "Pro" mode where you get 50% health, more enemies, more damage and if you die you must start the game over, for the more "hardcore" players.

What do you think about this approach to satisfy more players?

Will my game look "all over the place" or will it rather look "customisable"?

Thanks

Making the Casual mode named Casual will get everyone playing Pro.

Might want to rethink the names to not make Casual players sound noob-ish!

Just my opinion :)

RORY: Not that I was planning on using these words exactly, I really felt like casual gamers would find confort in playing the game the way they like it.

I do believe hardcore players would react that way, but not casual gamers.

I wonder if they would welcome the "casual" option as a customisation option more than a diminishing option.

I wouldn't worry, Even naming it "Noob mode" wouldn't scare off people looking for a stress free game. They just wouldn't admit what mode they are in. (as long as it's clear it doesn't affect the puzzle difficulty)

But swiping away birds once or twice may count as a puzzle. It's if you have to fight them constantly to get from puzzle to puzzle it would drift away from casual.

Truth to the matter is you should better define what "hardcore" players are.

In terms of adventure games, I remember back in the 90's my mother was a "hardcore" point 'n click adventures game player, and she would have never played a game with enemies to bash and possible death of the character.

In adventure games, she fancied the ambiance, the puzzle and the possibility of taking the time she wanted to do them in a non-competitive environment.

It sounds to me that by adding action elements you're mixing the type of game and you finally may totally miss the target audience for this kind of games as "hardcore" action players would probably bored by the puzzles, and the "hardcore" adventure players would be turned down by the action component.

Then again, I know of plenty of adventure games that had action elements to it. To keep things from feeling too jarring though, you might want to consider making those points occur only when necessary, and maybe nix the "health bar" altogether. Make those sections either "instant death" or have a certain number of repeat tries where it is described how many shots you have left in that segment before meeting certain doom. What you should also do is make sure you either have checkpoints before each of those sections OR allow saving anywhere. That way it will decrease the frustration any players may have.

Also, make sure that the segments don't "sneak up" on the player: as Kyatric mentioned, adventure games are meant to be taken a bit slower with a bit more thought. Allow the player to take in the obstacle first before jumping into it, to think things through. If that's impossible for the scene, then make the solution to the action obstacle instantly recognizable.

Another way to make it feel less jarring in the "action" segments is to make sure the controls match with the controls from every other section of the game. If you swipe to move some curtains aside or swipe to wipe away cobwebs, maybe swipe to blow out a candle, then swiping to shoo attacking birds away would likely feel just as natural. If you're tapping the screen to throw a rock at a button earlier in the game, then later in the game if you're throwing a rock at a monster it's going to feel just as natural and feel like an extension rather than a completely different gameplay concept.

Just a few thoughts on the topic. Don't take my words as hard fast rules, they really are just suggestions.

Thanks very much for the comments and ideas! Very insightful.

What you guys said makes a lot of sense.

I was wondering what the game would feel like if it was more of an adventure game. The game was originally meant to be a puzzle game with bits of adventure elements and action to it, not a traditional adventure game so I will stick to the original plan.

My philosophy: Screw paradigms and expectations. EXPERIMENT.

If your idea fails, it means one of two things to me:

Either you didn't go far enough, or,

It was not a good idea to begin with.

Regardless, go for it. New game concepts will never come to fruition if we are too hampered by theory or outdated practices to even try.

I agree with Digi. However I would not gamble too much time or money on an idea that is too far out. Unless people start imagining innovative concepts and experimenting...everything looks pretty much the same. To me brilliance lies in coming up with a new ideas, and has nothing to do with cloning an old ones.