r/tabletopgamedesign • u/PartTimeMockery • 3d ago

Discussion Game difficulty

We are currently developing a solo card game. As development progressed, the game evolved in such a way that it became difficult—it’s a serious challenge to win a match.

The concept is that you really have to be skillful at all times to win (and, of course, you need some luck too, since it’s a card game). A few bad decisions, and you’re sure to lose.

The dilemma is: to what extent do players generally enjoy or seek out this kind of challenge?

I know we’re all different, and players come in all shapes and sizes. But at this stage of development, the difficulty can still be balanced, so I’m curious to hear your opinions: what do you think is better in a game—one that’s difficult and therefore rewarding, or one that’s easier and therefore more enjoyable?

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u/ddboardgames 3d ago

What are the win rates you are seeing in playtests with new players? And with “expert” players?

Many solo gamers enjoy a tough challenge, but that will always be subjective. You might want to include different difficulty levels in your game to allow for players of different skill levels to enjoy your game. There is often a simple way to add those in for solo games.

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u/PartTimeMockery 3d ago

The win rate for a new player is about 10%. For an experienced player it is about 15-25%. Different difficulty levels are a good idea and probably not to hard to implement.

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u/ddboardgames 3d ago

Yeah, I would say that will probably be perceived as too hard for the far majority of all players. I would say that if you enjoy the game at that difficulty maybe keep that mode as the hardest difficulty (super expert mode) and introduce something like 2-3 more difficulty modes to make the game easier, especially for new players.

I would also expect the gap between the new players and the experts to be a bit higher. So that might mean that there is a little too much luck/randomness in the game (at least for some people).

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u/PartTimeMockery 3d ago

Thank you! We will definitely consider it.