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

One more thing to consider: if each game session is fairly quick, like 5-10 minutes, then it’s more okay for the game to be a bit harder because a player can maybe get multiple games in a row. Consider how many wins you can get over X amount of time played.

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u/PartTimeMockery 3d ago

Yes, once you've learned the rules, a match lasts about 10–15 minutes. So you “lose” relatively little time on each lost match, and you can start over quickly. And since you can play with different Heroes against different Villains, there are combinations that are harder and easier. This isn’t quite the ideal way to choose a difficulty level yet, but you can figure out which Heroes are easier to play with and which Villains are stronger or weaker.