Gameplay progression or Give players all items from start

Hey guys, Me and my friend are just finishing our game, he is based in runs, like learn to fly and etc.

There are three items in the game that are very important to finish the game, But these items take a little bit to get, and as a player I love the idea that the gamplay is gonna change and improve the more I play.

But our game is a little hard and we feel that we are frustrating casual players who are not getting to see the items.

So my question is how do I balance this two variables, making the progression very cool for more hardcore players and not frustrating to casual?

We are thinking of implementing a easy mode, or if the player don’t get the item in a x number of attempts, the item is gonna be unlocked.

I would love to hear what people think of this
Thanks in advance!!

You probably just need to tweak the numbers to make it work. Keep adjusting them price of upgrades and things until a casual player could reasonably be getting enough for a new upgrade every couple of attempts, no matter how far along they are. It’s very important in these kinds of games to always be feeling some progress, otherwise players give up and quit.

Hardcore gamers don’t play launch games. xD

Originally posted by GameBuilder15:

Hardcore gamers don’t play launch games. xD

Wtf?

On topic: You need to provide enough content to keep the player interested :)

Thanks for the feedback guys

I think I didn’t express myself well when I used learn to fly as an example, it’s not launch based, It’s based on runs. When you begin the launch it takes skill to keep climbing, the launch itselft won’t do much, and we provide 3 items to make the climb easier and you won’t get so punished by mistakes.

My doubt is that if a game has important items, should I give him little by little, so I can train the player to use it and run the risk that many people won’t see them,or should I give him the ability to unlock everything from start? which in my opinion will also be bad because he won’t manage to use everything from start.

To use an example, the new game death vs monstars 2, I can buy abilities like shockwave and death ray since the first level, I wonder what players would feel if I locked those abilities per level, and you would have to win level by level to get them all.

I would say little by little and level by level, but don’t give them a chance to miss them. Make it so there is almost no way to continue without at least acknowledging the upgrades.

I didnt spend much time looking through the rest of the comments below but as GameBuilder15 says

Originally posted by GameBuilder15:

Hardcore gamers don’t play launch games. xD

So just have a difficulty setting and give easy players the perks from the start and hard core has to work for them.