It has to still be like fun or fun-adjacent and if it takes up too much of the game proportionally that's bad. Water Temple is like 1/12 dungeons in OoT but Nino Ruins is like 1/5 in Mega Man Legends 2 so it hurts that game way more

Gunstar Heroes Dice Palace is like Treasure was acutely aware in 1993 that I would develop this belief about games and they wanted to maximize it. They fill a level with their weirdest, often unfun but often super fun boss ideas

But because it's all on this board game when you're on like your third try and you successfully dodge Curry and Rice or Vortex Base or whatever it's like having your cake and eating it too

But then they made the dumb spaceship level that's way too long and that part does just like kill my momentum half the time I boot up Gunstar sorry Treasure

It's always little imperfections and eccentricities that give games texture and personality. It's not something you can really design, players will see through it and latch on to something real. It makes games feel really human in a way. A conversation between player and game

I love a lot of games that are essentially dopamine dispensers (Super Mario Bros. Wonder just came out a couple months ago lol) but I'm always looking for another game that'll really grip me, make me persevere through smth bad, and make me feel like I have a story to tell after

People still talk about Whitney's Miltank, the Water Temple, Metropolis Zone for a reason. The bumps in the road put all the smooth stretches before and after in perspective

Also if your game is hard enough and you are extremely good at setpiece design you can get away with having no parts that just annoy the shit out of the player (Sin & Punishment Star Successor is the best game ever made)

@gunstargum Treasure fan spotted

@PocoQuinn Guilty as charged

@gunstargum Oh annoying as in difficult, right? And not as in just like annoying. Because Deadly Premonition is a game I consider GOATed but the annoying parts will make it just unplayable for many

@CypressDahlia No, as in annoying Needs to strike the right balance though Deadly Premonition will not for many

@gunstargum I think it was one of the Ninja Gaiden team members (not Itagaki pretty sure) that basically said that games shouldn't be linearly balanced and that the most memorable moments are when the game is *unbalanced* and gets too hard unexpectedly. I believe this to be true.

@gunstargum Me dealing with the sometimes clunky controls in shadow of war

@gunstargum

@gunstargum Yakuza 5 is TOO. FUCKING. LONG.

@gunstargum 100% true, but also about TV shows as well. Star Trek has to have the shitty episodes where the entire cast gets drunk or something. Doctor Who's gotta have those episodes that you see and just go 'oh no, not that one'.

@gunstargum as i have said before

@gunstargum It has been my belief that game developers can utilize every emotion to drive you in a game and most of the time it seems to fail but what I like seems to have those moments of frustration where I am driven by spite to perfect that final boss looking at you Shinobi on PS2

@gunstargum I dont necessarily think a game benefit from going as far as making you hate some sections, but having friction to progressions will definitely make things more memorable in the long run.