Why Soulcaster 3 Will Not Have Persistence Between Runs

I’m a big fan of generosity in game design. My past games have all had infinite lives and quick respawns. So get ready for a break from tradition:

When you die in Soulcaster 3, you lose everything.

There are no unlockables or upgrades you can take with you to make the next run easier or different.

But why, Ian, WHY…?

I realize how polarizing this is. AAA companies spend a lot of money on market research and focus testing, and they are pretty much all in agreement on game presentation: tell the player exactly what they do next, and if they make a mistake or die in the process, start them about five seconds back.  I have no doubt this is how most people like their game experience. It especially makes sense to cater to this if you’re spending $50 million making the game.

It seems like indies are given a bit more license to be brutally difficult. I’m not sure why, but maybe it’s just that those of us who don’t much like the “Disneyland ride” game experience are happy to get a bone thrown our way. So I’m taking this license and running with it, perhaps to an abusive level. (Generosity is not completely dead, either… more on that at the end.)

The Basic Ingredients

Indie rogue hybrids are hot right now. They don’t adhere to the roguelike model 100%, typically doing away with turn-based action, and departing from the concept of losing everything when you die. I mean, why not just offer something to take the sting out of it… an upgrade for next time, a new playable character, anything!

I have nothing against this as a design philosophy. But I’d like to pose the question: is there a hidden cost to offering rewards that carry over to the next run?

I can talk about my own experience. I don’t know how typical this is, but when the game offers permanent, global “meta rewards” (achievements or unlockables), I tend to focus on them, at the expense of coming up with my own goals.  When unlockables are absent (take any game made before 1992), I come up with my own goals. Beat level 1 without getting a hear container. Skip the Clock Tower. Go to the Catacombs first. This extends the life of the game for me. In fact, when I find a game I like, I tend to ignore the achievements, for this very reason. But I’m getting off topic…

Let’s also think about about the impact this has on a run which yielded zero rewards. Was it… just wasted time? Do I even think about what I learned, what I could do differently next time?

A quick aside on Dark Souls philosophy.

This game is known for brutal difficulty, largely because of our conditioning with modern AAA games. In an RPG, as everyone knows, you’re supposed to focus on leveling up your character so you can take on tougher monsters. This is how you beat the game. So when you die and can’t recover your souls, it’s catastrophic. The last 15 minutes is just gone!

But experienced players know what to focus on instead, which is your own skill at dueling. Your first few hours with the game should be spent skirmishing with enemies to sharpen your skills, not farming for souls. An experienced player at level 25 can do much better than a new player at level 100. With just a change in perspective: a focus on your skill as a player, rather than the character’s stats, a death is not so devastating. It’s just training for when you go back in, and do it again.

The persistence is not in your save file. It’s in your brain. It’s the domain knowledge and tactics you take with you for your next run.

If I’m going to follow through with this design goal, it’s my responsibility as designer to match the player’s level of dedication. I need to keep them coming back and trying again, even if it’s the occasional rage-uninstall-nextday-reinstall. Here are some things I have in mind:

1. Fairness. I need to be able to identify which mistake led to my demise, and how to avoid it for next time. Death comes from my own recklessness, not game’s cheapness.
2. Exploration. The desire to discover more of the game itself: experiencing graphics and music of the outskirts regions, late game items, the strongest monsters.
3. Achievement. The thrill of winning a tough battle that would have put my lights out just a few runs ago.
4. Renewal. Starting a new game needs to be just as much fun as continuing an existing game. Who knows what fun stuff Ill find in the first area? Maybe the first merchant will have something amazing.
5. Experimentation. There are plenty of weapons, items, and magic to accommodate a variety of play styles. Though your ideal plan may be thwarted by stumbling upon some amazing piece of gear that you weren’t expecting… hmm, do we stick with the original plan, or modify in light of this discovery?
6. Risk Management. When I reach the expert level, I can decide whether to cautiously pick through the opening area, or make a break for the hot zone in hopes of getting an epic item early on.

There we go. These are my design aspirations for Soulcaster 3. Thank you for reading. If this intrigues you, excites you, or offends you, please comment below!