pixeltroid said:
These are some game scenarios I have in my project (theyre not at all unique). Would you consider the following to add to the challenge or make it annoying/unfair?
1. enemies who spawn a few pixels in front/behind of you giving you very little time to respond.
(intention is to keep players on edge the whole time). Additionally spawn points are fixed, so player can memorize them.
This sounds like something frustrating. The key is in the time the player have to react. If the mob spawns and then attack or can touch the player and those thing takes like 1 second, forget it. However, if there's a visual cue just before it spawns, or again if you can visually spot them before they get dangerous and have time to react, now it can be great. Per example, imagine a zombie that comes out from the ground right where the player stand or right beside it. The time the zombie takes to get out of the ground could be the window for the player to step aside, give it like max 2-3 seconds. Its an example where a visual cue makes the whole thing completely fair.
pixeltroid said:
2. Bosses with lots of health but no health bar.
When the player makes progress, you need to clearly show it. It's all part of keeping things fun and induce the will to continue in the player. The healthbar is a classic way that is still super effective to show progress in some encounter. Don't ever shy from it. Can also save you alot of work because alternatively I think you need to make it apparent on the boss that he's about to die. (like getting slower and slower, appear wounded, losing liquids, limbs off, etc) and that can be hard to design and orchestrate.
pixeltroid said:
3. Becoming paralyzed (momentarily unable to shoot) during knockback after taking a hit from an enemy.
Here again when you read it just like that it sounds bad. However its all about the "how" you pull it off. Look at Castlevania for instance, if you are invincible during knockback and that you don't give me too much small platform with endless pit between them, this knockback CAN be interesting. They key is this: if the knockback makes the player die and he thinking he was powerless about it, your knockback is probably questionable.
pixeltroid said:
4. Some jumps that need to be performed at the very last pixel of a ledge. (but no risk of falling to death)
This is no problem as long its the impression the jump gives. Succeeding a tight jump can be really rewarding but how not making it too frustrating? Per example you can make it so the player can still jump from the platform when 1-2 pixel outside of it. It serves as a "fairness buffer" that most won't notice and will just make the tight jump feel great. And no need to go all the way Donkey Kong Country style there, just a little movie magic going on, that's all.
pixeltroid said:
5. Enemies respawning everytime you re-enter the room (You may need to re-enter rooms 2-3 times, as you explore).
Sounds good. But make it consistent and logical so it appears as a game rule for the player. This way they will actually expect the respawning and the game will have another feel that is different than non-respawning enemies for sure, but a great feeling.