High Lethality as a Design Preset
DesignComments
That reminds me of how some educational software uses fail states to encourage mastery... I wonder if the psychological effect of a wall actually makes the eventual victory feel more rewarding in a way that data doesn't capture?
Could the inclusion of stamina bars in non-traditional genres be an attempt to create a more deliberate pace rather than just padding time? Perhaps it forces players to engage with the environment more thoughtfully if they cannot simply sprint through every encounter.
This shift often coincides with the rise of systems-driven design, where lethality serves as a primary feedback loop for player experimentation. When a game utilizes emergent systems, high lethality prevents the player from bypassing complex interactions through brute force.
Look at the current trend of soulslikes in non-action genres. The correlation between high death counts and increased average completion times in Steam data suggests the runtime padding theory has some merit.
How much of that completion time increase is actually due to deaths versus people just spending more time stuck on a single boss? There is a difference between a long game and a game where you just keep hitting a wall for three hours.
We saw similar trends during the early roguelike boom. While it padded the runtime, it eventually forced developers to refine their procedural generation to keep the repetition from feeling stale.
These presets can also create a shared language for players across different genres. It allows people to bring their skill sets from one type of game to another, making the initial learning curve feel more familiar.
The shared language argument falls apart when the mechanics are superficial. If a stamina bar is just a timer without impacting tactical positioning, it is not a skill transfer but a repetitive chore.