About Game Design

I recently listened to well known indie developer (if you’re into that stuff) cactus talking about abusing the player. One game that he took as an example is I Wanna Be The Guy. If you haven’t heard about this game before, it’s a game considered to be one of the hardest game ever made. Seriously, try it. Now.

Done? Now, why would anyone in their right mind want to play this game, that pretty much only punishes and abuses you? As far as I know you never get any power-ups and the game never congratulates you in any way for beating an area (well, I haven’t finished it so I don’t know about the ending). In fact, it mocks you if you play on easy.

I think the answer simply lies in the title: you wanna be THE guy. Not just in the game, but in real life. You can tell your friends that you managed to beat this game.

I think this is very interesting, as it is an out of game reward which you must collect yourself in a way. You need to go tell your friends or internet buddies how awesome you are and they will be in awe. You do probably have a sense of instant gratification when you manage to beat the game, but I think this simply come out of the bragging rights that you know possess.

Personally, I found this game quite humorous in the way that it killed me in surprising ways but in the end my patience just couldn’t take it. However, I really can’t blame it on bad game design as it’s obvious what this game is going for…

Making you want to be The Guy.