Hey, guys! I made a video game! It's not a board game, and isn't even reminiscent of board games, so I hope you forgive me for posting about it here. (I'll ramble about board games for a while to make up for it.) I think board game design may stay as a hobby for me, as I focus my efforts on making video games, but I still think board game design is a great way to focus on the fundamentals of game design. I think it's very common in board games to try and come up with something unique and interesting, and I tried to do that in Arcane Castle. So here it is, released today on iOS.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/arcane-castle/id971218980
It's an endless runner game where you avoid obstacles, and cast specific spells to defeat specific enemies. I used dynamic difficulty adjustments to try and keep the game at an intense pace, giving players of any skill level a challenge, while also allowing players to progress in the game. Difficulty is reduced when you lose, depending on the amount of progress you made in the level, and is increased depending on the amount of life remaining after winning.
So as board game designers, what do you think of difficulty adjustment in board games? I think it's probably more common in video games, but there are some board games that include difficulty adjustments too. Pandemic comes to mind, where players can choose a difficulty level, adjusting the number of Epidemic cards in their deck (or adding other challenges that come in the expansions). Games with campaigns may have more of an automatic/dynamic difficulty adjustment, giving advantages to players that have won in the past. While you want to be rewarded for a good win, getting a bonus for being the better player can cause a snowball effect, allowing the players that are better at the game to continue winning.
TLDR: I made a game, linked above. It has dynamic difficulty. Is there a kind of difficulty adjustment that you like in games? Do you think board games could do more with dynamic difficulty?
