So it's interesting, we were doing our first trade show and decided that for the event we were going to showcase the story levels. At that point I'd created about half the levels for the story mode, and I was looking for stuff to show off but I was struggling to find something that was easy but dynamic. I really wanted to ramp it up and wow people who came to the show and played the game. So I ended up going back and jazzing up a few select levels and thought, this will be kind of a test run, if this the game is too hard for people, then it's too hard, and we will have learned that.
It may have been sensory overload for some, trying to figure out what the blocks did, but it was clear that with the increased difficulty level, the game was more fun. Even if they were dying more often than with the original level design, they were getting to see that wow factor that I wanted. As I watched them play and figure out the game's various mechanics, I realized I'd underestimated player intuition.
At that point I went back and effectively started back at level 1-1 and redid almost the entire campaign based on what I'd seen on the show floor. I scaled it up, trusting player intuition and their ability to learn. Every few levels, I threw in something fresh so the player is always incorporating something new. Then about half way through the game, I shifted the focus to new interactions between the blocks rather than introducing new block types. [With the scaled-up redesign] it was great to see that I could get people to the fun parts of the game much quicker.
I notice that with the reviews, opinions on the difficulty level were kind of all over the place. Some think the first few chapters were too easy, some immediately satisfied, some think they're hard. I think at the end of the day most people fall within that mid range. I noticed that of the reviewers who said the game was too hard, they always said that they felt their death was fair, that when they died it was their fault.
One way we faciliated that was adding the warning signs. Since the game has more verticality than most platformers, there's a lot more potential for blind hazards; you can easily fall off a cliff into spikes and that's it! We became aware of that dynamic because of player testing and thus compensated for it. I didn't want the amount of hazards to overwhelm a kid and his dad after only an hour of playing, I want to give them a few hours before things start getting ramped up.
HG: What has been the most rewarding aspect of the development process over the course of the past four years?
AJ: I used to creat scenarios for MMOs at Sony and so I got to create online scenarios that players would go through but I would never get to see them experience it; it was very one sided experience where I put my creativity out there but never got any feedback from it. Whereas going to a trade show for the first time I got to see people playing the stuff I'd worked on and see them enjoy it. I'm still getting a kick out of the Let's Plays [of BattleBlock Theater] that are going on YouTube right now, some are so good and hilarious. I love seeing people get in the spirit of the game. We definitely try to be a bit pranksterish with the level design and I love that people are getting into it and having these gotcha moments that we had with each other when we played. From an early age I would do table top role playing games, creating scenarios just to see my friends have fun, and it's like this is one giant pay off of those moments.
And can you ask for a better team of people to work with, a development group more dedicated to fun? Everybody here isn't here to recreate a genre, they just really wants to laugh and have fun making a game with their friends. I'm so glad I had a chance to work with these amazing people, and the chance to get such direct feedback on my work and see people make the things I've worked on… I couldn't ask for anything more.
Stay tuned for the second part of this interview, where Aaron and I discuss the narration and comedy of BattleBlock Theater, the future of the game's DLC, and what the studio is working on in the meantime.
