YES, there's a difference, but this topic gets overlooked quickly.

The web is full of analyses of good/bad difficulty or good/bad challenge, harassment or praise about Dark Souls difficulty management, claims that every game must have an Assist Mode to make it easier, and so many more ideological positions that point the finger at what is the "right thing" to do. Everyone seems to have a solution for you without even knowing the game you want to make. I want to try something different, so this week, we'll think and talk about the difference between "Difficulty" and "Challenge" in Game Design.

Not a hot topic, but every time From Software releases a game, sadly, the debate gets refreshed 😪.

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We’re going to discover:

• What Difficulty is.
• What Challenge is.
• Some Pros and Cons.

Without further ado, let’s jump right in.

Difficulty Is About Performing Actions

"Difficulty" is when you know what and how to do something, but it's just hard.

Maybe you can recall situations like performing a pixel-perfect jump in a Super Mario game or defeating an enemy with many HPs and Damage in The Witcher 3 Hard Mode. If you do, you have experienced what's called Difficulty. A Difficult situation is about the player performing a single action to achieve a goal. In that situation, the player knows what he needs to do and how he needs to do it, but he just can't do it because the action requires a motor skill (regarding controller input, for example) or higher reflexes, or whatever.

To spot difficult situations in our game design, we can also look at the player's mental model of the game.

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Once the player overcomes the obstacle, his mental model remains the same.

Since it's a skill concern, the player doesn't need to figure out anything new about the game; there's no further complexity or tricky strategy to uncover. He just needs to pass through that point by trying several times until he finally makes it. During those attempts, the player's brain has understood everything he needs to overcome the obstacle, so he just needs to do it correctly.

Basically, there's a misalignment between the player's mental model of the game and the game model itself.

Ok then, but if defeating a stronger enemy is just difficult, what is "Challenge"?

Challenge Is About Strategy

"Challenge" is when you know what to do but don't know how to do it.

For example, solving puzzles in The Witness, beating a boss fight in Hollow Knight, defeating a group of enemies in God of War, etc. These, among others, are situations of Challenge where the player needs to understand how to overcome that Challenge and not just execute one or more actions. In fact, Challenge is about the strategical and tactical approach to a situation to achieve a goal.

And again, let's look at how this affects the player's mental model to compare it with Difficulty.

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When the player overcomes a challenge, his mental model updates with new patterns.

In the face of a challenge, the player knows what he needs to do (his goal) and can have some hypotheses on how to do it, but he doesn’t know what works and what does not. A good challenge provides a situation where the player has a precise goal, but his mental model of the game still lacks something (new patterns) that the player himself needs to overcome that situation. The thrill and motivation of the player come precisely from the hunger for those new patterns to learn.

Now that we know the difference between Difficulty and Challenge, let’s look at some pros and cons.

2 Tools With 2 Different Purposes

Difficulty can become frustrating and Challenge overwhelming, so be sure to manage them properly.

The debate comes and goes around bad/good difficulty or bad/good Challenge; however, the reality is they are two different tools a Game Designer has to mold the player experience. Next Friday, we'll go more in-depth about this, but let's take a sneak peek by looking at some pros and cons to clarify the difference further and be aware of the risks involved.

Difficulty is the most delicate of the two because it can become frustrating since, during all the player's tries, his brain has already passed over that difficulty and wants to move on, but the player's avatar still needs to overcome it. On the other hand, some properly calibrated difficulty spikes can raise the game tension and make the player feel proud at the end. Challenge is strictly tight to the game's complexity since you need a strategic aspect that makes the player think about what to do in a specific situation so he can feel smarter and satisfied. However, Challenge is always about the overall game balance, so be aware you can risk overwhelming the player with too much Challenge all at once.

Taking for granted the pros and cons of Difficulty and Challenge is a one-way trip to player frustration.

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