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Game Design Critic Joshua Bycer is back with another entry in the Game Design Deep Series to focus on the youngest genre yet: soulslikes. Over a decade, From Software defined a new genre that has led to studios chasing after them hit after hit. In this book, Josh will cover the history of the genre and popular soulslike games of the 2010s and discuss what aspects of design make a game a soulslike.
Abstracted design or RPG gameplay is about the characters and their attributes determining the success of the game, and less on the player’s reflexes. If you would like a larger look at the history of the RPG genre and many of its various subgenres, you can find that in Game Design Deep Dive: Role Playing Games. For this book, the main area of abstracted design that soulslike designers make use of comes from progression and increasing the power of the player’s character. In reflex‑driven games, progression is focused on the player getting better at the game: Memorizing attack patterns, learning the muscle memory for combat, improving their reflexes and ability to quickly react, and so on. As I said further up, it’s that reason why action games have a high‑skill floor and can lead to a lot of player churn. Abstracted progression is about the in‑game character, or the player’s avatar, growing in power – allowing them to take more damage, hit harder, perform more attacks etc. In effect, the player’s own reflexes and skills in the game are oftentimes secondary to being able to improve their character and give them more power.
The first book looking at the history of the genre
A breakdown of both action and RPG design for fans and designers of both
A lesson on difficulty in games and why harder doesn’t mean better