You Know What I Love? When Game Designers are Jerks

[News Portal]

Sometimes, it's refreshing to have a game that tries to trick you, wrong-foot you, or that just refuses to show you the right direction. Sometimes, says Brendan Keogh, it's great to have game designers that are total jerks.

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[jerichosainte]

I loved Limbo. I think the earlier levels prepare you via trial and error for the later levels where some of the puzzles don't have a clear solution.

[Anon. E. Moose]

Perhaps the most consistently jerkily designed game is Playdead’s Limbo. While many loved the artsy indie platformer, many others despised it. They called it poorly designed. They claimed the game failed to communicate what is expected of the player. This is true in a sense, but the designers (I believe) did this on purpose. You don’t solve Limbo’s ‘puzzles’; you fall for Limbo’s traps, and then you know where they are and avoid them next time

So much this. That's the reason I loved Limbo, it was harsh yet enjoyable, unforgiving yet rewarding. More often than not I found myself falling for the same trap over and over through sheer frustration hoping the solution would soon become obvious. Eventually I'd find the solution and think to myself "Holy **** that's clever" and then find myself in the same situation no more than 15 seconds later when the next puzzle rears it's ugly head.

[Gnavin]

Oh, dat switch. Dat damn switch. It got me too. >:(

[PalZer0]

Another example is Super Meat Boy.

That game gave me so many ragequit moments it wasn't funny.

[Matty]

I Wanna Be The Guy.

[jonlee]

all games should be like that

these days to many games hold your hand

[ryceg]

Portal did this sort of thing, but there was less of the counter-logic, like the ring and button.

[Tajin]

Funny how people always want dumbed-down games.

This kind of game design is the exact opposite and I really love that.


Jerky as limbo might have been, it also often had some tiny clues that could help you avoid that trickery.
I think they were trying to portrait the shadowy figures in the game, who actually set up those traps. Makes perfect sense for those to try and fool the player.

[sh0v0r]

You guys should totally play Lunar Flight, you'll hate my guts at first but if you stick with it you'll love me later...

[vcatkiller]

What? How could we possibly hate you? (ps actually have the game on Desura but never played it - I might try it and then hate you )

Actually like to add that Dark Souls is full of such jerkish moments apart from a cleverly placed tree. The next one that springs to mind is the Capra Demon. You have no idea how much fowl language I used at that fight. Pretty straightforward once you figure it out but nonetheless...I love that game so much still. Haven't tried Limbo yet, it's in my Steam account (rather like Lunar Flight and Desura) but I've never tried it...

[discobrad]

Limbo was amazing, i loved it for exactly the reasons in the article.

When it happened to me, I chuckled, nodded, and mumbled, “Well played.”

that was me the whole way through. cant wait for a sequel.
its when games are so clearly just jerks that **** me. Street Fighter 4 was this game, when the CPU just goes into "**** you" mode and just annihilates you for the fun of it (Seth boss battle anyone?)

[Pulviriza]

I just finished Limbo today actually (weird coincedence, huh) and it was the second time I've ever played it since I played the demo a while back, the other time was yesterday. I thought it was actually quite easy.

And apparently because I like to explore, the Undead Burgs is actually the first place I went in Dark Souls. Lucky me.

[3D_BLASPHEMY]

all games should be like that

these days to many games hold your hand

Limbo was amazing! Loved it and have played it a few times through.
Have to agree! Bioshock was a perfect example of this, as Yahtzee proclaims. .
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... 4-BioShock <3

[chhopsky]

You know, I absolutely loved Limbo because it tried to predict what I would plan to do, then made a trap out of it. That was brilliant because I'd then start trying to predict what I thought it would predict I would do, then expect traps to be there.

Then it tries to predict what you try to predict and then puts traps in the places you go because you're trying to avoid the traps. It's like some kind of platformery Death Note! Amazing.