Asymmetric gameplay

Viewing single post

Started by the-pi-guy, Dec 01, 2019, 03:09 AM

previous topic - next topic

Legend



Evolve was really cool with this. 4 people vs 1 monster. Maybe one of the best logos ever as well. 4 letters verse one massive letter.

In general I find it hard to balance stuff like this. It's hard enough to make both sides evenly powered but it's super super hard to make both sides as fun to play on. Lots of times games solve this by making rounds quick or making gameplay similar.

Take zombies from Halo. 1 player starts as the zombie and has to kill others to convert them. Great fun but outside of the objective, both sides play the same. It's hardly asymmetric.

Meanwhile there is stuff like cappy in Super Mario Odyssey. The second player plays a very different game and in general it's just not as much fun for either player.

Hardware based asymmetric gameplay like with Vita, wii u, and vr is usually just as bad but it can at least have a fun gimmick.


Long long ago I planned to have an asymmetric mode in VizionEck. 1 player would manage a prison through cameras and turrets while the rest would try to escape. It was never developed beyond that basic idea but I used to be a much bigger fan of the concept. Nowadays I prefer dynamic asymmetric gameplay such as final smashes and high level players vs low level players. Instead of designing the asymmetric gameplay to be even, you can go all in on one player being op.