One of the key concepts in game design is the balance of difficulty. The player should feel challenged but not suffer, enjoy it but not fall asleep on the go. It’s important that the gameplay evolves in such a way that each new stage forces you to engage, but does not cause rejection. If you overdo the simplicity – the player loses interest. If you overdo the complexity, the player leaves disappointed.

According to research by UX experts and practitioners from studios such as Valve, Nintendo and FromSoftware, the key to engagement is the “flow state”. This is a state where tasks require effort but are achievable. In this zone, the player is fully immersed and willingly continues to play.

One of the most successful techniques is dynamic difficulty. A classic example is Resident Evil 4. The game tracks how often you defeat enemies, die or lose health, and imperceptibly adjusts the pace, number of enemies and resources. This makes the game adaptive, holding the interest of even the most varied level of players.

In online games like League of Legends or Overwatch, it’s especially important that all characters are balanced. Regular patches and meta updates are part of the life of these projects. Developers analyze statistics of victories, popularity of heroes, collect feedback from cyber sportsmen and ordinary players.

But there is another approach – a natural difficulty curve, when the game teaches the player through level after level. An example is Celeste, where each new mechanic is introduced gently and then made harder. It’s a perfect example of how even a difficult game can remain fair.

Bottom line: good difficulty balancing requires testing, data, and flair. It’s important to remember: a game is a dialog with the player. If you listen to it and change the pace in time – you can create a truly immersive experience that is not boring or painful, but exciting and interesting.