#the setlist is SO well chosen from one song to another the flow of it everything

[jackleopard]

The Eras Tour really is just incredible, 10/10, it’s a tour that will go down in history

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

KAORU INTERVIEW ONGAKU TO HITO [PHY] VOL.16 2/2 TRANSLATION

“Wouldn’t it be possible for fans to gather and talk about several things as they spend time together by broadcasting a setlist created by each member?” “What I thought when they were together listening to it was….’Everyone loves Dir en grey’” (laughs) “Of course, there will be opinions like ‘if you are going to cancel, say it as soon as possible’, I’m sorry for that but it was something that had to be discussed and properly decided by each one of us.”

Original text by Higuchi Yasuyuki

Photos by Amita Mari You can read the first part of this interview here. You can buy the magazine at cdjapan or amazon.jp ( Out of Print--Limited Availability. )

Notes before reading: This is the second part of the interview from Ongaku to hito [PHY] vol.16 released the 6th of June.  The interview was done during May, so Japan was still under the state of emergency. Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts.

---------------------- “Wouldn’t it be possible for fans to gather and talk about several things as they spend time together by broadcasting a setlist created by each member?” -Then, in April the declaration of the state of emergency was announced, the tour that had been already postponed was cancelled but, at the same time as you released that statement, the broadcasting of a music playlist in YouTube as planned setlists by members was also announced. Kaoru: This is…. if I remember properly……the idea came from the fan club management side. It was like “how about trying to do a daily streaming during 5 days of songs chosen by the members?” -The image was more of a setlist, rather than a playlist. K: That’s true, as we broadcasted the planned setlists one by one. So, we already had experienced the reaction of the viewers at the time of the live (without audience). The talk concluded like, “isn’t it like …. the fans can gather together, talk about several things and spend some time together?”, so immediately we said OK. -Your setlist was on the first day, did you choose the songs considering that? K: Well, when we were at the stage of creating the setlists, it wasn’t decided whose setlist would be broadcasted in each day yet. Originally, we decided to do it 4 days before the broadcasting so, there was a feeling of timing like “please send the setlists by tomorrow”, I thought mine overnight and submitted it. The next day, I knew I was the first one. -I thought your setlist was very “Kaoru-like” but, what was your criteria for choosing the songs? K: Although it’s a setlist, there is no live footage so after all, isn’t it a playlist with tracks one after another? The theme was like, “how can I incorporate the feeling of a live concert into it?”. However, even if I included violent/fierce songs, I think I couldn’t get the feeling of a live performance. Also, I dared to try a sequence of songs that wouldn’t be possible at all in an actual live performance. -Things like tuning or equipment, a sequence of songs that can’t be done due to those aspects. K: Then, there is also Kyo’s throat problem.  If we try to do several things in the best condition possible, it’s an impossible sequence. Yet, isn’t it great that people are thinking it’s a real concert while it’s listening to it? -You can’t do that at a real concert, but I think it’s interesting to listen to it while imagining it all together. K: That’s right. -Every set list was unique because of the individuality of the members, and after all, as it happened during the live without audience, it was an amazing time as well. K: I thought that too. -While at the screen there was always the same picture, the songs were the only thing flowing. K: It might have been good that the screen didn't change. Everyone had no choice but to imagine in their heads. 

-Yes, yes. I did too. It brought back memories of a live I saw, they layered with that scene while I was listening to it. Rather than a pseudo- concert experience, it felt more like a reliving experience. K: I see. That’s why the response  we got was more than I expected.  Also, what I thought when they together were listening to it  was….” Everyone loves Dir en grey” (laughs) -Hahahahaha K:  It’s like, they were listening to the songs properly, that’s what I thought when I was seeing the messages at the chat. -It was a virtual space, but it felt like everyone was gathering there and sharing the music.

K: That’s true. I felt like I was connected with the member and with everyone. I think that was good. -Actually, in contrast with that, you are separated from the fans. How are feeling about that right now? K: Well, we can't do anything about that, right now we have no choice but to wait. -That's right K: It’s not just for the music scene. I think there are people having problems with other activities too. Until these things become clear, it’s too much for everyone. Especially for things that are hobbies, like music.  I know that there are people who support us not at a hobby level and I’m grateful for that but, after all, we have no choice but to wait for the time being. “It’s because of the situation we are currently in, I wish we can create a future in which that it’s possible” -Meanwhile, the release of a new song has being announced. Does it already have a shape or are you going to start working on it from now?

K: It’s almost finished! If we started from now on, it probably won’t be ready on time (laughs) -Hahahaha. Originally it was supposed to be announced on the last day of the tour. K: That’s true. We decided to release it during summer. -By the way, can you tell us what kind of song it is? K: Well…. ok….it took a lot of time. The creation itself has been done since last year. After starting to play it  and let the members listen to it, it hasn’t progressed easily. I've been worried about it for a long time. -So that means that it is going to be a masterpiece/great work following ‘The World of Mercy’? K: Well, I can’t say that at the current stage/phase (laughs). -Right? (laughs) By the way, is this song linked to the current situation going on? K: I haven't read the lyrics properly, so putting that part aside, it wasn’t a song made with this situation in mind. After all, it depends on what the person who listens to the song will think. I don’t really care about that. However, there is no doubt that it is song made in such a situation like the one we are currently in.

-Speaking of “what is going to think the person who listens to the song” thing, I think  from the listener’s side, inevitably it will become a song that faces this situation.

K: Yes, that’s right. -But, whether it's a concert with no audience or a broadcast on YouTube, it’s a work that it will be received after the band has tried things that you never did before. I wonder if that will create special way to hear it. K: Well yeah…. I can't say anything about that. The tour was cancelled, and I suddenly had spare time, so I made a song during that time. Maybe I shouldn’t say  it’s something unrelated to this situation. -Then, it’s what Kyo is going to sing…. K: Once the lyrics are added, I think you are going to be listening to the song and from there, with the words you can hear, you  will imagine “oh, it feels like this”. -That’s still a secret. K: Of course (laughs) -Also, you started a twitter account at these times. K: As expected, the motivation was the YouTube Broadcasting. I thought it would be nice if I could get the feeling I was listening together with the fans on twitter. Doing that, I thought it might be a different approach than until now. -That happened because of the current situation? K: If you say that twitter itself is something new, that’s not true at all, it’s rather an old tool, but it has immediate effects. I wondered if it would be interesting to change the way I show myself. That's why I don't tweet many times a day. -How was it when you tried it? The reactions and so to what you posted. K: Well, the first thing was the number of the people who were watching (what I posted) was different than what I thought it would be. -That’s right (laughs) K: There are a lot of people watching Twitter. Also, I had the feeling that there are many good things and many bad things in there. -From the beginning, because you are a band that has a certain sense of distance from the fans, I thought there might be some resistance to, suddenly, be directly connected on twitter with the person (member) and the fans. K: It’s a balance there.  I think it’s good if I could do something new or interesting while maintaining a good balance. Until now, Kyo is the only member to have a personal account on twitter. -I see. K: However, it's not like he is tweeting about private things, and there are a lot of tweets that are announcements or official information, sometimes he himself tweets. I want to try that myself. Moreover, I wonder if I can make it feel more like a personal account than when I tweeted from the Dir en grey official account. -In any case, the current state of the band is trying to catch a hold of several things positively. K: Right now, it’s that. But I don’t know how it will be in the future. Maybe I end up saying “I’m really bad at this” (laughs) -No way (laughs) I think you are dealing with everything calmly and positively. K: But…. the members and the staff discussed it more than usual about the live without audience and the YouTube broadcast, and we decided to make a calm decision. But there were times than the emotions came first until we came to that conclusion. -I see. K: Even if we postponed or cancelled the tour, we talked about it together to the point that separately/one by one discussed if this was the best thing to do. Of course, there will be opinions like “if you are going to cancel, say it as soon as possible”, I’m sorry for that but it was something that had to be discussed and decided properly by each one of us. -It’s always the same when you are making a Dir en grey’s song. K: Ah, I agree with that. -You are making things from the emotions and the strong ego/self of each of you but, it sounds like the process of finally reaching that conclusion was made as a band. After all, it’s something that has to be faced by no one but yourselves. K: Yes. For example, even if there are criticisms against the fact that we will force the tour without postponing it, it would be fine if we were the only ones to be targeted for that. We can’t let the fans get attacked for that reason. I don’t want people to think “that’s why they are fans of a band like that” because of our actions. - As expected, Dir en grey is a kind band. Kaoru: Is that so?

-That’s what I think. I’m sure the relationship between the band and the fans will change. Kaoru: I wonder how it will be…. but, because of the situation we are currently in, I wish we can create a future in which that it’s possible.

[iuinspires]

Love Poem in Singapore: My Second IU Concert

On 6 Dec 2019, I was blessed with the opportunity of seeing IU perform live for the second time at her Love Poem concert tour in Singapore.

I must confess that in some ways, things didn't go smoothly for me: ticketing was somewhat traumatic, because the tickets for the original 7 Dec Saturday show sold out within an hour of release, even before I had logged on to the site (sorry for underestimating your popularity, IU!); after I secured a Friday ticket, I couldn't help fretting about whether I could get to the concert venue from work on time; when I reached the concert hall, I realised I had missed out on collecting the SG Heart IU fan support items and the free IU postcard from the concert organizer; and towards the end of the show, my phone ran low on storage and battery so I couldn't take further audio recordings.

Yet there was a silver lining to everything: getting a Friday ticket turned out to be blessing in disguise because of a family commitment cropping up which would have made attending the Saturday show a challenge; my day at work turned out to be fairly peaceful and productive, so I did leave work on time; not having the fan support items prompted me to initiate a conversation with a fellow uaena; and not being burdened with the need to record everything allowed me to focus purely on enjoying the show. Above all, no number of minor obstacles could detract from the wonderful experience of seeing IU again. So let me try once again to document my precious memories, before they slowly fade with the passing of time.

Pre-concert

So on the fateful day of 6 Dec, I woke with a feeling of great joy and anticipation; all day at work, it took supreme discipline to rein in my feelings of excitement to concentrate on my tasks. Thankfully, I left on time and rushed down to the concert venue from my workplace by train. As I walked from the train station to Star Vista, I was quite amused to spot a number of people selling (selfmade?) IU posters and merchandise along the roadside, but  refrained from stopping to avoid the risk of being late. It seemed that everyone around me was making their way to the concert as well, for they were all holding IU concert tickets or knick knacks.

As I was queuing to get to the concert hall, I took the chance to observe the profile of my fellow uaenas again. I noticed that compared to last year, where the nationalities of the concert goers were distinctly varied, this year's crowd seemed to be predominantly Singaporean - probably a direct result of IU having more Southeast Asian stops in this year's tour. It made me glad that IU did have a sizable Singaena fanbase after all, that was sufficiently large to sell out two days !

When I was seated in the hall, I realised that everyone except myself was holding on to IU postcards and fanchant guides. I was also puzzled about where the SG Heart IU fingerlights were, which I had assumed would be at the seats. I plucked up the courage to ask the fellow uaena next to me where she had got hers, and she said she had picked them at the bag check area (sorry SG Heart IU, for not reading admin instructions properly!) I spent the next few minutes feeling dismayed at the thought of not being able to being able to do my part for the fan support - but the feeling of disappointment was soon replaced by excitement when the IU band members made their way to the stage to screams from the crowd. There was no sign of IU yet though - until the fellow uaena next to me nudged me excitedly and said, "Look, I think that's her!" From our circle seats we had a fairly good view of the whole stage including the curtained areas, and there, indeed, was a familiar, petite figure peeking out from backstage. I don't think anyone else noticed though, or there would have been wild screams! My heart skipped a beat, and I was too dumbstruck with excitement to respond. (To my fellow uaena, if you are reading this, I'm sorry - I didn't mean to be rude!)

Opening segment

Before we knew it, the lights dimmed, and IU emerged on an elevated platform under a spotlight in the middle of the stage, singing the upbeat, cheery opening line of "unlucky" in her clear, sweet voice. She looked lovely and girlish with a white flower in her long, flowing tresses, clad in a soft, frilly yellow dress speckled with blue flowers (an image which for some reason was reminiscent of Lee Soon Shin to me.)

I guess for me, the opening is always one of the most emotional and special moments of an IU concert. For overseas fans like myself who hardly get to see IU, there is something incredibly surreal about seeing that familiar figure and hearing that familiar voice in person. I can still recall how overwhelmed I was when I saw IU for the first time at last year's concert - in fact I now associate the opening song "Red Shoes" with the feeling of euphoria, and for the same reason, "unlucky" will have a special place in my heart as well. The audience shared my joy too, for it went absolutely wild with rapturous screams at the sight of IU, and kept up with this energy level throughout the concert.

IU moved on to a lovely acoustic rendition of Palette, before greeting the audience in a mix of Korean and English. She introduced herself as "IU who loves so much Singapore" - an awkward turn of phrase, but all the more adorable because of that! She expressed her happiness at being in Singapore for a second time, and talked about how this was her favourite venue (because of the "atmosphere, sound, mood...and the colour of the chairs - very red"). She also made us raise our hands to indicate whether we were here last year, and when most of us did so, she marvelled at how we have "so much loyalty here in Singapore".

For the rest of the segment, she sang "Autumn Morning", "Friday" and "Secret Garden". I recall IU had mentioned in one of her concert stops in Korea that for the opening segment, she had deliberately chosen songs that would allow the audience to focus on her vocals. And indeed, the songs were perfect for showcasing the light and mellow side of her voice. Before singing Autumn Morning, she told us to imagine the following: "blue sky, the children, lovely family, lovely mum, lovely dad...lazy son" (to which everyone burst out laughing). And when she started singing the first two lines of the song acapella, her voice pure, clear and gentle, I did feel as though I had been transported to a temperate country on a crisp autumn morning with fresh air and bright sunlight.

The theme of nature continued with "Secret Garden", where IU stood in front of a gorgeous projection of lush greenery, and behind three panels of silvery light that seemed like cascading waterfalls. It was a breathtaking sight that complemented the beauty of the song and IU's voice, and created an enduring image which will always come to mind whenever I hear "Secret Garden" now. It was also a fitting end to the first segment with its mix of sweet, uplifting and lyrical ballads.

Segment two

One of things I admire most about IU as an artist is her versatility, and she demonstrated this in the second segment with a setlist that had a completely different mood and vibe from the first. If the first segment was about showcasing IU's light and sweet voice, the second part was a chance to show off the sultry and husky side of her vocals. She kickstarted the segment with "The Visitor", a slow but groovy number with edgy and sensuous vibes. It's my favourite song in IU's latest album, and hearing it live was absolutely thrilling! IU was dressed to match the mood as well, clad in a blouse with bold prints matched with a short black skirt, hidden teasingly beneath a loose, draping coat, and with a sparkly black beret and boots to complete the look.

For the rest of the segment, IU performed a mix of her more groovy tracks and lively dance numbers: "Jam Jam", "Twenty-Three", "BBIBBI", "Hold my Hand", "Last Night Story" and "Blueming". I generally gravitate towards IU's ballads, but I actually found myself enjoying this segment the most. Other than IU's charismatic and energetic stage presence, I was  buoyed by the audience's infectious enthusiasm; even for a reserved person like myself, it felt exhilarating to be singing and cheering along with a huge crowd, bound by our shared love for the little bean onstage. IU commended us for our high energy level as well, commenting a number of times on how passionate and "high-tensioned" Singaenas were and how enthusiastically everyone was waving their lightsticks. At some point she teased someone for waving her lightstick at two times the speed of everyone else - "Maybe your hand will be less painful if you sway it together with the audience". Our deafening fanchants for BBIBBI also prompted her to declare Singapore as "the hometown for BBIBBI".

Another notable moment was during "Blueming", where the the SG Heart IU fan event was pulled off successfully. The audience in the stall seats turned on their colour-changing rose-shaped lights, turning the concert hall into a beautiful illuminated field of multi-coloured flowers - a perfect tribute to the million blooming roses referenced in "Blueming". IU commented later that she had initially thought that the audience was waving her official lightstick, before realising that it was a fan event, which she described as "the cutest" ever, and very pretty. Even though I was a little sad that I wasn't part of the fan event, I felt really happy seeing how nice it looked, and how it brought a smile to IU's face.

Segment three

IU started off the third segment with the heartwarming singalong favourite Meaning of You, which the audience sang with great gusto. She looked elegant in a long-sleeved, ankle-length white dress that was old fashioned but classy - my favourite outfit for the night.

The highlight of this segment came when IU announced that she had a present for us - an idea which came to her only two days ago, and which the team had to prepare in a rush. The audience stirred with excitement, and I was filled with anticipation too, expecting a local song which IU typically prepares for her overseas concerts. But we were all in for a bigger surprise when IU said: "Please don’t think of me as a singer, but think of me as Jang Man Wol". She proceeded to seranade us with a medley of Hotel Del Luna OSTs ("Lean On Me", "All About You", "Remember Me", and most notably, "Happy Ending" with her self-written lyrics) while a video montage of Jang Man Wol and Goo Chan Sung moments played in the background. I was swooning internally, and I'm sure in the rest of the audience was too - especially the few ahjummas and ahjusshis I spied in the audience, whom I guessed might have been new fans from the drama!

After the medley ended, IU said her Korean fans would be really sad as she had never sung "Happy Ending" for them even when she requested it, and made us promise to keep this a secret from her K-uaenas. (Nice try, IU!) She also shared how close she was to the HDL team, whom she had watched Frozen 2 with recently, as well as her love and respect for Gummy (singer of Remember Me) - which hilariously created some confusion with the translation initially as the Korean pronunciation for "Gummy" also sounds like "spider".

IU then wrapped up this segment with two sentimental ballads - "Lullaby", and "Through the Night", another crowd favourite which I enjoyed singing along to as well. Before the last line - "I hope its a good dream", IU gently murmured "Singapore" - and for some reason that triggered a sudden surge of emotions in me. It brought to mind how two years ago, as a new fan, I wasn't sure if IU was even aware that she had fans in Singapore, and seeing her seemed all but a distant dream - and reminded me how lucky I was to have her here now, acknowledging our presence as fans.

Segment Four + Encore

IU returned in a sparkly dark coloured dress for the fourth segment, which began with "Sogyeokdong". IU commented that this was a song with underlying sadness, but Singaenas were still so excited that she coud not help excitedly waving her hands too - "I'm not a pro...Even when I'm singing ballads, I can't control myself". (It's ok to be slightly unprofessional at times IU, it makes us even happier when you are happy!)

"Sogyeokdong" was followed by "Red Shoes", which evoked a wave of nostalgia in me as it brought to mind the exciting opening for last year's concert. IU then said she would have to move on to the last song -  eliciting loud groans from the audience - to which IU chuckled and teased us for our "pro reaction". The purported last song was "Above the Time" - a song which I didn't like immediately when it was first released, but which I grew to love the more I listened to it. I have to add too, that it's a song that sounds absolutely amazing live, and gave me goosebumps listening to it then!

After IU left the stage, the audience promptly began to chant "encore" repeatedly. IU returned shortly after in a long gem-studded pink dress, laughing at how she didn't even have time to go to the washroom because of our immediate chants. She ended off with "Good Day" and her titular song "Love Poem", before leaving the stage.

Re-encore

A few audience members began to leave, but the vast majority were clearly seasoned fans who knew what to expect, for the loud chants for encore started again. After a brief interlude, the IU band members returned onstage, followed by IU, to wild cheers from the crowd. Being used to seeing IU's characteristically baggy shirts and oversized sweaters for her re-encores, I was surprised to see her dressed girlishly in a sweet cream-coloured sweater pulled over a pretty floral dress.

The re-encore started with "Heart", which IU sung with the audience, in keeping with uaena tradition. IU quipped that at overseas concerts, she enjoyed hearing the imperfect pronunciation of her international fans, but Singaenas were just too good in Korean. IU continued asking for song requests thereafter - but the screams were so loud I couldn't hear a thing! She settled on "Sleepless Rainy Night" (which I was delighted to hear), "Night of the First Breakup", before wrapping up with "Someday".

Post-concert reflections

The 2018 dlwlrma concert will always have a special place in my heart as my inaugural IU concert, but I think this year's Love Poem concert experience was even better.

For one, it felt more fun and intimate because IU was even more interactive with the audience this year. There were many hilarious moments - like when she teased a male fan for dancing very animatedly throughout the concert, and pronounced him the cutest guy in Singapore - or when she laughed at how a female fan responded to her in Korean when she spoke in English. The rapport between IU and the audience also felt even stronger this year - the audience demonstrated an energy level that seemed to surpass last year's - and you could see how IU in turn radiated with joy to see our enthusiasm. She regularly teased us about how loud we were, and at one point, also commented on how there seemed to be "no shade" in Singapore - meaning that everyone here seemed really happy. My heart was also full hearing her express her love for Singapore - she talked about her family holiday here in January this year, and how her brother liked it so much that he was seriously considering doing his exchange studies here (please do so, IU's brother!)

But above all, what I found most moving and meaningful was IU's introspective musings on sadness, happiness and love. She spoke of how during this year's concert tour, there was a bit of underlying sadness during each of her concert, but in today's concert, she was laughing all the way even for the sad songs, and there was no single space for sadness to come in. I felt a sense of relief hearing that - for prior to the concert, a part of me was worrying about how IU was coping with recent events - and whether she would be reining in her sadness to deliver the smiles and energy expected from her as a performer.

But I guess IU has always been a strong and resilient  person, and one to give love and provide healing words of comfort, as she did during my favourite part of her concert talk. I think paraphrasing her words might not do her justice, so let me just reproduce her words here:

"I come here only once a year so I don’t know in detail what kind of troubles you’re living with and what makes you sad, but I think that all people live with similar problems, similar troubles. Right? Anyway, when you feel dispirited and want to end everything, I wish that you think of our promise today: to meet me here next year. You have to remember! We promise. To meet here again next year, we will right? All promises are truly important right? Keep your promise! Day by day, if you live on breathing slowly, it will soon be next year, right? And I’ll come back again to make another promise, to meet here next year, and we keep our promise again, and again, and again, and again. Right? This will be easy. I’ll do it as well. Promise. I hope that today was a good day. I.. (hesitantly) love you."

IU went on to say that this was her first time saying I love you in English, and added, almost bashfully: "I adore you. I cherish you." When she said this, I felt my heart expand with a warm, fuzzy feeling of peace and joy.

Perhaps it was because of these uplifting words and IU's repeated reassurance that she would be back - and perhaps because the adrenaline from the infectious enthusiasm of my fellow uaenas had yet to subside - the post-concert blues didn't hit me immediately after the concert ended. I recall last year I had remained in my seat, feeling lost and empty, but this year, I left beaming as I made my way out of the concert hall with the rest of the crowd.

The post-concert blues did sink in a little the next day, as I relived my memories looking at other fancams - but mixed with this was a feeling of gratitude and joy at how blessed I had been.

Thank you IU, for giving love through your Love Poem concert, and I look forward to seeing you again next year.

[symbianosgames]

The best games are a slow steady learning process.

They teach and guide while they entertain and challenge. They push players to improve steadily — to master a mechanic not by forcing you to scale a metaphorical wall, but by compelling you to climb a series of metaphorical steps. 

This does not necessarily mean they have great tutorials — indeed, many games with awesome learning curves throw you straight into the experience proper. Nor does it mean that they have to dumb down their design. It's simply a matter of crafting progression systems that allow the player to get a handle on the fundamentals early and then to grow and improve at every stage after that. 

It's not easy to pull this off. To give you some guidance as to how you can execute a brilliant learning curve, we asked several designers to tell us what games they think do it well.

None of the seven examples that follow are easy games, but all of them meter their difficulty with a well-considered learning curve. 

From the moment the player wakes up in protagonist Chell's minimalist living quarters, Portal gently prods her forward. As Global Game Jam co-founder and Rochester Institute of Technology assistant professor Ian Schreiber notes, "the entire game is basically a tutorial on how to beat it, except it expertly frames the learning as gameplay." Portal challenges by crafting puzzles around new mechanics and new applications of existing mechanics.  

It allows all the time players need to get comfortable with the controls or to think about how to solve the next puzzle, and it scales the difficulty by simply incrementing the complexity.

What you learn in completing one puzzle is needed to figure out the next one, and you have environmental cues that indicate what you need to learn or do (though not how to do it). Some cues are subtle such as the position of sentry turrets, while others are obviously instructional like the warning signs at the entrance to each test chamber. And thanks to these cues there's a clear progression from using portals to walk through a wall to using them for high-speed platforming. 

TAKEAWAY: You can simultaneously teach and challenge players at the same time if you weave the learning experience into the environment and level design.

All of the Burnout games do a fine job of introducing faster cars and tougher races and challenges at a comfortable pace. But one deserves special praise.

"I absolutely loved Burnout 3," says Corey Davis, design director at Rocket League developer Psyonix. "The pace of acquiring more powerful cars lined up really well with my mastery of the boost system, crashing opponents, and track knowledge." 

Each new car is just the right amount faster and stronger than the previous one to maintain an even challenge level and not pull the player out of their depth. The crafted tracks and frantic high-speed tussles with rival racers grow more intense as the player progresses, and there's a rewarding and fun experience for anyone to find — veteran racing junkies, casual fans, and newcomers alike.  

TAKEAWAY: You need to constantly test players and push them to execute tougher maneuvers as they improve their mastery of the core mechanics, but there's a fine line to straddle here if you want to keep both inexperienced and experienced players engaged from start to finish.

Much like a real instrument, Guitar Hero offers an intensely satisfying learning curve. It arguably even outdoes a real guitar in this respect, as it provides more useful feedback and gave the player ways to play along to their favorite songs regardless of skill level — the chosen difficulty level affects the number of notes to play and fret buttons to hit. It also adds an extra layer of progression by dividing songs into a "setlist" of increasing difficulty — so the challenge ramps up song by song as well as by difficulty level. 

Davis praises this design decision. "I never felt like it was cheap; it felt purely like I needed to get better," he says. And the feedback loops both on the screen during play and intrinsic to the challenge of mastering the twin difficulty systems combine beautifully with the simple joy of making music — of mastering hit rock songs. 

TAKEAWAY: Multi-tiered learning curves can let players control their own challenge level and rate of progress, and also provide a clearer indication of how much harder the next stage will be.

To someone who's heard about but not played the infamously-difficult Dark Souls, it may seem like a strange inclusion in this list. But extreme challenge and a good learning curve are not mutually exclusive. "The difficulty escalates very nicely," says Red Hook Studios creative director Chris Bourassa. 

"Just as you start feeling overwhelmed, you find yourself back in Firelink Shrine," he continues. "It's a clever use of the town hub as a thematic downbeat, and works like a chapter break in the game. As you catch your breath, you can look forward to a meaty jump in difficulty as you set off to the next area, followed by another smooth curve."

Cthulhu Saves the World designer Robert Boyd made a similar point in his 2012 analysis of Dark Souls' design

TAKEAWAY: High difficulty does not necessarily equate to a too-steep learning curve, as Dark Souls exemplifies.

Bourassa also praises the learning curve of real-time strategy/action-RPG hybrid Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Specifically, he was drawn in by its tension between threat and empowerment. It gives the player confidence to try things and to experiment with new combinations of strategies thanks to a steady trickle of loot and new units. "I always felt confident heading into the missions," says Bourassa, "even when that confidence was misplaced." 

The smaller-scale structure of Dawn of War II's campaign missions in comparison to traditional RTS games helps, too. Short missions with small groups of units battling other small groups (and little or no base building) reduce the need to master micro-management and instead allow the player to learn and adapt as the situation demands. The skirmish multiplayer mode doesn't share this well-balanced learning curve, though, as it's too different to the campaign for knowledge transfer and new players tend to get annihilated. 

TAKEAWAY: A good learning curve balances danger or challenge with player empowerment; it gives the player a taste of both failure and victory and makes either feel like a learning experience.

Ironcast is the rare genre-mashup game that gets the blended elements to fit together. It's a Puzzle Quest-inspired tile-matching puzzler with a touch of roguelite adventuring and steampunk-themed resource management and mech-bot warfare.

Bourassa notes that while it looks straightforward at first, it's actually a deeply layered experience. "They do a lot of interesting things with the mechanics at all levels," he says, "and I found the meta-game quite engaging." 

The player gathers resources from the tile-matching mode, which they soon learn how to use to engage in full-on turn-based mech combat that involves a range of abilities and strategic and tactical decisions. If they lose a battle, it's game over, but certain upgrades and unlocked mech pilots remain so that they can still feel a sense of progress. All the game's complexity is metered out in such a way that you have time to get comfortable with new mechanics before your skill with them is tested. And the upgrades enable new strategies rather than simply incrementing the power of your weapons and shields.  

TAKEAWAY: You can ease players into complexity and surprise them at the same time by starting simple then repeatedly upping the stakes and stripping back the layers underlying the gameplay systems.

The original Super Mario Bros remains a masterclass in game design, and a big part of that is the expert manner in which its difficulty ebbs and flows — a small spike at the beginning followed by a gentle upward curve that has additional spikes at the end of each of its eight worlds (as Mario nears and then battles the world boss). 

It's also a great example of how to teach a player without tutorials. "It introduced most of the core concepts in World 1-1," says Schreiber. It didn't explicitly explain anything, but rather left the player to explore and discover the mechanics simply by trying things.

You may not go into the game knowing that enemies die when you jump on their heads and that blocks with question marks on them give coins or items (or what those items do), but you can stumble on these concepts within seconds and extend your understanding of how they work over the duration of the game. 

TAKEAWAY: Classic games still hold great lessons in game design, and Super Mario Bros in particular is a shining example of how to quickly introduce the core concepts and then playfully explore their permutations over the rest of the game.

There's no point developing a great game mechanic if only a tiny percentage of players can figure out how to use it. If you're striving for challenge, be fair, and remember to allow players some time to acclimatize to their new-found skills. You need to both give your player the appropriate tools and teach them how to use these tools before you ask them to scale a cliff or make a seemingly-impossible leap. 

If you're not trying to make a difficult game, remember that great learning curves should have small spikes along the way to challenge players and test their mastery of the mechanics or to introduce new mechanics. 

Most importantly, consider that teaching people how to play your game is not just a matter of telling them what to do and then leaving them alone. Nor is it about micro-managing their experience. You need to let them play and experiment and to ensure that when they fail they can understand why. Mistakes and successes alike should improve their mental models of how your systems work. And they should drive your players to get better at your game, not to walk away. 

Thanks to Corey Davis, Chris Bourassa, and Ian Schreiber for their help with putting this article together.

[symbianosgames]

The best games are a slow steady learning process.

They teach and guide while they entertain and challenge. They push players to improve steadily — to master a mechanic not by forcing you to scale a metaphorical wall, but by compelling you to climb a series of metaphorical steps. 

This does not necessarily mean they have great tutorials — indeed, many games with awesome learning curves throw you straight into the experience proper. Nor does it mean that they have to dumb down their design. It's simply a matter of crafting progression systems that allow the player to get a handle on the fundamentals early and then to grow and improve at every stage after that. 

It's not easy to pull this off. To give you some guidance as to how you can execute a brilliant learning curve, we asked several designers to tell us what games they think do it well.

None of the seven examples that follow are easy games, but all of them meter their difficulty with a well-considered learning curve. 

From the moment the player wakes up in protagonist Chell's minimalist living quarters, Portal gently prods her forward. As Global Game Jam co-founder and Rochester Institute of Technology assistant professor Ian Schreiber notes, "the entire game is basically a tutorial on how to beat it, except it expertly frames the learning as gameplay." Portal challenges by crafting puzzles around new mechanics and new applications of existing mechanics.  

It allows all the time players need to get comfortable with the controls or to think about how to solve the next puzzle, and it scales the difficulty by simply incrementing the complexity.

What you learn in completing one puzzle is needed to figure out the next one, and you have environmental cues that indicate what you need to learn or do (though not how to do it). Some cues are subtle such as the position of sentry turrets, while others are obviously instructional like the warning signs at the entrance to each test chamber. And thanks to these cues there's a clear progression from using portals to walk through a wall to using them for high-speed platforming. 

TAKEAWAY: You can simultaneously teach and challenge players at the same time if you weave the learning experience into the environment and level design.

All of the Burnout games do a fine job of introducing faster cars and tougher races and challenges at a comfortable pace. But one deserves special praise.

"I absolutely loved Burnout 3," says Corey Davis, design director at Rocket League developer Psyonix. "The pace of acquiring more powerful cars lined up really well with my mastery of the boost system, crashing opponents, and track knowledge." 

Each new car is just the right amount faster and stronger than the previous one to maintain an even challenge level and not pull the player out of their depth. The crafted tracks and frantic high-speed tussles with rival racers grow more intense as the player progresses, and there's a rewarding and fun experience for anyone to find — veteran racing junkies, casual fans, and newcomers alike.  

TAKEAWAY: You need to constantly test players and push them to execute tougher maneuvers as they improve their mastery of the core mechanics, but there's a fine line to straddle here if you want to keep both inexperienced and experienced players engaged from start to finish.

Much like a real instrument, Guitar Hero offers an intensely satisfying learning curve. It arguably even outdoes a real guitar in this respect, as it provides more useful feedback and gave the player ways to play along to their favorite songs regardless of skill level — the chosen difficulty level affects the number of notes to play and fret buttons to hit. It also adds an extra layer of progression by dividing songs into a "setlist" of increasing difficulty — so the challenge ramps up song by song as well as by difficulty level. 

Davis praises this design decision. "I never felt like it was cheap; it felt purely like I needed to get better," he says. And the feedback loops both on the screen during play and intrinsic to the challenge of mastering the twin difficulty systems combine beautifully with the simple joy of making music — of mastering hit rock songs. 

TAKEAWAY: Multi-tiered learning curves can let players control their own challenge level and rate of progress, and also provide a clearer indication of how much harder the next stage will be.

To someone who's heard about but not played the infamously-difficult Dark Souls, it may seem like a strange inclusion in this list. But extreme challenge and a good learning curve are not mutually exclusive. "The difficulty escalates very nicely," says Red Hook Studios creative director Chris Bourassa. 

"Just as you start feeling overwhelmed, you find yourself back in Firelink Shrine," he continues. "It's a clever use of the town hub as a thematic downbeat, and works like a chapter break in the game. As you catch your breath, you can look forward to a meaty jump in difficulty as you set off to the next area, followed by another smooth curve."

Cthulhu Saves the World designer Robert Boyd made a similar point in his 2012 analysis of Dark Souls' design

TAKEAWAY: High difficulty does not necessarily equate to a too-steep learning curve, as Dark Souls exemplifies.

Bourassa also praises the learning curve of real-time strategy/action-RPG hybrid Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Specifically, he was drawn in by its tension between threat and empowerment. It gives the player confidence to try things and to experiment with new combinations of strategies thanks to a steady trickle of loot and new units. "I always felt confident heading into the missions," says Bourassa, "even when that confidence was misplaced." 

The smaller-scale structure of Dawn of War II's campaign missions in comparison to traditional RTS games helps, too. Short missions with small groups of units battling other small groups (and little or no base building) reduce the need to master micro-management and instead allow the player to learn and adapt as the situation demands. The skirmish multiplayer mode doesn't share this well-balanced learning curve, though, as it's too different to the campaign for knowledge transfer and new players tend to get annihilated. 

TAKEAWAY: A good learning curve balances danger or challenge with player empowerment; it gives the player a taste of both failure and victory and makes either feel like a learning experience.

Ironcast is the rare genre-mashup game that gets the blended elements to fit together. It's a Puzzle Quest-inspired tile-matching puzzler with a touch of roguelite adventuring and steampunk-themed resource management and mech-bot warfare.

Bourassa notes that while it looks straightforward at first, it's actually a deeply layered experience. "They do a lot of interesting things with the mechanics at all levels," he says, "and I found the meta-game quite engaging." 

The player gathers resources from the tile-matching mode, which they soon learn how to use to engage in full-on turn-based mech combat that involves a range of abilities and strategic and tactical decisions. If they lose a battle, it's game over, but certain upgrades and unlocked mech pilots remain so that they can still feel a sense of progress. All the game's complexity is metered out in such a way that you have time to get comfortable with new mechanics before your skill with them is tested. And the upgrades enable new strategies rather than simply incrementing the power of your weapons and shields.  

TAKEAWAY: You can ease players into complexity and surprise them at the same time by starting simple then repeatedly upping the stakes and stripping back the layers underlying the gameplay systems.

The original Super Mario Bros remains a masterclass in game design, and a big part of that is the expert manner in which its difficulty ebbs and flows — a small spike at the beginning followed by a gentle upward curve that has additional spikes at the end of each of its eight worlds (as Mario nears and then battles the world boss). 

It's also a great example of how to teach a player without tutorials. "It introduced most of the core concepts in World 1-1," says Schreiber. It didn't explicitly explain anything, but rather left the player to explore and discover the mechanics simply by trying things.

You may not go into the game knowing that enemies die when you jump on their heads and that blocks with question marks on them give coins or items (or what those items do), but you can stumble on these concepts within seconds and extend your understanding of how they work over the duration of the game. 

TAKEAWAY: Classic games still hold great lessons in game design, and Super Mario Bros in particular is a shining example of how to quickly introduce the core concepts and then playfully explore their permutations over the rest of the game.

There's no point developing a great game mechanic if only a tiny percentage of players can figure out how to use it. If you're striving for challenge, be fair, and remember to allow players some time to acclimatize to their new-found skills. You need to both give your player the appropriate tools and teach them how to use these tools before you ask them to scale a cliff or make a seemingly-impossible leap. 

If you're not trying to make a difficult game, remember that great learning curves should have small spikes along the way to challenge players and test their mastery of the mechanics or to introduce new mechanics. 

Most importantly, consider that teaching people how to play your game is not just a matter of telling them what to do and then leaving them alone. Nor is it about micro-managing their experience. You need to let them play and experiment and to ensure that when they fail they can understand why. Mistakes and successes alike should improve their mental models of how your systems work. And they should drive your players to get better at your game, not to walk away. 

Thanks to Corey Davis, Chris Bourassa, and Ian Schreiber for their help with putting this article together.

[symbianosgames]

The best games are a slow steady learning process.

They teach and guide while they entertain and challenge. They push players to improve steadily — to master a mechanic not by forcing you to scale a metaphorical wall, but by compelling you to climb a series of metaphorical steps. 

This does not necessarily mean they have great tutorials — indeed, many games with awesome learning curves throw you straight into the experience proper. Nor does it mean that they have to dumb down their design. It's simply a matter of crafting progression systems that allow the player to get a handle on the fundamentals early and then to grow and improve at every stage after that. 

It's not easy to pull this off. To give you some guidance as to how you can execute a brilliant learning curve, we asked several designers to tell us what games they think do it well.

None of the seven examples that follow are easy games, but all of them meter their difficulty with a well-considered learning curve. 

From the moment the player wakes up in protagonist Chell's minimalist living quarters, Portal gently prods her forward. As Global Game Jam co-founder and Rochester Institute of Technology assistant professor Ian Schreiber notes, "the entire game is basically a tutorial on how to beat it, except it expertly frames the learning as gameplay." Portal challenges by crafting puzzles around new mechanics and new applications of existing mechanics.  

It allows all the time players need to get comfortable with the controls or to think about how to solve the next puzzle, and it scales the difficulty by simply incrementing the complexity.

What you learn in completing one puzzle is needed to figure out the next one, and you have environmental cues that indicate what you need to learn or do (though not how to do it). Some cues are subtle such as the position of sentry turrets, while others are obviously instructional like the warning signs at the entrance to each test chamber. And thanks to these cues there's a clear progression from using portals to walk through a wall to using them for high-speed platforming. 

TAKEAWAY: You can simultaneously teach and challenge players at the same time if you weave the learning experience into the environment and level design.

All of the Burnout games do a fine job of introducing faster cars and tougher races and challenges at a comfortable pace. But one deserves special praise.

"I absolutely loved Burnout 3," says Corey Davis, design director at Rocket League developer Psyonix. "The pace of acquiring more powerful cars lined up really well with my mastery of the boost system, crashing opponents, and track knowledge." 

Each new car is just the right amount faster and stronger than the previous one to maintain an even challenge level and not pull the player out of their depth. The crafted tracks and frantic high-speed tussles with rival racers grow more intense as the player progresses, and there's a rewarding and fun experience for anyone to find — veteran racing junkies, casual fans, and newcomers alike.  

TAKEAWAY: You need to constantly test players and push them to execute tougher maneuvers as they improve their mastery of the core mechanics, but there's a fine line to straddle here if you want to keep both inexperienced and experienced players engaged from start to finish.

Much like a real instrument, Guitar Hero offers an intensely satisfying learning curve. It arguably even outdoes a real guitar in this respect, as it provides more useful feedback and gave the player ways to play along to their favorite songs regardless of skill level — the chosen difficulty level affects the number of notes to play and fret buttons to hit. It also adds an extra layer of progression by dividing songs into a "setlist" of increasing difficulty — so the challenge ramps up song by song as well as by difficulty level. 

Davis praises this design decision. "I never felt like it was cheap; it felt purely like I needed to get better," he says. And the feedback loops both on the screen during play and intrinsic to the challenge of mastering the twin difficulty systems combine beautifully with the simple joy of making music — of mastering hit rock songs. 

TAKEAWAY: Multi-tiered learning curves can let players control their own challenge level and rate of progress, and also provide a clearer indication of how much harder the next stage will be.

To someone who's heard about but not played the infamously-difficult Dark Souls, it may seem like a strange inclusion in this list. But extreme challenge and a good learning curve are not mutually exclusive. "The difficulty escalates very nicely," says Red Hook Studios creative director Chris Bourassa. 

"Just as you start feeling overwhelmed, you find yourself back in Firelink Shrine," he continues. "It's a clever use of the town hub as a thematic downbeat, and works like a chapter break in the game. As you catch your breath, you can look forward to a meaty jump in difficulty as you set off to the next area, followed by another smooth curve."

Cthulhu Saves the World designer Robert Boyd made a similar point in his 2012 analysis of Dark Souls' design

TAKEAWAY: High difficulty does not necessarily equate to a too-steep learning curve, as Dark Souls exemplifies.

Bourassa also praises the learning curve of real-time strategy/action-RPG hybrid Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Specifically, he was drawn in by its tension between threat and empowerment. It gives the player confidence to try things and to experiment with new combinations of strategies thanks to a steady trickle of loot and new units. "I always felt confident heading into the missions," says Bourassa, "even when that confidence was misplaced." 

The smaller-scale structure of Dawn of War II's campaign missions in comparison to traditional RTS games helps, too. Short missions with small groups of units battling other small groups (and little or no base building) reduce the need to master micro-management and instead allow the player to learn and adapt as the situation demands. The skirmish multiplayer mode doesn't share this well-balanced learning curve, though, as it's too different to the campaign for knowledge transfer and new players tend to get annihilated. 

TAKEAWAY: A good learning curve balances danger or challenge with player empowerment; it gives the player a taste of both failure and victory and makes either feel like a learning experience.

Ironcast is the rare genre-mashup game that gets the blended elements to fit together. It's a Puzzle Quest-inspired tile-matching puzzler with a touch of roguelite adventuring and steampunk-themed resource management and mech-bot warfare.

Bourassa notes that while it looks straightforward at first, it's actually a deeply layered experience. "They do a lot of interesting things with the mechanics at all levels," he says, "and I found the meta-game quite engaging." 

The player gathers resources from the tile-matching mode, which they soon learn how to use to engage in full-on turn-based mech combat that involves a range of abilities and strategic and tactical decisions. If they lose a battle, it's game over, but certain upgrades and unlocked mech pilots remain so that they can still feel a sense of progress. All the game's complexity is metered out in such a way that you have time to get comfortable with new mechanics before your skill with them is tested. And the upgrades enable new strategies rather than simply incrementing the power of your weapons and shields.  

TAKEAWAY: You can ease players into complexity and surprise them at the same time by starting simple then repeatedly upping the stakes and stripping back the layers underlying the gameplay systems.

The original Super Mario Bros remains a masterclass in game design, and a big part of that is the expert manner in which its difficulty ebbs and flows — a small spike at the beginning followed by a gentle upward curve that has additional spikes at the end of each of its eight worlds (as Mario nears and then battles the world boss). 

It's also a great example of how to teach a player without tutorials. "It introduced most of the core concepts in World 1-1," says Schreiber. It didn't explicitly explain anything, but rather left the player to explore and discover the mechanics simply by trying things.

You may not go into the game knowing that enemies die when you jump on their heads and that blocks with question marks on them give coins or items (or what those items do), but you can stumble on these concepts within seconds and extend your understanding of how they work over the duration of the game. 

TAKEAWAY: Classic games still hold great lessons in game design, and Super Mario Bros in particular is a shining example of how to quickly introduce the core concepts and then playfully explore their permutations over the rest of the game.

There's no point developing a great game mechanic if only a tiny percentage of players can figure out how to use it. If you're striving for challenge, be fair, and remember to allow players some time to acclimatize to their new-found skills. You need to both give your player the appropriate tools and teach them how to use these tools before you ask them to scale a cliff or make a seemingly-impossible leap. 

If you're not trying to make a difficult game, remember that great learning curves should have small spikes along the way to challenge players and test their mastery of the mechanics or to introduce new mechanics. 

Most importantly, consider that teaching people how to play your game is not just a matter of telling them what to do and then leaving them alone. Nor is it about micro-managing their experience. You need to let them play and experiment and to ensure that when they fail they can understand why. Mistakes and successes alike should improve their mental models of how your systems work. And they should drive your players to get better at your game, not to walk away. 

Thanks to Corey Davis, Chris Bourassa, and Ian Schreiber for their help with putting this article together.

[symbianosgames]

The best games are a slow steady learning process.

They teach and guide while they entertain and challenge. They push players to improve steadily — to master a mechanic not by forcing you to scale a metaphorical wall, but by compelling you to climb a series of metaphorical steps. 

This does not necessarily mean they have great tutorials — indeed, many games with awesome learning curves throw you straight into the experience proper. Nor does it mean that they have to dumb down their design. It's simply a matter of crafting progression systems that allow the player to get a handle on the fundamentals early and then to grow and improve at every stage after that. 

It's not easy to pull this off. To give you some guidance as to how you can execute a brilliant learning curve, we asked several designers to tell us what games they think do it well.

None of the seven examples that follow are easy games, but all of them meter their difficulty with a well-considered learning curve. 

From the moment the player wakes up in protagonist Chell's minimalist living quarters, Portal gently prods her forward. As Global Game Jam co-founder and Rochester Institute of Technology assistant professor Ian Schreiber notes, "the entire game is basically a tutorial on how to beat it, except it expertly frames the learning as gameplay." Portal challenges by crafting puzzles around new mechanics and new applications of existing mechanics.  

It allows all the time players need to get comfortable with the controls or to think about how to solve the next puzzle, and it scales the difficulty by simply incrementing the complexity.

What you learn in completing one puzzle is needed to figure out the next one, and you have environmental cues that indicate what you need to learn or do (though not how to do it). Some cues are subtle such as the position of sentry turrets, while others are obviously instructional like the warning signs at the entrance to each test chamber. And thanks to these cues there's a clear progression from using portals to walk through a wall to using them for high-speed platforming. 

TAKEAWAY: You can simultaneously teach and challenge players at the same time if you weave the learning experience into the environment and level design.

All of the Burnout games do a fine job of introducing faster cars and tougher races and challenges at a comfortable pace. But one deserves special praise.

"I absolutely loved Burnout 3," says Corey Davis, design director at Rocket League developer Psyonix. "The pace of acquiring more powerful cars lined up really well with my mastery of the boost system, crashing opponents, and track knowledge." 

Each new car is just the right amount faster and stronger than the previous one to maintain an even challenge level and not pull the player out of their depth. The crafted tracks and frantic high-speed tussles with rival racers grow more intense as the player progresses, and there's a rewarding and fun experience for anyone to find — veteran racing junkies, casual fans, and newcomers alike.  

TAKEAWAY: You need to constantly test players and push them to execute tougher maneuvers as they improve their mastery of the core mechanics, but there's a fine line to straddle here if you want to keep both inexperienced and experienced players engaged from start to finish.

Much like a real instrument, Guitar Hero offers an intensely satisfying learning curve. It arguably even outdoes a real guitar in this respect, as it provides more useful feedback and gave the player ways to play along to their favorite songs regardless of skill level — the chosen difficulty level affects the number of notes to play and fret buttons to hit. It also adds an extra layer of progression by dividing songs into a "setlist" of increasing difficulty — so the challenge ramps up song by song as well as by difficulty level. 

Davis praises this design decision. "I never felt like it was cheap; it felt purely like I needed to get better," he says. And the feedback loops both on the screen during play and intrinsic to the challenge of mastering the twin difficulty systems combine beautifully with the simple joy of making music — of mastering hit rock songs. 

TAKEAWAY: Multi-tiered learning curves can let players control their own challenge level and rate of progress, and also provide a clearer indication of how much harder the next stage will be.

To someone who's heard about but not played the infamously-difficult Dark Souls, it may seem like a strange inclusion in this list. But extreme challenge and a good learning curve are not mutually exclusive. "The difficulty escalates very nicely," says Red Hook Studios creative director Chris Bourassa. 

"Just as you start feeling overwhelmed, you find yourself back in Firelink Shrine," he continues. "It's a clever use of the town hub as a thematic downbeat, and works like a chapter break in the game. As you catch your breath, you can look forward to a meaty jump in difficulty as you set off to the next area, followed by another smooth curve."

Cthulhu Saves the World designer Robert Boyd made a similar point in his 2012 analysis of Dark Souls' design

TAKEAWAY: High difficulty does not necessarily equate to a too-steep learning curve, as Dark Souls exemplifies.

Bourassa also praises the learning curve of real-time strategy/action-RPG hybrid Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Specifically, he was drawn in by its tension between threat and empowerment. It gives the player confidence to try things and to experiment with new combinations of strategies thanks to a steady trickle of loot and new units. "I always felt confident heading into the missions," says Bourassa, "even when that confidence was misplaced." 

The smaller-scale structure of Dawn of War II's campaign missions in comparison to traditional RTS games helps, too. Short missions with small groups of units battling other small groups (and little or no base building) reduce the need to master micro-management and instead allow the player to learn and adapt as the situation demands. The skirmish multiplayer mode doesn't share this well-balanced learning curve, though, as it's too different to the campaign for knowledge transfer and new players tend to get annihilated. 

TAKEAWAY: A good learning curve balances danger or challenge with player empowerment; it gives the player a taste of both failure and victory and makes either feel like a learning experience.

Ironcast is the rare genre-mashup game that gets the blended elements to fit together. It's a Puzzle Quest-inspired tile-matching puzzler with a touch of roguelite adventuring and steampunk-themed resource management and mech-bot warfare.

Bourassa notes that while it looks straightforward at first, it's actually a deeply layered experience. "They do a lot of interesting things with the mechanics at all levels," he says, "and I found the meta-game quite engaging." 

The player gathers resources from the tile-matching mode, which they soon learn how to use to engage in full-on turn-based mech combat that involves a range of abilities and strategic and tactical decisions. If they lose a battle, it's game over, but certain upgrades and unlocked mech pilots remain so that they can still feel a sense of progress. All the game's complexity is metered out in such a way that you have time to get comfortable with new mechanics before your skill with them is tested. And the upgrades enable new strategies rather than simply incrementing the power of your weapons and shields.  

TAKEAWAY: You can ease players into complexity and surprise them at the same time by starting simple then repeatedly upping the stakes and stripping back the layers underlying the gameplay systems.

The original Super Mario Bros remains a masterclass in game design, and a big part of that is the expert manner in which its difficulty ebbs and flows — a small spike at the beginning followed by a gentle upward curve that has additional spikes at the end of each of its eight worlds (as Mario nears and then battles the world boss). 

It's also a great example of how to teach a player without tutorials. "It introduced most of the core concepts in World 1-1," says Schreiber. It didn't explicitly explain anything, but rather left the player to explore and discover the mechanics simply by trying things.

You may not go into the game knowing that enemies die when you jump on their heads and that blocks with question marks on them give coins or items (or what those items do), but you can stumble on these concepts within seconds and extend your understanding of how they work over the duration of the game. 

TAKEAWAY: Classic games still hold great lessons in game design, and Super Mario Bros in particular is a shining example of how to quickly introduce the core concepts and then playfully explore their permutations over the rest of the game.

There's no point developing a great game mechanic if only a tiny percentage of players can figure out how to use it. If you're striving for challenge, be fair, and remember to allow players some time to acclimatize to their new-found skills. You need to both give your player the appropriate tools and teach them how to use these tools before you ask them to scale a cliff or make a seemingly-impossible leap. 

If you're not trying to make a difficult game, remember that great learning curves should have small spikes along the way to challenge players and test their mastery of the mechanics or to introduce new mechanics. 

Most importantly, consider that teaching people how to play your game is not just a matter of telling them what to do and then leaving them alone. Nor is it about micro-managing their experience. You need to let them play and experiment and to ensure that when they fail they can understand why. Mistakes and successes alike should improve their mental models of how your systems work. And they should drive your players to get better at your game, not to walk away. 

Thanks to Corey Davis, Chris Bourassa, and Ian Schreiber for their help with putting this article together.