Designing Games for Every Skill Level

A thriving gaming community embraces players of all skill levels. Flexible game design allows for diverse playstyles and encourages connections across skill gaps, making the experience more enjoyable for everyone and boosting engagement.

If not taken into consideration, skill gaps between players can create barriers to enjoyment. Frustrated beginners may resort to disruptive behavior, while experienced players might find themselves bored. This can lead to a less welcoming, and ultimately less healthy, gaming community.

Inclusive design principles

Inclusive game design prioritizes enjoyable experiences for everyone, regardless of skill level. By implementing these techniques, you can create a wider range of entry points and foster a thriving community:

Enemy variety — Design a spectrum of enemies, offering both manageable foes for new players and challenging adversaries for veterans. Think “trash mobs” and bosses in RPGs, or basic enemies and specialists in shooters.
Meaningful contributions — Ensure everyone always has engaging tasks for their skill level. This reduces boredom and the urge to resort to fun at others expense. Consider roles like healers, resource gatherers, or puzzle-solvers, who contribute beyond raw combat skill.
Discreet assistance — Offer struggling players personalized tips or tutorials without public shaming. Some games subtly buff struggling players over time, while others provide personalized hints.
Engage the community — Consider ways to encourage and reward experienced players who effectively mentor new teammates. This also helps create a culture of support and openly acknowledges an acceptable learning curve.

In Left 4 Dead 2, dynamic and personalized tutorial prompt — In *Left 4 Dead 2*, dynamic and personalized tutorial prompts helped players learn the game and reacquaint themselves after a break. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Positive reinforcement

Celebrate achievements and contributions, not just raw skill. Highlight teamwork, support actions, and unique plays to foster collaboration:

Positive metrics — Avoid highlighting individual failures publicly. Celebrate top performers, but offer a range of ways for everyone to shine. Focus stats on support, teamwork, or unique contributions to foster a collaborative mentality.
Shared experience over skill — Compatibility can be about playstyle, goals, and mood; not just raw ability. Reassess how your game prioritizes these qualities. Overcooked encourages cooperation above pure skills mastery, for instance.
Role diversity — Offer specialized roles catering to different comfort levels and personalities. Ensure all roles are interesting and engaging for their target audience. Support roles may have less pressure, while complex roles let veterans thrive.

Balancing the playing field

Great games can cater to players of many abilities. Look for ways to bridge skill gaps in a way that feels natural and avoids stigmatizing lower-skilled players. This could involve offering separate difficulty settings, integrated tutorials, or mentorship programs that foster learning and collaboration.

Balancing acts — Subsystems like catch-up boosts or “rubber banding” (Mario Kart franchise) or strategic handicaps (chess) can be controversial, but offer a tool for leveling the playing field in casual settings and keeping the game engaging for all players. Transparency is key. Consider allowing players to opt-in to mixed-skill accommodations.
Skill-appropriate aids — Implement tools like mini-maps, enemy indicators, or smart communication systems to ease common difficulties for some players. These should be optional features, allowing skilled players to seek a greater challenge.
Dynamic difficulty — Consider automatically adjusting difficulty based on player performance. Enemy health, damage output, attack patterns, or even enemy spawns can dynamically change in real-time to match the player’s skill level. This approach allows a series of escalations and de-escalations tailored for the current players without requiring manual adjustments. (See: Left 4 Dead 2‘s Director system, Warframe‘s AI Director)
Optional difficulty selection — Offer players the option to choose their desired difficulty level from the outset, allowing skilled players to test themselves with a tougher experience right from the start. This can be either an explicit difficulty setting or a more organic one, like in Dark Souls where players can choose to engage with powerful early-game enemies.
Skill-based matchmaking – Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) helps ensure fair matches in many games. These systems adapt as players improve, continuously matching them with opponents of similar skill levels.

Screenshot from Warframe — *Warframe*‘s AI director helps dynamically pace the experience to suit how players are playing. Image courtesy of press kit.

Additional design considerations

More than skill

Even with robust skill matching, remember that players seek more than just a perfectly balanced match. It’s worth asking yourself:

Do mechanics reward diverse skill sets, or does one tactic dominate even in balanced matches?
How forgiving is the game of mistakes? Can a skilled player still enjoy themself while underperforming?
Are there ways for groups to play together enjoyably even with skill gaps? Unranked modes, team-based objectives, or systems that subtly adjust difficulty can help.

Adaptive difficulty

While adaptive difficulty can risk undermining challenge by rewarding suboptimal play, it’s important to remember the implicit understanding between developers and their intended audience. Players who seek out a challenging game are unlikely to deliberately sabotage their own experience.

The key is ensuring that adaptive systems work well for the core audience. If some players choose to “game the system” for an easier time, that shouldn’t detract from the features being enjoyable for those who want a dynamic challenge. This is especially true in non-competitive settings where individual choices don’t impact others’ experiences.

Reframe defeat as a mode change

Despite your best efforts, sometimes players are just going to get knocked out easily. Consider creative ways to keep easily eliminated players engaged and part of the action by switching their mode of play. In elimination-based games, this can also help reduce the chance of frustrated players taking their losses out on the next team by encouraging them to stick around and offering a greater sense of accomplishment.