Why Soulcaster 3 Will Not Have Persistence Between Runs

I’m a big fan of generosity in game design. My past games have all had infinite lives and quick respawns. So get ready for a break from tradition:

When you die in Soulcaster 3, you lose everything.

There are no unlockables or upgrades you can take with you to make the next run easier or different.

But why, Ian, WHY…?

I realize how polarizing this is. AAA companies spend a lot of money on market research and focus testing, and they are pretty much all in agreement on game presentation: tell the player exactly what they do next, and if they make a mistake or die in the process, start them about five seconds back.  I have no doubt this is how most people like their game experience. It especially makes sense to cater to this if you’re spending $50 million making the game.

It seems like indies are given a bit more license to be brutally difficult. I’m not sure why, but maybe it’s just that those of us who don’t much like the “Disneyland ride” game experience are happy to get a bone thrown our way. So I’m taking this license and running with it, perhaps to an abusive level. (Generosity is not completely dead, either… more on that at the end.)