Is difficulty of implementation really a reliable indicator for the complexity in players understanding the mechanic?
Jonathan Blow did a talk[1] at GDC a few years ago about implementing the time rewind mechanic in his game, Braid. It ended up being a pretty complex system that required a lot of ingenuity to come up with a design and implement it, but the end result is pretty straightforward and easy to understand for players.
I propose that it depends on why it's difficult to implement. If the behaviour is easy to explain in English but requires a complex technical solution to enable it then that's one matter.
However, if you struggle to even describe the behaviour in English then it is a good indicator that users may struggle to understand it too.
I am assuming this is the case here. It may be that the OP had a very clear idea of how the gravity and all its edge cases would hang together but just struggled to code it. I interpreted the article's wording differently.
I do think not being able to simply describe a key game mechanic in natural language is indicative that it may be hard for users to deduce too.
Comments
Is difficulty of implementation really a reliable indicator for the complexity in players understanding the mechanic?
Jonathan Blow did a talk[1] at GDC a few years ago about implementing the time rewind mechanic in his game, Braid. It ended up being a pretty complex system that required a lot of ingenuity to come up with a design and implement it, but the end result is pretty straightforward and easy to understand for players.
[1] https://youtu.be/8dinUbg2h70
I propose that it depends on why it's difficult to implement. If the behaviour is easy to explain in English but requires a complex technical solution to enable it then that's one matter.
However, if you struggle to even describe the behaviour in English then it is a good indicator that users may struggle to understand it too.
I am assuming this is the case here. It may be that the OP had a very clear idea of how the gravity and all its edge cases would hang together but just struggled to code it. I interpreted the article's wording differently.
I do think not being able to simply describe a key game mechanic in natural language is indicative that it may be hard for users to deduce too.