u/MrMarco1974

I’ve been having a fascinating debate with my son about modern game design philosophy. Since we represent two different generations of gamers—I grew up in the 70s/80s and designed my last game over 30 years ago when the industry was a completely different world, while he belongs to the modern generation where an endless sea of games means you just drop a title the second it stops being fun—our views on friction and frustration are polar opposites.

To be clear, I'm not looking for someone to design a game for me or hand me a fixed solution! Rather, I’m trying to gain insight into how modern games handle these concepts, what current player expectations look like, and how different generations view these mechanics.

We are currently planning a 2D Jump & Run with Hack & Slash elements. He is heavily inspired by modern precision giants like Hollow Knight (and Silksong), while I draw from classic retro game design.

I understand his perspective—players have choices now, and unnecessary frustration kills retention. However, I struggle with making things too forgiving. I believe a game should offer a genuine, uncompromising challenge, and that certain mechanics (like time pressure or meaningful consequences) are essential.

To give you an idea of how we try to bridge this gap in our design:

• Fall damage & death penalty: I lean toward fall damage from a certain height, and upon death, you must retrieve your dropped items (while keeping core weapons so it doesn't become overwhelmingly punishing).
• Pacing & Anti-Idle: I believe games should apply mild pressure to prevent players from just idling indefinitely instead of pausing, whereas my son prefers absolute freedom without artificial friction.
• Arena waves & pacing: We agreed on a compromise for arena sections: implementing a strict wave and arena cap so active enemies never exceed a designated limit. To prevent stalling, we use a soft-lock timer: if the arena capacity drops below 50% or a specific time elapses, the next wave triggers automatically.
• Level persistence & enemy respawns: We are debating what happens when you quit the game before beating the area boss. If you haven't cleared the boss yet, should defeated standard enemies respawn upon the next game start (forcing you to fight your way through again), or should cleared areas stay cleared to respect the player's progress?

Given the reality of today's market—where attention spans are shorter and the game library is infinite—I wanted to open this up to the community:

• How do you design a 2D action-platformer today that is challenging and respects player time, without falling into the trap of either "unplayable retro frustration" or "instant-gratification boredom"?
• Where is the sweet spot for modern players who love titles like Hollow Knight, but might drop a game if a mechanic feels like a waste of time?

I’m curious to hear how developers and players view this dynamic nowadays.