Why I didn't get Elden Ring and how it helped me broaden my views. A valuable lesson on Game Design approaches

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The following article is about a valuable lesson I've learned from Elden Ring, how I misunderstood its design, and how it opened up my eyes about different approaches.

The Souls-Like genre was something I always avoided. As I grew older, I've created this mindset of a "busy gamer dad who doesn't want to suffer with difficulty after a workday".


On top of that, I became a bit blinded by Game Design lessons and approaches so I was really really puzzled by the fact that this game and this genre is so popular.
I was no expert by any means. Quite the opposite. I'm an absolute newbie. I've built some games but I never learned design anywhere.
Anyway, I think it's time to jump right into this article.

The first time I booted up Elden Ring - The confusion

So I boot up the game, create my character and start playing. I've read an article a few days before about how "good design" means that there is an interaction between the player and the game. A back and forth. The player asks a question by interacting, and the game reacts in certain ways to answer. If I press a trigger, my player attacks. The game just told me which button I can use for fighting. I go into the first area, Lim Grave. Mind you, I already knew the game is hard, but oh boy. It. Was. Ruthless. It felt like that no matter what I did and how, the game just punishes me and makes a joke out of me for no reason. I had this odd feeling. Like the game pushes me away. Like it DOESN'T want me to play it. At all. So after a while I became more and more annoyed, asking myself "Why is this game rejecting me? It feels so cold and unforgiving. Like it doesn't want me to play. Why should I bother, Elden Ring clearly doesn't want me here. So I stopped. I was convinced (and arrogant enough to say) that the game isn't actually that well made from a game designer point of view and the genre grew into an ego stroking media. But I didn't want to give up. I wanted to atleast understand what the big fuss is about. So I turned to a game design related discord server and asked their opinion about the game.

My post said:
What do you guys think of ELDEN RING ?

For a long time I was frustrated with how the game works and I felt like it doesn't try to communicate with me as a player at all. I'm not a seasoned veteran designer, so I only have vague ideas about what good design is. I'm convinced that a game should EFFECTIVELY communicate clearly towards me what it wants from me. Yes, Elden Ring "won't hold your hand" but is it worth being unforgiving and cold in exchange of this experience? I'm not trying to slander the game or whatever. I just have curiousity and I wish to know more about how "good design" fits into this genre (if this makes any sense)


I have received many many great comments and it truly opened my eyes.
One member said:
"When you say that 'a game should EFFECTIVELY communicate clearly towards me what it wants from me' you're saying more about yourself as a player (and possibly as a designer in the type of games that you want to create) than about the discipline of game design. I can give you another example. Everyone and their mother seemed to love "Outer Wilds" praising it as one of the best games ever - personally I didn't like feeling lost while constantly running against the clock, and would also welcome some direction. And that's fine."
Another industry folk commented: "So if your goal is to learn about "good" design - let's take a step back and realize that evaluating how it made you feel is only part of the analysis you should be doing.
Consider:
  1. What were they trying to accomplish?
  2. How were they trying to accomplish what they were trying to accomplish? Which of these approaches seem successful? Which of these approaches seem dated?
  3. Who are they trying to appeal to (target audience) and are you one of them? If not - is that by accident or on purpose?

As a critic / player - it's entirely valid to say things like 'I don't like this game - here's what they should've changed to make me like this game' If you're trying to learn design though - sometimes you have to go into with the 'They did not make a game for me - nor did they intend to - if I don't like the game - is it on purpose? or is it accidental? The very first boss enemy in Elden Ring outside of the tutorial one or two-shots you. It's a deliberate filter on the rest of the game. It is unabashedly saying - hey, our target audience that we are making this game for - we want to deliver an experience that demands a certain amount of mental fortitude. This is entirely on purpose."

Once I've read these comments I felt so dumb. Lack of experience of course, and the thought of "I've read about good design and it's not this" really led to a skewed view.
I wasn't even considering that the game is designed delibirately to fit into the target audience it already had while also adding some form of support for new-comers.

Dissecting the questions I've received

Let's go ahead and answer the questions I received to be able to see, how Elden Ring's design approach really works.

  1. What were they trying to accomplish?
    2. The designers really wanted this medium to feel like a Souls-Like experience with a huge open world. The game feels cold and unforgiving. "Tarnished" is a really fitting name for us. But I also feel like they wanted this game to be a bit more helpful to newcomers. There are many signs and tools regarding guidance. FromSoftware didn't want to compromise their fanbase for newcomers.
  2. How were they trying to accomplish what they were trying to accomplish? Which of these approaches seem successful? Which of these approaches seem dated?
    3. In order to keep their fanbase while also welcoming newbies was the addition of openworld for leveling up and the usage of summons. Is a boss too difficult? Just go elsewhere! Kill other enemies and level up as much as you want. Each player can gauge their own difficulty. Still too difficult? Use a companion who can fight for you. Or....INVITE another player into your world to help! I find all of these solutions great.
  3. Who are they trying to appeal to (target audience) and are you one of them? If not - is that by accident or on purpose?
    4. In my mind, I feel like there are two target audiences here. Souls-Like fans and the people who always wanted to try them. I was surely one of those people, I just didn't know it yet around that time.

Lessons learned

I think the most important lesson I've learned is to take a step back and try to see what the end vision for a game was. Because if the design choices helped to achive what the developer had in mind, then in my opinion,
the design team has succeded.