Returnal Director: Games Should Be Accessible but Not Too Easy
During a recent podcast, Returnal director Harry Krueger shared that the studio can always "do more" regarding accessibility in games, although he emphasized that too simple games without a challenge can lose their appeal.
As part of the recent PS I Love You XOXO podcast, Harry Krueger, the executive director behind the PlayStation 5 hit exclusive Returnal, discussed the game's difficulty and the way Housemarque can make its games more accessible.
According to the director, the question of the "sweet spot" between difficulty and accessibility will always be one of the most important. He shared that the studio can always "do more" regarding accessibility in games, although the solution always depends on the specific game.
"We ... could always add more support for different ways to play the game and different control methods. I think when it comes to the difficulty I think it is a question of what kind of experience you are having with Returnal", Krueger said.
The director also noted that the company has nothing against the difficulty settings, as they were in the studio's previous releases. However, he emphasized that there was no place for them in Returnal. Krueger also expressed his concern implying that too simple games without a challenge can lose their appeal. "In many ways, the story and the gameplay are very inseparable in Returnal," he stated.
As an example, he spoke about the Returnal's protagonist, Celine: "She is talking about dying over and over and how these are insurmountable odds, and she can’t keep going on, and there’s this descent into madness that is happening purely because of the challenges she’s facing, and her challenges are the player’s challenges as well in many ways."
Krueger emphasized that the entire concept of the game and its story were based on what kind of hardships the player must face saying that with every death something always changes in the game's world, so the race for "one life" would be inferior in terms of the narrative.
"The game was designed around the expectations that players would be dying. ... The more you die, the more the game opens up to you in many ways," Krueger said. "So, you get new items at the beginning from the Cthonos device, you get new house sequences, you get new audio logs, new items. And the game does evolve with you the more you die, it acknowledges your struggle in many ways."
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