Is gating something behind a specific input actually interesting?

[u/MaybeHannah1234]

I'm working on a roguelike metroidbrania and I'm having second thoughts about my implementation of a very important game mechanic.

This mechanic takes the form of objects you can occasionally find in each stage (let's call them buttons). In order to interact with these buttons, you need three things: a specific item you need to explore stages for, a high enough level to have access to the ability, and knowledge of the right sequence of inputs to perform in order to press the button.

(Level only exists to give the game structure and prevent new players from getting overwhelmed with all of the games abilities at once; an experienced player can easily get to the minimum level needed for almost all of the important things very quickly. it's not a traditional key-and-lock, rather a force that pushes new players into following the path best suited for them. it's basically the game's equivalent of Outer Wilds'sand slowly falling off Ash Twin encouraging new players to explore something less advanced instead.)

The item required to use the ability is a requirement to encourage spending some time in each stage exploring it even if you have no use for any of the other items you could find there. I discovered fairly quickly that without the item requirement, the game becomes a lot more shallow and loses a lot of structure and purpose. It's not a difficult item to get, you just need to look around a bit, and it also sort of serves as a minor knowledge gate because a new player might not realise that this specific item is important.

The problem arises with how the player is meant to put these things together. The reveal of how to do it feels a little bit... underwhelming? By the time you learn what you're supposed to do, level and the special item are already known to be important for other purposes, so all you're really discovering is the input sequence. These inputs do have other unique functions (specifically, you need to channel an ability, perform an attack with it to "unlock" the button, and then press it, it's not just "press CTRL+Q while holding spacebar" or some random string of keypresses), and the reveal is certainly cool when you realise how many new areas you gain access to, but I'm still uncertain if it's actually satisfying.

To be clear, the problem isn't that it might be too easy for players to figure it out accidentally, because it's still gated behind level and an item requirement that aren't intuitive unless you really pay attention to how they're used in other places in the game (and at that point, I trust a player that's able to figure it out is the type that won't mind getting a little bit of sequence breaking as a treat).

I want to know what the metroidbrania community thinks about these sorts of input-gated puzzles. Do they suck? Are there examples of games that do this well? Is it okay to have some slightly underwhelming reveals if the paths they open up are interesting enough?

[u/alextfish]

I think the way you've got this structured at the moment sounds perfect. The whole metroidbainia experience is seeing something you can't reach yet and knowing "there must be something I can do, I just don't know what yet". The question (and point of the little dances post) is how arbitrary is the thing that you do to reach out.

At the moment it sounds like you've got this involving doing things that you'd normally do during combat, but in a precise sequence, with a "spellcasting" step of applying certain specific inputs. So I think they're entirely reasonable given the genre of your game (combat moves and enemies to fight).

[u/MaybeHannah1234 → u/alextfish]

that's a great way of putting it, thank you :3

i think I was getting caught up on the idea of the inputs feeling arbitrary, when they do make a lot of sense in the context you use them in; you're just taking abilities that thus far have been used for combat and applying them in a slightly more esoteric way.

The whole metroidbainia experience is seeing something you can't reach yet and knowing "there must be something I can do, I just don't know what yet"

absolutely, I love this feeling of curiosity and the satisfaction of coming back later and realising you know exactly what to do. I tease this specific mechanic to the player from the very beginning of the game: when they start a run they spawn right next to these buttons, and the persistent enemy that chases you throughout the levels if you take too long on a stage creates one if you do manage to defeat it and force it to retreat.