Croissantpillars are as tough as the Scorpion Rider?? 😅

[Johnny Go-Time]

Considering how savagely the Scorpion Rider beats me almost every time....
....I can't believe only 20% of players have the "Defeat all 4 Croissantpillar variants" achievement, while a mighty 18% of players have beaten the Scorpion Rider!

Only 2% difference - once this game gets its hooks in you, they are deep 😄

[YetiChow]

I think that's more likely to be due to a previous bug with the Croissantpillars where it wouldn't count them properly; anyone who defeated the main boss/"finished the demo" and stopped playing before that bug was patched will likely be dragging the average down.

I do agree that the Origins version of the game is very easy to keep picking up new runs and just keep playing; it's quick to start a new run and there's no "barrier to entry" because you just hit the start button. I imagine that the full game with character selection and possibly meta-progression will be a slightly different story; it'll have a lot more replayability but ironically that doesn't always lead to more engagement -- humans typically like simple challenges with a quick turnaround on the reward; making the challenge more complex will make it more rewarding for those who maintain engagement, but not everyone actually wants that from a game. The simpler and faster it is to start a new game, the more it'll dig its hooks in; more buttons and choices = more effort to start that run = less immediate reward loop (it feels like more "wasted effort" if you go through all that and the run ends suddenly; whereas if it's a single button to get started then you don't really care if the run dies immediately.)

[Jacque in di beaux]

Originally posted by Johnny Go-Time:

Considering how savagely the Scorpion Rider beats me almost every time....
....I can't believe only 20% of players have the "Defeat all 4 Croissantpillar variants" achievement, while a mighty 18% of players have beaten the Scorpion Rider!

Only 2% difference - once this game gets its hooks in you, they are deep 😄

No offense but that achievement was bugged a while ago it was just recently fixed. That's why there's only 20% of steam players that obtained the achievement right now. (check the patch notes if you don't believe me btw)

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by YetiChow:

I do agree that the Origins version of the game is very easy to keep picking up new runs and just keep playing; it's quick to start a new run and there's no "barrier to entry" because you just hit the start button. I imagine that the full game with character selection and possibly meta-progression will be a slightly different story; it'll have a lot more replayability but ironically that doesn't always lead to more engagement -- humans typically like simple challenges with a quick turnaround on the reward; making the challenge more complex will make it more rewarding for those who maintain engagement, but not everyone actually wants that from a game. The simpler and faster it is to start a new game, the more it'll dig its hooks in; more buttons and choices = more effort to start that run = less immediate reward loop (it feels like more "wasted effort" if you go through all that and the run ends suddenly; whereas if it's a single button to get started then you don't really care if the run dies immediately.)

You are theoretically not wrong, but in this context you make it sound like the game having a main menu/character select will drive engagement down from excessive complexity, which is nonsense.