We’re not leaving things to chance with A Giant Problem. Everything’s on you. Not on you on you, but it is based on your skills.

Or lack thereof.

Chance and skill are intimately tied together in games. Even more so when it comes to an action game like we’re making with A Giant Problem. Which has resulted in certain design decisions. More on that in a minute, first let’s explore the differences between chance and skill and even how luck can factor in.

Skill in action games is tied to your abilities as a player, not those of a character. This is especially true in a VR game like A Giant Problem, where it’s your skill at throwing that impacts the game and your success in it. So as long as you throw an object, you’re always going to throw it.

In many games, particularly tactics games like XCOM 2, your attacks have a chance to hit. This is determined by a dice roll, as designers like to say, given the design is inheriting a lot from table top roleplaying and war games like Dungeons and Dragons. Chance is a way of abstracting skill when reflexes aren’t required to a determine success.

Chance can occur at multiple times. So in terms of Dungeons and Dragons, the first chance you experience is with your attack roll. The second is with the damage roll. Even if the first is successful the second is guaranteed to be. Which results in low damage. That’s fine for a game of DnD or XCOM 2, but not A Giant Problem.

Being a giant comes with a few benefits, beyond being able to reach anything on the top shelf. It means when you hit something, you hit all of it. That’s why we haven’t implemented any weak spots in our enemies. If you’re big when you aim you just hitting something small is a skill.

It’s why we don’t have weak spots on enemies, damage drop off, or glancing blows. Being accurate is the true test of A Giant Problem, especially as numbers mount and the odds are against you. It also embraces the arcade-y nature of the game and makes it fun for all. If we were to have a more specific damage model then things could quickly turn to become like DnD where players have a session where their hits just aren’t hard enough.

And that’s not what being a giant is about. It’s about smashing stuff - fully, completely, wholly. That’s not to say there aren’t other aspects to the game that affect the damage model. But we’ve designed the game so that when you hit something, you really hit it. You’ve gotta have that wallop. You’ve gotta have fun.

So if you want to have fun, and smash, bash and mash stuff till your heart’s delight - then wishlist A Giant Problem on Steam now!