Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment

Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment refers to the adjustment of difficulty in a video game on-the-fly based on the player's ability. For example, if the player is not finding the game very challenging, a game with DDA implemented will adjust its difficulty to make it more challenging. On the other hand, if the player is finding the game too challenging, the game will respond by decreasing the difficulty. [ [http://www.gameontology.org/index.php/Dynamic_Difficulty_Adjustment Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment - Game Ontology] ] Traditionally, game difficulty increases linearly along the course of the game, and can only be modulated at the beginning of the experience by selecting a difficulty level. However, this can lead to a frustrating experience for both experienced and inexperienced gamers, as they attempt to follow a preselected learning or difficulty curve. DDA attempts to remedy this issue by created a tailor-made experience for each gamer. Unfortunately, programming such elements poses many challenges to game developers; as a result, this method of gameplay is not widespread.

Dynamic Game Elements

Some elements of a game that might be changed via DDA include:
*Speed of enemies
*Health of enemies
*Frequency of enemies
*Frequency of powerups
*Power of player
*Power of enemies
*Duration of gameplay experience

Games that utilize Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment

*flOw
*Ikaruga
*FarCry
*Auditorium

References

Further reading

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