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Hot take: Someone tell Bennett Foddy THIS is how you do a Bennett Foddy game: Solid tutorial & linear level progression (from actually doable so you can learn the mechanics to sorta challenging to challenging, etc) Checkpoints, and not forcing you to redo every fucking part of the stage if you mess up even once.


You're not punished for trying, you're encouraged try often and to do it right. If you want someone to "get gud' you don't punish every single attempt.


Or the example: "Which teacher do you want?" The one who smacks your head and makes you redo an entire sheet of homework if you mess up the font on a single letter, or the one that calms tells you to do it again if you mess up? You're actually going to learn something from the latter and despise the former. Perfection should NEVER be the goal: doing it right is, even if it's slightly off.

Isn't the entire point of Foddy's game being an extremely infuriating anti-game that wants you to quit it?

It has been a while, but I thought his whole thought process was more: make it as punishing and difficult because life is punishing and difficult. Sure, I get that, but like my teacher analogy, you're not really going to learn anything and only succeed only out of pure spite for the creator, if you are masochistic, or both. That style of game only proves who you are in the sense that you can handle a difficult/needless struggle, but it does nothing to actually improve the person and help them gain the skills to climb that mountain. In my opinion, that ability to help people grow and get good without punishing every single error is far, Far more important than just proving one's self.