What is pleasure without pain?

If you’ve ever played Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, you’ll know there’s a tear-inducing mechanic where you have to reset some of the venue’s essential systems, like the ventilation. This is painfully slow; many a player has screamed at their PC as the reboot process moves like a glacier, on a snail, in slow-mo.

You’re in a rush, it’s life and death, there isn’t a moment to spare… but the machine insists. On. Taking. Its. Time.

Argh, Come On!

This “argh, come on!” mechanic (that’s its technical term) is in Aisle Survive, too.

For instance, there are times when the player must break open the safes to get cash for the till. And it’s not fast. Don’t get me wrong - you won’t grow a beard while you wait for the money to assemble itself atom by atom, but it’s markedly slower-than-comfortable.

The whole point of Aisle Survive is to rush around at a mad pace (you’re up against the clock) but as with FNAF 3, and as with life, machines don’t give a flying flamingo about your feelings. So you must be patient, and tactical.

Designing the Perfect Frustration

It’s all about balance, said every game developer ever.

The (relative) slowness of the safes is an artistic decision first and foremost, because we want the player to cry “argh!” as time slips through their fingers like sand. We’re trying to instil emotions as well as create smooth, satisfying gameplay.

Aisle Survive is all about a man trying to endure his final week at the world’s most stressful shop, after all, and we want gamers to feel some of his pain.

So when my testers tell me that the safe-opening speed “isn’t optimised,” and that Shirely is “annoying” and that they don’t like the fact that the pesky customers follow them “even into the staffroom,” my response is usually “well, yes.”

The safes are slow. Shirley is annoying. The customers deserve to have things thrown at them. I want you to be annoyed. 10% annoyed.

And 90% thrilled.

I want you to experience the thrill of rising to a seemingly impossible challenge, and raise the roof (literally or metaphorically) when you finally crack Shift One, and then Shift Two, and then Shift Three… Whoop, cheer, punch the air!

One of my testers, Fin, went above and beyond in his persistence and achieved a high score that even I didn’t think was possible (1,700 on the first shift - and I still haven’t beaten him!)

“I can’t stop playing this game!!” he typed; I think it was the fifth email he’d sent me that day.

So I will defer to the old adage that there is “no gain without pain. ” And yes, some of the mechanics are the pain. But they’re worth the tears.