How to read a difficulty curve before you commit

A difficulty curve tells you a lot about a game's honesty. Within the first hour I can usually guess whether the challenge comes from clever design or from artificial walls meant to slow you down.

The tell is what happens when you lose. A well-designed game teaches you something — you spot the mistake and feel you could fix it. A poorly-designed one just throws bigger numbers at you until progress stalls, hoping you'll grind or give up.

Tower defence is a great genre for spotting this because the waves are visible. If each wave introduces a new idea, the designer is thinking. If it's the same enemies with more health, they're padding.

When you're trying a new game, deliberately fail a level and watch how it responds. That single test has saved me from wasting hours on plenty of games that looked promising in the trailer.