Rethinking dynamic difficulty adjustment for video game design

Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) has garnered significant interest in game research fields for many years. Despite high expectations, the effectiveness of DDA in enhancing player experiences has yielded mixed results. This paper aims to rethink the theoretical foundations of DDA by addressing four crucial questions about the issues, definition, scope, value, and design of DDA. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to provide novel insights into DDA and DDA design. We revealed DDA’s unhealthy reliance on Flow theory, redefined DDA based on the concept of game difficulty, and discussed DDA’s scope and value. Additionally, we presented a goal-based DDA design framework and proposed a 6-step DDA design process as a practical approach. This work offers theoretical support for understanding and designing DDA in future game research.