The Dink Network

My name is Neil Troughton and I can't believe I keep doing this.

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Obviously limiting the amount of experience the player can receive will result in a very fair level plateau, but on the other hand making experience higher will reward players who try levelling up. This means that weaker players who get lost a lot and spend a lot of time killing things will have higher stats and therefore have an easier ride, in theory. Of course, in practice, weaker players who run away from things are pretty screwed. Leaving out monsters who give uber-experience at the end is probably the fairest compromise.

Secrets are trickier, because they reward the particularly diligent/anal player over the one who just wants to play the game at his or her own pace, although if you don't go overboard on megapotions and amazing items then it shouldn't matter too much. My favourite secrets aren't the ones that simply chuck potions at you anyway though, they're the ones in Eternal Suicide which gave you a novelty subquest or they're the Dildonator or they're the puzzle cave in LOT that gave you a cool but rubbish magic.

I'm not a fan of self-adjusting difficulty systems in a level based game - what's the point in levelling up if everything levels with you? - but I can see the appeal. Basically the most important thing is that secrets don't get closed off from the player - if you get stuck and you can't go back to try and find some of the potions you missed, you're pretty screwed.

Personally, I'm interested in the Metroid approach, which rewards both the diligent secret-finder and the crazy player who eschews powerups along the way through extras on completion, depending on how many items you find. Of course, this assumes that you have extras to give the player on completion.