Ian likes difficult games and he makes his own to suit his tastes.

I've known Ian for over ten years, and it all started with a total conversion called Marathon Red that he made in high school. Among bungie.org fans, it's still remembered for being nut-crushingly hard. I only ever made it up to the third level, and the first one was an intro.

When Brawler was in development, I said I thought the teleporting final boss could use more warning for his attacks to give players a chance. Ian shrugged and said "If he's visible, he's attacking."

So Spiral Knights, while no walk in the park, doesn't really feel like a pure Ian game in terms of difficulty.

There's enemies in Spiral Knights called Phantoms that are immortal, can walk through walls to reach you, and will traverse an entire level to come kill you. When I read on the forums that they had an initial beta iteration that was even more difficult, that sounded closer to a pure Ian game.