LAFS Game Mechanics - Balancing
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Transcript of LAFS Game Mechanics - Balancing
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BALANCING GAME MECHANICS
Level 9
David MullichGame MechanicsThe Los Angeles Film School
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What Is Game Balance?
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Game Balance Single Player Games: The game’s difficulty
is matched to the player’s skill level throughout the entire game.
Multiplayer Games: All players have an equal opportunity to win regardless of their starting position, resources, goals, or skill level.
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BALANCING GAME SYSTEMS
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Right Level of Difficulty
The right level of difficulty is the one intended by the game designer.
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Difficulty Level Design Considerations Which challenges should be made easier? Which challenges should be made harder? Which challenges should occur at another
point in the game?
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Right Level of Complexity
The right level of complexity is the one intended by the game designer.
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Complexity Design Considerations Does the game have rhythm-based
actions? How many game elements does the player
need to interact with? How many relationships do these elements
have with each other? How complex is the narrative structure?
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Smooth Learning Curves
Games designed to provide players with the possibility of smoothly progressing from novice to master.
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Smooth Learning Curves Design Considerations What information can be provided to
players for overcoming challenges? How can challenge difficulty be adjusted to
the player’s skill? How can players adjust challenge
difficulty?
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BALANCING BETWEEN PLAYERS
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Balancing Effects
Rules and effects that lessen the difference of value used to measure competition between players.
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Balancing Effects Design Considerations Is the balancing effect designed to be pre-
emptive or correcting? Is limited foresight used to mask an
imbalance? Are there more than two players or teams
competing?
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Symmetry
Symmetrical relations exist between players regarding the goals, resources, and actions they can perform.
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Symmetry Design Considerations Do players have the same abilities? Do players have symmetric goals? Are resources distributed symmetrically? Do teams have symmetry?
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Rock-Paper-Scissors
Sets of three or more actions form cycles where every action has an advantage over another action.
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Rock-Paper-Scissors Design Considerations What is the set of elements in which each
element have an advantage over another one?
Is the game quick or long-term?
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Handicaps
Making gameplay easier for certain players to ensure that all players have the same chance to succeed.
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Handicaps Design Considerations Can players set individual levels of difficulty? Can players set individual resources or abilities? Can players set individual negative consequences to be
limited or ignored? Can players set different thresholds for evaluation
functions? Can players set individual bonuses to score values? Can players set individual starting locations or skill
advantages? Can player take back actions and perform other actions?
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Team Balance
Teams have equal chances of succeeding with actions in a game or winning a game.
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Team Balance Design Considerations Is there total player balance between all
players? How can teams’ starting positions be
balanced? What privileged abilities need to be mitigated? What handicaps need to be applied? What other balancing effects need to be
applied during gameplay?
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GAME MASTERY
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Game Mastery
That one can clearly distinguish between skillful and incompetent players when they are using all their skills and abilities in a game.
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Game Mastery Design Considerations What dexterity-based skills can a player train
and develop? What mental-based skills can a player train and
develop? What social-based skills can a player train and
develop? How is mastery revealed? How can mastery be maintained past game
sessions?
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Empowerment
Players feel that they can affect the events and final outcome of the game.
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Empowerment Design Considerations How empowered does the player feel at the
beginning of the game? Does the empowerment increase
incrementally? What opportunities does the player have for
creative control? Do the players vote on anything? Can the player construct the game world?
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Timing
The effect on gameplay that actions have to be performed at certain points in game time to be performed at all or that the direct effects of actions varies greatly depending on when they are performed.
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Timing Design Considerations Is the game turn-based or real-time?
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Rhythm-Based Actions
Actions that require players to time their actions several times in a row.
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Rhythm-Based Action Design Considerations What is the extended action to be
performed? How long should it be performed? What feedback is provided to the player? What rewards or penalties are associated
with performing the action?
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Dexterity-Based Actions
Actions where success or failure depends on some form of dexterity, usually hand-eye coordination.
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Dexterity-Based Action Design Considerations What is the action to be performed? How fast is the response time, if it is a
digital game?
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Group Quest
Balance one of the games you previously designed in class.
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Research and use the LMS to report on games using balancing pattenerns discussed in class.
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