BALANCING GAME MECHANICS

Level 9

David MullichGame MechanicsThe Los Angeles Film School

What Is Game Balance?

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.

BALANCING GAME SYSTEMS

Right Level of Difficulty

The right level of difficulty is the one intended by the game designer.

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?

Right Level of Complexity

The right level of complexity is the one intended by the game designer.

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?

Smooth Learning Curves

Games designed to provide players with the possibility of smoothly progressing from novice to master.

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?

BALANCING BETWEEN PLAYERS

Balancing Effects

Rules and effects that lessen the difference of value used to measure competition between players.

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?

Symmetry

Symmetrical relations exist between players regarding the goals, resources, and actions they can perform.

Symmetry Design Considerations Do players have the same abilities? Do players have symmetric goals? Are resources distributed symmetrically? Do teams have symmetry?

Rock-Paper-Scissors

Sets of three or more actions form cycles where every action has an advantage over another action.

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?

Handicaps

Making gameplay easier for certain players to ensure that all players have the same chance to succeed.

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?

Team Balance

Teams have equal chances of succeeding with actions in a game or winning a game.

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?

GAME MASTERY

Game Mastery

That one can clearly distinguish between skillful and incompetent players when they are using all their skills and abilities in a game.

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?

Empowerment

Players feel that they can affect the events and final outcome of the game.

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?

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.

Timing Design Considerations Is the game turn-based or real-time?

Rhythm-Based Actions

Actions that require players to time their actions several times in a row.

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?

Dexterity-Based Actions

Actions where success or failure depends on some form of dexterity, usually hand-eye coordination.

Dexterity-Based Action Design Considerations What is the action to be performed? How fast is the response time, if it is a

digital game?

Group Quest

Balance one of the games you previously designed in class.

Research and use the LMS to report on games using balancing pattenerns discussed in class.