CSE4AT3
Game Balancing
Designing Fun…
• You can’t, but there are things you can do
to help
Balancing the
Game
Avoiding Dominant Strategies /
Actions
• How to destroy your gameplay the quick
way
– Think Red Alert
– MarioKart DS
• Snaking
• http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=62301
58990268449095&ei=tOvZSPOpFqXcqAP5MmRCw&q=mariokart+constant+boost&vt=lf&hl=e
n
Removing Strategies
• Harry Potter GameCube
• Not sure what version 5?? Maybe
• There is an attack button, and a pickup
beans button
Transitive Relationships
What is a transitive relationship?
• If A < B and B < C Then A < C
• In RTS Games this is typically true for the
more basic units
Taming Transitive Strategies /
Actions
• Imposing a ‘cost’ to the higher levels
– The cost can be time, money, manna
• Anything that holds value to the player in the game
The Two types of cost
Direct
Shadow Hidden (Completely)
• Changing the values of tactics (Converting
the strategies to Intransitive ones)
Bad Examples of Shadow Cost
• Unreal Sniper Rifle
– When not scoped damage was terribly weak
• Everyone knows you run faster with a
knife!
– Counterstrike FPS Doug
• Transitive relationships are great for player
upgrades
Intransitive Relationships
• Explicit Loops
– Paper Scissors Rock (Rochambeau)
– http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=4
599694985865643698&ei=KPXZSLe1CqXcq
AP5MmRCw&q=cartman+rochambeau&vt=lf&hl=
en
RPG’s feature many Intransitive
Relationships
• Different Weapons / Spells for different
enemies / Tasks
• Giving Players reason for choice is
important
• Weighting options through:
– Level Design (Enemies Routes Surfaces
Pickups)
– Challenge Types
– Player Preferences
Orthogonal Unit Differentiation
By Harvey Smith
Every type of Unit should be different
• Not just in one aspect (eg strength)
• The Orthogonal design intends each type
of Unit to have its own specialisation
• The more diverse your challenges are, the
easier it is to create orthogonal units.
– Lego Characters
– Reduces the effect of Dominant Strateigies
Limiting Chance
• Is chance good? Yes
• Is it bad? Yes
– Too much chance will remove the skill factor
from a game
• Typically you want players to gain skill to progress
– If chance only affects minor challenges and
player actions it has a minor role on the Game
Balance
For games with Major Chance
• Allow chance to vary with risk
– High Risk, reduce the failure probability
– Low Risk, raise the failure probability
• Betting in Poker manages this effect
• Reduce the effect of chance to very small but
frequent events
• If the risk and reward are shadowed, the player
must be able to gain some knowledge of the
odds.
• So if the odds will have a major effect on the
players game, let them decide weather / how
much the risk is worth
Fair Player vs. Player Games
• Symmetrical Games
– All players believe they have the same
chance of winning
– The rules do not advantage or disadvantage
players unequally in ways the player cannot
influence
– Symmetry can also make games boring,
players typically want something more when
they play a video game
Dominant Strategies in
Symmetrical Games
• Not as bad as in A-Sym Games, but it will
result in all players using the same
strategy
• This won’t break the gameplay but it will
remove a lot of fun!
Asymmetric Games
• The game Mechanics must not break
– A dominant strategy will result in unfair
gameplay
– Testing the Mechanics against as many
combinations as possible is a must
– Players will tend to change the rules if they
see your rules as unfair
• In UT settings like this can be added as part of the
mod config
Points Systems
• Spore
• RTS Money
• Character Attributes
Starcraft is an extremely well balanced RTS
Asymmetrical Symmetrical Games
• In Games such as Unreal Tournament, the AI is
given an advantage, to allow it to compete with
the player.
• This should be a last resort, as players will
always find out when the AI is cheating and they
will hate it!
• It is much better to add these cheats to the
players options,
• They will more readily accept it
• They may even feel achievement
Persistent Worlds
• How do you start playing Wow?
– Players with drastically different Levels in the
same world.
– New resources must be constantly added so
new players have something to acquire
– Persistent worlds are edited on the fly, and
rules can be changed to fix flaws in the game
Mechanics
– Play Asherons Call without Magic?
Balancing Player vs Environment
Games
• Challenges should be at a consistent level
– Remember the difficulty curve
• Avoid learning by death
• Avoid stalemates (The secret door in
Portal)
– Soul Calibre – I broke a Block Puzzle
Permanently
– Missing Critical Items and still progressing
through the game (Tom Raider something!)
• Avoid giving players decisions in which
they do not have the knowledge to make
– You can give them the knowledge
– Save the decision till after the player has
learnt
• Ignoring Trivia games and Carmen
Sandiego, players should be able to gain
all the information they need to finish the
game from within
Keeping Challenges Coherent
• Challenges should be consistent
– Adding a super hard puzzle to the last level of
a FPS is not going to be enjoyed
• Perhaps as a Easter Egg, but not core