Lecture 1
CS172: Game Design Studio III
UC Santa Cruz
School of Engineering
www.soe.ucsc.edu/classes/cmps171/Winter2010
[email protected]
8 April 2010
Final steps for completing game
 Must create a website for your game hosted at UC Santa
Cruz
 Will be set up in course webspace
 Final website should include
 Description of game with screenshots
 Video demo of game (also posted to youtube)
 Game executable
 We will also check SVN repository to ensure all intermediate
deliverables are checked in
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Team Management
 Make sure you set up regular team meeting times for
this quarter
 Don’t forget to use the team assessment tool to rate
yourself and team members weekly
 Remember, you should know what everyone is doing
because you’re scrumming regularly
 You should be playtesting regularly (at least once a
week, if not more)
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Completeness and Balance
 A big focus this quarter will be ensuring your game is
internally complete and balanced
 A game is internally complete when you’ve made sure your
rules don’t have loopholes or undesirable emergent
properties
 A dead-end is a special case of undesirable emergent. This is a game
state where the player is stuck and can make no further progress.
 Balancing a game
 For single player games, means adjusting rules and tuning parameters
to create a well-paced challenge curve
 For multi-player games, it means adjusting rules and tuning parameters
to ensure a fair challenge between players
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Loophole example #1
 Consider a multi-player FPS with the following rule
“When a player is killed, they respawn at a known spawn
point”
 What’s the potential loophole or undersireable emergent?
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Spawn Camping
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Potential spawn camping solutions
 Number of spawn points equal to number of players in game
 Pro: Players will always have at least one safe spawn point
 Con: Arena maps must be designed for a specific number of players
 Force field surrounds spawn point. Spawning player can shoot and move
outward through it. Force field is time limited.
 Pro: Players are safe when first spawn and have a chance against a single
camper
 Con: Multiple campers can still wait nearby
 Players spawn on randomly generated locations
 Pro: Eliminates ability to camp at known spawn points
 Con: Adds element of luck to system
 Don’t fix this – it’s a feature, not a bug
 Pro: Some players see spawn camping as part of the game. Forces players to
fight for choice camping spots.
 Con: Other players are extremely frustrated by spawn camping.
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Loophole example #2
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Loophole example #3
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Loophole example #4
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Player killer solutions
 Ultima Online: Reputation system – player killers are given red name
banners and designated as “dishonorable”. Player killers immediately
recognizable.
 Ultima Online: Invincible guards at town gates that will kill player killers.
Player killers relegated to outlaw existence and one town (Buccaneer’s
Den).
 Asheron’s Call: Fellowship and allegiance system cooperating more
rewarding and fun.
 Asheron’s Call: By default player’s can’t kill each other. Player’s can worship
at a special altar to become player killers. Player killers can only attack
each other.
 Everquest (and many other MMOs): Specific servers for player killers.
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Suggestions for finding loopholes
 Set up specific control situations to force testers into
situations they might otherwise avoid
 Do series of playtests where you instruct testers to
specifically look for ways to disrupt the system, for ways to
creatively get ahead
 Cultivate a team of expert playtesters who love finding
alternative or subversive solutions
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Four areas of game system balancing
 Variables
 Dynamics
 Starting conditions and objectives
 Skill
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Variables
 Games have many parameters
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Map size
Avatar speed
Avatar size
Weapon power
Block size
…
 You’ll need to do a lot of tweaking of your variables, first
among yourselves, then with playtesters, to tune your
experience
 This means you have to have a clear picture of the experience
you’re trying to create
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Dynamics
 Avoid reinforcing relationships, in which the stronger player is
rewarded over and over until they win
 Don’t want a feedback loop in which a single success leads to
dominance
 Weaker player should have some chance of coming back
 At the end of the game the scales need to tip – let them tip
dramatically
 Avoid dominant objects
 Should have rock-paper-scissors relationship between game objects
 There can be indirect, asymmetric relationships, like Warcraft IIs
bloodlusted ogres vs. human healing
 Avoid dominant strategies
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Balancing starting positions and capabilities
 Balance starting positions and capabilities to give each
opponent an equal chance of winning
 For symmetric games, get rid of first mover advantage
 Length
 Strength of pieces
 Luck
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Asymmetric example: Soul Caliber II
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Asymetric example: C&C Generals
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Asymmetric objectives
 Ticking clock
 Protection
 Individual objectives
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Balancing for skill
 Multiple skill levels corresponding to different
parameter settings
 Dynamic balancing
 Balancing computer controlled enemies
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Balancing techniques
 Expose your paramters
 If you have a list, you can think about them explicitly
 Modular design of game systems
 Clean interactions between game systems
 Purity of purpose
 Every component of game has a single, clearly defined purpose
 One change at a time
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