Read Chapter 13 of "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses"

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Chapter 13: Game Mechanics Must Be In Balance

The Twelve Most Common Types of Game Balance

Balance Type 1: Fairness

Symmetrical Games

• equal resources and powers to all players

  Asymmetrical Games

  1. To simulate a real-world situation
  2. To give players another way to explore the game space
  3. Personalization
  4. To level the playing field
  5. To create interesting situations
• Check out Bhag-Chal, a board game from Nepal, which has unequal pieces for each player, and they have different goals.
• Useful to quantify stats (low med high becomes 1 2 3, weighted stats, etc)
• Playtesting is the only way to verify balance
• Rock Paper Scissors mechanics also very useful for balance (Pokemon is almost entirely this)

  LENS 037: The Lens of Fairness To use the Lens of Fairness, think carefully about the game from each player's point of view. Taking into account each player's skill level, find a way to give each player a chance of winning that each will consider to be fair. Ask yourself these questions:

  1. Should my game be symmetrical? Why?
  2. Should my game be asymmetrical? Why?
  3. Which is more important: that my game is a reliable measure of who has the most skill, or that it provide an interesting challenge to all players?
  4. If I want players of different skill levels to play together, what means will I use to make the game interesting and challenging for everyone? fairness can be a slippery subject. there are some cases where one side has an advantage over the other and the game still seems fair. sometimes this is so that players of unequal skill can play together, but there can be other reasons. In the game Alien vs. Predator, for example, it is generally recognized that in multiplayer mode, Predators have a significant advantage over the aliens. Players do not consider it to be unfair, however, because it is in keeping with the Alien vs. Predator story world, and they accept that if they play as an alien, they will be at a disadvantage and will need to compensate for that with extra skill. It is a badge of pride among players to be able to win the game when playing as an alien.

Balance Type 2: Challenge vs Success

• Remember the flow channel
• Increase difficulty with each success
• Let players get through easy parts fast
• Create "layers of challenge" (ranking systems or bonus goals)
• Let players choose the difficulty level
• Playtest with a variety of players
• Give the losers a break (see Mario Kart)

  LENS 038: The Lens of Challenge Challenge is at the core of almost all gameplay. You could even say that a game is defined by its goals and its challenges. When examining the challenges in your game, ask yourself these questions:

  1. What are the challenges in my game?
  2. Are they too easy, too hard, or just right?
  3. Can my challenges accommodate a wide variety of skill levels?
  4. How does the level of challenge increase as the player succeeds?
  5. Is there enough variety in the challenges?
  6. What is the maximum level of challenge in my game?

Balance Type 3: Meaningful Choices

• if one choice is clearly better, this is a dominant strategy. Bad for balance.
• Michael Mateas:
  • If choices > desires, the player is overwhelmed
  • If choices < desires, the player is frustrated
  • If choices == desires, the player feels freedom and fulfillment
• Again, playtesting!

  LENS 039: The Lens of Meaningful Choices When we make meaningful choices, it lets us feel like the things we do matter. To use this lens, ask yourself these questions:

  1. What choices am I asking the player to make?
  2. Are they meaningful? How?
  3. Am I giving the player the right number of choices? Would more make them feel more powerful? Would less make the game clearer?
  4. Are there any dominant strategies in my game?

Triangularity

1. Player
2. Low Risk Choice
3. High Risk Choice

   LENS 040: The Lens of Triangularity Giving a player the choice to play it safe for a low reward, or to take a risk for a big reward is a great way to make your game interesting and exciting. To use the Lens of Trangularity, ask yourself these questions:

   1. Do I have triangularity now? If not, how can I get it?
   2. Is my attempt at trangularity balanced? That is , are the rewards commensurate with the risks? Once your start looking for triangularity in games, you will see it everywhere. A dull monotonous game can quickly become exciting and rewarding when you add a dash of triangularity.
      • LENS 035: Expected Value is useful here.

Balancing Type 4: Skill vs Chance

• commonly alternating the two (random draw, then skill to decide actions)
• David Perry on elements of addictive gameplay: Exercise a skill, take risks, work a strategy

LENS 041: The Lens of Skill vs Chance To help determine how to balance skill and chance in your game, ask yourself these questions:

1. Are my players here to be judged (skill) or to take risks (chance)?
2. Skill tends to be more serious than chance: is my game serious or casual?
3. Are parts of my game tedious? If so, will adding elements of chance enliven them?
4. Do parts of my game feel too random? If so, will replacing elements of chance with elements of skill or strategy make the players feel more in control?

Balancing Type 5: Head vs Hands

LENS 042: The Lens of Head and Hands To make sure your game has a more realistic balance of mental and physical elements, use the Lens of Head and Hands. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Are my players looking for mindless action or an intellectual challenge?
2. Would adding more places that involve puzzle solving in my game make it more interesting?
3. Are there places where the player can relax their brain and just play the game without thinking?
4. Can I give the player a choice -- succeed either by exercising a high level of dexterity or by finding a clever strategy that works with a minimum of physical skill?
5. If 1 means all physical and 10 means all mental, what number would my game get? This lens works particularly well when used in conjunction with LENS 019: The Player.

   Balance Type 6: Competition vs Cooperation

   LENS 043: The Lens of Competition Determining who is most skilled at something is a basic human urge. Games of competition can satisfy that urge. Use this lens to be sure your competitive game makes people want to win it. Ask yourself these questions:

6. Does my game give a fair measurement of player skill?
7. Do people want to win my game? Why?
8. Is winning this game something people can be proud of? Why?
9. Can novices meaningfully compete at my game?
10. Can experts meaningfully compete at my game?
11. Can experts generally be sure they will defeat novices?

LENS 044: The Lens of Cooperation Collaborating and succeeding as a team is a special pleasure that can create lasting social bonds. Use this lens to study the cooperative aspects of your game. Ask these questions:

1. Cooperation requires communication. Do my players have enough opportunity to communicate? How could communication be enhanced?
2. Are my players friends already, or are they strangers? If they are strangers, can I help them break the ice?
3. Is there synergy (2+2=5) or antergy (2+2=3) when the players work together? Why?
4. Do all the players have the same role, or do they have special jobs?
5. Cooperation is greatly enhanced when there is no way an individual can do a task alone. Does my game have tasks like that?
6. Tasks that force communication inspire cooperation. Do any of my tasks force communication?

LENS 045: The Lens of Competition vs Cooperation Balancing competition and cooperation can be done in many interesting ways. Use this lens to decide whether they are balanced properly in your game. Ask yourself these questions:

1. If 1 is competition and 10 is cooperation, what number should my game get?
2. Can I give players a choice whether to play cooperatively or competitively?
3. Does my audience prefer competition, cooperation, or a mix?
4. Is team competition something that makes sense for my game? Is my game more fun with team competition or with solo competition?

Balance Type 7: Short vs Long

• overall games, rounds, turns, etc
• determined primarily by win/lose conditions

Balance Type 8: Rewards

• Praise

• Points

• Prolonged Play

• A Gateway

• Spectacle

• Self-Expression

• Increased Power

• Resources

• Status (leaderboards, achievements, rare or difficult to get things)

• Completion (can be as simple as checking a box on a list, or as complex as successfully executing a strategy to win)

• categories can be combined to create interest

• People get bored if the rewards don't change. They can increase and/or be randomized.

LENS 046: The Lens of Reward Everyone likes to be told they're doing a good job. Ask these questions to determine if your game is giving out the right rewards in the right amounts at the right times:

1. What rewards is my game giving out now? Can it give out others as well?
2. Are players excited when they get rewards in my game, or are they bored by them? Why?
3. Getting a reward you don't understand is like getting no reward at all. Do my players understand the rewards they are getting?
4. Are the rewards my game gives out too regular? Can they be given out in a more variable way?
5. How are my rewards related to one another? Is there a way that they could be better connected?
6. How are my rewards building? Too fast, too slow, or just right? Balancing rewards is different for every game. Not only do you have to worry about giving out the right ones, but you have to worry about giving them at the right times in the right amounts. This can only be determined through trial and error -- even then, it probably won't be right for everyone. When trying to balance rewards, it is hard to be perfect -- you often have to settle for "good enough".

Balance Type 9: Punishment

• Punishment creates endogenous value (remember LENS 007: Endogenous Value)

• Taking risks is exciting

• Possible punishment increases challenge

• Shaming

• Loss of points

• Shortened play

• Terminated play

• Setback

• Decreased power

• Resource depletion

• CRUCIAL that players UNDERSTAND WHY AND HOW TO PREVENT, nothing faster to turn off a player

LENS 047: The Lens of Punishment Punishment must be used delicately, since after all, players are in a game of their own free will. Balanced appropriately, it will give everything in your game more meaning, and players will have a real sense of pride when they succeed at your game. To examine the punishment in your game, ask yourself these questions:

1. What are the punishments in my game?
2. Why am I punishing the player? What do I hope to achieve by it?
3. Do my punishments seem fair to the players? Why or why not?
4. Is there a way to turn these punishments into rewards and get the same or a better effect?
5. Are my strong punishments balanced against commensurately strong rewards?

Balance Type 10: Freedom vs Controlled Experience

• This is the core of what makes games, games. Railroading or whatnot. A much larger discussion.

Balance Type 11: Simple vs Complex

• Innate Complexity: Game rules are complex.
  • unless
  • except
  • but
  • even if
• Emergent Complexity: Game rules are simple, but interact with each other in complex ways
• remember LENS 030: Emergence

LENS 048: The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity Striking the right balance between simplicity and complexity is difficult and must be done for the right reasons. Use this lens to help your game become one in which meaningful complexity arises out of a simple system. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What elements of innate complexity do I have in my game?
2. Is there a way this innate complexity could be turned into emergent complexity?
3. Do elements of emergent complexity arise from my game? If not, why not?
4. Are there elements of my game that are too simple?

Natural vs Artificial Balancing

• Artificial Balancing = adding more innate complexity to get the desired player behavior
• Natural Balancing = desired player behavior arises from the game's interactions

Elegance

• Simple systems that perform robustly in complex situations
• you can rate the elegance of an element by counting how many purposes it serves in regards to player goals

LENS 049: The Lens of Elegance Most "classic" games are considered to be masterpieces of elegance. Use this lens to make your game as elegant as possible. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What are the elements of my game?
2. What are the purposes of each element? Count these up to give the element an "elegance rating".
3. For elements with only one or two purposes, can some of these be combined into each other or removed altogether?
4. For elements with several purposes, is it possible for them to take on even more?

Character

LENS 050: The Lens of Character Elegance and character are opposites. They are like miniature versions of simplicity and complexity, and must be kept in balance. To make sure your game has lovable, defining quirks, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there anything strange in my game that players talk about excitedly?
2. Does my game have funny qualities that make it unique?
3. Does my game have flaws that players like?

Balance 12: Detail vs Imagination

• Only detail what you can do well
• Give details the imagination can use
• Familiar worlds do not need much detail
• Use the binocular effect: people only use binoculars at the opera early on. They get a mental image and use that instead. Front-load information, then abstract (ex. show a detailed still image of a character, then abstract to a game sprite)
• Give details that inspire imagination

LENS 051: The Lens of Imagination All games have some element of imagination and some element of connection to reality. Use this lens to help find the balance between detail and imagination. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What must the player understand to play my game?
2. Can some element of imagination help them understand that better?
3. What high-quality, realistic details can we provide in this game?
4. What details would be low quality if we provided them? Can imagination fill the gap instead?
5. Can I give details that the imagination will be able to reuse again and again?
6. What details I provide inspire imagination?
7. What details I provide stifle imagination?

Game Balance Methodologies

• Use the Lens of the Problem Statement
• Doubling and halving (don't change values by small amounts)
• Train your intuition by guessing exactly
• Document your model
• Tune your model as you tune your game
• Plan to balance
• Let the players do it (but carefully)

Balancing Game Economies

• Fairness: Can buying a thing make things unfair?
• Challenge: Can buying a thing make things too easy?
• Choices: Do players have enough way to make or spend?
• Chance: Is earning skill or chance based?
• Cooperation: Can players pool resources? Can they collude to cheat the system?
• Time: Does earning take too long, or go too quickly?
• Rewards: Is it rewarding to earn? To spend?
• Punishment: How do punishment affect earning and spending?
• Freedom: Can players buy what they want, and earn in the ways they want?

LENS 052: The Lens of Economy Giving a game an economy can give it surprising depth and a life all its own. But like all living things, it can be difficult to control. Use this lens to keep your economy in balance:

1. How can my players earn resources? Should there be other ways?
2. What can my players buy? Why?
3. Are resources too easy to get? Too hard? How can I change this?
4. Are choices about earning and spending meaningful ones?
5. Is a universal currency a good idea in my game, or should there be specialized currencies?

Dynamic Game Balancing

• When a system adjusts on the fly to a player
• Spoils the reality of the world (see Oblivion's super rich ultra-powerful highwaymen)
• Exploitable (you can just sandbag)
• Players improve with practice (and will feel cheated it the game gives them the win)
• A beautiful but unsolved dream

The Big Picture

LENS 053: The Lens of Balance There are many types of game balance, and each is important. However, it is easy to get lost in the details and forget the big picture. Use this simple lens to get out of the mire, and ask yourself the only important question:

1. Does my game feel right? Why or why not?

Recommended Reading

Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Adams and Dormans Design in Detail: Changing the Time between Shots for the Sniper Rifle from 0.5 to 0.7 Seconds for Halo 3 by Jaime Griesmer