Gameplay and Balance

1. Gameplay and Balance CIS 487/587 Bruce R. Maxim UM-Dearborn

2. Goals • List 5 games • What in one sentence what is the objective of each?

3. Rules, Play, Culture • Rules • Organization of the game system • Play • Human experience from the game system • Culture • Larger contexts engaged or inhabited by the game system

4. Implementing Gameplay • Gameplay is the union of the game environment and game rules • A game is a series of choices • To be worthwhile gameplay must provide players with non-trivial choices • Choices should have both good and bad consequences to ensure that no one strategy can become dominant

5. Rules • Operational Rules • Guidelines to allow for orderly play • Constituative Rules • Logical or math basis of the game • Example: Nim or Taxman • Implicit Rules • Etiquette or sportsmanship • Example: everyone can reach the board

6. Rules • Can you think of a game with no rules? • How about a game with only one rule? • Why is it hard to find a game without many rules?

7. Strategy vs Tactics • Strategic choices • Affect the course of the game over the medium or long term • Tactical choices • Apply to the immediate situation

8. Dominant Strategy Problem • Dominated strategy • option so bad that is is never worth using • Dominant strategy • option so good that it is always used • Games with lasting appeal will avoid the use of near dominated (limited use) and near dominant (excessively used) options

9. Choice and Outcome • Choice • A question asked of the player • Outcome • The end result of a given choice • Possibility space • Represents the set of possible events • A “landscape” of choice and outcome

10. Choice and Outcome • Well-designed choice • Often desirable and undesirable effects • Should relate to player goals • Balanced against neighboring choices • Too much weight to every choice is melodrama • Orthogonal choices – distinct from others • Not just “shades of grey”

11. Ensuring Interesting Choices • Avoid paper-scissors-rock type absolute transitive relationships • Players should be required to make a judgment to select an optimal strategy only after taking into account the aspects of each game situation (e.g. terrain, weather, time, opponent actions)

12. Tradeoffs • Option does the most damage but it is the slowest • Option is fastest to use but leaves player defenseless • Option is best defense but does little damage • Option is never the best or worst, but is the most versatile

13. Supporting Investments • To reach the primary game objective (destroy enemies) players may have to attend to secondary aims (like building farms to produce food to encourage trade to make money to recruit soldiers) • By including multilevel decisions creates the need for players to think strategically

14. Compensating Factors • Costs that any be added to game to make selection of option less attractive • Example: • Helicopters can cross any type of terrain • Make them slow • Make them easily destroyed • Limit their ability to look far ahead • Make them expensive

15. Impermanence • Sometimes an advantage associated with a strategy might only be temporary • Destroyed by enemies • Stolen or converted • Require the use of something not always present • Limited number of uses • Time limit on use

16. Shadow Costs • The underlying costs to the player associated with making a decision • Resources or experiences required to be able to use some option • Can be costs related to make supporting investments

17. Game Balance Types • Player/Player • Player’s performance is based on skill and a little “luck” • Player/Gameplay • Player should not feel the game is too hard or too easy • Gameplay/Gameplay • The cost of a game’s features must match the power of acquiring the feature

18. Achieving Game Balance • Ensure that skill matters, do not allow a few random elements to determine outcome • Give all players access to the same features having varying power/cost • Good game play involves allowing the players to make interesting choices • Need to make sure that no strategy is unbeatable

19. Golden Rules • Player/Player • Players should never be put in unwinnable situations through no fault of their own • Player/Gameplay • Game should be fun to learn and fun to play (game is more fun when more is learned) • Gameplay/Gameplay • All game options must be worth using sometimes and the cost must be commensurate with payoff

20. Balance in Capture the Flag • Describe how you might ensure player/player balance? Is it important? • How would you ensure player/gameplay balance? • How would you ensure gameplay/gameplay balnace?

21. Player/Player Balance • Symmetry in opponent skills and resources • player have the opportunity to do the best with what they start with • Symmetry in level design • levels are functionally equal in difficulty for each player • Symmetry in game design • all players have functionally equivalent choices presented during gameplay

22. Player/Gameplay Balance • Want a fair game where the player feels that all features are worthwhile • Balance game challenges against player’s improving abilities • Reward the player • Let the machine do the work • Let player play with the game not against it (this is a usability issue)

23. Gameplay/Gameplay Balance • There should be an interesting set of non-dominant player choices • Optimum choices are not easy to recognize since the require knowledge of previous player choices • Not easy to see how frequently different choices will be worth making

24. Save Game Problem • Often players complain about how hard it is to get the a “save” point • Problem is not the mechanism used to allow a save • Problem is symptomatic of arbitrary game behavior or a steep learning curve that makes it hard to progress using skill alone (i.e. trial and error with starting over at beginning the punishment for failure)