SE 3GB3 – GAME balance

1. SE 3GB3 – GAME balance Will Mackle 0870775

2. Presentation Overview TOPICS: CASE STUDIES: • Define Game Balance • Dominant Strategies (and how to avoid them) • Incorporating the Element of Chance • Making PvP Games Fair • Making PvE Games Fair • Managing Difficulty • Concept of Positive Feedback • Non-Intuitive Balance Solutions • Designing for Balance • Starcraft 2

4. BEFORE WE BEGIN… An experiment! • Please observe the following brief sequence of gameplay, from our case study “Starcraft 2”. • At the end of the sequence, we, as a group, will compile a list of variables in which the game developers must account for when designing the game to be balanced. • Upon the conclusion of this presentation, hopefully you will have realized the ample sources of imbalance any game may possess, and how to address such imbalances. • After this experiment, I will proceed to dissect the concept of “Game Balance”

5. What Makes a Balanced GAME? • Informal, general definition: • Fair to all players. • Non-extreme difficulty (too easy or too hard). • Adjustable is best • Skill is the most influential factor on a player’s success • Ask yourself: What are your opinions of games you have played in the past that have not satisfied the above informal definition?

6. An Elaboration • The game facilitates meaningful choices. • Strategy is important. • A variety of strategies are viable (in complicated games). • The role of chance is not overwhelming. • The player(s) perceive the game to be fair. • PvP: • There is reasonable opportunity for a player a player in a less favourable position to regain control of the game. (see Positive Feedback) • Stalemates are rare occurrences. • PvE: • The game’s perceived level of difficulty should be consistent.

7. Components of Game BalanceWhat needs to be Balanced? • Think back to the experiment; the variables we identified as associated with game balance, and how they apply to the following dissection. • I believe game balance can be broken down into three major components. • Objective • What you are trying to do, and the difficulty of it. • Strategy • How you will accomplish an objective • Anything that opposes or aids the execution of the strategy. • Character(s) • Anything the character/avatar does in the process of executing a strategy • Anything that opposes or aids the character in doing so. • Abilities, environment, enemies (vE or vP), etc.

8. Avoiding Dominant Strategies • A dominant strategy is a strategy in which the player implementing it is at an advantage to their opponent beyond the scope of skill and decision making. • A dominant strategy supports a transitive relationship among strategic options for player. • Transitive Relation: ( (A>B) && (B>C) )  (A>C) • Player frustration amplified in games with some aspect of asymmetry • Two Examples: • L4D1: “Turtling at horde” • SC2: “5 Barracks Reaper Rush” (TvZ) • Some instances of transitivity are OK • Account for dominant options with an associated negativity (a tradeoff)

9. Avoiding dominant Strategies • An intransitive relationship between strategies is a design technique to avoid dominant strategies • Example: Rock – Paper – Scissors • Crucial in dynamic, strategic gameplay • Example: “Ice Hockey 1982”

10. Case Study Example: • TerranVsZerg – Early Game Unit Compositions • Terran – Hellions > Zerg- Mass Zerglings • Terran - Hellions < Zerg- Roaches • Terran - Marauders < Zerg- Mass Zerglings • Terran - Marauders > Zerg- Roaches Zergling: Hellion: Roach: Marauder: Note the different attributes of the units available.

11. Orthogonal Unit Differentiation • It is argued that each type of unit in a game should be orthogonally different. • By orthogonal, it is meant that each unit type should be unlike the others in different dimensions, not simple more or less powerful when measuring in one dimension. • Complements strategic diversity (OUD more common in games with diverse challenges). • How does this relate to the last examples? • Consider the attributes of each unit type

12. Incorporating Chance • If there is an element of chance associated with success in your game, how will you ensure this does not outweigh the element of player skill? • Use chance sparingly Overwhelming instances of chance will make players feel that they do not control the outcome of the game. Associate chance with small risk/reward Frequency w/ minimal effect > infrequent and game-changing • Allow rewards for proper decision making associated with your game’s element of chance. Anticipation and prediction imply player skill, and should be recognized. • Allow players to influence the magnitude of risk/reward associated with an instance of chance. The player should be allowed to consciously take risks and consciously dictate the magnitude of this risk.

13. Examples of Chance INCORPORATION • NHL 11 • Breaking of the hockey stick • Starcraft 2 • Spawn locations (on 4 player maps) • MarioKart • Randomized Items

14. Next Lecture • Making PvP Games Fair • Making PvE Games Fair • Managing Difficulty • Concept of Positive Feedback • Designing for Balance • Non-Intuitive Balance Solutions

15. Making PvP Games Fair • Players generally consider a PvP game to be fair if they believe: • The rules allow each player an equal chance of winning, upon the start of the game. • There is no random or arbitrary distribution of advantage or disadvantage unto different players, other than the intended incorporated chance. • Symmetry vs Asymmetry: • A game is symmetrical if each player has the same resources, and options to complete the same challenges in pursuit of an identical victory condition. This implies a balanced PvP game (however, there can still be a dominant strategy). • An asymmetric game is more difficult to balance. There is a greater risk of a dominant strategy.

16. Balancing Asymmetric PvP games • Rules can provide different units, actions, challenges, or even victory conditions for each side. • Each combination available to a player must be balanced in respect to each of the others. • A dominant strategy is one combination that is superior in comparison to others. • Blizzard’s approach to asymmetric PvP balance: • Lengthy game development time • Beta release • Patch updates • Public test realm

17. Still In Regards to Pvp games • Issues in persistent worlds: • Long time players` characters will be much more powerful • This is an inherit imbalance in persistent world games • Protect new players of the game who are weaker

18. Making PvE Games Fair • The game should offer the player challenges at a level of difficulty consistently upper bound. • The player should not suddenly lose the game without warning, or through no fault of his own. • Don’t force the player to ``Learn by dying``. • Avoid stalemates / deadlock. • The player should be aware and informed in regards to any critical decisions. • All factual knowledge required to win the game should be contained within the game.

19. Managing PvE Difficulty • Flow: An enjoyable state of peak productivity. • Challenge too difficult  Player anxiety • Challenge too easy  Player boredom • Flow occurs for the player when the difficulty of the challenges they face corresponds to their ability to play the game. • Because you don’t know how good a player will be at your game, provide different difficulty settings that implement different difficulty levels. • Previous Experience: The amount of skill the player has from previous experiences of games of the same genre. • Native Talent: Hand-eye coordination, problem solving, etc.

20. Managing PvE Difficulty: Types of Difficulty • Absolute Difficulty • The amount of intrinsic skill required to meet challenges, and the stress evoked by the completion of the challenge. • Relative Difficulty (Power Provided) • The difficulty of a challenge relative to the player’s power to meet that challenge (not in regards to native talent). • Perceived Difficulty (And In-Game Experience) • The difficulty the player actually senses • The most significant for designers • In-game experience: • The experience the player gains while playing your game. • Perceived dif = absolute dif – ( power provided + in-game experience)

21. Pve:Creating a difficulty Progression • In correspondence to game progression, the perceived difficulty of a game should not decrease. • Note that the player’s skill will develop as they progress in your game

22. Understanding positive feedback • Positive feedback occurs when a player’s achievement causes changes to the state of the game that make a subsequent achievement easier, which creates a chain reaction (by making each subsequent event easier). • Rewards success • Discourages stalemates • Discourages inactivity

23. Controlling positive feedback • Some examples of ways to control positive feedback: • Don’t provide too much/little power as a reward for success • Consider negative feedback • Consider vulnerability in response to attempted achievement • Raise the absolute difficulty of challenges as the player proceeds • PvE • Allow collusion against the leader • Define victory in terms unrelated to the feedback cycle • Use the effects of chance to scale the size of the player’s rewards

24. Design to make tuning easy • Modify (then test) only one parameter at a time. • This is so you know which aspects of a game are effected by the parameter. • When initially modifying parameters, make big adjustments. • Make a large change, then iteratively test, moving towards the ideal. • Keep records of all tests. • Meticulous record keeping is crucial when testing. • Use data and statistical analysis in decision making, but don’t base decisions entirely on such analysis.

25. Interesting Balance Solutions • Left For Dead 2 • Infected have complete vision when spawning • Starcraft 2 • Specific race macro mechanics • Fallout 3 • V.A.T.S (Shooting Mode) • Non-experienced shooters can still fare well • NHL 11 • Intimidation