Posted 09/22/10 08:55:00 pm A large part of game design, especially towards the end of development, is concerned with what we call "balancing". This term refers to two distinct areas of the game:
Firstly, there is the requirement to balance various elements in the game against various other elements. If you're making a driving game this means all the vehicles in a class should be competitive against one another, although they will require different driving styles to make the most of them. Making an RPG? Then you have to make sure that each character class can play a meaningful role in a larger party. And there are examples like these for most genres.
Secondly, and this is the lion's share of the work, there is the requirement to balance the player against the game. This process is normally approached as one where we look for difficulty spikes in the general flow of the game, levels, areas and encounters that the player finds hard, in comparison to the surrounding experience. Our aim is to create a smooth(ish) difficulty curve that climbs towards the sky. But do we really understand what we're trying to accomplish with difficulty curves? And why is there one spike we don't design out of the system often enough?
When you sit down to design a console game there is one given that's taken as red, and that's that the game will get harder. As an industry we are all about the challenge, and in console games that means a progressively tougher world for the player to interact with. Through the introduction of tougher, smarter, faster enemies and more cunning, increasingly lethal hazards, game and level designers dial up the challenge as the game progresses, creating a planned difficulty curve like the one below.
Firstly, there is the requirement to balance various elements in the game against various other elements. If you're making a driving game this means all the vehicles in a class should be competitive against one another, although they will require different driving styles to make the most of them. Making an RPG? Then you have to make sure that each character class can play a meaningful role in a larger party. And there are examples like these for most genres.
Secondly, and this is the lion's share of the work, there is the requirement to balance the player against the game. This process is normally approached as one where we look for difficulty spikes in the general flow of the game, levels, areas and encounters that the player finds hard, in comparison to the surrounding experience. Our aim is to create a smooth(ish) difficulty curve that climbs towards the sky. But do we really understand what we're trying to accomplish with difficulty curves? And why is there one spike we don't design out of the system often enough?
When you sit down to design a console game there is one given that's taken as red, and that's that the game will get harder. As an industry we are all about the challenge, and in console games that means a progressively tougher world for the player to interact with. Through the introduction of tougher, smarter, faster enemies and more cunning, increasingly lethal hazards, game and level designers dial up the challenge as the game progresses, creating a planned difficulty curve like the one below.
Comments
Post a Comment