Oscar PaskaruniawanGameloft Studio Lead Game Designer

5 Balancing concepts

Linked Factor“by linked we mean”

Any factor that can change or can be

influenced when we modify other variables

Level 20 is too long

GD make crops with BIGGER XP

BIG XP = BIG COINS

Can be unlocked earlier

Will impact the GOLD diversity next time

Risk and RewardRisk of any action/decision & reward that user will receive

after completing any actions.

Ex; Dungeon with HARDER difficulty will have BIGGER loot.

SynergyTwo actions give a better benefit

if done together or at the same time than doing them separately

STUN + POISON = LETHAL DAMAGE

Enemy can’t perform self healing because he’s paralyzed or stunned. If user perform only

poisoning, the damage will be lower because enemy can cure the poison.

Dominant StrategyA strategy that gives a substantial advantage

over the others.

Ex; Mask of Madness (MoM) in DOTA 2 6.83

Counter WeightAny objects in game becomes

more appealing to the user.

We want to say that there isn’t any magical recipe or any mechanic

formula to make balance process magically work.

There are many different

possibilities to do this

Test and trial is your key.CONSTANT is your friend

Lets have some FUN!!..

Freemium Tycoon Economy Design

Step 1

Decide the Parameters; MAX level, Item list and their stats, Quest flow, Social interaction system.

Step 2

Decide the premises first before making a balance system; Plant/Harvest crops, Quest.

Also decide the EXP distribution; Harvesting 60%, Quest 30%, & social action 10%. Sometimes, harvesting is the mission of questing, and U can adjust it by yourself, let say 40% of XP are quest objectives.

Step 3

EXP System>> Decide our level cap

>> Decide what kind of curve of the progress that we want, mostly exponential.

>> Decide playing time, let say 1.5 month.

Base time * (LVL/1.3)= TTL

5 first level

Base time = 60

LVL= Character Level

1.3= Constant that we choose to reach the objective

TTL= Total Time to pass to the next level (in second)

We want them easily reach level 5

From level 6 onward we will use the next formula

Base time * (LVL^2)= TTL

Base time = 60

LVL= Character Level

TTL= Total Time to pass to the next level (in second)

Multipliers From 3 to 5 1.3

From 6 to 10 Start from 2 add 0.2

From 11 to 25 add 0.4

From 26 to 49 add 0.6

From 50 to 55 add 0.8

From 56 to 60 1

Base XP*(LVL-2)*MULT= XPNL

Base XP = 100

(LVL-1)= Constant arbitrary created to achieve the required objective.

MULT= Multiplier; variable number that help us reach our experience curve.

XPNL= Experience needed to reach the next level.

We can decide the quest giver & the order to make it clearly & easily.

Level NPC Quest giver1 to 5 Tutorial Tutorial

6 to 10 1 2

11 to 15 1 1 2

16 to 20 1 1 2

21 to 25 1 1 2 3

26 to 30 1 1 2 3

31 to 35 1 1 2 2 3

36 to 40 1 1 2 2 3

41 to 45 1 1 2 2 3 3

46 to 50 1 1 2 2 3 3

51 to 55 1 1 2 2 3 3 4

56 to 60 1 1 2 2 3 3 4

Decide how many quest will be necessary for each level

With these tables we can also set the complexity of the each quest based on % or set the short term quest or even special quest.

Level NPC Quest giver1 to 5 45% 55%

6 to 10 45% 55%

11 to 15 25% 25% 50%

16 to 20 25% 25% 50%

21 to 25 15% 15% 30% 40%

26 to 30 15% 15% 30% 40%

31 to 35 15% 15% 15% 15% 40%

36 to 40 15% 15% 15% 15% 40%

41 to 45 15% 15% 15% 15% 20% 20%

46 to 50 15% 15% 15% 15% 20% 20%

51 to 55 10% 10% 10% 10% 12.50% 12.50% 35%

56 to 60 10% 10% 10% 10% 12.50% 12.50% 35%

Remember the previous slide!

Harvesting 60%, Quest 30%, and social actions 10 and 40% of XP are quest objectives.

Quest Multiplier XP coefficient for time by quest

0,3 0,4

Number of Quest Levels

2 1 to 10

3 11 to 20

4 21 to 30

5 31 to 40

6 41 to 50

7 51 to 60

We use 0.4 because 40% of

the total time will be used in

doing quest actions as we

stated before.

Total XP * 0.3 = TQXP

Distributed XP reward

Total XP= XP to reach the next level.

0.3= the multiplier decides before for quest.

TQXP= XP that should be distributed through the quest rewards.

Since we already knew how much XP that we need for each level, so we can find the total XP that should distributed through the quest reward.

Total quest XP * Q% = XPQ

XP given for each single quest

TQXP= XP that should be distributed through the quest rewards.

Q%= % assigned by the designer (easily observable in the balance sheet)

XPQ= XP given for each quest Q.

TT * QP * 0.4 = ET

We must estimate now the duration for each quest

TT= Total time to pass to the next level (in second)

QP= Quest % assigned by the designer (easily observable in the balance sheet)

0.4= Coefficient of quest time.ET= Estimated time.

Note; we use 0.4 because 40% of the total time will be used in doing quest actions as we started before

Coherence between user’s progression n quest objectives.

Ex: Most commonly this is due to objectives which force the user to interact with obsoletes items or tutorial quest given too late in game.

Objective restrictions: a very common mistake is to set as an objective to perform some action that will be unlocked many levels later.

Ex: Construct a building that is available in level 4.

This kind of objectives are really frustrating for the user because in most cases they force him to make several actions that don’t belong to the quest in order to level up.

Repetitive quest: We must avoid with all our effort to make quest very similar or even have the same objective but different number.

Ex: Kill 3 animals n then later on another quest that says kill 10 animals 9 (of the same type)

These kinds of quest are really annoying for the users n other important cause for losing users.

Risk/Reward: This is the balance concept applied to the quest. Many times there are quest that have no coherence between their rewards n objectives. This kind of quest can be

too frustrating for user which will probably stop

doing quest because their rewards are too low or in

the other case they’ll only do quest due their

high prize.

To make it easier, let’s put value on the table, so we can measure the exact condition.

It seems like the ROGUE have an unfair advantage over the others. This might lead us to speculate that the most dominant strategy is boost the speed n armory only.

Also, it’s hard to make them have equal number, so we decide to add another same variable but with multiple value. (Low: 2, Med: 4, High: 6) n only apply it for damage ONLY.

In the end, it’s only theory…the next step you still need to do PLAYTEST n same experiment. Note that balancing can only really begin once the game is playable.

Then, Finally we can adjust all of those class to be like this;

Our previous curves are based in ideal cases. So with the correct analysis we can make some corrections to those curves that will result in other curves more accurate to the real behavior.

“Play n record the real behavior!” In this part we need 3 kind of curve; Intense user, average n relaxed user. We should have; 3 curves for time vs

level n 3 curves for gold vs level

If you have an UNDERCOSTED element, you can increase the cost or decrease the benefits to reach the equilibrium point.

This BALANCE issue can be fixed easily.

If you have an OVERCOSTED element, you can decrease

the cost or increase the benefits to reach the

equilibrium point.

1

2

The real balance problem comes when you identify an element that is just too powerful to exist in the game at any cost.

If an object has an automatic “I WIN/You LOSE” effect, the cost would have to be so high that it would be essentially unobtainable.

In such case, it is OVERPOWERED, that the level of benefit must be reduced (n a simple cost increase isn’t enough to solve the problem)

3

As a counterpart if you have an object that’s already free, you can’t just reduce the cost anymore, so it is possible you’ve found an effect that is just too weak at any cost.

Reducing the cost more further is impossible, so you have no choice;

INCREASE the benefits!

That object is UNDERPOWERED, meaning that it is the level of

benefit (not the cost that must be adjusted specifically.)

4

As a conclusion we have these 4 points in our line, the objective is to set all in the center. For both extremes we have only one way solution, while other points we can choose between 2. We can set the underpowered

result as a useless item and the overpowered as dominant strategy.

This is an area with extra PREUCATIONS.

We usually work with linear progression to establish many premises in the game n make a balance around them.

But, sometimes, the linear formula not match with the expected behavior because we’re forgetting some factors that make the progression NON-LINEAR

Name Attack Cost

Weapon A 10 100

Weapon B 20 200

Weapon C 30 300

Weapon D 40 400

Weapon E 50 500

This is a linear relation; 10 attack = 100 gold

This seems to be balanced in a way, but having C or D makes no diff at all since user must hit 2 times with both weapon to kill foes.

There’s an inflexion point when something that was positive turns negative.

Ex: Upkeep system in WARCRAFT

In Racing, let say you always upgrade SPEED as your top priority, without increasing ACC, sooner you will find tracks with full curves n you will never reach max speed.

CAR STATS: ACC; 0/100 KPH 5 sec Max SPEED: 250 KPH

As U can see, u will never reach max speed. So the extra speed acting like a diminishing return since we waste money that should be spent in a more beneficial stats.

Doubling n Halving The rule of doubling n halving suggest that when changing values to balance your game, u will waste time by changing them by small amounts.

Instead, start by doubling/halving ur values in the direction they

need to go.

Intuition to guess exactly The more game design you do, the better your intuition will become.

EX: If a projectile in your game move at 10 feet/sec n ur feeling that’s too slow, concentrate on what exact number might be.

Your intuition might tells 13 is too low, but 14 is way too high,

“13.7 ??.... No, Maybe 13.8 … YES, 13.8 just feels RIGHT”

Guess exactly every time u put food in the microwave;

“1;40? Too hot … 1;20 too cold … 1;30? Hmm…no 1;32 seems right”

Thank you

Any Questions?...