First comes the math and statistics knowledge, probably. Assuming you have that... the next question is what specifically you want to balance the game towards.
First comes the math and statistics knowledge, probably. Assuming you have that... the next question is what specifically you want to balance the game towards.
Game Unit balance. I'd like to have some basis to set initial attributes besides guessing. (I know, no matter what, playtesting would still be required.)
Math is used to prove concepts to people who haven't played games. Otherwise it is more of a feel thing between one person and another. As someone who plays in the "zone" this is vital.
Remember, despite everything, most game designers do most design and balance by intuition and playtesting. ;^)
From my experience at gambit, this is definitely true. There's the occasional game theory geek-moment, doing maths or a graph: "yay, i can actually use this!"
Game Unit balance. I'd like to have some basis to set initial attributes besides guessing. (I know, no matter what, playtesting would still be required.)
I meant more about what specifically you are trying to balance, basically what's the goal and what are you trying to do. The basic mechanism is pretty important. A game that assigns the victory randomly can be balanced, but outside of context that's pretty meaningless.
Remember, despite everything, most game designers do most design and balance by intuition and playtesting. ;^)
From my experience at gambit, this is definitely true. There's the occasional game theory geek-moment, doing maths or a graph: "yay, i can actually use this!"
There is math, but 90% of it is guess first, use math to verify that this works. If something is broken, you can prove it with math. If something is fun and balanced, it just works and math can't prove that it's bad. Math is just the check on good balance. You can come up with things like the damage-per-round of individual units and whatnot, and comparing those across units is important. If one unit moves a lot faster than another, it might need to do less damage for instance. That's the only math you need to use. The rest is through basic intuition.
Also, anyone who's good enough at math to prove theoretically that a game like StarCraft or WoW is balanced without releasing the game to the rigours of the public is probably too busy making millions of dollars on Wall Street or working at CERN.
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Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals
Remember, despite everything, most game designers do most design and balance by intuition and playtesting. ;^)
Math is just the check on good balance. You can come up with things like the damage-per-round of individual units and whatnot, and comparing those across units is important. If one unit moves a lot faster than another, it might need to do less damage for instance. That's the only math you need to use. The rest is through basic intuition.