Blog Entry 17 - Balancing in Multi-player Games

In recent days, I looked at the balancing in Multi-player games. As for the new game my group is going to design is a multi-player party game so it is important to make sure this game will be balanced.

The theoretical information below comes from chapter 10 of the book <Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences> by Tynan Sylvester

Q: What is Balancing in games?

A: Change the power of items, units, strategies, teams or game characters by adjusting game mechanics

Balance is a key way to achieve these goals: fairness & depth

Fairness:

• at the beginning of the game, nobody has more advantage than the others

• players think that winning and losing the game are reasonable

• some games are fair themselves - symmetrical games (puck: 2 teams start with the same situation and use the same rules, the only difference is the athletes)

• most of the games are asymmetric games (fighting games where players have different abilities, historical games where one plays as the axis and the other plays the allies)

Depth:

• depth is a characteristic of a game that produces meaningful gameplay through great skill

• If there is an optimal strategy in the game, the decision-making of the game is meaningless, so the options provided to the players should be balanced

The theoretical information below comes from chapter 13 of the book <The Art of Game Design> by Jesse Schell

Common Game Balance Types：

1. Fairness

- symmetrical games: Give all players equal resources and abilities

- asymmetrical games: To simulate real-world conditions, to give players another way to explore the game space, personalise, for the balance of the field, to create interesting situations

- rock, paper, scissors: Make sure that one element in the game beats one element and another element beats it (can be found in fighting games)

- mechanism of mutual restraint：

Rock, paper, scissors

• most simple multi-player game

• each element is restricted by another

• make sure nobody can be invincible

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/686869380684138464/

2. Challenge & success

- props distribution system:

Maria Kart 8

• racing game

• prop distribution system: the player who runs front can only get normal props while the players at the end of the line can get very good props

https://www.lifewire.com/mario-kart-8-deluxe-review-4688951

The Spiny Shell

• to utterly obliterate the front-runner in the race

• can be really powerful

• instantly change the racing situation

3. Meaningful choice

- counterexamples: in a card racing game, there are 50 cars to choose from, if all of the cars drove the same way, then it's meaningless; in a shooting game, when players are provided with 10 guns, if one of them is better than others, then the decision making has no meaning

- the optimal strategy:

Monopoly

At the final stage:

• players will choose to stay longer in the prison to avoid stepping into other player's land

• wait for others to step into their lands and go bankrupt

• there is not much that players can do but see luck

• all strategic operations in the early game are invalid

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/638948265894102141/

- Michael Mateas: How many meaningful choices should be provided to the players? - Depend on the quantity of the player's desire

choices > desires, the player feels stressful

choices < desires, the player feels depressed

choices = desires, the player feels free and satisfied

Questions to ask:

• what kind of choices do I want to give to players?

• Are those choices meaningful?

• Are the quantities of choices enough? Should I add more to let them feel powerful? Should I reduce choices and make the game more clear?

• Do I have an optimal strategy in the game?

The Triangle

example: The Space Invaders

• low points aliens - low input & low payback (moves slowly and easy to shoot, will throw bombs at you)

• the high points fast moving UFOs - high input & high payback (moves quickly and are not easy to shoot, need to remove your eyesight from the aliens and take the risk to shoot the UFOs)

Questions to ask:

• Do I have a triangle in my game? If not, how can I apply it?

• Did I apply the triangle in a balanced way? (the risk and payback in the direct ratio?)

Examples:

• In Steve Levy's Hecker book, an MIT engineer hacked into a vending machine and offered customers a choice (either to buy the snack at the regular price or to put in a virtual coin and your snack might cost double, or completely free)

• use expectations to balance the game:

Qix: A ball of line segments floats on the screen, and the player dies when they touch him before the rectangle is drawn; if the rectangle is drawn, the area can be obtained, and if more than 75% is obtained, you win

Paper.io 2: multiplayer online enclosure game, your land will be reduced after being encircled by others; when you are half encircled, the more greedy you are (the farther you go), the more likely you will encounter enemies and kill you

Mario Kart series: Manual or automatic? (Manual requires more skills, and it will add a lot of speed if used well); Grab props (risking the crash) or ignore props?...

4. Skill & Probability

- to make these two balanced: use them alternately

Examples: Dealing cards is a probability, how to get out is a skill; dice points are probability, deciding where to go is a skill

- David Perry: The key to designing an addictive design is to design the game in which the player does three things at any time: perform a trick, take various risks, and think about a strategy

Questions to ask:

• Are my players here to be judged (skill) or to take risks (probability)?

• Skill is generally more serious than probability: is this a serious game, or a casual one?

• Are there boring parts of my game? If so, can adding probability elements revitalize it?

• Are there parts of my game that feel too random? If so, would replacing elements of probability with elements of skill or strategy give the player a greater sense of control?

5. Competition and cooperation

Competition:

Questions to ask:

• Does my game measure player skill fairly?

• Do people want to win my game? Why?

• Is winning this game something to be proud of? Why?

• Can novices and experts compete meaningfully in my game?

Cooperation:

Questions to ask:

• Cooperation requires communication, do my players have enough opportunities to communicate? How can communication be enhanced?

• Are my players already friends, or are they strangers? How to break the ice if they are strangers

• Is there synergy (2+2=5) or hindrance (2+2=3) when players cooperate? Why?

• Are the players all in the same role, or are they divided?

• Collaboration is greatly enhanced if one person cannot complete a task. Does my game have such tasks?

• Missions that force communication encourages cooperation, does my game have missions that force communication?

Competition & Cooperation:

Questions to ask:

• If "1" is competition and "10" is cooperation, how much is my game worth?

• Can I give players a choice, is it a cooperative or competitive game?

• Does my audience prefer cooperation, competition, or a mix of both?

• Is team competition right for my game? Is it fun to compete as a team or as an individual in my game?

6. Game time

- if time is too short: no time for players to make strategy (Tic Tac Toe)

- if the time is too long: players will fill boring and never play it again

Example

Minotaur

• a four - players game where players go through the maze and collect weapons and spells

• if nobody fights with each other, then the game will never end

• after 20 minutes of the game, a doomsday battlefield mode will be applied and players will be difficult to stay alive longer which can somehow force them to end the game