Welcome to Digital Play Zone!

I'm Winn Liu. In game design, balancing a game is probably considered one of the hardest to master. It is a topic that sounds easy to explain, but when the time comes to start balancing the game, it's a whole different story.

So let's get started, shall we?

What does it mean to balance a game? Balancing a game is to make sure that each of the different mechanics does not overpower the other. If one skill is stronger than the other, the player with the weaker skill will feel that the game is unfair and eventually quit playing.

On the other hand, if all skills are equally balanced, players will feel that the game is stale and boring, causing them to quit. It doesn’t matter if the designs and names of these skills are different, if they are functionally the same, players will feel that there is no difference and that makes the game very flat and limits a lot of theory crafting.

Another reason the balance of a game is important is for the feel of a game. If your game is not balanced, the pacing in your game will not feel natural, It will feel all over the place causing players to lose that sense of immersion.

The last reason playtesting is important is that it allows for your game to build a community, players love to come up with new combinations and techniques. I have seen many different communities building different teams for hours on end.

Here are some things you should consider and think about before you start changing things.

Which aspect of the game feels unbalanced? Is it the potions, the combat, or something to do with the motion controls? Knowing where the issue is will give you a better idea of what and where to start fixing the problems.

Next, you want to consider what you want your players to feel or do. Are you trying to change the main goal of your game? Or how do your players use a mechanic?

Only after considering these things can we finally start thinking about what mechanics we have to change to balance our game.

How do we balance a game? Well, the first thing we need to do is figure out what needs to be adjusted. Let’s say that we have a sniper rifle that is way too overpowered and you’re getting complaints because of this gun. The first thing you will need to consider before changing anything would be to figure out what stats make a sniper rifle.

To me, a sniper rifle consists of four things. The magazine size, the deadliness, the time between shots, and the reload time. Next, we take into consideration what players are frustrated about. Is it the number of shots they have, or how fast the downtime between each shot is? Once you find your answer you can finally start tweaking and changing.

Next would be to playtest and gather feedback so that you know whether or not the issue has been fixed. If it has, good job! If it hasn’t, go back to step one and reanalyze, you may have changed the wrong thing or it may have not been a large enough change.

You should have a spreadsheet or chart to show you the win rates/ kills and deaths, player behaviour, player quitting mid-games, etc. This data can help you notice what guns, characters, or skills are completely out of balance in comparison to other guns, characters, or skills.

It may sound counter-intuitive when I say this, but games should not perfectly balance, where every single stat and move is exactly the same. These perfectly balanced games often make it so that players lose interest because the game is exactly the same every single time with no variations in sight, Or the player base will deviate between the beginner and veteran players so much that the barrier to entry when you’re trying to improve on the game becomes so large that no beginner player can cross without spending hundreds of hours practising and learning.

Now I'm not saying these games are not fun, but having a little imbalance can help to lower the barrier to entry. Take Pokemon for example, the many different types make it so that no one player can have the exact same team with exactly the same stats. This allows players to build new strategies and counters to old teams, this allows the community to build new teams for years to come.

When Implementing new, it is important to just change a few stats. If each and every update brings new cards to the game, but the only differences between the new and old cards are a few changes in damage or health, after a few more updates your game will suffer from power creep.

Experienced players will only use the new stronger cards and new or returning players will only have the old weaker cards to use, causing them to lose to the experienced players who have spent the time to get the stronger cards.

Patch notes on updates can help to inform your community about the changes you’ve made. This can allow you to have a large player base to give you feedback on whether these balances are done right or whether they still need work.

Informing your community about patches can also help you find those few people in the community who have great ideas on how to balance things. Taking their ideas into consideration can also help to boost your company's reputation, as the community will be happy that you listen to their suggestions.

Balancing a game is an extremely difficult thing to do. Balancing is an art form, ever-changing and evolving. As long as you are active in your community and take your time to figure out what exactly are the issues that are causing this unbalance. I believe that you will be able to create an awesome balanced game.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on game design or writing stories for games. If you have any stories or suggestions on balancing games feel free to send me a message!