Homework 9: 

Chapter 11: Balance

Considering all 12 types of balance. Some which apply, some which don’t. Examples in game are:

After carefully analyzing chapter 11 on Balance I realized that a good way to transpose the concepts learned in the book to my teams game, would be adjusting the elements of the game until they deliver the experience you want. Balancing a game is far from a

science; in fact, despite the simple mathematics that is often involved, it is generally

considered the most artful part of game design

1. Fairness: I am planning to keep the game symmetrical; by giving equal resources and powers to the player. The various Potions spread across the Maze that way If opponents have radically different skill levels this would be balance out by this tools that give momentary power to the player.

2. Challenge vs. Success: Increasing the difficulty gradually would be a way for me to solve this challenge. The effects of enhancements would be for a duration of just for a few seconds so it would also balance the level of challenge players would experience while keeping the game engaging.

3. Meaningful Choices:  I plan to force the game to situations in which the players ask themselves the questions:

Where should I go? Which power should I choose? How should I spend my resources? How should I dress my character?

By slowly revealing areas where objects reveal the next location along with the places where to find potions and various weapons, this and many more of this questions can be answer by the player while playing the game.

4. Skill vs. Chance: As disclosed in chapter 10, this two opposing forces can negate each other if not balance. My preference based solely on the fact that the game I am designing would be release in American, would be to maximize the effects of chance.

5. Head vs. Hands: Purgatory would involve more thinking while also involving a healthy doze of strategics and puzzle solving.

6. Competition vs. Cooperation: Since my game has no online playing capabilities cooperating is out of the question, however the competitive nature of the player do play a role base on the need to acquire points which translate in experience and currency to buy more items.

7. Short vs. Long:   Taking in consideration the given time for completion and also the fact that my knowledge of Blender is somehow limited, creating a rather short but engaging level that would perhaps host sub levels could balance the gameplay. One way to solve the problem would be to set a time limit and a point system which I already placed in the game.

8. Rewards: To solve this I plan to incorporate 3 simple reward systems based on the book of lenses:

• Praise- a special sound effect would be triggered once the player finds hidden treasures giving him special momentary powers to fight the monster in game.
•  Points:  Would give the player the illusion of success as they don’t really serve a real purpose.
• A Gateway: A mini game or bonus area would be placed in a hidden location of the games map to make the game structure rewards exploration.
• Powers: Since becoming more powerful is something that everyone desires in real life, this abilities would be offer in game by acquiring various magical items enhancing the player’s abilities momentarily.
• Completion: By completing all the objectives in a game this would give a special feeling of closure to the players, since people rarely get to resolve all problems in real life

9. Punishment: By adding this element, increase enjoyment can be triggered in players as stated in the book of lenses. Making the powers available only for limited time, not only balances the game but also triggers negative consequences if players don’t time their attack appropriately making the moment of using powers much more precious.

10. Freedom vs. Controlled Experience: Since the game isn’t meant to be a simulation of real life, but rather a more interesting version of real life, this would mean cutting out boring, complex, or unnecessary decisions and actions. By tracing a path to follow by enhance light and others visual FXs, glowing areas would show the way to go, solving this challenge.

11: Simple vs. Complex:

To strike the right balance between Simple vs. Complex, balanced surprises would be place during game play. By design a simple game that becomes a factory of never-ending stream of balanced surprises, and the only way to find out whether we have achieved this is to keep playing and changing our game over and over until the surprises start to come.

12: Detail vs. Imagination:

By providing some level of detail, but leave it to the player to fill in the rest in their minds this challenging  lens would be solve. We will make sure to “Only detail what we can do well”. For example I will be creating a detail animated intro cut scene with fancy Mocab motion files to present the main female character, after that a more simple first person view will be all the players would see, forcing them to play with their imagination to visualize being in the body of the character.

This concludes the 12 principles of balanced design.