An Analysis of Balance in Games
Balance Type #1: Fairness
Checkers is a game that is nearly perfectly symmetrical. All players have the same amount of pieces, with the same abilities, placed in the exact same initial starting positions. The only asymmetrical element to the game is that black gets to move first. This is mitigated by the fact that the first move isn’t capable of enough to dramatically affect the overall outcome of the game.
If I were to change checkers to make it asymmetrical, I would make it so that players get to choose any one of their own pieces to start off as a king, and black would place their king first. This would still keep things in balance, because both players start off with the same pieces, and both players have the same opportunity to put their king wherever they wanted. It would make each game slightly different, and also allows red to “counter pick” where they want to place their king as a way to make up for having to go second.
One example of a highly-asymmetric game is Versus mode in Left 4 Dead 2. In it, one team plays as “survivors”, and try to make their way to the safe zones at the end of each level. Meanwhile, the opposing team plays as zombies with special abilities, and their goal is to kill off all of the survivors before they can reach those safe zones.
In order to keep the game in balance, the developers made sure to give both teams an equal chance to gain points under the same circumstances. To do this, they set it up so that the teams take turns being zombies and survivors, which means that they play each level twice. Only the survivor team gains points based on how far they got through the level or how much health they had once they finished the level. After both teams have had the opportunity to play as the survivors through the entire set of levels, the team with the highest total score wins.
Halo 3 is an example of a balanced and fair game where players of various skill levels can play with/against each other, while still having skill based competitive gameplay. In order to achieve this, the developers implemented something called a “Trueskill” ranking system that matches players with other people close to their skill level. This allows lower skilled players to still be able to enjoy themselves, and allows higher skilled players to consistently get a fair challenge. As players practice and get better at the game, their rank (and the skill level of their opponents) will improve. All of this means that players will always have the appropriate amount of challenge in games to keep them in a flow state. (More information about Trueskill)
Balance Type #2: Challenge
4. An example of a game that kept me in a flow state was Portal 2. To keep players from becoming bored, the game frequently introduces new mechanics, such as different colored gels that have unique properties. However, instead of overwhelming and frustrating the player by throwing all of these mechanics at them all at once, they introduce new concepts one at a time. When the game introduces a new mechanic, it does so in an easy puzzle. The puzzles using that mechanic gradually increase in difficulty, training players until they master that mechanic. Once a mechanic is mastered, the game introduces players to a new mechanic with easy puzzles, and the cycle continues until the endof the game.
Balance Type #3: Meaningful Choices
In the first Zelda game, there is an interesting example of a dominant strategy. Most people don’t realize, but it is entirely possible to reach the final boss without getting the sword. However, this makes the game very difficult. Because of this, getting the sword at the beginning of the game is clearly the dominant strategy. Getting the sword doesn’t negatively affect the game in any way, as it is actually the intended way to play. It also allows players to sort of choose how difficult they want the game to be. In fact, the only thing that makes you have to get the sword at all is the fact that it’s the only weapon that damages the final boss. If the boss could instead be damaged by another weapon (like the silver arrows that are needed to deal the final blow), it would mean that not getting the sword at all would actually be a legitimate strategy. Additionally, item drop rates should be slightly increased if players do not have the sword in their inventory, thereby giving them the means to better defend themselves. This would still make the game more difficult without the sword, but that’s kind of the point. It would also mean that players would be using the rest of their inventory much more often than they would in a traditional playthrough. (Here is a “No-Sword” playthrough of Zelda 1)
The Yugioh trading card game is an example of a game that offers an incredibly meaningful decision, even before the game itself officially begins. Players buy and collect various different cards, and then build a deck that they want to use against their opponent. With some limitations, players can choose from thousands of different cards to create a deck that plays the way they want. Because of just how many cards there are, it is likely that no two decks would be the same (unless they were specifically built to be the same). Every card a player chooses has the potential to affect the overall course of the match, and will usually make games between different players completely unique.
(To put things into perspective, the above picture is of a set of display cases in a Japanese subway that contains every Yugioh card ever made. Decks only ever consist of 40-60 cards. Almost every section on this wall contains 357 cards.)
The bandage collectibles in Super Meat Boy is a fantastic example of a risk/reward choice used in a game. Players can unlock different characters with different abilities after attaining enough bandages. Players do not need to collect them to continue through the game, but they give the player fun rewards to mix up gameplay. However, the bandages are placed in locations that make them hard to attain. Players choose between risking death to grab the bandages, or playing it easy in order to reach the end a bit more safely. If a bandage is in a location that the player doesn’t think they can get to, or they die too much trying to reach it, they can opt to skip the bandage. However, many of the unique abilities that secret characters have can help out in later levels, giving players a reason to choose to try to attain bandages.
(The above image is an example of a one of the game’s hard to attain bandage collectibles. You could instead choose to ignore it, and safely slide down most of the left wall.)
Balance Type #4: Skill vs. Chance
Skee ball (the popular arcade game where players roll balls up a slope into different sized holes for points) is an example of a game that is primarily skill based. Under normal circumstances, there is no element of chance. If I were to design a variant of skee ball that did contain an element of chance, it would probably be a version where the holes move. In doing so, it would make rolls be much less predictable and more luck based, and would allow lower skilled players to compete against higher skilled players.
Mario Kart is a game that is known for having a large amount of chance. While your skill at driving the karts does slightly affect the outcome, the random item boxes completely shake things up. With items like the blue shell that attacks whoever is in first place, anyone has a chance to win. One way to make the game more skill based and less luck based would be to make the item boxes not be random. You could instead make each box always have a specific item, much like the on-map placement of weapons in the old halo games. Each box could have some way of indicating which item is inside (perhaps having the item’s picture on the box). Doing so would mean that knowledge of where certain items are would be key in defending yourself or attacking players in front of you.
Balance Type #6: Competition vs. Cooperation
10. New Super Mario Bros is an example of a game that is very cooperative in nature when played with friends. If a player is having a hard time in specific parts, friends can pick them up and carry them, or they can float to their friends in a bubble. They can also jump on each other’s head to reach hard to reach places, or stomp on the ground at the same time to release a shockwave that kills all enemies on screen. Using these abilities, players can work together to find secrets or simply reach the end of the level. However, there are a few hindrances when playing cooperatively. Some platforming areas can be a bit too tight for all players to fit on. They might also accidentally bump or throw their friends into deadly situations. These can be alleviated though by using the bubble mechanic to float back to your friends. While the game doesn’t have to be played cooperatively, it certainly does add to the enjoyment of the game. Everything in the game can be accomplished while playing by one’s self, or with other people. In fact, players could even try to race each other to the end in a more competitive style of play. It just goes to show how Nintendo took into account all of this when adding cooperative play to the Mario series for the first time ever.
The Five Nights at Freddy’s series of games is an example of games with really interesting rewards that add to the players’ enjoyment. On the surface, the series is about haunted animatronics, and your attempt to survive working in the dangerous pizzerias. In fact, that’s about all that the game outright tells you about the story. However, if a player pays closer attention to their surroundings and the events that take place, they will start to find hidden clues to the series’ deeper and darker lore. This has led to many players cooperating across the internet to try uncovering the grand mysteries of the games, and piece together the clues to solve what really happened. The rewarding part is when all of those pieces come together to paint a clearer picture of what is really going on in the lore. (The following video is an example of player’s uncovering the hidden lore in the franchise)
Balance Type #9: Punishment
Rogue Legacy is an example of a game with a unique punishment that adds to the enjoyment of the game. The game is a platformer, in which players explore a randomly generated dungeon. However, whenever a player’s character dies, the player gains a level and gets to choose from one of the character’s randomly generated descendants. All gold that a character collected gets inherited by the chosen descendant, and can be used to improve the descendant’s stats, abilities, and equipment. Additionally, the dungeon gets randomly re-generated. Though death punishes the player by negating all progress they made in the dungeon, it also opens up new options that keep the game fresh and ever changing. And since the game’s dungeon is randomly re-generated, you never have to re-explore the exact same places you’ve already been. All of this makes death in Rogue Legacy feel more like progress, keeping it effective without damaging players’ motivation.
