Chaos and Determinism in a Game

This article will attempt to answer the question "How much should luck play a factor in my game?". I will explain both ends of the spectrum and weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each. It will also discuss the various methods of introducing chance into your games.

Determinism has the following benefits:

• Makes for a very intellectual game
• With sufficient testing, allows for a high level of play
• Players feel encouraged to improve at the game, rather than blame bad luck for a loss
• At sufficiently high levels of play, beautiful strategies will emerge
• Experienced players can play very quickly in familiar scenarios

And the following drawbacks:

• Tends to encourage Analysis Paralysis (AP)
• Is not approachable for new players; having a skilled friend tends to scare people away
• Requires an understanding of the game to appreciate it
• Has a significant learning curve
• Is discouraging if you do not feel that you are learning while you play
• Tends to only work with fewer players (usually only 2)

Chaos has the following benefits:

• Allows for diversity of play, by having unlikely scenarios emerge
• Chance is faster than decisions - if you let players choose, they will take time to think about it, even if it isn't very important. Leaving things to chance allows you to improve the speed and flow of the game
• It allows players of disparate skill levels each enjoy a chance of victory
• It can, in some cases, intensify the player interaction experience
• It forces you to react to things as they happen, rather than plan infinitely in advance

And the following drawbacks:

• It is insanely frustrating to lose because of bad dice rolls
• If there is too much chance involved, player skill becomes irrelevant
• It is difficult to tell if a strategy is good or bad when it could just be the luck
• Can occasionally cause AP by adding additional possibilities to the outcome
• Will usually result in a runaway leader when more people are playing
• Generally favours more casual games; is generally unable to support a high skill-ceiling
• Often requires large scale to normalize its odds

Ultimately, one is not strictly superior to the other. In most cases, a balance of the two will provide the best outcome; giving them a game-plan, but still requiring them to keep on their toes. Depending on the nature of your game, and your own personal preferences, you may want to lean one way or the other.

Methods of Uncertainty

Dice

Dice are pure chance. They can be good to you, or betray you when you need them most. You can use a single dice to maximize the randomness, or use multiple dice to weigh the odds (example: both 3D6 and 1D20 have the same average roll, but you are more likely to roll 'average' numbers with 3D6).  Their unpredictability is their strength and weakness, and pretty-much embody the pros and cons of Chaos. You can also include coin flips as dice, as they are essentially a D2.

Cards

Cards are my preferred method of chance. They are easily malleable, as you can add or subtract possibilities, and each will happen throughout the course of the deck, normalizing the outcome. I feel that they are an excellent balance between Order and Chaos. You can also store large amounts of information per card (relative to the other mediums). Things like tiles from Carcassonne would also be included as cards. You can also manipulate the cards, allowing you to do things like search the deck, or add or remove cards from it at will.

Hidden Information

This is most notable in Stratego, Shadows over Japan, and Old Maid. Allow each player their own hidden pieces, and have other players react not knowing which is which. It adds a certain amount of metagame to it, imposing mind-games between you and your opponents. It also adds a touch of skill in reading your opponents and knowing how they think. It is not technically random, but it is uncertainty, which for all intents and purposes is the same thing.

This can also include hidden information that is not known to any player. The best example that I can think of this is from Clue, where players have to figure out which clues were set aside at the beginning of the game.

Dexterity

I generally frown on this one for board games, but it includes anything that requires you to physically accomplish a task. Examples of this include Crokinole, Operation, and Jenga. It generally works if it fits your theme, but isn't something I'd consider to be strategic in any way; generally lending itself better to casual, family, or comedy-oriented games.

Judgement

This is another one I'd frown upon, but having a GM or other neutral party judge/choose an outcome can be a valid method in some circumstances. This is generally most applicable to story-telling games, where the scoring might be determined either by a central judge or a panel of the other players.

An example of this would be Cards Against Humanity, which actually supports both Judge (Card Czar) and Jury (God is Dead) scoring systems.

Be sure to choose the best methods for your mechanics, although in many cases it is more a question of preference than precision.

Until next time,

-Colin

The Importance of Theme

Theme is an interesting aspect to games; more often than not, they are the make-or-break factor that will determine its success. I also have a slightly unique perspective on this, as I personally enjoy theme less than most.

Firstly, let's define theme. In its broadest sense, it is anything that makes the game immersive. Themes can be tacked on, or core to the game. Take Super Mario Chess for example. The game itself is no different from regular chess, however, they are marketing it on the hope that involving Mario will generate more sales. That is a tacked-on theme. Something like Twilight Struggle has theme at its core; it starts at the core and builds outwards. Everything about that game is based on the cold war, including all of its mechanics and content. There are also mixed cases, such as Carcassonne, which could just as easily be about building a dungeon as a city, or could just as easily be an abstract control-the-colours game.

Visuals

Closely tied in with Theme is Art. It is easy to underestimate the importance of having good art. I was genuinely surprised for most of my Magic playing career, how many people got into it because of the art. It was something I generally didn't care about or even notice, and yet it is a major drawing factor for many of its players (no pun intended).

Art is the bridge between the every-man and the game. It is very difficult to appreciate abstract games without playing them and having an understanding of it. It is easy to appreciate something relatable; Warhammer thrives on this concept. While it could very well be an abstract strategy game, it instead takes place in a very engaging universe filled with interesting characters and stories, that ultimately have very little to do with the actual gameplay. I admit to have started playing Warhammer without any prior knowledge of it, instead just basing the decision purely on its aesthetics.

Audio

Unless you are talking about a video game (or Last Night on Earth), music is not a factor. That being said, I find that sound is far more important than graphics for creating immersion. Music is good, but sound effects and voices are far more important.

Taking two examples, Bastion is nothing special graphically; however it has a ridiculously amazing soundtrack, and exceptionally good voice acting. Dungeon Keeper 2 is a very old game, with terrible graphics by modern standards, however I find it easy to get into because of the beautifully done voice acting and sound effects.

I also want to make note of the original Fear game; for most of it, a very annoying high-pitched sound is constantly emitted. It is fairly easy to ignore after a minute, but it does keep you from getting psychologically
relaxed.

Story

Depending on the game, there may be a universe associated with it. I mentioned the Warhammer universe, which guides the game without directly affecting it. Having relatable stories and characters (or a franchise) associated with your game is often a boon, and indeed the sole saving grace of most shovelware. It becomes more engaging to pit Eddard Stark against Joffrey Baratheon when you know the backstories of those characters.

Many games have engaging stories within themselves, and indeed are the beginnings of such universities or franchises. In some cases, the line between story and game becomes blurred, and experiencing the story becomes more important than the gameplay itself. Note however, that some games lend themselves better to storytelling than others. Typically, long games can have more of a story, while shorter games tend to have a 'flavour' more than an actual story. By this I mean, in Carcasonne, you are a builder competing for contracts to create this city - and that is the extent of the story.

Conclusion

Theme is an important aspect of gaming, as it helps to draw in players and make the game more engaging. More is generally better than less, so long as you are not just tacking it on. Fluff is great to have, but not essential. It can also occasionally make things easier to explain as well, if your mechanics are tied into your theme, as everyone has an intuitive understanding of such things as gold.

Until next time,

-Colin

How to Balance a Game

How should you go about balancing a game?

There are a few schools of thought to this. The predominant answer that I have found is that it depends on the nature and genre of the game.

PVM

As a rule of thumb, when designing a PVM (player versus monster) game, the idea is to go big or go home. Does a certain boss feel too easy? Try doubling his stats. PVM focuses mainly on feel, and as such, minor refinements and tweaks tend not to make a huge difference. Many developers have ended up doubling those stats again.

Experiment with a wide variety of values, and see what 'feels' right. These types of games are mostly about the experience, rather than showcasing a particular mechanic. If something is not working exactly how you want it, consider just not emphasizing that element in the game; by this I mean if the jumping mechanic in your game is awkward, you have two options:

1. Refine your jumping system until you have something smooth

OR

2. Just don't include any jumping puzzles

Is jumping really important to your game? Do you really need to refine it, or can you simply ignore it? Most PVM problems can be solved by altering the CONTENT of your game rather than its MECHANICS.

PVP

If you are designing a PVP game, refinement becomes much more important. Monsters may not mind that a particular spell or combo is overpowered, but when game-breaking combos are unleashed on other players, they tend to take offence.

Generally speaking, many of your more vocal testers (or players) will complain about whatever beat them to the point that you have to take their words with a grain of salt. It is also important to consider both sides of an argument, sometimes powerful units are necessary and intrinsic to a balanced matchup. I personally don't like Marauders in Starcraft, but I acknowledge that the game would not be the same without them.

Rock is OP. Paper is fine.
-Scissors

This is comparing the balancing philosophies behind WoW, DotA, and LoL.

Depending on whether or not you are designing a video game (and indeed what system you are designing it for), you may or may not have the luxury of patching your games; that is to say, fixing anything after the initial release. Patching is usually not required, unless you are aiming to have an extremely high level of competitive play, although it is fairly standard among video games nowadays.

I maintain the opinion that what Blizzard is best at is Patching games, outstripping every other game producer  by far in that regard. Every single patch in Diablo 3 was a godsend, after a fairly poor initial reception. Starcraft is widely considered the best balanced RTS in history, after years of updates and feedback from their community. I can't personally speak for WoW, but I feel that its 10 million+ population speaks for itself.

If you do not have the ability to patch your game, then you had best make sure that you get it right the first time. Donald X. Vaccarino playtested for over a year and played thousands of games before the first release of Dominion.

You need to consider every element, and its every possible interaction with every other element in order to claim to have fully tested something. A daunting task, and it is usually best to have as many testers as possible for a project. Usually, you want smart/skilled players, who will notice possible interactions quickly, and therefore test much more efficiently than simply brute-force testing every possible interaction. You should generally balance for as high-level play as possible.

PVP games must have both well balanced MECHANICS as well as CONTENT. The only regard that it is more flexible than PVM is that human interaction can naturally balance out minor things.

Is one element really powerful? Have players bid on it; this helps to ensure that whoever gets it has to pay whatever everyone feels that it is worth.
Is there potential cooperation among the players? Alliances or cooperation allow underdogs to topple a dominant player.