AET 335 Lecture 8: Lecture 8 Notes
18 Jan 2019
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Document Summary
Action imbalance: benefit a player-mechanic provides is either too weak or too strong in comparison to its cost to the player. Too weak/powerful of a systems-driven mechanic to factor into player decision making. Can cause player choices to be either obvious or meaningless. Strategic imbalance: game supports a dominant strategy. Asymmetric imbalance: one player has undesired systemic advantage at the onset of the game. Difficulty imbalance: difficulty not suited to target audience. Cost curve: the cost of ensuing improvements/additions. Transitive (rankable): a b and b c = a c. Intransitive (unrankable): a c does not automatically follow from a b and b c. Tuning: a balance adjustment that involves changing some numeric trait of the game. Aspects of digital games shared with other art forms. Turn-based game: game state remains static while player decides what actions to take. Real-time games: play happens continuously and does not pause for the player to make a decision.
