How are Role-playing video games balanced?
Benjamin Bridgett, Games Development, Department of Computer and Information Sciences
ProjectAims
● To investigate RPG video games and develop an RPG video game that demonstrates the effects of balance on an RPG video game.
● To gather information via user testing and a questionnaire to explore a user's experience of balance.The game planning will be documented in the literature review.
● To compare the industry and user view on RPG video game balance.
● To create a game that features balance and unbalance.
Methodology
● Research is performed using google scholar, and sources gathered will be centered around video games.
● Two success criterias were created during the project, each one representing the views of either industry or users. User information was gathered via a questionnaire.
● Agame will be created that has two modes, a balance mode and an unbalanced mode, demonstrating the impact of balance.
● The video game will be created using the RPG Maker engine, examples are shown below.
Atown within the game
Combat within the game
Research
● Research was done to investigate the methods that industry used to balance video games and the views that experienced developers had towards balance.
Summary of Research
● In order for a player to enjoy balance, a game must be not too hard or too easy.
● Throughout an RPG video game, all skills and abilities given to the player must remain relevant.
● The more choices a player has, the more balanced the game is.
● Abalanced game should have all of its actions used at a similar frequency.
Design & Implementation
● The game is designed as an RPG game, thus it needed an RPG setting. World Building
Party Characters
● Arthur, a generous knight who receives a quest.
● Lloyd,Arthurs best friend and a thief by trade.
● Claudia, a noblewoman who is chasing her families lost goods
● Melody, a holy cleric who works at a church.
Results & Findings
Questionaire Result examples
World
● Bakras, a large country in the east
● Oregan, a rich country in the west
● Demon Lords castle, lands tainted by a dark lord Map of the World Threats
● Sheridan, an evil vampire and dark lord.
● Snake, a snake tainted by magic.
● Cultist, followers of the dark lord.
Views on balance
● Both the industry and participant agree on scaling being the most important. Having the abilities of each character get stronger over time.
● Users valued variety in characters, industry preferred more accurate skill refinement and effective mathematics within balance.
Conclusions & Future Work
Conclusion
● There are a vast amount of factors that can affect balance within an RPG video game.
● The interplay of numbers is an important concept in balance, and represents the interactions of skills and nu mbers within a video game Future work
● Investigate the effectiveness of skill trees and customisation in balance.
Bibliography
• M. S. Noorudin et al "The Role Playing Games from Classic to Modern: Future Perspective.
• Aponte, et al. (2009). Scaling the Level of Difficulty in Single Player Video Games.
• G. Bosc et al,APattern MiningApproach to Study Strategy Balance in RTS Games.