How can you avoid common game mechanic balancing mistakes?

Game mechanics are the rules and systems that define how players interact with your game. They can make or break your game's fun factor, challenge, and replay value. However, balancing game mechanics is not an easy task. It requires careful planning, testing, and tweaking to ensure that your game is fair, engaging, and rewarding. In this article, you will learn how to avoid some common game mechanic balancing mistakes that can ruin your game design.

1 Know your target audience

One of the first steps to balance your game mechanics is to know who you are making the game for. Different players have different preferences, skill levels, and expectations. For example, some players may enjoy a fast-paced and chaotic game, while others may prefer a slow and strategic one. Some players may want a high level of challenge and difficulty, while others may want a more casual and relaxing experience. You need to identify your target audience and design your game mechanics accordingly. You can use market research, player feedback, and genre conventions to help you define your target audience and their needs.

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2 Establish clear goals and feedback

Another important step to balance your game mechanics is to establish clear goals and feedback for the players. Goals are the objectives that the players need to achieve in order to progress or win the game. Feedback is the information that the game provides to the players about their actions, results, and status. Goals and feedback help the players understand what they need to do, how they are doing, and what they can do better. They also motivate the players to keep playing and improve their skills. You need to design your game mechanics to provide clear, consistent, and meaningful goals and feedback. You can use visual, audio, and textual cues to communicate your goals and feedback to the players.

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3 Use data and playtesting

A third crucial step to balance your game mechanics is to use data and playtesting. Data is the quantitative information that you can collect and analyze from your game, such as player behavior, performance, and satisfaction. Playtesting is the qualitative information that you can gather and observe from real players playing your game, such as their reactions, opinions, and suggestions. Data and playtesting help you measure and evaluate your game mechanics and their impact on the player experience. They also help you identify and fix any problems, issues, or bugs that may affect your game balance. You need to use data and playtesting throughout your game development process, from prototyping to polishing, to ensure that your game mechanics are balanced and fun.

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Johnathon Autry

Unity Game Developer | Software Developer
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Playtesting is one of the best ways you can good feedback on the balance of a mechanic. It allows you to get the opinions of many different players with different playstyles and skill levels. More casual level players may not have an issue with a mechanic but the more advanced players with more experience may realize how a certain mechanic can be used in their favor. Data is also important but it should used with a grain of salt. If your data shows players are using one mechanic more than others, are they using it because it's so much better than the other, is it harder to use, do players think it is just more fun to use? There are many reasons why your data may be showing what it is, so it's important to figure out the root cause.

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4 Avoid complexity and inconsistency

A fourth common mistake to avoid when balancing your game mechanics is to introduce unnecessary complexity and inconsistency. Complexity is the degree of difficulty and depth that your game mechanics have. Inconsistency is the lack of coherence and logic that your game mechanics have. Complexity and inconsistency can confuse, frustrate, and overwhelm the players, especially if they are not well explained or justified. They can also create imbalance and unfairness in your game, such as by making some mechanics too easy or too hard, or by creating loopholes or exploits. You need to avoid complexity and inconsistency in your game mechanics, unless they serve a specific purpose or enhance your game theme. You can use simplicity and elegance to design your game mechanics, and use testing and iteration to refine them.

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Johnathon Autry

Unity Game Developer | Software Developer
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Having complex mechanics is not always a bad thing but it affects the balancing of the mechanic. The mechanic may be very useful and impactful but if it's too complex it can be hard for the users to understand how to use it correctly which makes the mechanic feel worse to the user. It can also cause issues when developers go in to balance the mechanics as the complexity may make it hard to see the root problem of the mechanic. Inconsistency hurts the balance of mechanics by making it confusing to use them. For example, if you have multiple light beams in a game and all but 1-2 of them can go through glass or other objects, players are likely to be confused about why they can't or why they should use or interact with them.

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5 Consider the game context and dynamics

A fifth common mistake to avoid when balancing your game mechanics is to ignore the game context and dynamics. Game context is the setting and situation that your game takes place in, such as the story, world, and genre. Game dynamics are the emergent and unpredictable behaviors and outcomes that arise from the interaction of your game mechanics, such as the player choices, strategies, and emotions. Game context and dynamics can affect your game balance in various ways, such as by creating immersion, tension, and variety. They can also create challenges, opportunities, and trade-offs for the players, such as by requiring adaptation, cooperation, or competition. You need to consider the game context and dynamics when balancing your game mechanics, and use them to create a rich and diverse game experience.

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6 Balance for fun and fairness

A sixth and final common mistake to avoid when balancing your game mechanics is to forget the ultimate goal of your game: to provide fun and fairness for the players. Fun is the enjoyment and satisfaction that the players get from playing your game. Fairness is the sense of justice and equity that the players feel from playing your game. Fun and fairness are the key factors that determine your game's success and popularity. They are also the main reasons why players play games in the first place. You need to balance your game mechanics for fun and fairness, and not for other reasons, such as realism, accuracy, or difficulty. You can use player feedback, testing, and intuition to find the optimal balance between fun and fairness for your game.

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Adeel Bashir

Game Developer ⚡ Skilled in Unity and C# | Content Creator | Fiverr Pro Seller | Helping Companies Build Amazing Games
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To ensure fairness, some games implement creative ways to overcome challenges. When a player is consistently losing, the game may automatically lower the difficulty or offer suggestions. For instance, in Metal Gear Solid 5, wearing the chicken hat renders the player invisible to enemies, while other games may decrease the number of adversaries. Additionally, games provide hints when players are stuck at a particular point. These features encourage players to retry, ultimately leading to success and preventing them from quitting the game.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Miroslav Gavrilov

Game Developer
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While balancing issues arise for many reasons, we notice them in only one way: something feels off. Train yourself to catch that feeling. Play a lot of games. Play them all the time. Play various ones to remove or at least hold back bias. Think about context, as well as constraints. Do all of this specifically to learn, think about what you're looking for and what is happening from over your own shoulder. You want to turn into your own internal observer and follow along as you play. Remember not to search for solutions, but problems: it's natural to jump to ways to fix an issue, but this will cost you long-term: if you can't name and describe the issues you see, solutions end up being useless because you don't learn from them!

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How can you avoid common game mechanic balancing mistakes?

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4

5

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1 Know your target audience

2 Establish clear goals and feedback

3 Use data and playtesting

4 Avoid complexity and inconsistency

5 Consider the game context and dynamics

6 Balance for fun and fairness

7 Here’s what else to consider

Game Development

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How can you avoid common game mechanic balancing mistakes?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Know your target audience

2 Establish clear goals and feedback

3 Use data and playtesting

4 Avoid complexity and inconsistency

5 Consider the game context and dynamics

6 Balance for fun and fairness

7 Here’s what else to consider

Game Development

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