Homework 9: Balance

Balancing a game can be difficult and time consuming. To ease that difficulty I've contextualized twelve types of balance and how they affect my game.

Balancing the game in terms of fairness will require testing to see if players can understand how to solve the puzzles correctly without getting frustrated. The game is asymmetrical since it's really the player vs the world but it's not punishing.

Challenge vs success relates to increasing the difficulty while not making the game too frustrating or too boring. This is achieved in our game by adding new mechanics to the game as the player progresses. In the first section the player is in a non-hostile environment and they can take their time taking pictures and learning the story. As they progress they're introduced to puzzles that stop their progress. This will hopefully make the game less monotonous and change the pacing from a leisurely stroll to an anxiety filled timed section. We are still thinking about adding enemies in the forms of stray dogs later on as a third new gameplay mechanic. 

Meaningful choices reward the player based on whether they decide to do one thing over another or in addition to it. In our game there's a part where you have to cross a bridge and you're only given around 10 seconds to do so. However this bridge offers the only location to get a particular photograph. If the player chooses to they can stop on the bridge to take the photo, risking running out of time and falling in the water. This is also referred to as triangularity. 

Since our game is mostly story driven and serious there is very little chance added in. One element of chance that we may add is the random path enemies take in the later game. This way the players never know if they'll get attacked each time they play the game.

Head vs hands is the balance between mental vs physical challenge. Mental challenges include puzzle solving while physical challenges include jumping or aiming at targets. Our game has a balance between these by having the player use their intellect and what the game has taught them to figure out what pictures to take and where to take them, and having timed sections that need to be navigated quickly. Hopefully we will be able to pace these challenges so it doesn't become monotonous. 

Balancing competition vs cooperation is mainly reserved for multiplayer games. The only element of competition in our game would be how many of the correct pictures you took compared to a friend's total. This comparison is not tracked in game though.

Short vs long is about balancing gameplay length using different methods. Our game is interesting because the player can, if they want, just wander around and take pictures. Not all of the pre-defined photo opportunities are required to move on to the next area but the players are given bonuses and more insight into the story if they take the time to explore. In this way the player creates their own pace.

Rewards in our game include unlocking new areas, discovering secret photos that tell more of the story, taking normal photos that display an animation and music, learning all the powers that the camera has, and beating the game to discover the full story. Conversely, punishments in the game are very minor. If you "die" by falling from a height or into water you're reset very close to where you were. If you fail a timed puzzle you must restart the puzzle sequence again.

Freedom vs controlled experience determines how much control you give the player. Our game gives the player a lot of freedom. We let them wander around at their own pace taking photos but to get to the next "stage" they need to go through a puzzle section. These sections are useful because we know even if the player misses most of the photo ops they will definitely pass through this part. Thus these "gated" areas can be used to deliver important story elements or just have exciting events happen. 

Our game may appear very simple at first(you just take pictures of things) but complexity arises due to how the different objects react to the photos. Some will trigger puzzles, others will show animations, and even others might cause an enemy to attack.

Our game is set in a familiar area: a city with a park and river. Thus the areas don't need to be realistically detailed because people know what these places look like. We only need to put details here and there so the areas don't look empty and boring. Also the areas that the players are forced to go through can be more detailed since we know they'll be seen.