It's About Time: System Design for Mobile Free-to-Play

Summary

Evan Losey, líder de diseño de juegos en Skokie, comparte su enfoque en el diseño de sistemas para juegos móviles gratuitos. Explica cómo equilibrar economías y características del juego, utilizando ejemplos de batallas y sistemas de construcción de ciudades. Aborda la importancia de la escala, la sensación de progreso y la monetización a través de la venta de tiempo. Evan subraya la necesidad de iteración y ajuste para lograr un equilibrio que sea tanto emocionante como sostenible para los jugadores.

Takeaways

• 🕹️ El diseño de sistemas es esencial en juegos gratuitos y esencial para la interacción de todas las reglas del juego.
• 🎯 Los números en un juego deben tener un propósito, ya sea estético o arbitrario, y su interacción define la experiencia del jugador.
• 🔄 La balanza en los juegos no se logra con una lista larga de características; depende de decisiones pequeñas que pueden hacer que los jugadores se queden o se vayan.
• 💡 Los diseñadores pueden comenzar con números arbitrarios, pero es crucial iterar y ajustar para encontrar la equilibrio adecuado que mantenga a los jugadores interesados.
• 📊 Para juegos de construcción de ciudades, es importante modelar los costos y las capacidades a medida que el jugador avanza, utilizando un enfoque basado en el tiempo y en la escala.
• 🕰 El tiempo es un recurso valioso en juegos gratuitos, y la monetización efectiva a menudo se centra en la venta de tiempo adicional.
• 💰 La moneda en juegos gratuitos puede ser usada para mejorar o personalizar el juego, y es crucial equilibrar su valor y disponibilidad.
• 🛠️ Los diseñadores pueden utilizar hojas de cálculo para modelar y simular la economía del juego, lo que ayuda a predecir y ajustar la experiencia del jugador.
• 🔢 Los valores en un juego no deben ser solo atractivos, sino también fáciles de entender y conceptualizar para los jugadores, lo que facilita la adopción y la satisfacción.
• 🔄 La iteración es un componente clave en el diseño de sistemas; una vez establecidos los puntos de partida, el ajuste continuo es necesario para alcanzar la mejor experiencia de juego.

Q & A

¿Qué es el diseño de sistemas según Evan Losey?

El diseño de sistemas es cómo todas las reglas del juego interactúan. Cada número en el juego debe tener una razón, incluso si esa razón es estética o arbitraria, y la forma en que estos números interactúan es donde realmente vive la experiencia del jugador.

¿Por qué es importante el equilibrio en los juegos de juego libre?

El equilibrio es crucial porque las decisiones pequeñas pueden hacer que los jugadores dejen el juego. Por ejemplo, si los enemigos requieren un golpe más o un nivel más de grinding, puede ser el momento en que los jugadores abandonen el juego.

¿Cómo comienza Evan al diseñar un sistema en un juego?

Evan comienza eligiendo los números más importantes y visibles para los jugadores y trata de hacer que se vean y se sientan bien. Luego se pone en el lugar del jugador y pregunta qué se siente al actualizar su espada y obtener un aumento de ataque.

¿Qué es la 'primera secreto' del diseño de sistemas según Evan?

La primera 'secreto' es que es perfectamente aceptable que cada sistema comience en algún lugar, y no puedes ajustar algo que aún no existe.

¿Cómo aborda Evan el problema de la escala en el diseño de sistemas?

Evan aborda la escala considerando cuán valioso debería ser el nivel máximo de algo en su juego en comparación con el primer nivel. Esto puede variar según el tipo de juego, ya sea competitivo o un RPG.

¿Qué recursos utiliza Evan para diseñar un modelo de progresión en su juego?

Evan utiliza un modelo que incluye el nivel de jugador, la escala de tiempo para este nivel, la distribución de progresión por nivel de jugador y la creación de escalas numéricas para cada bucle en el juego.

¿Cómo determina Evan cuánto debería costar subir un nivel en su modelo de progresión?

Evan determina el costo por nivel conociendo cuánto le gustaría que cueste a los jugadores subir de nivel y cuántos días le toma alcanzar ese nivel de poder.

¿Qué estrategia utiliza Evan para asegurarse de que los jugadores obtengan lo suficiente cada día en su juego?

Evan asegura que los jugadores obtengan lo suficiente cada día conociendo las acciones por día y cuánto cada acción debería pagar. Añade variantes para hacer el juego más emocionante.

¿Cómo aborda Evan la monetización en juegos de libre-to-play?

Evan aborda la monetización vendiendo tiempo, ofreciendo paquetes diarios y la opción de comprar más para que sucedan con mayor frecuencia. Él defiende la transparencia con los jugadores sobre el valor que obtienen por su dinero.

¿Qué consejo da Evan sobre la creación de un sistema de economía en juegos?

Evan aconseja crear una escala que se vea bien y tenga sentido, definir cuánto tiempo debería llevar alcanzar cada punto y manejar las compensaciones diarias. También sugiere que la iteración es muy importante para llegar a un sistema equilibrado.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 Diseño de sistemas en juegos móviles gratuitos

Evan Losey, diseñador de juegos principal en Skokie, comparte su experiencia en diseño de sistemas para juegos móviles gratuitos. Comenzó trabajando en diseño de características y contenido para 'Taps ooh', un juego de construcción de ciudades y zoos. Posteriormente, para expandir la economía del juego, tuvo que especializarse en diseño de sistemas. Evan destaca la importancia de que cada número en el juego tenga un propósito y cómo estos números interactúan para definir la experiencia del jugador. Explica que los juegos gratuitos pueden parecer llenos de números arbitrarios, pero es perfectamente aceptable comenzar con un punto de partida y ajustar a partir de ahí. Sugiere enfocarse en los números más importantes y visibles para los jugadores y hacer que parezcan y se sientan bien, recordando que la experiencia del jugador es fundamental para el éxito del juego.

05:01

🕒 Diseño de sistemas y el papel del tiempo

El tiempo es el recurso que todos los jugadores poseen, y es crucial al diseñar sistemas en juegos. Desde los minutos transcurridos en batallas hasta los días para adquirir objetos, todo se relaciona con el tiempo. Evan enfatiza la importancia de respetar este recurso y balancear el juego en torno a él, ya que la dificultad y el ritmo son clave. A través de la playtesting, se puede ajustar correctamente. Además, discute la monetización en juegos gratuitos, sugiriendo que las mejores estrategias suelen vender tiempo, como paquetes diarios de recompensas. Aboga por comunicar claramente al jugador el valor que obtiene por su inversión, lo cual puede ser efectivo para la retención y satisfacción del jugador.

10:03

📈 Creando una escala de progresión y equilibrio

Evan describe cómo establecer un punto de partida para el nivel del jugador y el tiempo que le toma alcanzar cada nivel. Explica que se debe considerar la duración de cada elemento del juego y cómo se puede dividir la progresión por nivel del jugador. Además, se debe pensar en la escala de tiempo para este, dependiendo del tipo de juego que se esté creando. Evan proporciona un ejemplo práctico de cómo modelar una economía simple en un juego de construcción de ciudades, incluyendo costos de construcción y niveles de producción, y cómo se pueden derivar otros costos y capacidades a partir de una tasa de producción de recursos establecida.

15:03

🏰 Diseño de sistemas para una economía de juego

En este párrafo, Evan profundiza en el diseño de sistemas para una economía de juego, explicando cómo calcular los costos por nivel y cómo estos se relacionan con el número de edificios y sus costos individuales. Aborda la importancia de que los jugadores sientan que su progreso es constante y predecible, y cómo se pueden agregar variaciones para hacer el juego más emocionante. Evan también discute cómo se pueden construir sistemas más complejos utilizando la misma lógica básica, y cómo se pueden aplicar estos principios a diferentes tipos de juegos, siempre enfocándose en el tiempo y las acciones diarias de los jugadores.

20:04

🤔 Consideraciones y ajustes en el diseño de sistemas

Evan habla sobre las consideraciones adicionales al diseñar sistemas, como la velocidad a la que se puede crear contenido y la capacidad de los jugadores para responder a eventos y operaciones en vivo. Resalta la importancia de realizar un chequeo de consistencia interna en el trabajo de diseño y ajustar el sistema para que tenga sentido y se sienta bien. También menciona la importancia de no sobrecomplicar el juego con demasiados recursos o sistemas, ya que los jugadores aprecian la simplicidad y la comprensión de lo que está sucediendo en el juego.

25:05

💬 Diseño de batallas y equilibrio en juegos

Evan aplica los principios de diseño de sistemas a batallas y competencias en juegos, destacando la importancia de equilibrar las características y objetos en función del tiempo de juego efectivo. Explica cómo se pueden establecer puntos de partida arbitrarios y calcular el resto de los números necesarios para equilibrar elementos como unidades, armas, habilidades o cartas en diferentes tipos de juegos. Evan también sugiere métodos para determinar la valía de atributos específicos y cómo se pueden ajustar para mejorar la experiencia del juego, siempre buscando un equilibrio inicial y luego iterando hasta lograr un juego que sea emocionante y justo.

🔄 Iteración y equilibrio en diseño de juegos

Para concluir, Evan recalca la importancia de la iteración en el diseño de juegos, mencionando que el equilibrio perfecto puede ser aburrido y que se debe buscar un equilibrio que sea emocionante y justo. Aboga por la inclusión de detalles y ventajas pequeñas que hagan que el juego sea realmente atractivo. Evan también ofrece recursos adicionales para aquellos interesados en obtener más información sobre los temas discutidos en su charla.

🗣️ Preguntas y respuestas adicionales

Después de su presentación, Evan responde a una pregunta sobre cómo manejar y equilibrar una moneda que los jugadores pueden usar para mejorar su poder o adquirir elementos cosméticos. Sugiere que se puede sumar la demanda total y luego distribuirla, pero también es importante considerar la cantidad que los jugadores obtendrán de manera mecánica y cómo se puede usar para comprar elementos cosméticos como un beneficio adicional.

Keywords

💡Diseño de sistemas

El diseño de sistemas se refiere a cómo todas las reglas en un juego interactúan. Es fundamental para el desarrollo de economías de juegos y el ajuste de características, ya que cada número en el juego debe tener una razón de ser, ya sea estética o arbitraria. En el guion, Evan Losey utiliza su experiencia para explicar cómo se pueden equilibrar estos sistemas y cómo empezar con el diseño de sistemas en juegos gratuitos para móviles.

💡Economía del juego

La economía del juego es el conjunto de mecanismos que rigen la obtención y uso de recursos dentro de un juego. En el vídeo, se discute cómo diseñar una economía de juego que sea equilibrada y que mantenga al jugador comprometido, utilizando ejemplos como los tiempos de mejora y los costos de construcción en un juego de construcción de ciudades.

💡Balancing

El balance en un juego se refiere al proceso de ajustar los elementos del juego para que sean desafiantes pero justos, evitando que sea demasiado fácil o demasiado difícil. Evan habla sobre la importancia de equilibrar los sistemas de juego en torno a la experiencia del jugador, asegurándose de que los desafíos sean adecuados y que los premios sean satisfactorios.

💡Free-to-play

Free-to-play (FTP) hace referencia a los juegos que pueden ser jugados gratis, pero que ofrecen la opción de comprar elementos dentro del juego para mejorar la experiencia o el progreso. El guion explora cómo diseñar un juego FTP de manera que sea atractivo para los jugadores y también sea monetizable, vendiendo tiempo o mejoras a través de la tienda del juego.

💡Iteración

La iteración es el proceso de hacer cambios sucesivos en un diseño para mejorarlo. En el contexto del vídeo, la iteración es crucial para ajustar los sistemas de juego y asegurar que el juego sea tanto desafiante como entretenido. Evan enfatiza la importancia de probar y ajustar continuamente los sistemas para lograr el equilibrio deseado.

💡Monetización

La monetización es el proceso de generar ingresos a partir de un producto o servicio. En el vídeo, se discute cómo las estrategias de monetización en juegos FTP, como la venta de paquetes de cartas o la compra de moneda virtual, pueden estar estrechamente relacionadas con la economía del juego y cómo se pueden ajustar para maximizar los ingresos.

💡Juegos de construcción de ciudades

Los juegos de construcción de ciudades son un tipo de juego en el que el jugador construye y administra su propia ciudad. En el guion, Evan utiliza un juego de construcción de ciudades como ejemplo para explicar cómo se pueden diseñar y equilibrar los sistemas de progresión y economía en un juego.

💡Estrategia de progresión

La estrategia de progresión se refiere a cómo se estructura el avance del jugador a través del juego. En el vídeo, Evan habla sobre la importancia de planificar la progresión del jugador, desde la escala de niveles hasta los tiempos de mejora, para mantener la motivación y el enganche del jugador.

💡Diseño de características

El diseño de características se refiere a la creación y ajuste de elementos específicos dentro de un juego, como batallas, mejoras de edificios o la adquisición de recursos. El guion discute cómo el diseño de características debe ser coherente con el diseño de sistemas para asegurar una experiencia de juego unificada y satisfactoria.

💡Experiencia del jugador

La experiencia del jugador es la sensación y la reacción emocional que tiene un individuo al interactuar con un juego. El vídeo se centra en cómo el diseño de sistemas y características puede influir directamente en la experiencia del jugador, buscando crear un equilibrio entre desafío y gratificación.

Highlights

Evan Losey, lead game designer at Skokie, discusses system design for mobile free-to-play games.

Systems design involves how all game rules interact, with every number in the game chosen for a reason.

Designers should aim for a balance where players are winning by a small margin, keeping them engaged.

It's acceptable to start with arbitrary numbers, as every system needs a starting point.

Designers should consider how something feels from a player's perspective, such as the impact of an upgrade.

Scaling in game design is crucial, with the value of max level compared to the first level depending on the game type.

Systems like Town Hall in a city builder are balanced around a number not visible in the game, such as time.

Time is a key resource in game design, with all other resources like battles and drop rates linked to time.

Playtesting is essential for balancing games around time and difficulty pacing.

Monetization in free-to-play games often involves selling time, such as through daily quest rewards.

Player level is an effective marker for game progression and should be considered when designing systems.

Designers should decide how powerful players should be at each level and balance the game accordingly.

Resource acquisition and player actions per day are crucial for calculating rewards and drop rates.

System design involves creating a complete economy based on time and player actions, with arbitrary costs as a starting point.

Iterative testing and refining are key to achieving a balanced and fun game system.

Designers should aim for a game economy that is understandable and does not obstruct the player experience.

Battle systems can be balanced by considering the effective time of each unit or item in the interaction.

Balancing in-game items and abilities should start with an arbitrary point and be adjusted for fun and fairness.

Slides and math examples from the talk are available for further reference.

Transcripts

[Music]

I'd thank you everyone so as he said my

name is Evan Losey I'm currently a lead

game designer at Skokie and this is it's

about time system design for mobile

free-to-play as a bit of additional

background about me as he said I've been

working in system design for years but

when I first started in mobile I was

designing features and content for taps

ooh so taps ooh was a city build a game

where you build well a zoo and after a

while we needed to keep expanding the

economy and tuning of the game so we

needed someone to branch out into

systems design my first foray into

systems design was actually more of a

player than as a designer I had been

building models from my death knight in

World of Warcraft

trying to figure out the optimal

rotations and stats and all that which

is about as good of a primer as I was

able to get see that's when I realized

there are a lot of resources on content

and features for designers out there

there was not a whole lot on getting

started with systems so through a lot of

research and iteration and trial and

error I've got a much better handle on

it now still I remember that experience

quite well so what I want to do is

provide a solid framework for designers

that are just starting out to jumpstart

the process of making economies and game

tuning as well as hopefully provide a

new angle for some of the more advanced

designers in the audience so today I'm

gonna start with a brief overview of

what systems design really means in this

space and the context and how to go

about balancing these systems

after that we'll talk about how to apply

this both on economies as well as tune

features I'll be using battle systems as

an example for those features but battle

can be a pretty abstract concept as

you'll see in a bit so what is systems

design systems design is essentially how

all the rules in the game interact every

number in the game should be chosen for

a reason

even if that reason is aesthetic or

arbitrary and the way these numbers

interact is where the player experience

really lives it's not enough to have a

long

we list the features in the game your

entire game can live or die on seemingly

tiny decisions enemies that take one

more hit or a meeting to grind a dungeon

one more time that can be the moment

when players quit your game and don't

come back the opposite is also true if

you make things just a little bit too

easy players get bored and leave before

the next big moment happens you want

players in that perfect position of

balance where they're winning by the

skin of their teeth and they're always

just about to progress a little bit

further the question then is where do

you start how do you put that first

number in the game

well free-to-play games can seem like a

whole lot of arbitrary numbers and

sometimes they are and that's the first

secret it's actually perfectly okay

every system starts somewhere and you

can't tune to something that doesn't

exist so we're gonna pick the most

important and visible numbers to players

and try to make them look and feel good

put yourself in the mind of a player in

your game and ask yourself how something

feels you upgrade your sword and you get

a plus point zero to 5 attack or it's

rounds down to zero and your UI that's

not the best experience so some things

are a little bit harder than that though

a lot of design questions come from even

those arbitrary decisions take scale how

valuable should the max level of

something in your game be compared to

the first level if this is a competitive

game all the hard work might put you at

a total of a hundred and fifty percent

of what the first level is but an RPG

where you expect to easily beat anyone

five levels under you you might get to a

thousand X for your final power from

where something begins there are no hard

and fast answers it depends on the game

you're making either way big even or

round numbers are kind of easiest for

players to understand and conceptualize

so we're gonna stick with them wherever

we can so how might a model working this

way look when it's complete don't try to

copy this down by the way this is an

example of a Town Hall in a city builder

it has costs at each level and capacity

in each level unlocks subsequent levels

of production buildings that have their

own costs and resource rates

if you look at the finished product you

can reverse engineer some things but the

truth is systems like this are balanced

around a number that doesn't even appear

anywhere on this sheet time you can take

something like a steadily increasing

resource production rate which is the

rightmost column and you can derive all

of the other costs and capacities from

there and how long it takes we have

other things on here to upgrade time is

actually unrelated to the other numbers

this might still be tied to aspects of

your game such as how long you want it

to take to upgrade your entire base from

one level to the next but it's an

unconnected loop from your production

and your building costs each sub loop in

your game may need its own starting

system of time and values so where do

you start the one resource that all

players possess time minutes spent

rounds of battles days to acquire even

things like number of battles and drop

rates all come back to time this can be

energy limits when ludas reset or even

the physical time that it takes the

klara stage in a game so we have to make

sure we respect that resource balance

your game around time just like

difficulty pacing is key it will take

playtesting to get this right so

remember in all of these tools we're

talking about they're just the first

step and iteration is very important so

since this is free-to-play we need to

talk about monetization somewhere right

well the best monetization methods

essentially sell time you get a pack of

cards every day from daily quests and

you can purchase more of them to have it

happen more frequently I always advocate

for now locking things to only spenders

you can actually be incredibly

straightforward with players of your

games with how much value they're

getting for a dollar you get this every

day you can buy it you're buying a day's

worth of work people really will respond

to just explicitly communicating these

things to them so that's the high level

approach let's get into some of the

specifics first we need our starting

point I've tried different ones from

time to time but I keep coming back to

player level level is extreme

we familiar and effective as a marker

for where players are in a game they'll

tell each other

oh I'm level eight your level twelve

they sort of know how that relates we'll

need a few more number number scales for

each loop in the game but this is a

great one to start with every time and

also advances one at a time which you

know makes for a prettier X access next

think about a time scale for this this

is dependent on the kind of game you're

making and some other factors but in

general think how long should each piece

of your game last an RPG might take a

year to get to max level and you might

stay there for another couple years

engaged in endgame activities and arcade

game on incremental with a prestige

might take only a day or two to get to

the final level it's okay to make some

of these decisions based on what it

feels like or other arbitrary things

everything starts somewhere so let's

start of this first one and for those

curious I will have a link to all the

spreadsheets I'm showing at the end so

again don't trap the write down so this

is a table of player level one to ten

and about how long I want it to take to

reach each level the convention I'm

using here is that I enter things in the

white cells and calculate over in the

gray but this is probably a pretty

straightforward one it's addition so

where do we go to after this we want to

actually divvy up the progression by

player level I as a designer

decide how strong you should be at each

point of the game it's worth noting that

this is only an average right players

experience the highs and lows of drop

chances and luck but it's perfectly fine

to do your high level balance purely

unexpected value what is the average of

what players learn as they go through

these things still the more specific you

can make each level of power in your

decisions the easier it's going to be

later the key principle here is that

there was a cost associated with

acquiring content it could be the

currency needed to buy packs or the

resources needed to upgrade your Town

Hall then how do players get these

resources they take actions within the

game for the card game with packs this

might be games one for a city builder

mine's harvested every day for our

purposes what we need to know is just

how many of each action is the player

going to do in a day our starting point

will be any actual limitations such as

an energy mechanic that tells the number

of sessions you can actually engage in

but there might also be behavioral

things just how often do players

actually come in and play around you'll

have to estimate those but as you get

real data from play tests you can refine

those put them back into the model and

keep going and you'll get better and

better numbers so now that we have this

idea let's go back to our model here I'm

building out the example to cover a

simple city builder so I'm specifying

how many buildings I want the player to

own I'm also assuming then each one can

be leveled only as high as the player

level this is a pretty normal limitation

to our town halls and games like this my

upgrade costs are actually formulaic but

again arbitrary each one is just 250

percent the previous rounded to the

nearest 5 and I would probably keep

rounding by bigger and bigger numbers

just because I wanted to look pretty in

the game but this is where your

calculations really start I know how

much I want the buildings to cost at

each level and how many I want the

player to have and I know how long it's

gonna take me to get there that means

the cost per level is just number of

buildings times the cost of each one

that's how much it's gonna cost the

player to get to the level of power I

want at that player level and if each

building was costing a different amount

you could have a different look up in

there but you know sort of keeping

things simple for the explanation on the

screen but still we're not quite done

yet

although here's the biggest secret of

system design that's actually all you

need you can build a complete economy

just off of figuring out how much time

and where you want players and some of

those arbitrary costs try not to let any

of your product managers know it's

actually that easy but once you know how

much you need per level and the number

of days you know how much players need

to gain every day when you know actions

per day you know how much each action

should pay out you can give your rewards

a drop rate if you want them to have a

chance of dropping instead of always

being awarded every action this gives

you a true payout

action you may not want to use this with

the currency like coins but if you're

doing say rare materials to upgrade a

character this is how you get to how

much should actually drop from a single

instance finally add some variants say 5

or 10 percent up or down so the game is

a little more exciting and suddenly you

actually have a game you know that's how

the experience actually plays out to

players so let's go back and see how

this looks in the expanded model the one

new column is the result of those

calculations it's the amount we need per

level divided by total harvests per

building per day in the total number

buildings this is the simpler version

with no variants at all in drop amounts

but still a player who plays four

sessions a day which is a pretty good

player from most mobile games is going

to earn enough to get to the level that

I want them at each day this is maybe a

simple example but you can actually

follow the same process for more

resources and build more and more

complex loops on top of this the trick

is to keep coming back to how long it

should take a player to progress if a

player needs resource X some action a

and resource y from action B you can

track the amounts of each one needed and

be done today and if you want both

actions to drop the same resource you

can have variables that control how much

total one comes from each point the math

is really going to work itself out

either way and you can sort of customize

what feels important to players so when

developing those more complex systems

there's a lot of considerations that

keep in mind and here's just a few of

them how fast can you make content if it

takes a month to make a character for

your game you can't have players earn

them every week or they'll outpace you

it should always take longer to earn or

earn an upgrade to viability than it

does to create it players shouldn't

actually be able to get everything in

your game choice is fun

next how fast can players respond to

events and live operations and things

like that in your game if you expect you

add a new character on Monday and have

people use it on Friday it can't take

three weeks to upgrade a to viability

likewise if you want to have a resource

that only drops from dungeons that

appear on Tuesday you

to take at least a week to maximize the

character or the players are gonna feel

a shortage in a way that they can't

address you always want to be asking

yourself does this make sense gut check

your work you know you hit level 10

after a week you have a dozen buildings

you buy the next one every day or two it

kind of feels like it could work but if

you hit you know that point after a week

and suddenly it takes another week to

get to the next level it seems wrong and

if something seems wrong on paper and

your spreadsheet it's probably gonna

feel worse than your actual game you can

solve all of your problems in this

design step but the more you do the

better it's always quicker to try to

solve them here so that examples for a

pretty simple city builder but it works

for any type of game just keep in mind

that you're balancing around player time

and actions per day the more restrictive

your game is in actions that don't earn

rewards the easier it is to predict how

many actions of player does so a game

with energy where you know the refresh

rates you can do that but you don't have

to actually limit play to get to

predictability games might have chess

slots or a daily quests that give you

most of your rewards and you can get a

really good sense of it

so here's an example of inputs for an

RPG battle-ax and each level the player

has a total number of characters that

have a level and a rank but most players

don't have all the characters upgraded

to the same power so we've broken it

down to a team and B team but I don't

want to actually hand toon everything in

the game so B teams just a percentage of

sort of the a team's power and you can

see how these come more complex systems

can all come back to the same thing I

can figure out how many character pieces

they need to unlock new characters how

much goal they need to spend how many

materials they need and so on one of the

tricks as you get more complicated is

that like the character shards in this

cheat it's not actually a smooth line

your gold and coins and soft currencies

may be but materials are going to end up

a little more staggered smooth them out

before you put them in the actual game

it's important that players never gain a

level or upgrade a building and get a

worse payout than before then that's

true whether the loss is actual or

perceived even if something technically

pays out better but a number goes down

players

gonna feel like it was a bad idea to

upgrade which is never a good spot a

model for daily quests in a card game

would work the same way how many packs

do you want players to earn a day there

were days per pack

how many quests do you have per day

that's an average payout you can get

different tiers of difficulty by saying

how often you want each one to show up

and sort of the relative value between

them the appoint important part is to

just sort of keep the average value and

use that to predict player resources so

once you have your system what you do

with it you iterate it takes time to get

to a system that's balanced and the

problem is when you're actually a

perfect balance it can be kind of boring

you want to try intentionally increasing

or decreasing payouts of resources at

certain levels of points in your game so

the player is always a little short of

something and wants to work to get it

this is especially effective if you can

tie it in with a new feature that

unlocks as the player levels up if your

player needs a new resource at level 8

and there's a new game mode at love away

that pays out that resource you can get

people consistently engage with

progressing in your game and opening up

new things

also remember that designers love

complexity with fiddly systems and

dozens of resources but most players

don't everything should be

understandable for the player few

resources or things that belong to

resource groups that drop from the same

locations and understandable is really

what helps someone latch on and figure

out what's going on in your game a good

economy is one that gets out of the way

of the player a bit and sort of just

exists you know if you've done your job

right it's a little bit like you're

never there at all so these principles

can apply to things beyond traditional

economies I'm going to use battle as the

example today but battle is really just

any measured competition between two

players or between a player and a

defined force so a fleet of ships that

are attacking one another is a battle

you can have lots of stats for each unit

range speed health so on but so is a

fashion showdown between who has the

best out fan where you care about your

popularity and style and yes I did work

on both of these games so any system

where your stats and points matter is a

battle if you look at it in that respect

so don't be afraid to apply these

principles to pretty much anything so

any of these complex interactions can be

configured through the same general

process as an economy you start from a

defined if arbitrary data points and you

fill out just enough of them to be able

to determine the rest of the numbers and

then you calculate the rest of the

numbers you can balance things in the

game whether it's units weapons

abilities cards whatever around each

other

consider how long the object or item is

relevant in the interaction which is

your effective combat time this could be

rounds or real time but it's all about

considering the relevant life of an

object depending on the game and process

you can use these to either balance the

attributes and items themselves or the

costs of them so let's start with a more

traditional example two units in an RTS

we've got one melee unit that can only

attack right next to it and one ranged

unit so the mainly unit has to be

stronger than the ranged one right why

effective time in battle the mainly

units has to walk over to the ranged one

and it's getting shot at the whole time

so balanced units are balanced with

respect to time in this regard in an RTS

this is mitigated by speed and ranged in

a turn-based RPG we're going to consider

effective health and hits to kill to

determine that time in battle and for

the record perfect balance in this

context means that the units fight to a

draw this is again a starting point but

two units should basically meet and you

know mutually annihilate each other to

be balanced in this regard so here's an

example for our melee and ranged units

the melee unit is faster and they each

have the same health so that's the

arbitrary point that I've kind of picked

here assuming the ranged units thoughts

firing as soon as it can the melee unit

of these numbers essentially soaks one

hit on its way over so it needs to kill

the ranged unit in one less hit than the

other way around

that means that if the range units doing

20 damage it kills the melee in five

shots and the melee unit deals 25 so it

can kill it in four and they can

basically get rid of each other it can

be hard to keep a lot of these numbers

in your head so consider making

sym of these battles right in your

spreadsheet you can show what's

happening each round or each second in

combat and get a better view on what's

happening as well as double-check your

numbers so this same logic can be

applied to other types of mechanics as

well take two tanks in an RPG battle

game

one of them has defense which reduces

the amount of damage taken every hit and

the other one just has a large health

pool so we can pick which attributes we

just define such as the health and

defense and then calculate damage to

make sure the unit's balanced out this

works in other directions - such as the

sighting that third tank has 50 damage

and then trying to calculate what should

its health be in order to make it fair

don't be afraid to use two different

methods even within the same game you

want to figure out the fantasy of every

character you're making and balance

around that most important part does one

character feel like they should be

faster than anything else in your game

to make it feel right then do that and

then bring something else down in order

to compensate what about calculating

cost so let's take a card game where you

need to know how powerful each

individual card is in order to balance

it ask yourself how long is the card in

play how many turns of value does it

provide establish a baseline and then

balance things around that let's say

that one mana is too damaged in your

game if you've got a car that's gonna

last about 5 turns and do damage per

turn you could say oh it's about two and

a half damn you know mana and a perfect

balance you know now you have your

starting point

you're gonna tweak and iterate from

there discounting futures and immediate

impact and so on but it's always

important to have that baseline how much

better is one keyword ability on a card

or you can look at how often it matters

and it turns the tide and the total

effect it's going to have on a game no

matter what kind of game you're making

you can start with these time measures

especially duration and frequency and

use it to assign costs so remember that

all of these are just starting points

perfect balance is again still pretty

boring get your two fare items balanced

and then start adjusting give a unit or

negative to some attribute because of

how effective its ability is add in some

type advantages to make sure that units

have

comparative advantages just the way they

work in your head and how do you know

how valuable a particular aspect like an

ability is you test it so one way I like

to do this is take two equal units one

of the ability one without the one with

the ability should win every time

whether it's in a prototype or just in

your Excel sim you can do the same with

other attributes like damage

you know just increase the health on the

one without the ability until that one

starts winning do the same with all the

other attributes and you've got a value

for your ability in terms of the other

stats and cost of your game this first

this first balance is always harder than

the rest of them but once you've figured

out how much this ability should cost

you in terms of attributes you have a

baseline to try to figure out everything

else you're going to design after that

so how much health you have the

sacrifice to make a shield keyword fair

for example so in summary free-to-play

economies are based around time

especially the acquisition rate of

content create a scale that looks good

and makes sense define how long it

should take to get to each point and get

your payouts per day you can handle

battles and other system interactions

similarly you get an arbitrary starting

point and look at the effective time of

each item whether its actions possession

turn or seconds of play and most

importantly once everything is balanced

break it until it's actually fun equal

balance is your starting point not your

destination it's the little details and

small advantages that make something

really compelling so I hope this talk

helps some of you out there if you're

looking for a copy of the slides or the

math using examples you can follow these

links and I'll tweet them out after

please if you have any questions you can

go ahead and ask now and if you have

anything afterwards you can always

contact me at my email or we have a

rapid boom after all so GDC wants to

remind me to tell you to please for

audio session evaluations we really do

appreciate it so thank you so much for

your talk

[Applause]

hello hi thanks those really insightful

I had a question about if you have a

currency that players can use to spend

on multiple things some of which might

power them up like upgrades and some

which might be purely cosmetic how do

you kind of estimate or predicts and

balance for where they're gonna allocate

that currency that's a great question

it's when you have a currency that's

used for more than one yes its when you

have a currency that's used for more

than one thing how do you balance them

with you know a total especially if you

have one that's cosmetic and when it's

mechanic when you're doing the system

total you can basically sum them all up

to see what is the total need let's say

you can buy cosmetics you can buy new

characters and skins with gold you can

sum up the total amount and divvy it out

I also try to only consider the mechanic

amount or we're saying I want players to

earn this much gold for the mechanic

benefit of the game so that's how much

you want to pay them and sort of give

cosmetics as an extra yes there will be

some players who don't spend anything on

cosmetics and just purchase more power

but that's usually okay any other

questions excellent great well thank you

all so much for coming today and I hope

you enjoy the rest of your GDC good

hunting