How Games Get Balanced

🔴 Get bonus content by supporting Game Maker’s Toolkit - https://gamemakerstoolkit.com/support/ 🔴 Balancing a game is one of the most complex pursuits in game development - especially when you’re dealing with a cast of completely distinct and diverse characters. So how do devs do it? === Sources and Resources === - Sources Jeff Kaplan | Battle.net Forums https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20757706588?page=2#post-24 Jaime Griesemer | GDC 2010 (“Design in Detail: Changing the Time Between Shots for the Sniper Rifle from 0.5 to 0.7 Seconds for Halo 3”) https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012211/Design-in-Detail-Changing-the Rob Pardo | GDC 2010 (“Making a Standard (and Trying to Stick to it!): Blizzard Design Philosophies”) https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012291/Making-a-Standard-(and-Trying Kosuke Yabuki | GDC 2018 (“ARMS: Building Mario Kart 8 Insights into a Showcase Nintendo Switch Fighter”) https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024907/-ARMS-Building-Mario-Kart Akali’s win rate has plummeted—here’s why | Dot Esports https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/akali-win-rate-plummeted-league-of-legends Developer Update - Symmetra Redesign | PlayOverwatch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elN-QGyToxM Leroy Athanassof & Geoffroy Mouret | GDC 2018 (“Intelligent Game Design on Rainbow Six Siege”) https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1025323/Intelligent-Game-Design-on-Rainbow Stefan Engblom | GDC 2017 (“Quest for the Healthy Metagame: Balancing Cards in Clash Royale”) https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024272/Quest-for-the-Healthy-Metagame Analysis: Why We Should Buff More Than Nerf | Core-A Gaming on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsC8io4w1sY Epic pulls overpowered Infinity Blade from Fortnite, says it ‘messed up | Polygon https://www.polygon.com/fortnite/2018/12/14/18141134/fortnite-infinity-blade-removed Live Gameplay Q+A Issue #1 | League of Legends Boards https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/xwOObpq2-live-gameplay-qa-issue-1-feat-feralpony-smashgizmo?sort_type=recent - Additional resources Developer Insights: Arena Balance Through Science | Hearthstone https://playhearthstone.com/en-gb/blog/22788308/ Rock Paper Scissors - A Method for Competitive Game Play Design | Gamasutra http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130150/rock_paper_scissors__a_method_for_.php The Unbalanced Design of Super Smash Brothers | ForrestTheWoods https://medium.com/forrest-the-woods/the-unbalanced-design-of-super-smash-brothers-3fbc9b346e15 === Chapters === 00:00 - Introduction 01:40 - Creating trade-offs 03:37 - Using counters 07:16 - Testing the balance 10:47 - Nerfing and buffing 12:56 - Balancing across skill levels 14:18 - Conclusion 15:15 - Patreon Credits === Games Shown === Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Infinity Ward, 2016) Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment, 2016) Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Sora, 2008) The King of Fighters XIV (SNK, 2016) Tetris 99 (Arika, 2019) StarCraft II (Blizzard Entertainment, 2010) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Sora, 2018) League of Legends (Riot Games, 2009) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal, 2015) Street Fighter V (Capcom, 2016) Call of Duty: WWII (Sledgehammer Games, 2017) Splatoon (Nintendo, 2015) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 2017) Hearthstone (Blizzard Entertainment, 2014) Halo 3 (Bungie, 2007) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, 2007) The Walking Dead: 400 Days (Telltale Games, 2013) Arms (Nintendo, 2017) Dead or Alive 6 (Team Ninja, 2019) Halo Wars 2 (343 Industries / Creative Assembly, 2017) Pokémon: Let's Go Eevee! (Game Freak, 2018) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt, 2015) Life is Strange 2 (Dontnod Entertainment, 2018) Team Fortress 2 (Valve Corporation, 2007) Clash Royale (Supercell, 2016) Dota 2 (Valve Corporation, 2013) Fortnite (Epic Games, 2017) Killer Instinct (Double Helix Games, 2013) Rocket League (Psyonix, 2015) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward, 2009) Monopoly Plus (Ubisoft Pune, 2014) Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment, 2019) Prismata (Lunarch Studios, 2018) === Credits === Music used in this episode Race Driver GRID, ARMS, Wii U System, TowerFall Ascension, 3DS System Other credits The Simpsons © Fox domisumReplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkh53h3eTGQ postboxpat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86HXUpRMyNk Freedom GamePlays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KO0sIXc_0U bravenetcowboy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoGc8eqo1Xo Clash Royale Tournament Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF2sOErNRZo Domey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAlUyCaLmA4 VGBootCamp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvpJvi5xIj4 OPLOLReplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw8DEQIPvQU === Subtitles === Contribute translated subtitles - https://amara.org/en-gb/videos/53cqjOHT6p9I/