Genres and Game Balance

Genres and Game Balance

Game Balance

Skills:
Physical skills - strength, dexterity and co-ordination
Mental skills - memory, observation and puzzle solving
Social skills - reading and fooling opponents, co-ordinating, making friends and influencing people.

Chance:
Creates uncertainty, but must not make the game unfair.

Skill vs Chance:

- Estimating chance is a skill, as well as estimating your opponents skill.
- Games with no chance implemented into their core gameplay still have strategic risks, which can be perceived as chance.
- Controlling chance is an imagined skill, people see patterns even if they are not there.
- Skill is considered serious and chance is considered casual.

Game Balance:

- Symmetry in games (chess) and asymmetry in games (rock, paper, scissors) are ways of keeping balance.
- Meaningful choice, but there needs to be no dominant strategy (exploits)
- Risk, reward and punishment adds excitement to the game but need to be well balanced.

Genres

A category of games that have a particular set of challenges or conventions regardless of their setting.

- Action games: Physical challenges
- Strategy games: Strategic, tactical, and logistical challenges
- Role-Playing games: Tactical, logistical, exploration and economic challenges
- Simulator games: Physical and tactical challenges
- Construction and management games: Economic and conceptual challenges
- Adventure games: Exploration and puzzle solving challenges
- Puzzle games: Logic and conceptual challenges

Hybrid Games:

Games that cross genres. For example, action-adventure games have mostly action but include a story and puzzle solving elements more commonly seen in adventure games.