Here’s what we didn’t do. We didn’t touch the Strength Knobs. In most cases, they aren’t the problem anyway. When a weapon is being used as intended, it should feel overpowered. So most imbalances come from using a weapon outside its role, in which case changing the strength knobs won’t fix anything, it will just … Continue reading
It has been exactly six months and one day since I abruptly and inexplicably retired from game design after thirteen years at Bungie Studios (creators of Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach.) And now, after precisely six months of spending time with my family, traveling the globe and watching daytime television… it’s time for me to … Continue reading
Iteration is the key to good game design. Everyone knows this, not just designers. Artists, programmers, even the producers in charge of the schedule acknowledge that iteration is a necessary evil — a gullet of unknown appetite that must be sated. However, this abstract understanding breaks down almost immediately when faced with this inflexible reality: … Continue reading
This is the point in development where we finally changed the Sniper Rifle. Now I will try to describe how all the work from previous passes informed this decision… The Sniper Rifle was overpowered — that’s what we intended, remember – but it made the other aspects of the game feel weaker. We couldn’t make … Continue reading
Statistical Design I suggested that a good way of improving one’s design sense is by staring at Rorschach Tests, and here is a practical example of the importance of practicing pattern-avoidance. This image is a heatmap showing where people most often die on Assembly, a Halo multiplayer map. These heatmaps were first used by the Halo design team … Continue reading
