And there it is! The big detail! It’s a large change. It’s very easy to convince yourself that you can feel tiny changes, but you will be fooling yourself. The balance never hinges on a 2% difference in a single value! It was a smaller change than we tried initially. I think originally we changed … 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
Without anyone getting kicked in the face… You always need to listen when people don’t like something. You are too close to the game; You probably already fixed all the things you didn’t like, so you should value a fresh perspective. Keep in mind that you can always trust someone’s emotional reactions, they are always authentic … Continue reading
If you were disciplined in writing your paper design, and stayed firm while doing setting up the rough balance, this stage should be very rewarding and exciting. If not, it is going to be disappointing and frustrating. The timing for this stage is tricky. If you start too early, your balance changes will be swallowed … Continue reading
