What are the steps to ensure a game is balanced?

1 Define your goals

The first step to balance your game is to define your goals and vision. What kind of experience do you want to create for your players? What are the core mechanics and features of your game? How do you want to reward and challenge your players? How do you want to differentiate your game from others in the same genre or market? These questions will help you establish the design principles and parameters that will guide your balancing decisions.

2 Identify your variables

The next step is to identify the variables that affect your game balance. Variables are the elements that can be adjusted or modified to change the gameplay, such as difficulty, speed, damage, health, items, enemies, levels, etc. You need to know what variables you have, how they interact with each other, and how they influence the player's experience. You also need to document and organize your variables, so you can track and modify them easily.

4 Analyze your results

The fourth step is to analyze your results and identify the issues and opportunities for improvement. You need to compare your results with your goals and expectations, and see if your game meets your design criteria and player needs. You also need to look for patterns, trends, outliers, and anomalies in your data and feedback, and see what they reveal about your game's strengths and weaknesses. You should prioritize the most critical and urgent issues, and decide what changes or fixes you need to make.

5 Implement your changes

The fifth step is to implement your changes and see how they affect your game balance. You need to be careful and deliberate when making changes, as they can have unintended consequences or trade-offs. You should also document and communicate your changes, so you can keep track of them and explain them to your team or players. You should also test your changes again, and see if they solve the issues or create new ones.

6 Iterate and repeat

The final step is to iterate and repeat the previous steps until you achieve your desired balance. Balancing a game is not a one-time or linear process, but a continuous and cyclical one. You need to constantly monitor, evaluate, and adjust your game, as it evolves and changes over time. You also need to consider the feedback and preferences of your players, as they may differ from your own or vary across different segments or platforms. You should always strive to improve your game and make it more fun, fair, and engaging for your players.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?