Jan
20
Jeanine Cowen – MFA Thesis Topic
January 20, 2013 | Comments Off
Successful Platformer Game Design through Game Balancing
Game balancing refers to the effort of creating consistent and enjoyable gameplay within any genre of game. A video game must not be too difficult for a player’s experience level, nor too easy so as to be without challenge. While much has been written about the impacts of game balancing, few tangible examples exist to demonstrate the outcomes of the level designers’ decisions on the perceived success of gameplay. This thesis researches the current understanding of good level design and applies it the platform genre in order to more fully develop an approach to creating balanced game play.
My primary reasons for having selected this thesis topic are the following:
- The platformer game genre provides specific, known and measurable game design elements, thus allowing for definitive assessment points and feedback.
- Game balancing is a topic that continues to gain much attention and yet, in most cases, only reverse engineering of players’ experience has been studied.
- This project allows for active engagement of concepts with direct measurability of the impacts.
- Game implementation is inextricably connected to good game design, this project allows for that connection to be a central focus of research.