Talked to a playtester at a convention who made me rethink my whole approach to game balance

He said if you're not breaking your own game during testing at least five times, you're not pushing it hard enough, and that hit me because I realize I've been protecting my design instead of stress testing it, has anyone else had a similar wake-up call?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.andrew5d ago

That playtester's five breaks rule is honestly brilliant because it flips the whole mindset from "does this work" to "how can I make this fail spectacularly." Most designers (myself included, guilty as charged) fall into the trap of testing their favorite combos or the path of least resistance, right? But real balance comes from trying to snap the game in half like a dry twig, not from gently prodding it with a wet noodle. The wake-up call for me was when I realized my "fun" scenarios were actually just me avoiding the ugly stuff that real players would absolutely find and abuse. Now I keep a dedicated "break it" notebook where I write down every stupid, overpowered interaction I can imagine, and then I actually try them out before I even think about normal gameplay. That process has saved me from shipping some real disasters (like a infinite resource loop that would've made our economy builder pointless on turn two).

karen_perry385d ago

Have you ever actually shipped something that still broke on turn three despite your best efforts?