Coming soon · Book Profile
Game Balance
A comprehensive guide for game designers on the principles, mathematics, and practical techniques for achieving and maintaining game balance to create fair and engaging player experiences.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Game Balance is the definitive guide for game designers seeking to master one of the most critical yet elusive aspects of game creation. Ian Schreiber and Brenda Romero demystify the "black box" of balancing by breaking it down into actionable principles, mathematical models, and practical tools. Whether you're balancing a single-player RPG, a competitive multiplayer shooter, or a complex free-to-play economy, this book provides a complete toolkit. It covers foundational concepts like resources and progression curves, dives deep into specific systems like combat and economics, and equips you with the mathematical prowess (from probability to statistics) and spreadsheet skills necessary to analyze, model, and tune your game. Through clear explanations, case studies, and hands-on "Sidequests," you'll learn not just how to balance a game, but why certain choices lead to fair, challenging, and ultimately more fun experiences for your players.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A game designer or developer, from student to veteran, who wants to create fair, engaging, and successful games. They want to move beyond vague advice and master the craft of balancing complex game systems, ensuring their brilliant mechanics and stories aren't ruined by a poor player experience.
- The problem
- The designer's game feels 'off'—it's too easy, too hard, boring, or players exploit a dominant strategy. Changes in one area break the balance in another, leading to endless, frustrating tweaking. The designer feels overwhelmed, uncertain, and frustrated. They doubt their ability to get the balance right, fearing their game will be dismissed as 'unbalanced,' 'broken,' or simply 'not fun,' wasting all their hard work.
- The plan
- Master the Foundations: Learn the critical vocabulary and core concepts of game balance, from possibility spaces to feedback loops.
- Build the Mathematical Model: Understand how to find an anchor, establish resource relationships, and build cost curves using fundamental mathematical principles and spreadsheet tools.
- Balance Key Systems: Apply these principles to specific, critical game systems like economies, characters, combat, and progression for both PvE and PvP games.
- Test and Refine: Learn how to use playtesting and analytics to validate your models, gather player feedback, and iteratively tune your game for the optimal player experience.
- The payoff
- The designer will create games that feel fair, challenging, and deeply engaging. · They will have a clear, repeatable process for balancing any game system, saving countless hours of frustrating guesswork. · Their games will be more successful, retaining players and earning praise for their tight, well-crafted design.
See our guide
Additional reading
- Start with Why · Simon Sinek
The book's core idea—'People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it'—is central to crafting a compelling crowdfunding narrative that connects with backers on an emotional level.
- To Sell Is Human · Daniel Pink
Provides insights into the psychology of pitching and influence, such as the importance of making the audience (backers) feel like collaborators, which is a key strategy for engagement.
- Funding the Dream Podcast · Richard Bliss
A recommended resource for creators, offering interviews and specific insights into crowdfunding tactics and strategies.
- jamesmathe.com (blog) · James Mathe
A creator's blog recommended by the author for its detailed, list-based entries full of practical information for crowdfunders.
- Ready Player One · Ernest Cline
Recommended as an enjoyable alternative read for those who decide crowdfunding isn't for them, showing the author's engagement with geek culture.
- Homo Ludens · Johan Huizinga
Referenced for its foundational concept of the 'magic circle,' which defines play as a separate, protected space outside of ordinary life. This contextualizes the author's own theory.
- Man, Play and Games · Roger Caillois
Cited for its academic definition and categorization of games, providing a counterpoint to the more practical definitions offered by game designers.
- Rules of Play · Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
Mentioned as a key contemporary text offering a precise, systemic definition of a game, which the author uses as part of his survey of existing definitions.
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience · Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The concept of 'flow' is discussed as a state of deep immersion that is often associated with fun, but the author distinguishes his theory by focusing on learning rather than mastery.
- The Essential Difference · Simon Baron-Cohen
The theory of 'systematizing' versus 'empathizing' brains is used to explain why different types of games may appeal to different people, particularly along gender lines.