Longfei Gao
Level Design
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Introducing Balanced Heroes to an Existing System
My thesis project spanned the course well as allow for new ones in order to
undertake this project in order to further a more creative manner as well as those
of 400 hours over 12 months. I chose to
explore the area of game balance and to
create a functional pipeline that allows
developers to make specific, targeted,
that abided by more traditional gameplay
paradigms.
well-understood iterations. This project allowed me to develop a
The project’s artifact is a balanced and levers that designers need to pull in order
accessible hero system integrated into
an otherwise heroless game mode. I
used Microsoft Excel in order to create
mathematical models allowing for the
approximation of real-time interactions,
which I used to tweak all 12 of my
heroes’ numbers with both each other
and existing units in mind. Heroes were
built to support existing strategies as
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accommodate players that want to play in
LEVEL DESIGN
deeper understanding of the different
to achieve balance. It also accustomed
me to adjusting my formulae to account
for unexpected factors and taught me
to identify characters that appear to, but
actually do not, align with the game’s
vision.