Introduction to Game Systems Design

Chapter 13

Range Balancing, Data Fulcrums, and Hierarchical Design

This chapter covers three very important data concepts: range balancing, data fulcrums, and hierarchical design.

With these concepts, you can start creating a larger amount of data objects that are balanced and ready to go into your game. By learning these foundational principles first, you will be able to avoid many of the most common pitfalls that new data designers experience when building their first set of data.

Range Balancing

Many numbers you use for data object attributes have physical or virtual constraints. For example, miles per hour and weight in pounds (or kilograms) are known measurements that are well entrenched in our audiences. You want players to easily understand ...