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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Metagame Balance
Speaker(s): Alexander Jaffe
Company Name(s): Spry Fox
Track / Format: eSports Summit

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Overview:

Characters, factions, classes, and decks: we embrace asymmetry in competitive games, yet one overpowered option can wreak havoc on a community. Such metagame imbalances need not be evaluated solely through intuition. This talk introduces a principled approach to understanding the strength of asymmetric options, grown from the speaker's work balancing PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The method uses game theory and matchup charts to describe the possible metagames that can form among expert players. Through examples from modern games, this talk shows the value in carefully reasoning about - and even quantifying - metagame balance.

GDC 2015

Alexander Jaffe

Spry Fox

free content

eSports Summit

eSports