Integrated Balancing of an RTS Game: Case Study and Toolbox Refinement
Mike Preuß, Thomas Pfeiffer, Vanessa Volz, Nicolas Pflanzl · 2018
A recent publication suggested an integrated process for game balancing by means of a combination of manual and automated balancing approaches. In this work, we refine the approach and show how to apply it to a "real game", not a simple prototype, namely to an open source clone of the real-time strategy game "Red Alert". Specifically, we are interested in how to utilize the outcomes of automated balancing to inform and direct our iterated approach. This enables us to follow and explore several diverse balancing solutions at the same time, which should in turn improve performance and reliability of the balancing process. We are not primarily interested in the determined solutions, but in the process that can easily be adapted to other games and balancing goals.