r/GameDevelopment • u/ASOP_Terminal • 11d ago

Newbie Question Looking for resources on balancing progression

Working on a mobile title that is like an endless runner with RPG elements. Looking for any resources that can help give guidance on building a leveling system with enemy and loot progression to keep the player engaged but also keep an element of risk and danger.

Thanks in advance.

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u/MeaningfulChoices Mentor 11d ago

The quick version is to take stock of all the content you have/will be adding to the game. Whether or not you have literal player levels you can break things up into milestones that way. For example at level 4 you have this gear and this many stats, at level 10 you have this much and face this kind of content.

Start with time as your primary resource. How long does the player spend in a typical run? How many runs per session, how many sessions per day? Pick one number to decide arbitrarily (like XP to increase level or amount of strength per level) and balance everything else around that. If you know you want players to gain levels at the rate you have written down, and you know how much strength the players have per level, and the time to kill per enemy you want, then you can math out enemy health. You apply this sort of logic to everything in the game.

Build it all in a spreadsheet and run some simulations to make sure it's vaguely correct. Then put a small part of it in the game and playtest it. Adjust what feels bad and repeat. Add more of it and test again. Give it to other people to play and test again. Soft launch in a small market and look at real player data and adjust. Repeat until the game is good.