Within the field of game design， game balance can best be described as a black art。 It is the process by which game designers make a game simultaneously fair for players while providing them just the right amount of difficulty to be both exciting and challenging without making the game entirely predictable。 This involves a combination of mathematics， psychology， and occasionally other fields such as economics and game theory。

Game Balance offers readers a dynamic look into game design and player theory。 Throughout the book， relevant topics on the use of spreadsheet programs will be included in each chapter。 This book therefore doubles as a useful reference on Microsoft Excel， Google Spreadsheets， and other spreadsheet programs and their uses for game designers。



Key Features:



The first and only book to explore game balance as a topic in depth



Topics range from intermediate to advanced， while written in an accessible style that demystifies even the most challenging mathematical concepts to the point where a novice student of game design can understand and apply



Contains powerful spreadsheet techniques which have been tested with all major spreadsheet programs and battle-tested with real-world game design tasks



Provides short-form exercises at the end of each chapter to allow for practice of the techniques discussed therein along with three long-term projects divided into parts throughout the book that involve the creation



Written by award-winning designers with decades of experience in the field。



Author Bios:

Ian Schreiber has been in the industry since 2000， first as a programmer and then as a game designer。 He has worked on eight published game titles， training/simulation games for three Fortune 500 companies， and has advised countless student projects。 He is the co-founder of Global Game Jam， the largest in-person game jam event in the world。 Ian has taught game design and development courses at a variety of colleges and universities since 2006。

Brenda Romero is a BAFTA award-winning game director， entrepreneur， artist， and Fulbright award recipient and is presently game director and creator of the Empire of Sin franchise。 As a game director， she has worked on 50 games and contributed to many seminal titles， including the Wizardry and Jagged Alliance series and titles in the Ghost Recon， Dungeons & Dragons， and Def Jam franchises。 Away from the machine， her analog series of six games， The Mechanic is the Message， has drawn national and international acclaim， particularly Train and Sioch�n Leat， a game about her family's history， which is presently housed in the National Museum of Play。 In addition to a BAFTA and a Fulbright， Brenda is the recipient of multiple lifetime achievement awards， a Grace Hopper Award， and a GDC Ambassador Award。 Many of the games she has contributed to have won numerous awards。 Romero is the CEO and co-founder of Romero Games based in Galway， Ireland。