What is StratBuster?
StratBuster is dedicated to the analysis of strategic video games to identify weaknesses in their balancing and structure. Game design is all about giving the player interesting decisions to make, but the desire to increase the density of these decisions can result in poor balancing. Sometimes this manifests in a single dominant strategy that renders all other options irrelevant. Sometimes every option is too powerful, and the player's choices don't matter as much as the designer had intended.
My main method for finding balancing weaknesses is to complete the game with a rigorous set of gameplay constraints, such as using only one character in a squad-based RPG, or ignoring major branches of the tech tree in an RTS game. When victory is achieved with these constraints, I identify key balance tweaks that could improve the gameplay experience, and try to extract practical lessons for designers to apply to future projects.
Click this icon in the upper left to begin browsing StratBuster content, or check out the most recent additions below. New content is released as time permits.
Newest Content
Upcoming Projects
StratBuster is dedicated to the analysis of strategic video games to identify weaknesses in their balancing and structure. Game design is all about giving the player interesting decisions to make, but the desire to increase the density of these decisions can result in poor balancing. Sometimes this manifests in a single dominant strategy that renders all other options irrelevant. Sometimes every option is too powerful, and the player's choices don't matter as much as the designer had intended.
My main method for finding balancing weaknesses is to complete the game with a rigorous set of gameplay constraints, such as using only one character in a squad-based RPG, or ignoring major branches of the tech tree in an RTS game. When victory is achieved with these constraints, I identify key balance tweaks that could improve the gameplay experience, and try to extract practical lessons for designers to apply to future projects.
Click this icon in the upper left to begin browsing StratBuster content, or check out the most recent additions below. New content is released as time permits.
Newest Content
- Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows -- No traps, shrines, talisman, or endurance mode (6/17)
- Satellite Reign -- Part 2: Design Paradigms (6/10)
- Satellite Reign -- Part 1: Working Backwards (6/3)
Upcoming Projects
- Heat Signature -- 100% mission success rate using starter equipment
- Diablo II: Lord of Destruction -- Hell difficulty, naked hardcore