Game with AI tools. Balance and interest curve

This is the fourth article as part of my "Game in a Week with AI tools" challenge. The first three are available on my Telegram channel.

Game balance is more important than graphics, sounds, and even the game idea itself, because it is the balance that makes the game a source of dopamine for the player, and the right interest curve hooks the player to the game.

What is game balance and the interest curve?

Everything you see around you and even all your thoughts and fantasies are the interest curve.

And here's why:

You clicked on the title of this post with a desire to learn something new and gain some insight, but on a chemical level, you did it in pursuit of dopamine.

Right now, you're in a state of anticipation, expending energy reading this text, but subconsciously, you really want to get a reward for each paragraph you read.

On top of that, your body definitely knows that you could easily enjoy yourself much more, for example, by getting lost on Instagram or TikTok. The more complex content you consume, the more your brain will convince you to go where it's easier to get high.

If I haven't just told you something super obvious, you've received a tiny dopamine surge. And if it was super obvious or, on the contrary, difficult, you lost it, and after a couple more disappointments like that, you'll want to change your dealer, close the article, and go look for a bookmark somewhere else.

Players get the same feelings when they win or lose a level.

Therefore, for the game to be interesting, it must have levels that both bring joy and take it away.

There's nothing to screenshot here.

So here's a squirrel for you to take a break from the text:

The First Interest Curve: The Learning Stage

The most important part of the game is the first introduction and learning phase, during which the player must understand all the mechanics and clearly form a picture of the game.

An example of the difficulty curve for the learning stage:

This is an averaged graph that most games use, which lasts no more than 5 minutes, and the difficulty levels reach a maximum of 5 points, making it almost impossible to lose.

Why the interest curve is here:

1. After completing this cycle, I classify the player as "Completed Training" and send them to Firebase.
2. If the percentage of this cohort is too small, with the help of the interest curve, we can see at which level the drop-off occurred and simply change that level.
3. If you haven't identified a specific level where drop-offs occur, it's a matter of the overall balance of the curve — in this case, you need to raise or lower the difficulty of each level by a couple of points.

These tricks will work 100%, but on the condition of two most basic things:

1. At the first stage, there are no severe bugs that knock down players.
2. Training is not overloaded with a bunch of extra text.

The best training is simple levels without text that are intuitively easy to pass.

By the way, the curve in the learning stage is the only curve that has no difficulty drops; it always increases.

Here's a flamingo for you:

The Second Interest Curve: Active Engagement

This stage starts right after the training and happens only once during the first session.

At this stage, the game should do everything to make the player experience maximum euphoria, get excited, and remember your game as a source of endorphins.

An example that can be missed, but better not:

Imagine you went on a date with twin sisters, both equally attractive, but:

1. One of them had a dull look all the time and didn't react to any of your words or jokes.
2. The other was always laughing, positively reacting to every word of yours, and boosting your ego, telling you how cool you are and how much you have achieved. There was a positive reaction to every action of yours, genuinely sincere and not feigned.

Obviously, with the second one, you'll definitely want to meet again and even start idealizing her, telling yourself that you have some special connection and that she's the best girl on Earth.

In short, the seed of emotional attachment will definitely be sown.

The active engagement phase in games does the same thing—boosts the player's ego and convinces them in every possible way that they are cool, thereby hooking them for repeated entries.

Therefore, the curve of this phase should be on the verge of his abilities, namely from 7 to 10 points.

Here's the kind of curve I'll have in my game:

The range from 7 to 10 points is ideal because it levels out the different starting skills of players, and with this setup, each player will be at the peak of their abilities at least once every 4 levels, and winning these levels is the ultimate thrill.

A couple of nuances:

• Sharp drops to bonus levels are necessary after challenging 10-point levels so that the player can enjoy success and rest before a new ascent.
• Time target: 30 minutes — this is the average session duration in the puzzle category.
• Once 30 minutes are achieved, I categorize the user as "Engaged."
• If the cohort of these players is too small, I balance the curve just like in the learning stage.

At this stage, losses are possible, but since our goal is to boost the player's ego, not to tell them they're a loser, we don't need losses here at all. So:

If the player loses when we don't need them to:

• We subtly simplify this level upon replay.
• The easiest option is to simply add a few moves.
• A slightly more complicated option is to make new blocks fall with more favorable combinations.

I won't sweat over the details and just add 5 moves.

Here’s a raccoon for you:

I'm amazed if you're still reading this, but you're awesome because the most interesting part is coming up.

The third stage: The show is over

The goal of this session is also a minimum of 30 minutes of play, but with a completely different scenario.

The interest curve in the second session:

The first level is super easy to remind the player of the emotions they experienced during the engagement phase, but from the second level onwards, the hell begins.

The red zone is the zone of astonishment; there's no other way to call this period.

In this period, the game smoothly turns you around and provides levels so challenging that it's almost impossible to pass them without spending boosters and coins.

The main task of the red zone is to suck more coins and boosters from the player than they will earn in the next 70% of the session.

A specific example:

1. At the start of the session, the player has 3000 coins (which they earned during the engagement phase).
2. Suppose the player needs 1000 coins for boosters to complete all levels in the red zone.
3. Having made it out of the red zone, they have 2000 coins left.
4. Now they're in the yellow zone, where we boost their ego again and at the same time, give them coins, but we only give them half of what they spent, which is 500 coins.
5. At the end of the session, the player will have 2500 coins, resulting in a loss of 500 coins for the session.

Thus, after another 5 sessions, their coins will run out, they will be sucked into the game, and most importantly, they will get used to spending in-game currency and passing the red zones due to their spending. But now, to get out of hell, they'll have to spend real money.

And the last three nuances about the red zone:

1. Levels will also be made easier, but after three losses, so that the player doesn't get stuck on one level for too long.
2. The duration of the red zone is based on their first session (the engagement stage). Obviously, there are those who are used to playing for 10 minutes even in their favorite game, and there are those who play for hours. 
3. Giving them the same duration of the red zone would be wrong, so we use percentages based on previous sessions.
4. You can break through the red zone earlier than its period ends—for this, the player needs to spend those same 1000 coins. Once they spend them, the hell ends, and they move to the yellow zone.

It sounds complicated, but technically it's done in about 15 seconds.

As a result, I compile two types of new users:

1. Those who broke through the red zone.
2. Those who left without breaking through the red zone.

With that, the third stage is complete.

Here’s a raccoon for you:

The Fourth Stage: Repeat Sessions of the Day

Now the brain drain will be more light-hearted:

The curve for those who broke through the zone last time:

1. We start with the yellow zone and keep the player there for 20% of the session.
2. Then 10% of the red zone.
3. And so we repeat it three times.
4. When 90% of the session is reached, we move into an infinite yellow zone.

Curve for those who did not break through the red zone:

Everything is the same as in the previous one, but only the levels start directly from the red zone:

A player who didn't break through the red zone in the first session cannot be allowed to enjoy the yellow zone until they do what we need them to do.

At first glance, it might seem wrong because if a player couldn't make it through the first time, we should cut them some slack, but no.

And here's why:

1. This will break the entire economy because we didn't take 500 coins in the first session.
2. At this stage, the player already has plenty of coins, and we need to make them spend them, and collectors are not needed at all.

That's it! The graphs are finished; you can take a breath now. There's just a little bit left.

Here’s Panda before the last stage:

Player Classification

Based on how easily each player passes levels, I will give them one of three statuses:

1. Novice;
2. Adept;
3. Pro.

I will assign these statuses based on how the player passes levels, namely:

1. If the player lost on very easy levels, they get the Novice status.
2. If the player passes levels according to their difficulty, they get the Adept status.
3. If the player breezes through all levels, even leaving steps on challenging levels, they are considered Pros.

Now with these statuses, we can move on to the sessions of the second day.

Fifth stage. Sessions of the second day

Now based on the players' statuses, I will adjust the interest curve for each player:

• If they are novices, all levels in the curve are simply lowered by 1 point, making them easier.
• If they are adepts, we do nothing; they're already great.
• If they are pros, all levels in the curves are raised by 1 point, making them more challenging.

At the end of the second and all subsequent days, I also determine the player's status and provide curves based on this.

That's it! Congratulations, you survived!

Other parts you’ll find in my Telegram channel.

Summary

Now I have fully formed interest curves for the entire game, and all that's left is to implement them, which I'll do in the next part. I'll also add the final content to the game.