Game Development is Series of Rolling the Dice

What’s the difficulty class of your game?

Lost in Random

In one of his interviews, George R. R. Martin says the following about how to make it as a writer:

“If you need security, this is not the profession for you. Writing is a series of rolling the dice.”

This is true for most creative works, including game development. Every time we publish a game, we are essentially rolling the dice and hoping for a critical roll.

This metaphor made me think of table-top RPGs. If you’re not familiar with them, whenever you try to do something that has uncertain results in these games, you roll the dice. Mechanics change from game to game, but the most common version works like this:

1. The game master (GM) sets the target, or difficulty class (DC), for the action you want to perform.

2. You roll d20 (20 sided die), and add your bonus to the result.

3. If the result is equal to or higher than the difficulty class, your action results in success.

Let’s say you try to break open a door:

• DC: 15 (because it’s tightly locked)

• You roll: 13

• Bonus: +5 (because you’re strong)

• Result: 18 (the door opens!)

Now let’s try to adapt these mechanics to reality.

What’s the difficulty class of your game?

The most defining factor, when it comes to difficulty class, is probably the genre. Some genres sell well (sandbox, simulator, crafting), while others don’t (puzzle, platformer). If you choose a genre that an average Steam user likes, your target DC decreases. And if you choose a genre that doesn’t have a large audience (or is not marketable), your target DC increases, lowering your chances.

The second factor would be aesthetics. If the visuals please the eye, some people will give it a try. Streamers will be more likely to try your game and make content about it, decreasing your DC.

The third factor is depth. The more depth your game has, the more likely it will have a loyal fanbase, spreading your game from mouth to mouth.

Mechanics: Let’s say the base difficulty is 25. For each of these factors, omit or add 5 to it, whether or not your game marks it. If your game’s genre is popular and it has great visuals but lacks depth, then your DC is 20 (25 - 5 - 5 + 5).

What’s your difficulty class and how can you decrease it?

What is your bonus?

Your bonus will be all of your marketing efforts. Your demo, your posts, the festivals, your capsule art, the streamers, etc. All of these efforts will increase your game’s visibility, generating more wishlists, hence increasing your bonus.

The other, and more important, factor is having released a game before. All those past experiences will give you a bonus boost for sure. So even if your game fails, it increases your bonus for the next game.

Mechanics: For each 2000 wishlist, I would say you get +1 bonus. (So yes, if you have 100k wishlists, you get +50.) And for each game you released before, let’s say you get +3.

What’s your bonus and how can you increase it?

Critical Roll

If you roll 1, the result is auto failure, regardless of the bonus and DC.

I am sure we have all seen games that look great and seem destined for success, then get buried in the depths of Steam for no apparent reason. Because no matter how hard we try, in the end, there are still too many factors that happen outside of our control. We always have a chance of rolling a 1.

The opposite is also possible. Although things look dire, we might just roll 20, and things can start going in our favor.

Roll the Dice

By this logic, you always have a chance of success… assuming you roll the dice. And the more you roll, the higher your chance gets.

So keep rolling.

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To-Do List

Watch: It's Hard To Make Games

Learn: What Steam’s Big Demo Update Means for Your Marketing Strategy

Play: Fluoroantimonic (A web game made in 3 hours)

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Dev Log

I continue to work on my game, although not as fast as I would like (as usual). If you are interested, you can take a look at the latest dev log I published on my own site.

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Me

Reading: The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson. Though I like Sanderson’s storytelling, I can’t say I’m enjoying these secret projects. They feel like they are written for a different (and much younger) audience. This one was full of action scenes, which became a chore to read after some point. In between them, we have info dumps about the planet, culture, and how things work around. Knowing that everything will work out just fine in the end caused me to lose interest. But I’m still very hyped for Wind and Truth, which will come out at the end of the year.

Playing: Gothic 2: Night of the Raven. I mentioned how much I love Gothic 1 several times. And I've finally got the chance to play the second one, which is considered to be the best one in the series by many. I’m only 10 hours in, and I’m enjoying myself so far! It’s more difficult than the first one, and the politics brewing in the background feel much more interesting.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!