Samuel Pate
Level Design
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Asymmetric Balance
Many games give the player a choice I sought to do just this with my thesis
characters that have different stats for StarCraft II. I chose this game both
to play as one of a variety of different
and gameplay capabilities. These
characters could be fast or slow, strong
or weak, tough or frail, and the way
these characters’ differences bounce off
of each other define these games. But
since players always crave new things,
how does one introduce a new option to
a game with such an ecosystem? And
more importantly, how does one ensure
that doing so doesn’t upset the existing
dynamic between these characters?
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LEVEL DESIGN
artifact, “The Infested”, a game mod
because of its moddability, and because
of StarCraft’s success at giving its
“characters” (playable races) vastly
different gameplay abilities while retaining
their relative power. I designed “The
Infested” as a fourth race meant to fill a
vacant gameplay niche—a race that relies
more on natural toughness and the ability
to disable foes rather than speed or raw
power.