Balance
Hey everyone,
I’m making my first incremental game and wanted to ask other devs (and players) how you usually approach balancing these kinds of games.
I’ve got a lot of programming experience, but basically no game design experience, so figuring out progression and pacing has honestly been way harder than the coding itself.
Right now I’m trying to understand things like:
- how fast progression should feel
- when upgrades should start slowing down
- balancing active vs idle play
- prestige/reset pacing
- late game scaling
- avoiding one obviously optimal strategy
One thing that especially confuses me is testing balance in incremental games, because it feels like you only really understand if the balance works after investing a lot of time into the game. Player testing sounds complicated for that reason alone.
So I’m curious:
- do you mostly use spreadsheets/math?
- simulations?
- accelerated test modes?
- player feedback?
- or just lots of iteration and vibes?
And from the player side:
what balancing issues usually make you stop playing an incremental game?
Would love to hear how people here approach it, especially from devs who already survived making their first game
Thanks :)