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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperDesignHow to balance co-op gameplay ?
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hijong park
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« on: June 01, 2019, 05:36:03 AM »

I'm planning to make a remake / reboot of steel alcimus, a top down helicopter game once I finish the current project as Steel alcimus was a total failure and I want to make it much more enjoyable.


I'm planning to add co-op mode in that game because several people requested it, but It would not be an easy task as I never made co-op games before.

The biggest problem would be balancing. When I make games, I play the same parts over and over to make the perfect balance. but even this effort doesn't always get the balance perfectly so I usually have to replay my own games much more after releasing them, even through it gets tedious and repetitive since i know everything about the game.

If I make the co-op mode and test it, I'll need to call my friends every single time or control two characters at the same time but neither of them would be easy.


I wonder How other games manage the difficulty for the co-op mode. Do they simply double the enemy stats, or just don't care much about it ?

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Aghko
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« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2019, 05:28:08 AM »

The thought of multiplying the amount of enemies by the amount of players is the first one everyone has.
It all depends on what does your game and the AI, so at the end is all about game play test and knowing your game but, here a what has helped me on multiplayer escalation for Enemy waves: Additional Enemies = Number of extra players * reduction factor
Where I tend to start with a factor of 0,3
That means that I am not doubling but increasing the amount by a 30% per player.

The reasoning for the kind of games I do is following: Even by increasing the amount by a 30% the players will have more enemies targeting them at the same time as playing solo, and also the management of enemies will get harder.

If I were doing a 1:1 enemy spawn increase per player the game will get insane quickly, because the actual difficulty for the players will actually be exponential. But that is just for my specific case.

TL;DR: Create a factor value for the spawn that allows you to change the balancing of the spawns by changing just one number. Increase should be lower than xAmount of players. Play test your game.
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InfiniteGamesDS
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« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2019, 12:35:37 PM »

Hi! Depending of the controls and how the player works, you can make some shortcuts to control the player two quickly, i did coop for a fighting beat'em up and find the problem aswell, balancing is an important detail in shooting games and general, but i believe that unless you are very sure, the best thing you could do is do crazy stuff and throw enemies there, explosives, stuff of anything you want to put in the game, then just make sure is fun as the game can, balancing is the last resource!

This is what i think about this! I really hope your game goes well  Beer! My Word!
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