Incongruity-Based Adaptive Game Balancing

Abstract. Commercial games have various methods of game balancing, which modify the game’s entertainment value for players of different skill levels. This paper presents a way of automatically adapting a game’s tactical balance, based on the theory of incongruity. We tested our approach on a group of subjects, who played a game with three difficulty settings, in which a specific difference in incongruity was maintained automatically. Our results confirm the theory of incongruity as far as positive incongruity is concerned. We also show that, with our automatically maintained balanced difficulty setting, a game can avoid becoming boring or frustrating. Key words: game balancing, automatic adaptation, incongruity

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ACG
• Authors: Giel van Lankveld, Pieter Spronck, H. Jaap van den Herik, Matthias Rauterberg
• Keywords: ACG 2009, Computer Graphics, Difficulty Setting, Game Balancing, Game’s Tactical Balance