How to design engaging power scaling in a video game
Games are about a lot of things. They’re about exploring new worlds, telling amazing stories and escaping the real world for just a moment to be immersed in something new. All games are a little different. But there is itch that many games hope to scratch for their players: mastery. Whether it’s an RPG, a hotel management game, a rhythm game, a decorating game…players want to feel an increased degree of mastery the longer they play. They want to feel themselves getting stronger, smarter and more capable. And they want the game they’re playing to give them a chance to show their skills.
Power scaling is extremely vital in all kinds of games, but for the sake of narrowing this short essay down, I want to focus on combat type games. Having an engaging power scaling system in your game can make or break the experience for your players, particularly in one that turns to combat to engage the audience. They want to feel like they are getting stronger, but they also want scarier, bossier, cooler challenges to meet them as they continue to level up, get new gear and learn new moves.
Enemy scaling can keep the world interesting. Common enemies should start super low level along with the player and essentially teach the player the basics of combat. Once the player learns how to jump, dodge, perform combos, or whatever else your combat system might involve, these low level enemies should be replaced with more deadly, more complex enemies. Common enemies shouldn’t be too hard to beat (unless you’re a Dark Souls game), but if your player can whack them down in one hit, they might as well not even exist. Finding the right balance between challenging and not overbearing should be one of the major focuses when you play test your game.
In tandem with ever stronger enemies, your player should also be getting stronger, whether that’s through a leveling system or new items or power ups that they can use to face the stronger enemies at hand. The tricky part with leveling up the player is preventing the player from optimizing too much too fast, making the challenges of the game obsolete. Getting stronger is fun, but getting so strong that the final mega bosses are a 30 second cake walk to beat is not fun. Your game should challenge the player while continually adding to their toolbelt.
Leveling systems are probably the easiest way to visualize power scaling. When you start a Pokemon game, you battle level 3 Rattatas until you’re ready to continue. But this is not the only kind of power scaling we should look at when we design a game. The goal with power scaling is to always push the character a little harder with new mechanics. This can look like getting a new weapon type, learning a new element, introducing enemies with different attack patterns…it’s really anything that still uses what the player has learned about playing your game, but pushing what they know outside of the box just a little bit. If you find your power progression looks more like just introducing tankier, harder hitting enemies that are otherwise the same, it may be time to reasses your strategy.
References and further reading
(Article) How Power Curves Work in Video Games — https://medium.com/@GWBycer/how-power-curves-work-in-video-games-3ab04517fb20
(Article) Unraveling the Enshrouded: Balancing Gear Progression and Power Scaling in Gaming — https://www.zleague.gg/theportal/unraveling-the-enshrouded-balancing-gear-progression-and-power-scaling-in-gaming/#google_vignette
(Article/Video) What Is Level Scaling in Video Games https://www.makeuseof.com/level-scaling-video-games/
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