How Games Use Feedback Loops | Game Maker’s Toolkit

Playing Pyre over Christmas got me thinking about feedback loops: the reward structures in games that can reinforce or balance out winners and losers. In this episode I’ll explain what this all means, and talk about the design of Pyre’s positive and negative loops.

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Sources

Solving XCOM’s Snowball Problem | Pentadact
http://www.pentadact.com/2016-02-25-solving-xcoms-snowball-problem/

Git along there, little doggies | Team Fortress 2
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1872

Find Out More

Level 4.4: Feedback Loops | Canvas
https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-4-dot-4-feedback-loops

Designer's Notebook: Positive Feedback | Gamasutra
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131426/designers_notebook_positive_.php

[PPT] Feedback Systems and the Dramatic Structure of Competition | Mark LeBlanc
http://algorithmancy.8kindsoffun.com/cgdc99.ppt

Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance)

Bastion (Supergiant Games, 2011)
Transistor (Supergiant Games, 2014)
Pyre (Supergiant Games, 2017)
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Infinity Ward, 2016)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, 2007)
Chess Ultra (Ripstone Ltd., 2017)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 2017)
Tekken 7 (Bandai Namco, 2017)
Splatoon (Nintendo, 2015)
Forza Horizon 3 (Playground Games, 2016)
Titanfall 2 (Respawn Entertainment, 2016)
Team Fortress 2 (Valve Corporation, 2007)
Arms (Nintendo, 2017)
XCOM 2 (Firaxis, 2016)
Battlefield 4 (EA DICE, 2013)
SteamWorld Dig 2 (Image and Form, 2017)
Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix, 2016)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt, 2015)
Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4, 2005)
NBA 2K18 (Visual Concepts, 2017)
Civilization V (Firaxis Games, 2010)
Dark Souls (From Software, 2011)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward, 2009)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch, 2010)
Devil May Cry (Capcom, 2001)
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Retro Studios, 2014)

Music used in this episode

Pyre soundtrack
k. Part 2 - 01 untitled 1, animeistrash

Other credits

MW2 - 6 KILLS WITH ONE PREDATOR MISSILE | Volound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPjlZTqdFh8

TACTICAL NUKE with AKIMBO Model 1887 - Modern Warfare 2 | TheKoreanSavage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFexH5_lwg8

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