Summary

Picking when and how often a player will enter battles is a tricky balance between fun and engagement. Do it too often and they will get annoyed, too few and they will get bored. Also, the battles need to be achievable and stretch the player at the same time. It is a complex paradox that if planned wrong, can ruin your hardwork. The best solution when all is said and done is to get your game play tested by as many people as possible and genuinely accept feedback no matter how harsh.

Alongside random generation of course is predictive planning: if you have a story to tell, you also need to have a framework to replay that story over a period of time, balancing when you need a random event or picking up the next page in your book.

In this chapter, we covered random generation, what it means, and when to use it effectively; some very simple uses of random; built a battle scene and planned for expansion; basic AI concepts and State Engines; enabled the player to run away and fight another...