Game Tuning

Hello guys! This week at Design Works Gaming, I was introduced to the process of tuning. This is when we adjust certain probabilities to influence another facet of the game. If you thought what I did sounded boring before (which it really isn't, it's really quite fun), this tuning would not be the kind of work that you would want to do. For this specific game we are working on, there is a variable that keeps track of what jackpots one can win. The variable increments by a amount that depends on the spin of the reels and the number of times it has spun. If this variable reaches a certain number, a specific jackpot is awarded. In order to get the distribution of awards correct along with the total payout, we have to adjust a table of numbers. One change might fix the distribution issue, but mess up the total payout. Perhaps this adjustment corrects the payout, but now it is impossible to get the highest jackpot.

As one could guess, there is a lot more statistics in this part of my job. Determining if distributions can be considered normal or if there is something anomalous occurring becomes even more important. As we continue to finish and fine tune games, I see the attention to detail that is required in a this field, and I look forward to any challenges that I can learn from in the world of programming.

Challenges: I am stuck on free game section of this game. It's funny that now as I'm getting a handle on the programming part, the tuning and math part gets hard.

Victories: I learned how to increment a jackpot outside the context of a free game, which was originally a concept I did not understand.

Until next time then! Thank you for reading.