I started studying game design 3 weeks ago at IT University of Copenhagen. During these two weeks we’ve had to work on multiple, smaller, team projects already, In those projects a question often came up. How many points should X give you? How long can you do Y?

I fundamentally detest these questions. This is not something a designer should care about, especially in low fidelity prototypes.

What we, designers, should care about is interaction. Not balance. Yes, balance can affect interaction, there would be a big difference in basketball if the 3 point field goal was suddenly a 10 point goal.

However, when we are making prototypes, I am of belief that this does not matter. The only thing that matters is that we distinguish between something being worth more or less. If shooting outside the normal range gives you 5 points in our basketball prototype, who cares? The important thing is that we distinguish it being worth more than the usual amount.

How much more? We will figure that out later. We don’t even know if having the separation between shots is fun.

So don’t care about the balance now, care about design. Test your design, see if it works, then worry about the fucking balance.