Probability Puzzles for Aspiring Game Designers
Below are several interactive probability puzzles to challenge aspiring game
designers. Note that there are many ways to solve these puzzles to make the math
work, but some solutions are better than others, considering the overall design
goals of the project described.
Puzzle 1
You are an assistant quest designer on World of Warcraft and need to ensure
various quests are
balanced.
Ensure each quest takes the same amount of time to complete, on average.
Puzzle 2
You are an assistant game designer working on a RPG and you need to ensure
each weapon below is balanced.
Ensure each weapon does the same amount of damage, on average.
Puzzle 3
You are an assistant game designer working on a slot machine game.
The lead designer tells you to balance the game so that players
lose 2% of their bet, on average.
Puzzle 4
You are an assistant game designer working on a puzzle game.
In the game, tiles appear every few seconds, and sometimes a tile has a
powerup.
The lead designer tells you to balance the game so that players see
5 powerups per game, on average.
Puzzle 5
You are an assistant game designer working on a word game.
At the start of the game, the player draws some tiles from the bag.
The lead designer asks the lead programmer to add a special feature that
prevents the player from ever getting an opening hand of all vowels
or all consonants.
But the lead programmer is too busy, so the lead designer tells you to
figure out how often the player will get an opening hand of all consonants
or all vowels, assuming a hand size of 6, 40 vowels, and 60 consonants.
Then the lead designer asks you to figure out what you would change to
make that chance less than one game in a million.