Talk:Game Development Based on Experience/1.4.3/@comment-177.159.217.117-20130502164207/@comment-96.53.201.142-20130502180427

how I think I understand it all(definitely not a guarantee that im right)

also, its a bit long.

first and foremost, stop thinking of the stages as what you need to put the sliders to. thats not whats important. What is important is what you put that bar across the bottom to, and which category you focus on per stage. That is what the [+] and [-] tell you about.

there are three rules.

1-) never give a [+] category 20% of that bar, it MUST be more than that.  That slider must not be zeroed out.

2-)never give a [-] category 40% or more of that bar, it MUST be less than that.  there is no minimum, make it a 0% slider, or anything else you want, doesn't matter, just less than 40% of the bar on the bottom.

3-)if you want a perfect score, at least two of the categories that have [+] must be given more than 40% of that bar.

That bar is how much time is allotted in that stage, to each category.

So slider settings. if you put them all the same, such as all nothing, or all maximum, everything is 33% of the stage's time, 33% of that bar. The minimum time is 20%, and the maximum time is 60%. you cannot set two [+] above 40% in one stage because the minimum is 20%, so with one slider at zero, there is only 80% left, and between the two that only allows them both to be set to 40%. To score perfect, two of your [+] must be MORE than 40%, so don't fuss over trying to get more than one 40% per stage, you cant.

So how to set the sliders?

pick one [+] for that stage, give it 100% slider, set the other [+] to a tiny bit of slider, say 10%, just not zero. Set your [-] or [ ] to zero. Set your game's features. if any show a percentage in their seciton title, then they need more time, increase their slider or remove a feature. Once all your features have enough time(none of them show percentages), check your sliders. the [+] you chose to focus on must still have more than 40% of that bar, and [-] must not have 40% of the bar.

If you need more tech or design points to properly balance the game, then choose which category you focus on, and what you do with the other time, such as how much more than zero you make the other two sliders, just obey the three rules while you do so and you'll score well.