Dungeons & Dragons Heroes Designer Diaries #1

[GameBanshee News]

GameSpy has posted the first installment of a Dungeons & Dragons Heroes designer diary feature they are running. This time, Atari's Brenda Brathwaite talks about the design goals and philosophies of the game. Check it out:

Now that many of the nuts and bolts of the game-world are fleshed out, how does the lead designer on D&D Heroes spend her days? "Balancing. I spend a lot of time looking at Excel spreadsheets filled with numbers -- monster damage, move damage, experience point rewards, item cost, gold drops, you name it. Then, I play the game to see how those numbers are working out for the player. Are you getting enough gold? Enough items? Too few skeleton keys? Back to the spreadsheet, I go. All in all, I'm getting paid to play games. And lastly, I answer about a dozen questions a day about various game design issues." Brathwaite is quick to point out, though, that -- in her words -- she's a "tiny branch of a tree … a part of something larger."