Broken Games are Good, Actually

0:00 - I love broken games
0:41 - The game I can't quit playing
3:00 - The game that taught me imbalance is good
6:30 - Making games FEEL great
9:32 - Balance feels bad
I have a thing for broken games, not the glitchy Cyberpunk kind, but the ones that let me go absolutely overpowered and tear through every challenge with a wild flair. In my view, "balance" often kills the fun. I'd rather see everything amped up than nerfed.
Take Balatro, for example, a poker roguelike deckbuilder that's got me hooked. It lets you play with jokers that have insane abilities, leading to some crazy combos and high scores. Then there's Inscryption, a narrative-driven deckbuilder that actively encourages breaking its rules to progress. Sacrificial stones and death cards are just some of the ways it lets you shake things up.
What makes these games truly exciting is their "juice" - the visual and auditory elements that make every move feel like a triumph. However, games like Marvel Snap tend to prioritize balance over fun, which, in my opinion, ruins the experience. I prefer games that let me break boundaries and feel like a gaming god, much like the baton pass in Persona 5.
Multiplayer games, often too focused on balance, leave little room for the wild excitement I crave. Instead, I appreciate single-player games like Balatro and Inscryption, where the fun is about breaking limits and creating awe-inspiring moments. If you're looking for a taste of that, check out Balatro on Steam.

[@erin_rose0]

only tangentially related, this is my main design philosophy making gameplay tweak mods for games i like, like yeah the binding of isaac is a punishing roguelike with death in every room, but there are so many cool item combinations people never see because getting more than one item that strong is perpendicular to the game's design. or maybe even in street fighter how characters are designed around precise gameplay and winning interactions, but sometimes i just wanna cancel 3 special moves into each other and spend 8 seconds on a combo. the main difference for me and this video though is while i enjoy games designed with high ceilings and crazy shenanigans, there's something extra special to me about raising everything in an engine to the ceiling myself and watching it absolutely crack open. hard agree on multiplayer nerfs being too common, getting owned by some character's/hero's/etc. crazy abilities sucks yeah, but it'd sure suck a lot less if I got to do some wild stuff on my end too

[@MattHorton]

I love that philosophy. Working on a card game myself and my philosophy going in is that every play should feel good (and lots of them should feel great) whether you lose or not.

[@rehorizon]

Have you played and followed Super Auto Pets? This is also an interesting take on balance: almost every thing is limited: max 5 pets, max 50 stats etc, almost all balance changes are nerfs

[@MattHorton]

Yeah. I honestly didn't love it. Found it difficult to learn

[@jared_biz]

being overpowered in a single player game can be a lot of fun, as long as there's still nuance and skill involved. i find being overpowered in a game like Pokemon can be incredibly boring because you don't have to do much other than press A. however getting overpowered in something like Skyrim (which I've noticed people like to criticize Skyrim for this) is so much fun because you're still actively involved in the mechanics of the game. the same applies to a game like Balatro where getting to that point of being overpowered requires you to engage with the systems and work your way there in a satisfying and meaningful way

[@MattHorton]

Yes! I'd love to see someone nail this feeling in pvp

[@rehorizon]

Got this recommended randomly, but very interesting and well produced video! Hope that the views will grow for you!

[@MattHorton]

Thanks!

[@deliciouslunch]

Great video! Perhaps this is why I find Vampire Survivors scratches such a specific itch, they really are fine letting me just be comically strong and bask in the joy of it.

[@MattHorton]

Yes!

[@thiaamak]

You should try Legend of Runeterra's Path of Champions mode. It's also a drafting rogue like explicitly designed to make your champions feel overpowered and build combos that would break the competitive format

[@MattHorton]

I have definitely tried it! I found the game itself a bit fiddly but I should go back to it

[@Big_Dai]

​@@MattHorton Completing the last challenge (Aurelio Sol) almost requires breaking the game

[@MattHorton]

Are you a competitive gamer?

[@anon2447]

Counterpoint buffing shit ends up in an endless unhealthy cycle of powercreep just see yugioh and pokemon tcg, the former makes you sit through your opponent's 20 mibute combo that ends in a board that might as well say "you can no longer play this game" and the later has pokemon that can easily ohko Pokemon released 1 year ago making almost every old pokemon card irrelevant

[@MattHorton]

It's much easier in digital environments that don't rely on false scarcity