Hi everyone!

I’m currently working on a narrative-driven game where the player can lose in four different ways:

• Depression
• Fear
• Injuries
• Madness

Each of these stats can be accumulated up to 5 points. If any of them reaches 5, the player loses the game.

My question is about balancing:

How would you balance the events that increase these values versus the events or objects that reduce them?

For example, when it comes to madness: how many events or items that reduce madness would you include compared to those that increase it, so the game doesn’t feel too easy or too punishing?

Would a 50/50 ratio make sense? Or would you lean towards something like 60/40, scarcity-based healing, contextual recovery, etc?

I’d love to hear how you would approach this from a design perspective.

Thanks in advance for your insights!😘