How do you balance innovation and familiarity in gaming?

Learning from others is essential for a variety of reasons. It provides insights into market trends, user feedback, and helps avoid common pitfalls. Examples like "Among Us," "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," and "Rocket League" demonstrate how successful games build upon familiar elements while introducing innovative concepts. This balance leads to engaging experiences that resonate with a broad audience.

The core of the experience remains the familiarity with the untouchable parameters and concepts. Innovation is that constant spark of "The new thing you need to get/experience" and it works best when alternating the expectation build-up (teasing/creating a long term gameplay goal) and the unexpected novelty (apparently unscripted advantages or events being tailor made of giving the user the feeling that "he/she is different and that it was a lucky draw happening"). Innovation most of the times end up being a game of chance when it comes to the reviewers (also users). Sometimes reviewers find it less appealing than the final beneficiary (users) since they're less invested into the overall experience and more into the metrics and details.

There's a concept in psychology that's useful here: "Schema Cost". Consider your game's systems to have a bugdet of "Schema", which is a measure of how many items a player needs to understand and interact with, and how complex they are: Checkers has low Schema cost, Chess has high Schema cost. An interesting phenomenon is that a system's schema cost is reduced as a player masters a genre, allowing them to take on more information. So, if you identify a system in your game that has a high schema cost, make sure that the other aspects of your game are recognizeable, simple, or at least rely on knowledge of the genre. TLDR: if your innovation is complex, make sure you have enough "easy" systems to balance it out.

Innovation and familiarity dance a delicate tango in gaming. Too much innovation risks alienating players; too much familiarity, boredom. The sweet spot lies in blending fresh ideas with the familiar warmth of the known. The thrill of discovering something new without losing the essence makes gaming an adventure, not a chore. Ultimately, the ideal balance between innovation and familiarity depends on the goals of the game, the preferences of the target audience, and the developer's vision. Successful games often find a sweet spot that captivates players with new experiences while respecting the foundations that make gaming fun.

Combining the points of Test and Iterate + Balance is Key -- I would add "Incremental Innovation". This is a good way to introduce new features without overwhelming the player and is a bit of a "drip-feed" method. You slowly introduce innovation with the audience and let them in on the journey of change. You allow them to engage with what's new, give feedback on it, and continue to add innovation where it works best. You still give them what is familiar, but give them the opportunity to expect something different.