I am a bioinformaticist and measurement scientist by trade, but in my spare time, I enjoy generating models of and theorizing fine-balance tweaks of game equations. I want to enter into a situation where all of my model-building and theorizing can help out a creative type to make sure that a fun game concept becomes well-executed. I usually describe my value in the context of an RPG, although I am by no means limited by genre. In RPGs, there are many stats that all affect gameplay, usually boiling down into damage and survivability. As a developer, you really want all of your stats to have an impact - otherwise, why did you put the time into creating them? As a player, I like to analyze all of the stats available and make a decision, but I don't want that decision to be stupidly trivial. If my options are between a staff of +1 baby making and a staff of +1 killing stuff, there had better be some situations where I want to choose baby making instead of killing stuff. Ideally, the relative frequency of those situations should be equal, or at least normalized by value of the bonus given. I offer my services to ensure that your various +1s are intelligently balanced, so that players can make meaningful choices (and trade-offs) in game instead of simply min-maxxing and grinding. I'd like to believe that these types of choices are what players look for in their gameplay and are what drives player retention and engagement. This is different from beta testing in a number of ways: I'm quantitative. My responses will not be "X is OP." They will be "X would be balanced if changed to Y". I'm data-driven. I will use your game data to build models of how the game will be played rather than just play the game. I can accelerate. Endgame models can determine how the gameplay will look in several months, without taking months to generate. I'm truly curious to know what level of interest there is. If you read this far and are thinking "everyone already has ten people that do this" or anything else, positive or negative, I'd like to hear it.
