Why does the player count in a server matter for the game balance? I’ve heard people say it matters before, but I don’t know why.
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Imagine the Build A Boat For Treasure game, where it’s server’s max Player is 8, while there’s a lot is spawn locations in the game. If the max player is 8, the player would find this game boring because there’s not much a player can have fun with other players.
Now imagine the max player is now 30, this is where your game will be famous because your game servers can gather up to 30 players, and more players mean more social interaction and more fun!
(The question and original post was vague, so I might of not actually anwsered the right question)
Some genres work better or require multiple players, so there’s that. See what fits for your’s. As long as you are able to keep the players engaged it should be fine.
Honestly you have to find the golden max player count. It technically doesn’t matter but a perfect decision wouldn’t do you any harm.
Theoretically it all matters on what your game is actually about. If you have a 1 vs all game like Hide n Seek, you’re going to want a high max player count. Not too high though because it’s only 1 player that’s the seeker, so players might get bored if they spend 10 rounds and they aren’t the seeker.
I hope this helps you understand!
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Depending on the genre and objective of the game too many or too few players can severely affect balance. It is one of the most important aspects to balancing your game from a view of progress, player interactions and player frustration.
Take a shooter game, too many players on too small a map may make the action too fast paced, or too random. Too few players on a large map may mean players spend the whole round looking for another player.
On something like a classic Roblox simulator, too many players fighting over too few pick ups may lead to slow progression, griefing, and conflict. Too few players could lead to lack of competition stifling desire to progress.
For an RP game, too many players can lead to a lack of available space to RP, sparse resources (housing, jobs, etc), or people just feeling crowded. Too few leads to a lack of opportunities to interact.
These are just three examples, I’m sure you can figure out more. Player count balance is extremely important and something you need to decide on very early on in the design process as it will affect everything else you do.