Evolving card sets towards balancing dominion

In this paper we use the popular card game Dominion as a complex test-bed for the generation of interesting and balanced game rules. Dominion is a trading-card-like game where each card type represents a different game mechanic. Each playthrough only features ten different cards, the selection of which can form a new game each time. We compare and analyse three different agents that are capable of playing Dominion on different skill levels and use three different fitness functions to generate balanced card sets. Results reveal that there are particular cards of the game that lead to balanced games independently of player skill and behaviour. The approach taken could be used to balance other games with decomposable game mechanics.peer-reviewe