• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 09:33
CEST 15:33
KST 22:33
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL21] Ro4 Preview: On Course12Code S Season 1 - RO8 Preview7[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt2: Progenitors8Code S Season 1 - RO12 Group A: Rogue, Percival, Solar, Zoun13[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt1: Inheritors16
Community News
Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win1Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !10Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple0RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event12Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO12 Results1
StarCraft 2
General
MaNa leaves Team Liquid Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win Code S Season 1 - RO8 Preview Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple
Tourneys
2026 GSL Season 2 Qualifiers $5,000 WardiTV Spring Championship 2026 Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! SC2 INu's Battles#16 <BO.9> Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2)
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 525 Wheel of Misfortune The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 524 Death and Taxes Mutation # 523 Firewall
Brood War
General
ASL Tickets to Live Event Finals? Flashes ASL S21 Ro8 Review BW General Discussion Pros React To: Leta vs Tulbo (ASL S21, Ro.8) (Spoiler) Interview ASL Ro4 Day 2 Winner
Tourneys
[ASL21] Semifinals B [ASL21] Semifinals A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL22] RO16 Group Stage - 02 - 10 May
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game PC Games Sales Thread
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread UK Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software) [G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
How EEG Data Can Predict Gam…
TrAiDoS
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 978 users

Game prototype. One step further to confusion.

Blogs > 0x64
Post a Reply
0x64
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
Finland4615 Posts
February 22 2015 11:57 GMT
#1
For the last few weeks, I've been working on a little Celtic prototype.
You can try it here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12835591/AmadanArena/AmadanArena.html
Disclaimer: Prototypes are not even close to alpha or anything you usually get when you play a game. They are meant to test fundamental aspect of the possible future game, testing if the game idea might be fun.

I have now removed the Quest and adventure aspects to focus more on the character progression and fighting/path selection aspect.

The game is starting to shape up but I still can't figure out how to make the fighting mechanics clear to the player.
The fighting is already confusing without the stamina mechanics.
It's hard to wrap your head around as a designer, that something is unclear .

For one, my mechanics have a wait "Action". Players hate to do this. It has no effect but it can be used to save other important action while the opponent is using defensive moves.
Yet, it is the mechanic that define your weakness, the better you are, the less wait percents changes you have to draw a wait.

This is not a big issue later, once you understand the strategic use of Wait. The problem is that new players are the one drawing the most of the card they dislike the most, while not understanding why that card is out there.

Now, this could be changed in various way and this blog helps me put down some thoughts on "paper".

1. Remove wait and give the player a missing rate.
2. Remove wait from the tutorial and rename "wait" to something else
3. Remove wait and replace it by rest. Makes sense, everyone loves extra stamina and the turn is not wasted. Interesting effect to balance...

Any other idea?
I could also just redo the whole fighting mechanics but I find these fresh once you have 3 column to chose actions from. Maybe let the player start with 2 columns right from the start...
So many things to try !


TLDR: Don't bother trying game prototypes if you don't have the time to read :D


Dump of assembler code from 0xffffffec to 0x64: End of assembler dump.
boon2537
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States905 Posts
February 22 2015 19:36 GMT
#2
It's nice that your have almost all your art assets ready for your prototype. I often have to use place holder graphics for a long ass time because I always procrastinate using my non-existent art skill to make an acceptable looking graphic lol.

Good luck with your game!
0x64
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
Finland4615 Posts
February 22 2015 19:56 GMT
#3
On February 23 2015 04:36 boon2537 wrote:
It's nice that your have almost all your art assets ready for your prototype. I often have to use place holder graphics for a long ass time because I always procrastinate using my non-existent art skill to make an acceptable looking graphic lol.

Good luck with your game!


Heh thanks, but that's just a fluke, we had a project last summer that clearly went over our head so we stopped the production after 2 months so I have those asset and even have 3d models but that's might be used for some future prototypes.

There are two school of thoughts. Some says that prototypes shouldn't have art because it distracts from the pure gameplay and shrouds it.
Others think that on the contrary, lack of presentation draws so much attention of the tester that people don't get to enjoy the game like it should and the results are inconclusive.

It's hard and I guess if you have a solid group of game designers as friends (Like guys such as Jonathan Blow has) you can just share things looking bad but playing good and get useful feedback.

On my side, I haven't been able to figure it out. Most of the feedback is bug reports and obvious stuff.

Now, I a wondering if I should release this version and test the mobile market while I'm working on the next prototype, or should I use 2-3 more weeks to polish this... Really hard decisions!
Dump of assembler code from 0xffffffec to 0x64: End of assembler dump.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Kung Fu Cup
11:00
#7
IntoTheiNu 1332
WardiTV606
RotterdaM491
TKL 219
SteadfastSC107
Liquipedia
Replay Cast
09:00
KungFu Cup 2026 Week 6
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 491
TKL 219
Rex 142
SteadfastSC 107
herO (SOOP) 40
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 64987
Calm 7225
Bisu 2632
Sea 2306
Horang2 1151
Jaedong 627
EffOrt 586
firebathero 576
Soma 490
Mini 467
[ Show more ]
Larva 231
Hyuk 211
actioN 205
Snow 174
ZerO 170
Soulkey 145
Zeus 143
Rush 130
hero 110
Last 109
ggaemo 108
Pusan 91
Sharp 88
Aegong 81
Mind 75
ToSsGirL 52
Sexy 30
sSak 29
sorry 28
JulyZerg 22
Terrorterran 17
Movie 16
soO 16
Rock 13
Bale 13
ajuk12(nOOB) 12
IntoTheRainbow 8
Noble 5
Dota 2
Gorgc6385
qojqva973
syndereN153
XcaliburYe137
Counter-Strike
olofmeister2453
shoxiejesuss867
byalli572
x6flipin526
edward177
kRYSTAL_41
Other Games
singsing1692
B2W.Neo793
Beastyqt760
hiko561
Lowko294
Happy223
Hui .217
XaKoH 156
monkeys_forever112
Mew2King99
QueenE47
CosmosSc2 40
ZerO(Twitch)17
fpsfer 1
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 1723
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• HerbMon 16
• iopq 6
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis6022
• Jankos2028
Other Games
• WagamamaTV294
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
10h 27m
The PondCast
20h 27m
OSC
20h 27m
Replay Cast
1d 10h
RSL Revival
1d 20h
OSC
1d 23h
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
BSL
3 days
GSL
3 days
Cure vs herO
SHIN vs Maru
[ Show More ]
BSL
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Monday Night Weeklies
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
The PondCast
5 days
GSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-05-12
WardiTV TLMC #16
Nations Cup 2026

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
KK 2v2 League Season 1
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
SCTL 2026 Spring
RSL Revival: Season 5
2026 GSL S1
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W7
YSL S3
Escore Tournament S2: W8
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026: Closed Qualifier
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.