• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 10:17
CEST 16:17
KST 23:17
  • 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
ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play1Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview8
Community News
[TLMC] Summer 2026 Ladder Map Rotation05.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start)67ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo31Weekly Cups (June 8-14): Clem and Solar double, PTR tested0RSL: S6 Finals played at BlizzCon 202611
StarCraft 2
General
5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start) Is the larve respawn broken? The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser Mizenhauer's Douyu Cup Preview ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play
Tourneys
Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28) RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event INu's Battles#17 <BO.9> Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament GSL CK #4 20-21th June
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 531 Experimental Artillery Mutation # 530 One For All Mutation # 529 Opportunities Unleashed
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion ASL 22 Proposed Map Pool vespene.gg — BW replays in browser Quality of life changes in BW that you will like ? [BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals [Megathread] Daily Proleagues The Casual Games of the Week Thread [BSL22] GosuLeague Casts - Tue & Thu 22:00 CEST
Strategy
Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Relatively freeroll strategies Why doesn't anyone use restoration? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile Beyond All Reason Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread [H]Internet/Gaming Cafe Tips and Tricks
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club! The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 McBoner: A hockey love story Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Listen To The Coaches!
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 7003 users

Game prototype. One step further to confusion.

Blogs > 0x64
Post a Reply
0x64
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
Finland4620 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
Finland4620 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
Douyu Cup 2020
05:00
2026 - Day 2
Neeb vs Impact
MacSed vs Cyan
Scarlett vs Kelazhur
INnoVation vs Dear
Rex74
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
LamboSC2 705
elazer 210
ProTech149
Rex 71
MindelVK 55
SHIN 50
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 32836
Shuttle 1781
Jaedong 1050
Light 1011
BeSt 930
EffOrt 694
Soulkey 533
ggaemo 521
Soma 378
Snow 249
[ Show more ]
Rush 173
Mong 142
hero 131
Sharp 108
Zeus 103
[sc1f]eonzerg 66
Sea.KH 64
Pusan 51
Mind 44
ToSsGirL 38
JYJ 31
HiyA 26
PianO 23
Terrorterran 16
GoRush 15
Hm[arnc] 14
yabsab 14
Rock 13
ajuk12(nOOB) 11
zelot 9
Sacsri 9
Noble 8
Dota 2
qojqva883
420jenkins190
League of Legends
JimRising 392
Counter-Strike
byalli492
Other Games
singsing3675
hiko809
B2W.Neo709
Lowko653
crisheroes306
Hui .195
Sick187
QueenE82
djWHEAT72
KnowMe69
Fuzer 65
Mew2King63
DeMusliM0
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream11028
Other Games
BasetradeTV191
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• iHatsuTV 12
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis2617
Upcoming Events
Big Brain Bouts
1h 43m
Jumy vs eGGz
Harstem vs sebesdes
TriGGeR vs HeRoMaRinE
Douyu Cup 2020
14h 43m
Maestros of the Game
22h 13m
herO vs Classic
Maru vs Serral
BSL22 NKC (BSL vs China)
23h 43m
Douyu Cup 2020
1d 14h
BSL22 NKC (BSL vs China)
1d 23h
Online Event
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
WardiTV Weekly
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
4 days
Bombastic Starleague
4 days
Kung Fu Cup
4 days
OSC
5 days
CrankTV Team League
5 days
Bombastic Starleague
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSCL: Masked Kings S4
WardiTV Spring 2026
Heroes Pulsing #2

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
Acropolis #4
YSL S3
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSL Season 21: Qualifier 1
CSL Season 21: Qualifier 2
SCTL 2026 Spring
Douyu Cup 2026
Maestros of the Game 2
Murky Cup 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026

Upcoming

CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
BCC 2026
Light Tournament 2026
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
Eternal Conflict S2 E1
Heroes Pulsing #3
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 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.