• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 22:46
CEST 04:46
KST 11:46
  • 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
Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview9TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection5Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview5[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2
Community News
[BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June2Weekly Cups (May 25-31): Clem doubles, 2v2 circuit heads toward finale0StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th151Weekly Cups (May 18-24): MaxPax wins doubles0Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League6
StarCraft 2
General
TL Poll: How do you feel about the 5.0.16 PTR balance changes? What kind of tool would you be interested in? Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) WardiTV Mondays Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 529 Opportunities Unleashed Mutation # 528 Infection Detected Welcome to the External Content forum
Brood War
General
FlaSh's ASL S21 Finals Review 25 Years Since Brood War Patch 1.08 [BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June BW animated web series: seeking contributors FlaShFTW vs A.Alm Grudge Match Event
Tourneys
[BSL22] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CEST [ASL21] Grand Finals [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2
Strategy
Why doesn't anyone use restoration? Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace Megathread Summer Games Done Quick 2026! Nintendo Switch Thread The Perfect Game Path of Exile
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 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 Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Trading/Investing Thread YouTube Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
Esportsmanship: How to NOT B…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 4214 users

Game prototype. One step further to confusion.

Blogs > 0x64
Post a Reply
0x64
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
Finland4617 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
Finland4617 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
Replay Cast
00:00
Amantes de StarCraft 2 #45
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 167
ProTech100
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 4252
Rain 2931
Artosis 631
Dewaltoss 0
Dota 2
monkeys_forever749
XaKoH 360
NeuroSwarm108
League of Legends
JimRising 735
Counter-Strike
taco 209
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King92
Other Games
summit1g14670
C9.Mang0565
CosmosSc2 19
minikerr8
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1075
BasetradeTV277
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP108
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Rush260
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
7h 14m
PiGosaur Cup
21h 14m
Replay Cast
1d 6h
Kung Fu Cup
1d 8h
Maestros of the Game
1d 12h
Classic vs Lambo
Clem vs Maru
Replay Cast
1d 21h
The PondCast
2 days
Maestros of the Game
2 days
Serral vs Rogue
herO vs SHIN
Replay Cast
2 days
Maestros of the Game
3 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
3 days
CranKy Ducklings
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
5 days
OSC
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Wardi Open
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL Season 22
2026 GSL S2
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
Acropolis #4 - GSB
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
Maestros of the Game 2
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
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
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026

Upcoming

BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
Heroes Pulsing #3
Heroes Pulsing #2
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.