• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 05:52
CEST 11:52
KST 18:52
  • 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
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-221Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week0SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-69SC4ALL II announced - $10,000 prize pool, Dec 5-64PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August)14
StarCraft 2
General
Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Serral wins HomeStory Cup 29 StarCraft 2 at SC4ALL II Invite #4/8 - Percival Protoss AoE skill expression 5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start)
Tourneys
RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Tasteless Time Warp: SC Evo Showmatch (May 25)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance
Brood War
General
Are you ready for ASL 22? NEW HYPE VIDEO BW General Discussion [Personal Project Share] Terran Defense v0.60 ASL22 General Discussion Recent recommended BW games
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3 Escore Tournament - Season 3 SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-6
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Diablo 2 thread General RTS Discussion Thread ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live!
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Iain M Banks Says He Has Cancer And Months To Live European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The Clem Fan Club INnoVation Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
NBA General Discussion Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
What is a Gamer?
TrAiDoS
Hello guys!
LIN1s
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 7898 users

Aspects of Game Design

Blogs > Korakys
Post a Reply
Korakys
Profile Blog Joined November 2014
New Zealand272 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-04-21 05:39:07
March 23 2016 05:35 GMT
#1
Just some brief thoughts on game design that have been slowly coalescing in my mind lately. I thought I'd share them before I forget them again.

Accuracy: In RTS games this is called micro mechanics, in shooters it's called good aim, in fighting games it's button combos. Not super important in MOBAs and not typically relevant in turn-based games. This is all about how well you can control your keyboard, mouse, gamepad, etc. In StarCraft, macro is really just micro of your base instead of your army. This is the physical part of playing a computer game, where you use your body (typically your fingers).

Positioning: How you move around the map, set up flanks, judge distances, scout, force your opponents actions, etc. This really exercises your brains time-constrained thinking capacity - your ability to think on your feet. It's kind of a stretch, but how you play your hand in card games could also be considered positioning, or at least a substitute for it.

Build: How you spec your character or construct your units and the order you do it in. What cards you put in your deck or the class and/or spells, weapons and items you select. This is stuff you do before you fight and it tests your deep-thinking ability where you can off-load a lot of time spent thinking and testing to before the round even starts. This does mean you can just copy other people and this is where the term "the meta game" is appropriate.

Map: The terrain you play on and move your character or pieces around on. Maps are super-fucking important in games that have a significant positioning element, which is nearly every game type (but not card games for example). This is entirely controlled by the game designer and not the player which separates it out from the other aspects.

What is the point of this? Well, to make you think. And to check if my thoughts make sense here, feedback is wanted.

I think the best games have relatively equal weightings on each of the three player controlled aspects, which is what StarCraft does (although it might be high on the accuracy element). But you can still make great esports games that have unbalanced aspects. Fighting games like Smash have lots of accuracy and positioning, but no build element, while card game Hearthstone lacks an accuracy aspect and something like the WoW arena is heavily build focused. MOBAs seem to really amp up the build aspect, having many choices, perhaps to compensate for lesser focus on accuracy.

I have never watched any esport other than StarCraft so I've made a lot of educated guesses in my analysis.

Swing away sOs, swing away.
fluidrone
Profile Blog Joined January 2015
France1478 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-03-24 09:51:31
March 24 2016 09:42 GMT
#2
hi, how about:

Live knowledge of the game / time spent playing it competitively
(as people showcase how to play it to maximum efficiency, as game developers change it, map pool evolution)

Multitasking and and live focus management/strategy
(choices made on where/when to allocate one's attention, not how well you input the orders to the game)

Strategy (positioning is tactics not strategy)
(meta decisions made that are correlated to the current opponent, the timing (3rd game of a best of 7 for instance) not to the game itself)
"not enough rights"
Korakys
Profile Blog Joined November 2014
New Zealand272 Posts
April 21 2016 05:12 GMT
#3
You make some good points, but I was writing more about aspects of game design and not what players do with the game once they can play it. Of course players influence (or should influence) how a game is revised by the designers once it has been released.
Swing away sOs, swing away.
fluidrone
Profile Blog Joined January 2015
France1478 Posts
April 22 2016 12:42 GMT
#4
i am designing such a "new" game and i find that shit fascinating.

Like all "artistic" endeavor, the creation takes a life of its own.
[insert astroboy frankenstein's monster and doctor jekyl pictures enhancing visual aid/support]

You start up with concepts and end up with a child
"not enough rights"
Korakys
Profile Blog Joined November 2014
New Zealand272 Posts
November 20 2017 01:07 GMT
#5
I just realised this is probably applicable to martial arts, and possibly military battles in general, too.
Swing away sOs, swing away.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
RSL Revival
09:00
Season 6 - Playoffs Day 6
SHIN vs SolarLIVE!
Rogue vs TBD
Tasteless930
IntoTheiNu 397
ComeBackTV 367
Ryung 278
RotterdaM259
IndyStarCraft 155
3DClanTV 103
Rex74
CranKy Ducklings49
CranKy Ducklings SOOP8
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Tasteless 930
Ryung 278
RotterdaM 259
IndyStarCraft 155
Rex 74
StarCraft: Brood War
Zeus 2016
actioN 656
Larva 428
BeSt 417
Soulkey 381
Killer 319
Pusan 145
Sexy 108
ggaemo 96
soO 72
[ Show more ]
Mind 71
Hm[arnc] 67
ZerO 54
Sharp 50
Purpose 30
Terrorterran 18
JYJ 14
HiyA 14
Dota 2
canceldota45
Counter-Strike
fl0m3457
byalli762
Sick105
x6flipin59
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King122
Other Games
singsing785
Livibee104
ZerO(Twitch)6
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 29
lovetv 13
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH306
• StrangeGG 54
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV549
League of Legends
• Jankos1357
Upcoming Events
OSC
3h 9m
OSC
14h 9m
WardiTV Weekly
1d 1h
The Patches Monday
1d 6h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
PiG Sty Festival
2 days
PiGosaur Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S3: W6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
Acropolis #5
RSL Revival: Season 6
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W7
CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
Escore Tournament S3: W8
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
Thunderpick World Champ.
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 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.