1. Are player choices actually meaningful, or is there one obviously best move?
- Why it matters: A game lives or dies on whether decisions feel like real decisions. If one strategy quietly dominates every round, players will find it within a few plays and the game collapses.
- Prototype: Quick play-testing variations of the game where different strategies play against each other over few runs, so I can see whether any single approach wins far more often than the rest.
- Prediction: One strategy will most likely come out as the best one on the first play run, so might be needed to add rules or counter-moves to pull the options back into balance.
2. Can a new player figure out what to do without being taught?
- Why it matters: A lot of prototypes could fail not because the mechanics are bad but because nobody understands them fast enough to reach the fun. If a first-time player is still confused after a minute, the design is asking too much up front.
- Prototype: A stripped-down version of the game handed to someone who has never seen it, with no verbal explanation, while I watch silently and note where they hesitate or are confused.
- Prediction: Testers will grasp what they do pretty quickly but struggle to understand what they’re working toward, which will tell me the goal needs to be signaled more clearly in the game itself rather than through extra rules.
3. How much randomness makes the game feel exciting without making skill feel pointless?
- Why it matters: Too little randomess makes a game feel solvable and dry, while too much makes players stop caring about their choices because luck decides the outcome anyway. The sweet spot is different for every game and has to be found by testing.
- Prototype: Three versions (could be slightly different rules) of the same prototype with low, medium, and high randomness on the key mechnic, played back-to-back so testers can directly compare how each one feels.
- Prediction: The medium version will probably get the strongest reaction in the moment, but the low-randomness version will be the one people actually want to replay. This is cause I personally feel randomness works best as flavoring rather than as the backbone of the game.
