I've been testing Proving Grounds, my combined-arms mercenary skirmish wargame, a lot more lately. And the experience remains true that the more you p[lay a game, the more the cracks in it's facade start to show. While developing a new game this is normal: the closest I've ever come to getting things right on the first pass was Afterglow, and it still took almost a year of development to get it where I wanted. PG is at once a more traditional land-based wargame, and also harder to test because those games come with baggage and PG has a lot of unique systems. It originally started as "what if Titanfall but in miniature" and has gradually turned into much more of an all-around army game, but Pilots are still important units with special rules. The issue isn't thematic, but rather that the game has a lot of fairly unique mechanics. Unlike Afterglow, which is presenting a less popular form of conflict (super advanced hyperlight ship combat), PG is working on well-treaded territory. How many systems can you add to one game and keep it from feeling too alien or making it too slow? But more importantly, how many of these overlapping systems can you really test at once? |
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