ArtCraft Entertainment discuss the iterative process they are using to design combat in Crowfall in the latest update posted to the game’s website:

As you know, we’re going to be inviting our first external testers to explore the combat system late this summer.  Today’s update is to talk about where we are going and how we hope to get there.

First, we should answer this question: What is the purpose of the “core combat” milestone?

“Find the Fun.”  This is a phrase that game developers use when they talk about building new game systems. When designing a game system, you have to decide how much ‘innovation’ you can afford.

The simple fact is that a lot of ideas sound fun on paper (or a whiteboard) and turn out NOT to be fun in practice. Even worse than that, sometimes ideas that COULD be fun aren’t because implementation issues crop up (bugs, gross imbalance, UI issues, bad framerate, whatever) that effectively ‘hide’ the fun that you should be having.

Why was Tetris fun?  It’s hard to put a finger on exactly why this combination of elements was more fun than all of the other ‘falling pieces’ games that came before (or, frankly, since).

Therefore, the chances of your development team finding the fun in any game is, quite often, a function of how many chances you have to iterate on it. You start with a strong suspicion that there is gold right here, and you keep digging until you find it.

As we’ve said before, we think combat is our most important subsystem. Once we make combat fun, we will have a solid foundation on which we can build a great game.

The post goes on to discuss what the implications of their design philosophy are for those who will be testing the game in the months to come, and those who will then be playing it once it is released. It’s a lengthy article, so I’ll just advise that you click on through and read the whole thing.

And while you’re there, check out the work-in-progress shots of the Large Keep, one of the rewards higher-level backers will be able to place in their Eternal Kingdoms.