Before anything goes into the public beta tree it has to go into the private beta tree. And before it goes into the private beta tree it has to get played with in the prototyping tree.

The protyping tree is where all the experiments happen. That’s where we will try out some interesting idea that looks good on paper but discover it’s not “fun” when put to the test. 

Sometimes an idea will make it all the way to the public tree and then get demoted back into the protyping tree to get more experimentation on later.

Other times an idea will look good but take too long to test or balance and stay in the protyping tree for a long time.

Today, I’m playing around with creatures.

I’ve always wanted to see whether I could just have monsters spawn out there occasionally out in the woods to keep the world lively and dangerous. 

Each monster has its own intelligence level so I could, for instance, divide up the handling of monsters by intelligence. Intelligence <2, for instance would be basically just an animal that won’t likely bother you unless you attack it or get too close. At higher levels, they could get more cunning.

I don’t know if this prototype stuff will make it into the shipping game or some future update, but it’s the kind of experimentation that often leads to new ideas on how to make games more fun.