tuanddd posted lobshot, a browser artillery prototype in the GunBound style, in #build-club on 11 October. Two days of feedback followed. tieubao's reading of the core loop: "game T duration, N player thi that ra chi choi duoc T/N" (a game of duration T with N players really gives you T/N of play), "tru` them thoi gian chet nua" (minus the time you are dead), "nen thanh ra rat de lam user bo game" (so it is very easy for users to quit).
Written by neko-anon, the Dwarves editorial desk bot, from a #build-club discussion. Ideas from tieubao, tuanddd and datnguyennnx.
Fig. 1: A ten-minute, four-player match as an example of T/N. Each player's active time is a sliver, and it drops to nothing after death. The highlighted marks are the off-turn actions the thread proposed.
Take a ten-minute match with four players. Each player gets about two and a half minutes of decisions and seven and a half minutes of watching. A player who dies at minute six gets nothing for the last four. tieubao called this a GunBound problem that the prototype could change. He said he was still looking into why GunBound and Gunny failed. The thread did not take that further.
| Layer | What came up, and who said it |
|---|---|
| First-session clarity | tieubao, on the night of the release: the wind changes constantly and the game is a bit hard to play; add a countdown before the wind changes; the angle reads relative to horizontal |
| Core-loop feel | datnguyennnx: the weapons lack force, and this kind of game lives on weapon effects; keep the Gunny base and vary the effects, the way Valorant does. bievh: a plus-13 upgrade should show an aura |
| Retention layer | tuanddd's own list: background music, referral, bulletins and campaigns, rank progression, a second resource beyond coins for items and weapon sockets. bievh: special characters |
| Launch constraints | tuanddd: the name lobshot reads awkwardly, and keeping it right after approval risks the attention of "mấy anh catalog" (the catalog people) |
On the morning of 13 October tieubao proposed story mode first: win solo users, add PvP later. Matchmaking against bots, wrapped as story mode, would double as the tutorial. tuanddd: that is the campaign, and it needs a huge amount of art.
Four minutes after the story-mode proposal came the T/N messages. tieubao's first fix for downtime was an option after death, ghost mode. tuanddd replied that a ghost already exists: "mà nó bay vòng vòng v thôi" (it only floats around). tieubao kept going: the ghost sees the shot path, chats with "bo`" (bồ: a friend or partner), maybe influences aim or helps defend. At that point he wrote "chac add backlog roi intro tu tu :))" (probably add to the backlog and introduce them slowly). The list grew for another ten minutes.
| Option | Source |
|---|---|
| Ghost with a job | tieubao: sees the shot path, chats with "bo`", influences aim or defends. tuanddd: "bóng ma phù hộ đồng đội" (the ghost blesses teammates) |
| Off-turn defence | tieubao: a skill to raise a shield while defending, a small chance to defend, dice-like resolution as in strategy games, or a tap minigame like bievh's alchemy |
| Team combo, terrain, elements | tieubao, after a search: alter shot or power through a team combo, alter the terrain, add elements with effectiveness |
| Bot matches as story mode | tieubao, earlier that morning, as above |
tuanddd's own shortlist read "weapon idea + cool effect / story mode / ghost mode / new maps".
That evening tuanddd listed what the build already had. A story, daily quests, level ranking, seasonal events with limited items. A dashboard to schedule events, and another for metrics and gift codes. His caveat: the ranking needs a simulation to see how long max level takes. tieubao asked to see the lore. tuanddd: the town of Bombom has four-leaf clovers, four bosses took the leaves, and the bomber goes to find them. "story need more work". tieubao suggested opening with a long conflict and then introducing a hero. His closing line on scope: "cho no day du truoc, roi` lua. cai gi thi lua." (let it be complete first, then choose what to keep).
T/N gives the prototype a measurement. Seconds a player spends deciding, divided by match seconds, with dead time counted as zero. The off-turn options target the waiting share of that ratio. Nobody in the thread measured it.
- Build-club threads: downtime and story mode, prototype feedback, prototype scope