[Guide] Designing a Hardcore Games kit

What You Will Learn

Understanding The Game
Knowing Your Audience
Telling Between OP and UP
Uniqueness And Creativity
Complexity
Predicting The Outcome
Step-By-Step Guidance (See this if you don't want to read everything else)​

What NOT To Do (recommend to see this)
​

Section 1: Understanding The Game

Spoiler

Before you create a kit, you must prepare yourself and understand what is already in the game.
In the Hardcore Games, you notice that all the kits are simple, well-thought, and are unique from one another. All bring 1, and ONLY 1 main advantage to the game. All are capable of being coded and are server friendly, none of which cause problems to the server. If you want your kit to be even considered by the Admins, you should follow the example set forth by the kits already in-game. Keep your idea balanced, unique, well-thought, and server-friendly.
For Example:"Ok, like, this is called the Destroyer Kit. So what it does is you start with a diamond shovel. When you right-click a block, a massive whole 10x10xDownToVoid while appear for 1 minute. Thanks for checking out my post! See ya!"
No no no, this is TERRIBLE. Why is it bad? For one, never was a cooldown or number of uses mentioned, nor did the person think about the trolling this kit would do. And how about spamming the ground huh? There would be giants holes everywhere that last a 1 minute! Most importantly, this would be actually UP. You know why? Cause you can only reach 4 blocks in front of you, so if you right clicked a block, you would fall down the hole and die. End of Game. See what I mean, don't post stuff like this!

Section 2: Knowing Your Audience

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This is quite simple actually, you should know who your audience is, and what they would think about this kit. Also consider who would be playing with your kit.
First off, know that the majority of players on the Brawl Hardcore Games range from ages 10-16. So with this said, most players can handle complexity and remember unique abilities. Don't worry about a 6 year old playing, it's their fault, not yours. Keep the kit as simple for users as possible, but you can always add that touch of complexity to spice up gameplay.
Now once you've sorted through the ideas in your head, think about who would this kit suite best. Is it for aggressive players? Or perhaps support? Think about what type of playstyle the kit would be most used in, and base your edits on that.

Section 3: Telling between OP and UP

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This is very important to your success with the kit idea. The thoughts about your kit being balanced or not is the first impression on players. If it is OP, many players would ignore or post useless comments. When it is UP, players would either ignore or usually post a helpful comment to make it stronger. Forum users have the tendency to build off of ideas, rather than downgrade an idea. That is why you should start your kit with a simple idea, while avoiding the OP factor. If it is UP, you'll get some constructive criticism that will help balance the kit.
Before you post, think about the abilities. If you were the player getting attacked by this kit, would it be difficult, would it be impossible to defeat? If so, it is OP. If you were playing with this kit and you found little use of the abilities throughout the game, then it is UP.

Section 4: Uniqueness and Creativity

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This is by far, the most key success to your kit idea. Though it is under looked and is commonly the second impression, the admins really like to see UNIQUE posts. A kit idea similar to an in-game kit would not be considered. Why would they need another kit that does the same thing? Gather and use different ideas from other posts, games, or experiences. If you've read other people's kit ideas, and discovered that a particular concept is liked, then begin using it. Catch on to what players like, and build off your creativity and ideas from a base. All your ideas should have a solid base or theme that inspires you to improve the idea.

Section 5: Complexity

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To guarantee a successful kit idea, keep in mind that your idea should be simple enough for the user to understand. A kit should be able to be explained in a few sentences or a short passage. For Example:"Boxer: Your fist will deal the damage as a stone sword does." That only required 1 sentence to explain. If it is too complicated and requires good memory to use the kit effectively, then your idea won't be accepted.

Section 6: Predicting The Outcome

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This is something almost ALL players overlook. What would happen if this kit was implemented to the game. Most people focus too much on the abilities and Pros/Cons, but never think about how the server would be impacted with this kit. For example:"Thor, causes lag, trolling, and abuse in servers. Some people, get lower than 5 FPS when the server is having lag, and addition to the lag Thor causes."Or another example:"Stompers, Endermages, and Cultivators have promoted skybasing. This is not necessarily bad, but it does get annoying when you fight them..."Know how well your kit would do in-game before you start ranting and bumping.

Step-By-Step Guidance

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Here is the order of what you need to do.
1. Get a theme/concept to start with. This is the MOST important part of designing a kit. Don't know a theme to use? Look at what kits are already available in the Hardcore Games. Any concepts or ideas missing? For Example:"There are too many combat kits, why not design a support kit?" You can also use references from other games to help you think of an idea. If you are really stuck on thinking of an idea, look at all the items in Minecraft, and see what items haven't been used before. It is pretty effective! For Example:"Hm, glass hasn't been used before in a kit idea, maybe that could be used."
2. Build off of your base idea;start planning the abilities Begin thinking of reasonable abilities that suite the base theme/concept. Remember to keep them simple and unique. Also as a tip, try to avoid potion effects.
3. Balance the idea out, look for flaws and problems with the kit abilities. Does the kit seem OP or UP? Try adding a Con or Pro to balance it. Is it too complicated? Redo the abilities and repeat step 2.
4. Think about how the kit would be used. Is this kit going to be boring to use? If so, make the kit more fun by changing the abilities. Ask yourself, is it useful? Is it exciting? Would it be used commonly? Would this kit be server-friendly? Might it cause problems to the server?
5. Gather Feedback from comments and make edits accordingly. Once you've done Steps 1-4, feel free to post the kit idea and wait for feedback. Don't bump unless unnecessary. Only bump if it isn't being noticed because it is on page 3+ of the forums. Don't bump because it is ignored. There is a reason why no one is commenting.... Anyways, once you have feedback, start making edits and changes based on what they've said. If you feel against their opinions and criticism, you don't have to change it. It is your idea, so make it the way you think is best, not what others tell you to (well if many people agree on a change, you should do it). Repeat steps 2-4 when editing.
6. Continue keeping up-to-date with your post, Get the attention of admins if your idea is good. Once you've done a good job with Steps 1-5, continue doing what ever you need to keep the post alive and noticed. Bumping is only last resort, people will hate you and you would build a bad reputation. As a forum member, you want to keep a good reputation that would help you receive better criticism in your ideas. The admins have better feedback that you should follow. If they have a suggestion to improve the kit, use it.

What NOT to do

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Here is a list of things you shouldn't have in your posts.
1. Terrible, unappealing name (Also, you want to keep the name in one word.)
2. Strength Kits
3. Potion Effects (try to avoid them if you can)
4. Kits that start with Armour (exeptions in some cases)
5. Kits that start with Swords
6. Trolling Kits
7. Kits where the ability switches throughout the game
8. Kits that involve insane amounts of INVISIBILITY (well as long as they don't get to run around invisible the whole game xD)
9. Kits that use insane amounts of SPEED
10. Kits that cause insane destruction to terrain
11. Kits that bring you back to life
12. Kits that allow you to permanently team
13. Kits that use typed commands
14. Kits based on the player's death
15. Kits that are only used for suicide purposes
16. Super OP
17. Super UP
18. Mind boggling concepts
19. Impossible to code
20. Kits that imitate other games (Of course, you can still get ideas from other games)
21. Kits that serve too many purposes
22. Kits that REMOVE other people's kit ability (Why ruin someone's day? Anyways, the Doctor Kit does this >:\ )
23. Inappropriate content and Disturbing ideas
24. Kits that would bore people to death and would just clog up the forum page
25. A Kit that is exclusive to specific ranks
I can go on... but there is just too many to put in a "What Not To Do" List.

Original from Pwnagebladez December 2012

 

Lifeline <3

 

Thanks for the feedback, this guide will be taken over by Brawl staff / wiki team soon.
and I will be an active member once again when I get back home