This is a Game Dev Podcast with my guest Youge Wen, aka. "Bearlike", the lead developer of my favorite strategy game Mechabellum, published by Dreamhaven, the publisher and developer founded by Blizzard's Mike Morhaime. We talk about the death spiral for online multiplayer games, game design, balancing for Mechabellum and exchange some advice with each other.Links to my Guest➤ Play Mechabellum on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/669330/Mechabellum/Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.):➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/0:00 - Intro0:43 - Jonas on Mechabellum; how it was made?1:13 - Two-person start in 2017; Mahjong/poker prototypes4:53 - No moving units, Go’s influence, fixing Round 1 snowball8:36 - Avoiding RTS snowball: equal income and reborn units11:36 - Unity choice; simple, low-latency networking design16:04 - Should you make a competitive auto-battler? (Don’t)19:26 - Live service pain and the death spiral22:16 - One bad update can kill an indie PvP game25:02 - Balancing philosophy: define goals, fun over variety27:45 - Double red/green: when to nerf (win rate vs pick rate)31:10 - Unit design with spreadsheets; emergent counters & guidelines37:16 - Counters without tags; armor experiments and why they failed41:27 - Tech design, tradeoffs, complexity vs fun; balancing techs46:56 - If you insist on PvP auto-battlers: know your goals49:50 - Technical constraints and scoping to your team52:03 - Monetization and positioning competitive strategy games58:00 - External shocks; start with PvE; Bazaar-style offline PvP01:00:15 - Fewer players and shorter matches to reduce concurrency01:03:37 - Marketing, Early Access pitfalls, Battle Aces; co-op PvP prototype01:08:08 - Managing community negativity and inevitable mistakes01:12:56 - Balancing PvE: ensure tool use; buff enemies, not players01:17:00 - Keeping old versions via Steam branches01:19:23 - PvE/co-op opportunities; Thronefall co-op and saying no01:25:51 - Scoping, minimal art, and fast content pipelines01:26:52 - Meta shifts as side effects01:28:54 - Team size; Out of Hand; art style and marketing lessons01:33:07 - Mechabellum roadmap; armor hopes; expanding the universe01:36:37 - Business reality: support what earns; risk vs reward01:38:07 - Randomness vs determinism: upsets, styles, and info gaps01:45:01 - Designing perceived fairness: RPS illusion and football01:50:23 - Jonas’ next game; staying small; freelancers vs growth01:54:17 - Endless Mode learnings and map persistence idea01:58:10 - Wrap-upMy game "Thronefall":➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#OverviewMy game "Will You Snail":➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrKFor the game developers among you:➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ