In today’s fast-paced gaming industry, creating a successful video game requires much more than just stunning graphics and engaging storylines. Game developers must also focus on creating gameplay that is both fun and challenging, which is why prototyping game mechanics has become an essential part of the game development process. Prototyping game mechanics involves creating rough versions of gameplay elements to test their functionality and appeal before implementing them into the final game.
In this article, we will explore the importance of prototyping game mechanics, how it can improve game design, and the best practices for effective prototyping. Whether you are an aspiring game developer or a seasoned industry professional, understanding the benefits of prototyping game mechanics can help you create the best gaming experience for your audience.
In human-computer interaction and interface design, prototyping is a well-studied practice. However, its role in game design and development remains unexplored. Because new technologies continuously evolve, new game design options can be explored in short iterations.
The best thing to having a fully functional game is a game prototype. It lets users experiment with game controls and levels and submit comments to help the game grow. Ensuring your prototype includes a good game’s essential qualities enables you to analyze its potential effectively. Whether done on paper, using basic programming, or with prototype tools, creating a playable yet rudimentary version of your game is critical to its success.
In this blog, you’ll discover prototype game mechanics and best practices for game design and development.
What is Prototyping Game Mechanics?
Prototyping game mechanics is an essential step in the game development process. It is the process through which a game designer creates a working sample of their game to test the gameplay—for example, coding a simplified version of the mechanics. In the simplest terms, prototyping is the most feasible execution of a design concept.
This entails developing a technique to test the game’s concept to check if the game’s idea can be implemented before investing too much money and effort in the project. It is also used to discover ways to improve particular game elements and make them more enjoyable. A fast and crude game prototype is usually utilized for QA testing and learning in the early phases. More elaborate game prototypes are essential near the end of the project for testing or pilot trials.
Types of Prototypes Game
There are two sorts of video game prototypes, each with pros and cons.
Paper Prototyping
These are prototypes created without the use of a computer but instead with a pencil, paper, scissors, glue, dice, coins, and player pawns. These tangible models help you grasp how to give your game subjects authenticity and weight and engage with your game in a digital realm. Even if it isn’t digital, a paper prototype should provide an engaging experience that evaluates your game’s specific concept or system, such as whether the cash system works or if the timing of events seems natural. Paper models, however, cannot test some mechanics, such as physics engines.
Digital Prototyping
Digital or code prototypes are those that are built digitally. The advantage of prototyping using code is that you can rapidly modify variables to experiment with alternative behaviors, such as swiftly changing the speed of bullets or the weight of things with which the player interacts. The disadvantage of code prototyping is that it generally takes longer and requires more effort than paper prototyping. To address this, only employ the most basic platform available if you can make anything rapidly and cheaply.
Guidelines For Effective Game Prototyping
Here are some principles and tips for good game prototyping.
Begin with a Clear Vision
While prototyping is about embracing experimentation, some parameters and frameworks must be established. Specifically, the game’s vision and the list of unknowns.
The key to any hit is understanding your game and, more importantly, why it should be built. This vision provides the context for everyone on the team to make decisions and hence autonomy, leading to faster and more accurate iterations.
Second, because prototyping is about acquiring knowledge of a game concept, explain the unknowns you and your team are looking for. It might be as narrow as ‘Can this control system work?’ or as general as ‘Can this be fun?’ In either case, keeping the questions in mind will assist you in prioritizing your job and focusing only on what is necessary.
Don’t Do Paper Prototype
The paper prototype can be helpful in some situations, such as when creating a digital version of a conventional card or board game or working with a puzzle concept or trivia game. However, by the same reasoning, it can also suffocate genres that are difficult to portray in cutout drawings and graph paper. Paper prototyping, for example, cannot be used to create arcades or action-oriented games.
Control and dexterity are vital in those forms, but they are tough to convey on paper. In certain circumstances, paper prototyping can even destroy potential game feel and tends to drive any genre towards a card or board game feel. Paper prototyped action games might all too readily appear to be made up of tokens, cards, and chance rolls rather than people, narrative, and action.
Build Only What You Want
Regarding prototyping, it’s tempting to feel obligated to create every game aspect. Concentrate on prototyping aspects of your game’s mechanics, interactions, and systems.
Ask yourself, “Is this necessary for understanding the game’s design and function?” Of course, there will be exceptions; for example, a hypothetical creative illustration game in which interaction with the aesthetic is central to the user experience may include aesthetic prototyping.
Create a Template Project
While prototyping is generally associated with working quickly and leanly, it can still take a whole day to build up a scene in an engine like Unity, especially when the effort of integrating content packs, plugins, code frameworks, controller mapping, and so on is taken into account.
Are you regularly or continually creating prototypes in comparable genres and settings? Then consider reducing a produced prototype to its essential components. This offers you a foundation project to build on, making each following prototype easier and more efficient.
How Can You Develop A Game Prototype?
Here are some steps to developing a game prototype:
- Begin brainstorming with your team and defining your goals.
- Give your concept a physical form by sketching it out on paper.
- Communicate the specifics to management, stakeholders, and test users. When necessary, solicit relevant feedback.
- Make changes in your prototype design depending on comments or feedback from the other party. It will assist you in redefining your idea and giving it a better shape.
- You must now transform the design from paper to virtual form. You can explore a variety of tools and software to help you with prototype development and design.
- Discuss the issues with the designated people and ask for their feedback. Make any necessary modifications based on the input.
- If the first two or three features you choose performed as intended, add additional. This allows you to put your whole game strategy to the test.
- Create documentation at each stage. This step is critical and ongoing throughout the development process.
The preceding steps provide the basic information required to create a prototype. However, it varies depending on the firms.
Final Thoughts
Finishing your game should be a less stressful experience. Using video game prototyping approaches to test and continually enhance your initial ideas, you should be more confident in creating a functional and, most importantly, enjoyable game. More significantly, developing a viable prototype for a game is a team effort.