Prototyping

Are you thinking too complex? what do you really need to create the prototype? you don't need miniatures, you could use card/paper squares, with just the name and stats on it. Pictures are not that important either, especially if it is just for play testing.

I have found that I cannot put a precise timeframe on the brainstorming stage of a project. Sometimes it pops right into my head and I'm ready to write up a design. Sometimes, I only have a faint notion of 'this would be cool' but no formal direction for years. I personally find this stage to be the most frustrating and mentally stressful because more often than not, I do not find a design at the end of my search. It is easy then to feel like I've wasted my time. Though I know this is not the case later in retrospect, it is always hard to properly value the time spent here.

Once I have a clear idea though, I write it up in a digital document. Sketches, scribbles and amorphous ideas become an articulate, ordered and presentable piece of documentation. Oftentimes in the process of doing this, I encounter unanticipated issues that need to be addressed. And, sometimes this derails my efforts and I produce a half complete document that I never return to. This can be frustrating, but I find it less so than brainstorming because I gain pleasure from the articulation of my thought. So, even if I realize that the design is not workable, I still have something (incomplete) to show for it. This process usually takes me a couple of hours or so initially and small snit bits of time later as I revise and edit it. Only about half of my ideas make it from brainstorming to documentation.

Only about a quarter of those that make it to documentation make it to prototyping though. Sometimes, it's because I've come up with a design that I realize is not fun (even if it is sound)... other times, it is not yet complete. Sometimes its derivative. Other times, it doesn't have a market. There are a lot of reasons that games don't make it past the design document stage... but one of the principle reasons is opportunity cost. Unless I'm really convinced that the game is sound, fun and marketable, it is difficult to motivate myself to put the time and effort into a prototype.

Now granted, my idea of a prototype is probably a little higher quality than is necessary, but it represents at least a four fold increase in the time that it takes to design it. I have started to clock my recent prototypes, and the timing varies. On the low end, it took me twelve hours to properly research, design, layout, print and make presentable a simple card game. The brainstorming stage was very long but the write up took about two hours. On the high end, it took me about 50 to 60 hours to make just the files for the prototype for a multiplayer theme intense boardgame. But, the write up of the design doc took about 10 hours, so I knew it was going to be a high commitment of time. Even though it is still not ready to playtest (the spoiler list is incomplete) I could very clearly see the feasibility of it in the end... so I was/am willing to put in the time.

Of course, producing a game represents at least another four-fold commitment of time. What could be done by devoting my full time in a week will take a month or more of full time work to complete... and involve the efforts of a number of other people. So, at that point, the game better be not only sound, but fun and marketable.

Each increase along the way represents an opportunity cost. I could be doing something else, designing something else, living life more fully, etc... Since the increase in time is steep from the design to the prototype and the prototype to production, the end of each stage imposes a psychic burden that must be crossed in order to continue. I need to feel like this is really cool, potentially lucrative AND materially feasible... otherwise I psychologically move onto something else.

Prototyping, for me, is really where the rubber first meets the road and I need to know whether there's gas in the tank to continue. As I said, only about 1/4 of my designs make the cut there because I don't find them compelling enough. Sadly, but also true, only 1/4 of the prototypes make it then to production. But, at that point, it has more to do with whether _others_ also find it compelling enough. Fortunately, you don't need to guess much about that. You can see it on their faces immediately, if you're willing to look.