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Getting started with prototyping

Do you have an idea for a game?
Is it really awesome and exciting?
Have you made a prototype yet?
No?!

Before you do anything else, MAKE A PROTOTYPE! Trust me, your game idea is almost certainly flawed, and the only way to overcome these flaws is to find them. Just because a game is amazing in your mind's eye, it doesn't mean it will work in real life. The only way to move forward is to prototype.

Prototyping is actually really easy so don't be daunted. I used to make the mistake of putting way too much time and effort into making a prototype nice and shiny before I had even worked with it long enough to see if there was a decent game idea in there. Now I just jump straight in and start prototyping right away.

Pen, ruler, paper, scissors, brain
Those are the only things you need to start taking your ideas and turning then into a reality. I keep a sketch pad handy in my studio at all times and can quickly make up some cards, tiles or tokens right away whenever inspiration strikes. A storage box full of different cubes, discs and dice also helps but certainly isn't essential.

Using basic standard computer software and a printer is another way to start prototyping really quickly. There's no need to jump into Photoshop or Illustrator just yet. Use MS Paint, Word and Excel to get your ideas formed quickly.

Handy hints for prototyping cards
There's a couple of things you should keep handy for prototyping cards. The first is card sleeves. I have plenty lying around leftover from my brief flirtation with M:tG, but if you don't have any, you can pick up 100 or so for a few $ / £ / € / insert currency symbol here. I use transparent sleeves so that I can make my prototype cards double sided if I want to. The other thing to have handy is a couple of packs of regular playing cards (I use Bicycle cards). If you sleeve these with your prototype cards they allow you to print your cards onto ordinary paper without them being all floppy when you try to shuffle them.

MS Excel is great for making up quick card prototypes. Here's how:
1. Switch to 'Page Layout' view.
2. Set your row height to '3.5 in' and column width to '2.5 in'.
3. Reduce your margins so you can fit 9 cards to a printed page.
4. Switch back to 'Normal' view and start writing things in your cards.

Protip: Make sure you put borders around the cells so they print with clear lines to cut along.

Solo testing
Solo playtesting a multi player game is tedious and boring. There's no player interaction, no challenge, no hidden information, nothing to keep you engaged in the game. However, solo testing at an early stage is essential in order to test whether your basic mechanics and gameplay concepts work how they're supposed to, or how you hope they will. Getting to this point and actually playing through your ideas for the first time is the most important step after the initial seed of inspiration. If the game falls flat at this point (and it probably will) then it's an opportunity to learn and develop your ideas in a different direction. Don't be afraid or put off by failure. It might sound like a cliche but it's absolutely true that learning from failure is the only way to improve.

Letting go
In my experience, I often find I have a core mechanic or concept that the game idea originally flowed from, and it's really easy to end up getting overly attached to this. I'll often try to throw in increasing levels of complexity just to make that initial concept work. More often than not, the real game emerges from the parts I add in later. They mutate into something completely different and the core concept gets dropped in favour of something more elegant and clean that I stumble across on the way. This is a really satisfying process as long as I have a mindset where I'm willing to let go of things and allow them to evolve.

I hope this post has given you something to think about. If you haven't started your prototype yet then just ask yourself, "what am I waiting for?"

Twitter: @EdOkonik

Comments

Bored!?!?!?!?!?

Anyone who is playing their own multi-player design for the first time, and is bored, has something seriously wrong. Whether it's the game, or the attitude, or maybe the imagination (to play more than one side)depends. This should be one of the most fascinating times in game design as you see how your ideas translate into reality (with many glitches guaranteed).

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blog | by Dr. Radut