Welcome to Digital Play Zone!

I'm Winn Liu. Prototyping, everyone always talks about it, but no one ever delves deeper into it. Today, I will be explaining how and why we should make prototypes for our games.

I will be showing you the different types of prototypes, where to begin with your prototype and the dos and don’ts of making a prototype.

Now, why do we need to prototype? Prototypes allow us to create a concept to see whether your idea on a game is worth developing into a full game. It can also be used to iron out all the obvious issues and flaws that shouldn’t be implemented into the full game.

Creating prototypes can also help to get companies, investors, or your team to be on board and on the same page with your idea.

Ultimately, prototypes are here to save you time and money by preparing and spotting the mistakes and flaws that would otherwise cost a lot if they were to be missed.

With that said, Here are some of the different types of prototypes you will usually see.

This is the cheapest and most common starting point for almost every game developer out there. Paper prototypes are used to create the bare bones of your game. Often made out of paper and DIY materials. This method of prototyping is common during the beginning stages of brainstorming as it is cheap and fast, you can create dozens to test many different concepts.

Paper prototypes are there to create and flesh out the core mechanics of your game. It is used to determine whether said game holds any water.

This is the time for you to figure out what kind of game you want to make. Is it a 2D or 3D game? What kinds of movement can your player do? What does the UI (User Interface) look like?

The next step is wireframing, which is when you lay out every single one of your core gameplay onto a grid so that you can figure out the relationships between each system, whether they work together or not.

Graybox prototype is when you start to program your mechanics into a 3D engine. You don't use any artwork in this stage of prototyping instead you use blocks and boxes which are often grey.

While the previous two prototypes are used to determine the looks and system of your game. This kind of prototype is used to determine the feel of the game. While it is still to early to implement any art into this prototype, at this stage, you will start to see some of the code that will be in your game.

While having a prototype is useful, you can have all the prototypes in the world and it’ll all be of no use if you don't have a concept. This concept doesn’t have to be anything complicated as further developing the concept is what you do when you’re prototyping.

When you’re making your concept, think of what kind of game you want it to be, what the theme is, and what your main message will be.

Next, think of what your core game mechanics are, and what your gameplay will be. The things that will make your game unique.

Next is to build on your core mechanics, and focus on making the main things players will do repeatedly, try to make those things as enjoyable as possible.

Something to take note, simplify as much as possible. You want to be able to define your main gameplay. It is easy to get distracted and add too much to your idea, so much so, that you are not able to follow through.

When should you start playtesting? You can play test as much as you like as early as you like. You can even playtest during the paper prototype phase!

Playtesting early can help you decipher what are the highlights of your game as well as help you find issues and bugs in your system early on. If you don’t playtest these issues and bugs will be left unnoticed and when the time comes when it has popped its head back up removing them will cost a lot of time and money.

If you’re interested in playtesting, I have a blog right here about playtesting!

Here are some Common mistakes people make while prototyping.

Overcomplicating the Prototype, This is an extremely common mistake, it is human nature for people to want to perfect something, but remember, a prototype is here to smooth out the concept and system. It is not the final product, don't commission your art when you’ve only made the wireframe prototype, this will cause your ideas to be limited by your art.

Fear of Failure, Most people are scared to start, they start worrying over the what-ifs and by the end, nothing is made. While I can’t tell you nothing will go wrong because most certainly something will go wrong, no matter how much you plan there will always be one thing that goes wrong. With each mistake, you learn a new lesson for the next project, with each problem you fix, you will learn a new way to fix something. With anything in life that requires experience, it is always a failing forward mentality, where despite failing often, you are still learning every single step of the way until eventually, you finally succeed.

Starting is the scariest thing, especially when it's a brand new idea from scratch. But if you always keep going I guarantee you will be able to create your game.

Cut-off Date, Our final common mistake people make is, Spending too much time on testing out prototypes. While it is good to test out every single system before truly starting a project, you don't want to be so engrossed in testing and testing to the point where you never start the main game. To me, if you can get five to ten minutes of game time where all your players understand and can play your prototype, I think it is enough for you to start your main game.

Prototype is a necessary step in game development because it can help to iron out the bumps in your idea as well as further develop that idea, who knows, you may end up making a completely different game from your main idea because of this prototype.

I hope that reading today’s blog has helped you come up with your own ideas on how you can create prototypes. I look forward to playing some of your games one day!

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions to do with game development or if you have any stories you would like to share!