The Official Guide to Game Development

Chapter 3 Prototyping: practice makes perfect

Key Chapter Questions ■ At what point during the production cycle should prototyping take place? ■ What game elements are best suited to prototyping? ■ How does a tool such as GameSalad Creator enable rapid prototying in games? ■ Is it possible to prototype a game with incomplete or placeholder assets? ■ How can prototyping be used to streamline the entire production process?

In the Beginning, There Was... “Slaying the Dragon” Image courtesy of Kimberly Unger.

Style Horizontal The horizontal prototype takes a single design element from the final product and builds it out so that it can be explored in full. Image courtesy of Kimberly Unger.

Style Vertical The vertical prototype takes a slice of the complete final product at all levels. Image courtesy of Kimberly Unger.

Classification ■ Throwaway ■ Incremental ■ Evolutionary

Prototyping Process Battle Legend Infinity began with a limited paper prototype (left) before moving to a higher-fidelity prototype developed in Creator (right). Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Design & Data Collection ■ Overview ■ Competitive Analysis ■ Genre ■ User Interface

Design & Data Collection Genre Danger Cats! Source Apple Inc. The Secret of Grisly Manor Source Apple Inc.

Design & Data Collection User Interface Multiple paper and slideshow-style prototypes are built for interface-oriented applications in order to test user reactions. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Testing ErnCon Image courtesy of Woo Games.

External Prototyping GameSalad Creator gives developers several ways to test and showcase Prototypes. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

GameSalad Viewer iOS “Preview on iPhone” button Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

GameSalad Viewer Android Working versions of prototypes can be shown on Android devices. Image courtesy of Kimberly Unger. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Summary ■In the Beginning, There Was... ■From Paper to Pixel ■Style ■Classification ■Prototyping Process ■Design & Data Collection ■Testing ■Internal Prototyping ■External Prototyping ■GameSalad Viewer ■Bigger, Smarter, Faster, Stronger?