Prototyping is very important in the gaming industry. By making different prototypes one by one, designers can work on a different aspect of the game to help improve upon it. Apparently, there are different methods of prototyping in which game designers may use to test out their games. Those methods are physical prototypes, visual prototypes, video prototypes, software prototypes, and much more. In the Game Design Workshop 4th Edition Textbook, by Trace Fullerton, it mostly talks about physical prototyping, such as using cardboard, pencil, paper, etc. The benefits of physical prototyping are that “it allows you to focus on gameplay rather than technology” (Fullerton p. 203). I agree with what Ms. Fullerton is saying. By prototyping a game to its bare minimum can provide a more understanding of the game mechanics and its flaws. Once the game mechanics are set and stone then designing how the game looks come next. I may be old fashioned, but I really enjoy sketching things out on pencil and paper before I finalize on my projects. During the earlier stages of my artistic projects, it is easier for me to scrap a piece a paper than to worry about deleting everything on an editing application.
I believe one of the most useful tips in this chapter is the use of visual core gameplay. Ms. Fullerton talks about how “the core gameplay mechanism. Or ‘core mechanic,’ can be defined as the actions that a player repeats most often while striving to achieve the game’s overall goal” (Fullerton p. 216). On the same page, it shows a visual analysis comparison between the games Spider-man 2 and True Crime 2. In the comparisons, you can see players have interactions with certain things thus giving them rewards. For instance, in Spider-man 2 if the player completes a challenge, they will get points. In True Crime 2, if the character completes a mission, they will get money and ranking. It is important to take one step at a time when making a game. If you rush a certain aspect of making a game, it will have a negative effect on the end product. Prototyping is very crucial and is one of the most important processes of making a well-finished game.
Works Cited
Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.
I agree that prototyping is important to the game industry, and I feel that statement can be expanded to just more than gaming. In my opinion, prototyping, or prototypes, are proofs of concepts and the baseline to see if something works or if it doesn’t and then improving or tweaking that idea until it does work. In gaming, as you mentioned, this can be reducing or seeing the game at its bare minimum to see its flaws, or in this day and age, introducing egregious monetization methods to see if it sits well with the community before implementing it. In other fields, like perhaps cooking, this might be making a small batch of a experimental recipe, or in architecture a smaller to scale model with proper materials to check for integrity. Prototyping is perhaps something that is integral but sometimes overlooked step in any field, as it is during this phase that everything should be double checked for flaws and working condition before moving on.
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