In this blog I will be talking about digital prototyping from chapter 8 in the book Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, by Tracy Fullerton. I found this chapter one of the most interesting chapters to read. First, prototyping in game design “are made with minimal art or sound” (Fullerton p. 241). Prototyping will help developers understand what will work and what will not work in their games. It is also important to note that doing too many things to a prototyped game is not recommended. Prototypes should be built off one another little by little. Revisions to a prototyped game should be made so that all the components are functioning as planned.
While physical prototyping is a great place to start, digital prototyping can help further the development process even more. For instance, you can use 2D/3D software to make a digital setting, such as a location in the game. You can use the software to make a certain art style of your choice. If you want to have a dark scary game, you can utilize the tools to make it look that way. There is software that will help users with perspectives, such as character, scene, and lighting perspective. While there are a lot more things that go into digital game making, these are some important things a game designer needs to consider when making a game.
What I like about prototyping is that you get to see your work with your own eyes. In our first project, I made a Pokémon board game, which had a physical prototype. I first drew out what I wanted the board to look like. I then drew out how many tiles I should put in each area to make sure everything was well balanced. Once I finalized my setup, I went on photoshop and pieced together the final map would be. Without my prototype, I would have made a lot of mistakes along the way of editing my game in Photoshop. What I learned in this chapter is when you are working on a prototype, make sure you do not complicate things. Making things as simple as possible and working your way up in small steps will make the process of game development a lot easier.
Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.
