CS 4730 Prototyping CS 4730 Computer Game Design Credit: Some
slide material courtesy Walker White (Cornell)
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CS 4730 What is a Prototype? In the simplest terms, its an
incomplete model of your game It usually has a reduced feature set
The selected features are usually the most important The idea is to
get an idea for what the basic gameplay will be like Try out a
mechanic Tune some parameters 2
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CS 4730 What is a Prototype? Types of prototypes Throwaway
Evolutionary Incremental Extreme Forms of prototypes Physical
Digital (different system) Digital (same system) 3
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CS 4730 Throwaway Prototype With a throwaway prototype, you
dont intend to reuse any of the created material in the final
product This refers to the actual things created, not the knowledge
gained Thus, all non-digital prototypes are by definition throwaway
Your prototype due this week may or may not be throwaway (but
probably will be) 4
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CS 4730 Why Throwaway? Why spend the time to build something
you know youll discard? Usually, they are quick to create, quick to
change Good for getting basic ideas down on paper Good for
convincing others you have a good idea Good for looking at slower
aspects of the game (i.e. stepping through each part of a player
turn) Often helps you refine and fully envision exactly what it is
you want to make Can use other quick tools to build 5
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CS 4730 Evolutionary Prototypes With an evolutionary prototype,
you are building in the system you plan to build with Think of this
more as build and iterate The initial prototype is only a prototype
in that it comes first Features are added for the next iteration of
the prototype Until you have a finished product that just needs
polish This is what youll do during your team project 6
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CS 4730 Why Digital Prototypes? Paper can only do so much Can
test input methods better Hard to test physics systems, networking
systems, etc. without this Can use real assets 7
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CS 4730 Physical Prototypes We did a throwaway physical
prototype earlier this year The game lab the first week Admittedly,
some games are easier to make physical prototype than others
Example: Thrones by Martin Kellogg 8
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CS 4730 Physical Prototype What other things can you use to
make a physical prototype? 9
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CS 4730 Physical Prototype 10
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CS 4730 Physical Prototype 11
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CS 4730 Physical Prototype 12
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CS 4730 Some Games are Easier to Prototype 13
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CS 4730 Goals From Physical Prototype Explore the core
mechanics in a controlled, slower-paced environment Physically
force you to consider different aspects of your game before coding
them Get the team to talk about core decisions Encourage
collaboration Test out value of resources in economy 14
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CS 4730 Your Physical Prototype I wont FORCE you to make a
physical prototype for your team project but youll either do one or
youre going to storyboard the game I will ask for SOME physical
design aspect of the game outside of the design doc itself! 15
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CS 4730 Digital Prototype Digital prototypes come in many
different forms Wireframing (UX mock-ups) sometimes has
functionality (often faked) Rapid prototyping tools/projects can be
done by taking an existing project or demo and customizing it
Custom prototyping can be very powerful, but can also take a great
deal of time 16
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CS 4730 Wireframing Wireframing comes from the term/idea that
you are looking at a scaffold drawing of an object Often done in
image editors with some scripting thrown in somehow to show
transitions Heck, it could even be Powerpoint 17
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CS 4730 Rapid Prototyping Which leads us to rapid prototyping
Often done with a toolset of some kind Many games come with modding
tools or level editors Custom map creation and modding is one of
the first steps many people take in getting into the games
business! Could be throwaway or evolutionary This is what you are
doing for your pitches 18
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CS 4730 Rapid Prototyping Is it worth the time? Often it is!
You can test out a particular mechanic Refine the code Then import
it over to your final project! 19
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CS 4730 Custom Prototyping Can be a bit more intense But allows
for a lot more flexibility when testing and evaluating mechanics
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CS 4730 Tomb Raider 21
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CS 4730 BioWare 22
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CS 4730 Fez (Fezzer Level Editor) 23
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CS 4730 Super Mario World (Lunar Magic) 24
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CS 4730 Changing Values 25
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CS 4730 Custom Prototypes Custom prototypes can be very
powerful Can take much longer to create But can let you try TONS of
slider combinations without restarting, rebuilding, republishing
your program So tradeoffs You WILL have to code some aspects of
this into your project More info later! 26
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CS 4730 How would you prototype How would you build a physical
prototype for A dungeon crawler, like Diablo? A soccer game? A
match-3 puzzle game? A top-down view shmup? Super Mario Bros 3? A
fighting game? 27
