Instruction

A prototype is a question you can play. The skill is not building prototypes; it is choosing the cheapest prototype that will answer the question you actually have.

Fidelity. A low-fidelity prototype is rough, fast and disposable: index cards, a whiteboard sketch or gray boxes on screen. A high-fidelity prototype looks and behaves close to the final game. Low fidelity answers questions about rules, flow and fun. High fidelity answers questions about feel, readability and emotional impact. Using a high-fidelity prototype to test a rule wastes days; using a low-fidelity prototype to test how a jump feels tells you nothing.

Three kinds.

• Paper prototypes test rules, economies, turn structure and information: what players know and when. A digital card game or a strategy game’s resource system can be tested on paper in an afternoon.
• Digital prototypes test anything involving timing, physics, camera or real-time input: how a jump feels, whether an enemy is fair to dodge, whether players can read the screen at speed. A greybox prototype uses plain shapes instead of art so that nobody mistakes it for finished and every change is cheap.
• Hybrid prototypes mix the two: a board game with a phone timer, or a digital map with paper character sheets. They are useful when part of the design is real-time and part is rules.

Throwaway or evolutionary? A throwaway prototype is built to learn and then discarded; its code can be messy. An evolutionary prototype grows into the final game, so it must be built more carefully. Decide in advance, and say so to your teammates. Many teams build throwaway prototypes quickly, then rebuild cleanly once they know what works.

Writing a design question. A good question is specific and testable: “Do players understand, without instructions, that blue platforms disappear?” or “Is a 60-second timer tense or stressful for new players?” A poor question is vague: “Is it fun?” For each question, name what you will observe that would answer it.

Know your genre. Genres are families of games that share conventions: platformers, puzzle games, roguelikes, role-playing games, real-time strategy, simulation and management games, and multiplayer forms such as cooperative games, battle arenas and battle royales. Conventions are useful, because players arrive knowing that coins are good and spikes are bad, but they also set expectations you must meet or deliberately break. Comparing your concept with existing games in the genre tells you what players will expect, what has been done well, and where your idea is genuinely different. Play at least two examples with a notebook, and write down one thing to borrow and one thing to avoid from each.

Iteration as the bridge. The concept in your head is untested. The prototype is the bridge between imagination and execution: every round of build, test and revise moves the game from what you hoped would happen to what actually happens when people play. Expect the first version to be wrong, and plan time for the second and third.

Formative check

Work through these before moving on. They are not graded — they tell you, and your teacher, whether the standard below has landed yet.