02
Aug
Gameplay Prototyping
I’ve been thinking hard about gameplay and the importance it plays in games, especially in casual games, and I realised that if I’m going to create something popular and fun then I’m going to need to make sure my ideas are feasible before I put too much time and effort into them.
This is where prototyping is going to come in useful. I’ve decided that for any gameplay ideas I have, I’m going to whip up something quickly that gives me a chance to see how it will play before I start creating graphics, menus, etc., which will save me a large amount of time if it turns out that, no, that idea actually sucks.
This isn’t always a useful step, of course; if the main draw of your game is the style in which you’re doing it, then stock standard gameplay may do the trick, in which case you pretty much know that it’s fun already. If you’re bringing something new into the gameplay in any way, however, prototyping the base gameplay before getting into the more time consuming stages of development is definitely wise.
I’m going to be putting together some prototypes for some simple game ideas over the next couple of days, and I think it’ll be interesting to see whether they turn out to be fun, tedious or in between.
