10 ms·

How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days (2005)

135 points by erickhill 10y ago

andrewmcwatters 10y ago
A lot of this simply isn't true, though. For instances, many games' source of fun comes not just from gameplay mechanics but the richness of its composition. When you take away the design of assets or the particular sounds or music that a game is made up of, you have an entirely different game. Too many people in gamedev are fooled by this concept. If anyone could make Minecraft and make it just as fun, why don't other voxel-based games ever seem just as fun? What's fundamentally the difference between CS, CS:S, and CS:GO? Surely they're all the same game since the mechanics haven't changed dramatically.
- TillE 10y ago
  > why don't other voxel-based games ever seem just as fun But this is the opposite of your point. Other games resemble Minecraft superficially and maybe offer some crafting, but none have anything like Minecraft's deep mechanics.
  - danbolt 10y ago
    Minecraft hits the right notes to by psychologically satisfying, too. The feedback the player receives for thier decisions makes the initial parts of the game exciting. You feel validated for expressing yourself, much like a strategy in Counter Strike or picking a team in Pokémon.
    - andrewmcwatters 10y ago
      Yes, but what are those notes? That's my point. You can't prototype a voxel game and expect it to basically be Minecraft.
      - jeremiep 10y ago
        How on earth are you going to get a Minecraft if you prototype voxels? If you want to make a Minecraft then prototype that instead a single aspect of its visuals.
  - andrewmcwatters 10y ago
    It's the opposite of my point because I'm asking in point of argument why someone would be true. "If X is true and Y is X, why is Y false."
    - Phil987 10y ago
      The problem with your point here is that Y isn't X.
- nostromo 10y ago
  You've missed the word "prototype". The point isn't to have a perfect game at the end of the period, it's to have something to validate further time investment. Take a look at the game Braid from prototype/concept to finished product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braid-art-1.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braid-art-1.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braid-art-2.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braid-art-2.jpg This article is about how to get to something like the first image up and running. If it's fun, then work on making it look like the second image.
  - andrewmcwatters 10y ago
    And you've missed my point entirely. You can have a game that simply _isn't fun, until the point of it actually being polished._
    - tdb7893 10y ago
      Can you give an example? (I don't mean to be snarky but I'm actually curious)
      - babuskov 10y ago
        The Stanley Parable? I mean, without the script and voice acting, it would seem pretty dull.
        falsedan 10y ago
        Wouldn't you prototype the script? Just having a stage direction [SOMETHING WEIRD HAPPENS] would work in lieu of transforming a 3D environment. I bet you could protoype The Stanly Parable in a week in Twine/Z-code.
        dietrichepp 10y ago
        That game went through so many revisions and prototypes. I remember playing an early version which was just a HL2 mod, barely resembling the current incarnation.
- _polymer_ 10y ago
  Good assets can't polish turd. A solid core, however, can benefit from assets. They mention this point in the article. A better counter argument would be a game which was completely abstract, hence not fun, being made fun with content. So in counterstrike, if you were abstract blobs, the goal might be confusing, and not fun. But your not, you either want to blow up, or save, a building (assets assist communication.)
  - dleslie 10y ago
    Good assets sold turds at the beginning of most previous console cycles. This is likely a thing of the past, in this new era of vastly diminishing visual returns for dollars spent. Hitting that top-tier of fidelity that previously was able to ship games on screenshots alone is now so hideously expensive that few publishers are willing to risk it.
  - andrewmcwatters 10y ago
    If you remove all of the sounds from Minecraft, all of the textures, all of the composite models and replace them with wireframe hitboxes, I doubt you'd have something as fun as the hit title. Prototypes are not good indicators that something could be fun.
    - brazzledazzle 10y ago
      I think at some point you have to use your imagination and intuition to fill in the gaps. This is something you have to do at many stages of the process anyway right? A prototype let's you confirm that your basic ideas are sound and you can focus on imagining the other aspects that bring it all together.
    - jeremiep 10y ago
      That's completely false and grossly overlooks what makes games fun in the first place. Prototypes are your absolute best indicators to determine if a project is worth investing into to reach completion or not. Because you find your fun factor at the prototype level. You'll get at most better visuals, sounds and more balance in the game with polish. If your mechanics aren't fun to begin with, polishing them will do absolutely no good.
logicallee 10y ago
For some reason I misread this title as "How to Prototype a Game in under 7 seconds" and I was like, FINALLY!! Someone gets the web. I was so ready to click and spend not just 7 seconds but 30, 60, 90, 120, hell, 20 minutes if that's what it took. Imagine my disappointment when it turned into 7 days. This article is on the right track. But "Rapid is a State of Mind" can be a state of mind. I am exaggerating with the 7 seconds - but only a little. People need to go much farther in the direction that this article, correctly, advocates :) EDIT: the downvoters are on the wrong side of history and I'm not changing one word.
- khedoros 10y ago
  > People need to go much farther in the direction that this article, correctly, advocates :) Prove the downvoters wrong, and build some awesome 7-second games. It hasn't been done...and so you're seeing skepticism. If it takes you an hour to make something like that, maybe you can have a dozen a day, and maybe 80 per week. Showing off a few dozen decent game prototypes in a week of work (or even just one, running in under an hour and popularly judged worthwhile) would be great.
  - logicallee 10y ago
    I would say most programmers working today do not so much as open their programming environment in 7 seconds, that is not the environment that is set up let alone exposed to outsiders, without signup, through a simple URL. So I am saying that the direction the article advocates is completely correct, yet the maxim "Rapid is a State of Mind" can be taken further, we can think in even more rapid terms. If you can't imagine clicking a URL and immediately creating a game that has never been made before then you're on the wrong side of history. I am simply not going to elaborate. (The 7 seconds is a bit of an exaggeration, as I noted.)
    - jeremiep 10y ago
      You definitely should elaborate. Right now what you're saying has absolutely no substance and only reminds me of the Dunning-Kruger effect. One thing I learned long ago is that people who are cocksure of themselves yet won't explain anything are almost always the ones on the wrong side of history yet are completely oblivious to the fact.
triplesec 10y ago
Can anyone give some kind of update on how things have changed in the past decade since this was written, and thoughts about what resources to go to as a result? That might be really helpful and received with love and gratitude from readers here.
- erik 10y ago
  This article focuses mostly on design and the principles of rapidly prototyping a game, and I would say very little has changed in those areas over the years. Something that has changed is the available tools for rapid game development. Ludum Dare is a regularly occurring game jam (next one starts Aug 26), and their tools page is a good resource: http://ludumdare.com/compo/tools/ http://ludumdare.com/compo/tools/ Somewhat unrelated, but a lot has also changed in the commercial market for indie games since this was written. On one hand, it has gotten much easier to commercially distribute indie games. But on the other hand, there is much, much more competition in this space now.
  - bonestamp2 10y ago
    Nice list, thanks for posting it! Prototyping in unity is not as fast as flash back in the day (for me at this time anyways). Can anyone compare GameMaker: Studio or another modern product that is good for fast prototyping?
    - erik 10y ago
      GameMaker is usually the go to recommendation for rapid prototyping, and game development at a higher level of abstraction than Unity. I've lately been hearing some positive buzz around Godot, particularly for 2D games. But I also get the impression that there is a learning curve. https://godotengine.org/ https://godotengine.org/ If you want to bring your flash skills into the modern world, Haxe might be worth looking at: http://haxe.org/ http://haxe.org/ particularly with a framework like OpenFL. http://www.openfl.org/ http://www.openfl.org/ Here is a good article on the post flash gamedev world: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20150915/252693/Where_have_all_the_Flash_developers_gone.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20150915/252693/Wh... I haven't tried any of the above. But I've heard good things about all of them.
shitloadofbooks 10y ago
Somewhat related, I designed and created the prototype for my tabletop game Burger Up[1] in around 2 hours, including an hour with scissors and pencils, drawing rough sketches of burger ingredients on cardboard (with lots of help in that area from my partner), the night before a playtest/pitch session with a publisher. Once the publisher picked it up, many hours of playtesting and many iterations followed (although once we cut it back to "what made it fun" it ended up surprisingly close to the original foundation). I think that unless you're doing something completely groundbreaking, people who operate in that space can see the potential in a prototype/MVP and can visualize what it will look like with improved assets, etc quite easily. If the core isn't "fun" then you don't have anything (yet). [1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186701/burger https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186701/burger
- cableshaft 10y ago
  As someone who came from making video games and now I'm working towards getting my first board game published, I like the prototype process of board games a lot more. One reason is because it is SOOOO much faster and easier to prototype a board game than a video game. Need to try a new mechanic? Tell your players "okay, this time, instead of doing this we will do this." And five seconds later you're trying a new mechanic. You don't have to spend hours or days rewiring a bunch of things to get it to work. Sometimes it just takes a sticker on a card and things get changed. Need some components for your game? You don't have to create them, or search for the right thing in unity asset packs. Open up one of your existing board games that has cubes or discs or dice or meeples or whatever and you can start trying your idea out in five minutes. It's great, and it's hard to go back to the comparatively much slower process with video games afterwards. Video games still kick the pants off board games when it comes to ease of distribution and sales channels for small developers, though.
wsc981 10y ago
Jonathan Blow (creator of Braid, The Witness) also has many interesting talks on indie game development. Here[0] is his talk on prototyping games. --- [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISutk1mauPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISutk1mauPM

135 points by erickhill 10y ago

A lot of this simply isn't true, though. For instances, many games' source of fun comes not just from gameplay mechanics but the richness of its composition. When you take away the design of assets or the particular sounds or music that a game is made up of, you have an entirely different game. Too many people in gamedev are fooled by this concept. If anyone could make Minecraft and make it just as fun, why don't other voxel-based games ever seem just as fun? What's fundamentally the difference between CS, CS:S, and CS:GO? Surely they're all the same game since the mechanics haven't changed dramatically.

TillE 10y ago
> why don't other voxel-based games ever seem just as fun But this is the opposite of your point. Other games resemble Minecraft superficially and maybe offer some crafting, but none have anything like Minecraft's deep mechanics.
- danbolt 10y ago
  Minecraft hits the right notes to by psychologically satisfying, too. The feedback the player receives for thier decisions makes the initial parts of the game exciting. You feel validated for expressing yourself, much like a strategy in Counter Strike or picking a team in Pokémon.
  - andrewmcwatters 10y ago
    Yes, but what are those notes? That's my point. You can't prototype a voxel game and expect it to basically be Minecraft.
    - jeremiep 10y ago
      How on earth are you going to get a Minecraft if you prototype voxels? If you want to make a Minecraft then prototype that instead a single aspect of its visuals.
- andrewmcwatters 10y ago
  It's the opposite of my point because I'm asking in point of argument why someone would be true. "If X is true and Y is X, why is Y false."
  - Phil987 10y ago
    The problem with your point here is that Y isn't X.
nostromo 10y ago
You've missed the word "prototype". The point isn't to have a perfect game at the end of the period, it's to have something to validate further time investment. Take a look at the game Braid from prototype/concept to finished product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braid-art-1.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braid-art-1.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braid-art-2.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Braid-art-2.jpg This article is about how to get to something like the first image up and running. If it's fun, then work on making it look like the second image.
- andrewmcwatters 10y ago
  And you've missed my point entirely. You can have a game that simply _isn't fun, until the point of it actually being polished._
  - tdb7893 10y ago
    Can you give an example? (I don't mean to be snarky but I'm actually curious)
    - babuskov 10y ago
      The Stanley Parable? I mean, without the script and voice acting, it would seem pretty dull.
      - falsedan 10y ago
        Wouldn't you prototype the script? Just having a stage direction [SOMETHING WEIRD HAPPENS] would work in lieu of transforming a 3D environment. I bet you could protoype The Stanly Parable in a week in Twine/Z-code.
      - dietrichepp 10y ago
        That game went through so many revisions and prototypes. I remember playing an early version which was just a HL2 mod, barely resembling the current incarnation.
_polymer_ 10y ago
Good assets can't polish turd. A solid core, however, can benefit from assets. They mention this point in the article. A better counter argument would be a game which was completely abstract, hence not fun, being made fun with content. So in counterstrike, if you were abstract blobs, the goal might be confusing, and not fun. But your not, you either want to blow up, or save, a building (assets assist communication.)
- dleslie 10y ago
  Good assets sold turds at the beginning of most previous console cycles. This is likely a thing of the past, in this new era of vastly diminishing visual returns for dollars spent. Hitting that top-tier of fidelity that previously was able to ship games on screenshots alone is now so hideously expensive that few publishers are willing to risk it.
- andrewmcwatters 10y ago
  If you remove all of the sounds from Minecraft, all of the textures, all of the composite models and replace them with wireframe hitboxes, I doubt you'd have something as fun as the hit title. Prototypes are not good indicators that something could be fun.
  - brazzledazzle 10y ago
    I think at some point you have to use your imagination and intuition to fill in the gaps. This is something you have to do at many stages of the process anyway right? A prototype let's you confirm that your basic ideas are sound and you can focus on imagining the other aspects that bring it all together.
  - jeremiep 10y ago
    That's completely false and grossly overlooks what makes games fun in the first place. Prototypes are your absolute best indicators to determine if a project is worth investing into to reach completion or not. Because you find your fun factor at the prototype level. You'll get at most better visuals, sounds and more balance in the game with polish. If your mechanics aren't fun to begin with, polishing them will do absolutely no good.

logicallee 10y ago

For some reason I misread this title as "How to Prototype a Game in under 7 seconds" and I was like, FINALLY!! Someone gets the web. I was so ready to click and spend not just 7 seconds but 30, 60, 90, 120, hell, 20 minutes if that's what it took. Imagine my disappointment when it turned into 7 days. This article is on the right track. But "Rapid is a State of Mind" can be a state of mind. I am exaggerating with the 7 seconds - but only a little. People need to go much farther in the direction that this article, correctly, advocates :) EDIT: the downvoters are on the wrong side of history and I'm not changing one word.

khedoros 10y ago
> People need to go much farther in the direction that this article, correctly, advocates :) Prove the downvoters wrong, and build some awesome 7-second games. It hasn't been done...and so you're seeing skepticism. If it takes you an hour to make something like that, maybe you can have a dozen a day, and maybe 80 per week. Showing off a few dozen decent game prototypes in a week of work (or even just one, running in under an hour and popularly judged worthwhile) would be great.
- logicallee 10y ago
  I would say most programmers working today do not so much as open their programming environment in 7 seconds, that is not the environment that is set up let alone exposed to outsiders, without signup, through a simple URL. So I am saying that the direction the article advocates is completely correct, yet the maxim "Rapid is a State of Mind" can be taken further, we can think in even more rapid terms. If you can't imagine clicking a URL and immediately creating a game that has never been made before then you're on the wrong side of history. I am simply not going to elaborate. (The 7 seconds is a bit of an exaggeration, as I noted.)
  - jeremiep 10y ago
    You definitely should elaborate. Right now what you're saying has absolutely no substance and only reminds me of the Dunning-Kruger effect. One thing I learned long ago is that people who are cocksure of themselves yet won't explain anything are almost always the ones on the wrong side of history yet are completely oblivious to the fact.

triplesec 10y ago

Can anyone give some kind of update on how things have changed in the past decade since this was written, and thoughts about what resources to go to as a result? That might be really helpful and received with love and gratitude from readers here.

erik 10y ago
This article focuses mostly on design and the principles of rapidly prototyping a game, and I would say very little has changed in those areas over the years. Something that has changed is the available tools for rapid game development. Ludum Dare is a regularly occurring game jam (next one starts Aug 26), and their tools page is a good resource: http://ludumdare.com/compo/tools/ http://ludumdare.com/compo/tools/ Somewhat unrelated, but a lot has also changed in the commercial market for indie games since this was written. On one hand, it has gotten much easier to commercially distribute indie games. But on the other hand, there is much, much more competition in this space now.
- bonestamp2 10y ago
  Nice list, thanks for posting it! Prototyping in unity is not as fast as flash back in the day (for me at this time anyways). Can anyone compare GameMaker: Studio or another modern product that is good for fast prototyping?
  - erik 10y ago
    GameMaker is usually the go to recommendation for rapid prototyping, and game development at a higher level of abstraction than Unity. I've lately been hearing some positive buzz around Godot, particularly for 2D games. But I also get the impression that there is a learning curve. https://godotengine.org/ https://godotengine.org/ If you want to bring your flash skills into the modern world, Haxe might be worth looking at: http://haxe.org/ http://haxe.org/ particularly with a framework like OpenFL. http://www.openfl.org/ http://www.openfl.org/ Here is a good article on the post flash gamedev world: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20150915/252693/Where_have_all_the_Flash_developers_gone.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20150915/252693/Wh... I haven't tried any of the above. But I've heard good things about all of them.

shitloadofbooks 10y ago

Somewhat related, I designed and created the prototype for my tabletop game Burger Up[1] in around 2 hours, including an hour with scissors and pencils, drawing rough sketches of burger ingredients on cardboard (with lots of help in that area from my partner), the night before a playtest/pitch session with a publisher. Once the publisher picked it up, many hours of playtesting and many iterations followed (although once we cut it back to "what made it fun" it ended up surprisingly close to the original foundation). I think that unless you're doing something completely groundbreaking, people who operate in that space can see the potential in a prototype/MVP and can visualize what it will look like with improved assets, etc quite easily. If the core isn't "fun" then you don't have anything (yet). [1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186701/burger https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186701/burger

cableshaft 10y ago
As someone who came from making video games and now I'm working towards getting my first board game published, I like the prototype process of board games a lot more. One reason is because it is SOOOO much faster and easier to prototype a board game than a video game. Need to try a new mechanic? Tell your players "okay, this time, instead of doing this we will do this." And five seconds later you're trying a new mechanic. You don't have to spend hours or days rewiring a bunch of things to get it to work. Sometimes it just takes a sticker on a card and things get changed. Need some components for your game? You don't have to create them, or search for the right thing in unity asset packs. Open up one of your existing board games that has cubes or discs or dice or meeples or whatever and you can start trying your idea out in five minutes. It's great, and it's hard to go back to the comparatively much slower process with video games afterwards. Video games still kick the pants off board games when it comes to ease of distribution and sales channels for small developers, though.

wsc981 10y ago

Jonathan Blow (creator of Braid, The Witness) also has many interesting talks on indie game development. Here[0] is his talk on prototyping games. --- [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISutk1mauPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISutk1mauPM