> One of the things we often lack in software is a good medium for exploring mechanics. > Getting something to the point where we can conduct an "Is this fun?"

> One of the things we often lack in software is a good medium for exploring mechanics. > Getting something to the point where we can conduct an "Is this fun?" test or more generically "Does this serve the purpose" A medium? Would you care to expand on this point? While I agree that more work could be done on speeding up the tools used, the process / concept / activity itself already exists, so I am not sure what you mean by medium. PROTOTYPING is a fundamental part of the software engineering process (and other engineering disciplines), but I see it get missed A LOT in software development, for a variety of reasons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_prototyping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_prototyping As vvanders has already said, "White Boxing" is a common technique for video game development.