The three things I see in game development are prototypes, vertical slices, and MVPs. All exist to get quick feedback on something. Prototypes let you test out

The three things I see in game development are prototypes, vertical slices, and MVPs. All exist to get quick feedback on something. Prototypes let you test out some particular gameplay mechanic or a bit of core gameplay to see if your designs are viable (or you could prototype something else, like graphics, of course). Vertical slices are a small but complete section of the game with polished assets and everything works, but it might be very short, and these exist to help you get funding or make publishing deals for the complete game. MVPs are there to test out the market. As an amateur, I think prototypes are just the bee’s knees. They can be as ugly or as unpolished as you like, and you can just print debugging information straight to the screen. Even if they don’t turn into real games they’re often valuable, because prototype #10 might refine various ideas from prototypes #2, #4, and #7, and turn into a viable game.