Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design

Chapter 5. The Iterative Game Design Process

Making games is an iterative process that helps game designers understand and refine their games. This chapter introduces the steps in the iterative cycle: conceptualize, prototype, playtest, and evaluate.

The Origins of Iterative Design

Designing games is challenging—think no further than the concepts and principles introduced in the four chapters of Part I—the basic elements that make up games, the tools we have to design play experiences, the incredible range of play types, not to mention the things videogames ask of players. Compounding all this is the fact that game designers can’t really “see” their designs until they are played, and their games can’t be played until they are made.

This is ...