Practical Game Design

The never-ending prototype

When working on a prototype, it is easy to get attached and try to make it right by iterating on the same thing over and over again. If something doesn't work, the design has to change. The sooner the team realizes it, the more the prototyping phase will serve its purpose. The risk of a quickly built prototype is that it might miss some important elements that might end up being essential for making a final judgment. As part of the iterative nature of prototypes, this is fine. A prototype can start very small (that is, just the core mechanic of a new game), and expand to something larger through successive iterations (that is, core mechanics and a few puzzles or enemies). However, the risk is to keep iterating outside ...