Articles About Rapid Game Prototyping
Interested in creating a game in a week? I mean who wouldn’t be. Everybody’s got great ideas for a game. Unfortunately you can’t design fun on paper. So the best way to see if a game is fun to play, is to create the damn game (or at least a playable prototype). That’s enough of an excuse for any game developer to be interested in learning the art of rapid prototyping. That and the fact that it takes more than 7 days to write the out dated 250 page design document that nobody reads.
I thought I would gather here a little list of articles about rapid game prototyping. These are from very different contexts and there might be some segments in these articles not directly related to rapid development. Even though the information might seem irrelevant its usually pretty interesting and useful in some way. If you know other articles about rapid game prototyping please let me know about them and I’ll update this list. Easiest way of contacting me would be to write a comment or to send me a email at petri dot purho [ät] gmail.com.
How Not To GID by Paul Malyschko
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=5982
The first article on the list is about how to create a game in day. Or actually how to not create a game in a day. Game In A Day (or GID for short) is semi competition hosted by Garage Games, where you have 24 hours to create a game. It’s not really a competition as much as its encouragement to create games in extremely short time span. Article was written by Paul Malyschko and its about lessons he learned from trying to GID. It’s written more from a hobby game developer perspective, but the lessons told there are valuable to anyone trying to create a quick prototype.
How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml
The second article is the now classic paper by Carnegie Mellon students who started the Experimental Gameplay Project. If you haven’t read the article GO READ IT NOW. If you have read the article and your thinking about prototyping a game, go read the article again. It’s the article that inspired me to start developing experimental-done-in-a-week games.
Sol’s “rules” for surviving Ludum Dare 48h
http://sol.gfxile.net/ldsurvival.html
Third article is Jari Komppa’s (A.K.A. Sol) guide to surviving Ludum Dares 48 hour game development competitions. Because its a real competition, where you have only 48 hours to make a game, the article has a lot of information about managing the stress of the competition. That might not be relevant, when you have a week to create game and it’s not for a combo, but there’s also lots of info about the rapid game development. For example the 3.2 Design considerations -segment is all golden rule stuff.
How To Build a Game In A Week From Scratch With No Budget
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article2259.asp
Jay Barnson (A.K.A. Rampant Coyote) created a RPG in a week from scratch without a budget and without the help of any existing game engines. It’s impressive when you consider how content heavy genre RPG is. I’m just waiting for someone to do this with a MMORPG. The article is more of a development log, which is interesting in its way, but the real meat for us is at the end of the article: The postmortem, or the top ten lessons learned from developing a RPG in a week. Like the “Lesson 3: Don’t underestimate the art requirements”. Sounds like common sense, but I fell for that one.
Torque Game Engine Documentation - Step 4) Build a quick and dirty prototype
http://www.garagegames.com/docs/tge/general/ch02s05.html
This is snippet from the Torque Game Engine Documentation. There’s some general information about creating a prototype, experiences learned from Marble Blast’s development. At the end, there’s some more specific info about how they created Marble Blast’s prototypes using the Torgue Game Engine.
ALGDS - General Advice
http://www.algds.org/#Advice
Ad Lib Game Development Society runs these semi annual sessions where they create few game prototypes. It’s a little like Indie Game Jam. The link isn’t really an article as its more of list of random pointers they picked up during the development. It’s more concentrated on how to create a prototype with a team and how to host the event.
I know this isn’t directly related but for the sake of completeness here’s a link to Raph Koster’s blog, where he gives an interesting alternative approach to gameplay prototyping. There was also an interesting article about Paper Prototyping on gamasutra.com.
There was a lot of talk about prototyping in this years Game Developer Conference. Unfortunately I wasn’t there, but there is a nice trail of articles about GDC on the web from which I learned a lot. The Experimental Gameplay project guys gave a talk about “How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days“. What I understood from the blog coverages and the Power Point slides the information was mostly the same as in the gamasutra article.
But there were also developers from Maxis talking about their Spore prototyping experiences. Their talks where more from the perspective of why you should prototype opposed to how you can prototype, but its makes an interesting reading none the less.
Advanced Prototyping
https://www.cmpevents.com/GD06/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=1914
Chris Hecker and Chaim Gingold talked about what makes a good prototype. Here’s the Game Spy’s coverage about the presentation and Power Point slides. There are some very good points even though its more from a professional game development teams point of view.
Pre-Production Through Prototyping
https://www.cmpevents.com/gd06/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=1619
Also Eric Todd talked about what problems does prototyping solve for the preproduction. There is a good coverage by Gamasutra and here are the Power Point slides. Even though its more about how game designers see prototyping there are some good hints for creating a good gameplay prototype. Like:
That’s about all the googling and bookmarks I had on this subject. I don’t know if there are some other articles about rapid game prototyping, but I know that the BEST source of information about this subject is experience. So go and create a small game. It doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) even take that much time. Less reading more prototyping.
September 25th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Hey. I saw you linked my page, so I’m returning the favour. I couldn’t find any IM adress anywhere, so add me on icq 14592311 or msn kissbengt@hotmail.com so we maybe can talk a bit.
September 25th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Thanks.
my msn address is klooniporo@hotmail.com, I added you to my contacts.
Its propably a good time for me to update the about page
September 25th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
[...] I noticed it because of this great summary article with a bunch of pointers to articles on rapid prototyping, something which I consider indispensable to the game design process. It’s worth following all the links, a very handy resource! [...]
September 26th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Wow. There’s some awesome resources here that I didn’t know about! Thanks! Now if only I could gain some skills to take the game from prototype stage to final with decent speed as well…
September 26th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
My friends from the industry told me that there is this development model called “crunch mode” which magicly turns your prototype into a final game with decent speed
September 27th, 2006 at 12:34 am
LOL - So I hear, but I’ve always found that it turns your code into crap and your wife into a very angry person with decent speed. But fortunately you are too tired to notice. Maybe we’re doing it wrong?
September 27th, 2006 at 6:53 am
I fear that there is no right way of doing it.
September 28th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Hi. Lots of great links and discussion. Good luck with your project. I started a similar project earlier this year although I fear that my day job discovered this “crunch mode” that you speak of and along with lots of real life stuff (getting married :)) I’ve failed to really get the thing off the ground.
Best of luck though. I look forward to following your further developments.
September 29th, 2006 at 1:52 am
Thanks and I know its a bit late, but Congratulations on your marriage! I think getting married is a good enough reason to stop a silly gameplay experiment
Even though I felt little bit sad that you had to kill your blog. I read it through and it was very interesting. Unfortunately the links to your games didn’t work anymore. If you get them online again, let me know. I would really like to check them out.
October 9th, 2006 at 8:58 am
[...] Kollonigames has an article about Rapid Game Prototyping: http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/general/articles-about-rapid-game-prototyping/ [...]
November 10th, 2006 at 11:52 am
[...] Some time ago I published the Articles About Rapid Game Prototyping post. When I wrote it, I didn’t intend to write a sequel. So I didn’t hold back any links. After I published it I stumbled upon few new resources. The list quickly grew into a bigger one (thanks to Lost Garden) and now I think I have enough to justify a new post. [...]
February 17th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Very original content. I really like your site. when game roll game lose
February 26th, 2007 at 5:08 am
[...] like to recommend two posts at Kloonigames, here and here. Both are a great resource to other articles and ideas on rapid prototyping. All of this [...]
February 14th, 2008 at 10:57 am
hi,
good links. word.
will there be a followup post about open source game engines and other tools to help n00b/spare-time game prototypers?
diN0
February 14th, 2008 at 11:00 am
@diN0bot,
not a bad idea. Actually I’ve been working on a follow up on another set of prototyping articles. It’s been in the works for a while.
January 7th, 2009 at 7:43 am
[...] Kloonigames’ list of articles about rapid prototyping. Or the whole kloonigames weblog, where he attempts to create a game in seven days every month. Not all succeed, but eventually something good comes out of it: Crayon Physics Deluxe should be available for purchase today. [...]
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:06 pm
[...] promising. 2) Microtransactions - 10 ways to help push the effectiveness of microtransactions. 3) Rapid Game Prototyping - How to build a game in a week? How NOT to build a game in a day. 4) Building Online Flash Games - [...]
October 6th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Но, с другой стороны, спаммеры увеличивают посещаемость сайта .
November 1st, 2009 at 1:01 am
[...] http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/general/articles-about-rapid-game-prototyping [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 5:58 am
The prototype that is developed by the process of rapid prototyping is based on the performance of earlier designs. Hence, it is possible to correct the defects or problems in the design by taking corrective measures. The product can be produced if the prototype meets the requirements of all designing objectives after sufficient refinement. There are many advantages of rapid prototyping.
Rapid Prototyping –Advantages in brief: Rapid prototyping has manifold advantages. It can provide with concept proof that would be required for attracting funds. The prototype gives the user a fair idea about the final look of the product. Rapid prototyping can enhance the early visibility. It is easier to find the design flaws in the early developmental stages. Active participation among the users and producer is encouraged by rapid prototyping. As the development costs are reduced, rapid prototyping proves to be cost effective. The user can get a higher output.
The deficiencies in the earlier prototypes can be detected and rectified in time. The speed of system development is increased. It is possible to get immediate feedback from the user. There is better communication between the user and designer as the requirement sand expectations are expressed in the beginning itself. High quality product is easily delivered by way of rapid prototyping. Rapid prototyping enables development time and costs. There are many innovative ways in which rapid prototyping can be used.
Despite all these benefits, there are many people who believe that there are many disadvantages of rapid prototyping.
Disadvantages of Rapid Prototyping: Some people are of the opinion that rapid prototyping is not effective because, in actual, it fails in replication of the real product or system. It could so happen that some important developmental steps could be omitted to get a quick and cheap working model. This can be one of the greatest disadvantages of rapid prototyping. Another disadvantage of rapid prototyping is one in which many problems are overlooked resulting in endless rectifications and revisions. One more disadvantage of rapid prototyping is that it may not be suitable for large sized applications.
The user may have very high expectations about the prototype’s performance and the designer is unable to deliver these. The system could be left unfinished due to various reasons or the system may be implemented before it is completely ready. The producer may produce an inadequate system that is unable to meet the overall demands of the organization. Too much involvement of the user might hamper the optimization of the program. The producer may be too attached to the program of rapid prototyping, thus it may lead to legal involvement.
The cost reduction benefit of rapid prototyping also seems to be debatable, as sufficient details regarding the calculation basis and assumptions are not substantial.
Go to Prototype Zone to get your free ebook on Prototyping at Prototyping. Prototype Zone also has Rapid Prototyping Forum, Prototype Manufacturing Blog and other information on Prototype Information and daily news. You can Find Prototype at http://www.china-rapidprototype.com.
January 9th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
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January 10th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Самому начали приходить 3-4 спамокомментария после 15-16 июля, причем точь-в-точь, как у автора.
January 10th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Спам в комментариях- это одно из явлений данного периода развития интернета.
February 27th, 2010 at 12:13 am
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