Casual Game DesignDesigning games everyone can enjoy

Coming up with an original idea for a game can be hard enough, but how do you know if your idea will actually work? Of course, you could just trust your own design skills and start implementing the game. That’s not an approach I’d recommend, though. No matter how good and experienced you are at game design, an idea can always turn out different than you think and it would be a shame if you found that out when you’re already halfway through development.

I firmly believe that you should build a prototype for any game idea you consider implementing. A prototype will tell you quickly if your game concept is fine the way it is, if it needs tweaking or whether you should come up with a different game altogether.

Advantages

Building a prototype has several advantages.

• Find out if the game works. As I said, a prototype tells you if your game will be as fun as you think. It’s no use wasting time on a game that no-one will enjoy.
• Try out different ideas. If you have different game ideas floating around, building prototypes for each of them allows you to make a more informed decision when you pick one of them. This is especially useful when you are working in a team where several people have a good idea and you don’t know which one to go with yet.
• Balance game rules. Once you settle on a game that has potential, you need to balance the game rules. A prototype allows you to try out different rulesets so that you can find the right balance. You can usually also do this when you’re in full-blown development, but since prototypes are made to be discarded after a while, you don’t have to worry about introducing bugs because of your tinkering.
• Ease communication. It can be hard to convince someone of your new idea for a game just by talking about it. A prototype gives other people the opportunity to actually play through your game, which will greatly enhance their understanding of your idea. Again, this is very useful when you’re working in a team. Also, if you are talking about making a change to the game concept, you can show how this will improve the game rather then just talk until you have your teammates convinced.
• Get feedback. If you have a prototype for people to play with, you can ask them what they think of your game. It’s hard to give feedback on a design document, but it’s easy to do when you’re handed a prototype.

Kinds of prototypes

You can build your prototypes in different ways. Which one you should choose, depends on what type of game you are designing and on which stage of the design process you are in.

• Pencil and paper. Because I start designing all of my games on paper, building a pencil and paper prototype is a logical step for me. You’ll also need an eraser, by the way. This is a very crude way of prototyping, but it’s very flexible and allows you to change your mind often, which is invaluable in the early stages of your design.
• Board games. One of my favourite ways to build a prototype that I can show other people is to pull all the board games I own from off the shelf, pick useful bits and pieces from them and build a playable prototype from those parts. This works for almost any kind of game, although you have to get a bit creative when dealing with timing. A board game prototype is flexible enough to make frequent rule changes workable. This kind of prototype is also a lot of fun to play around with, because it allows you to pour a lot of creativity into it.
• Graphics program. Using a graphics program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro can work well for certain game concepts. It’s a little like working with a board game prototype. It’s less suited for showing your game to other people, but you don’t need to have a stack of board games within reach.
• Program a prototype. The most sophisticated prototype is of course the one that is programmed on a computer. Because you can build this kind of prototype any way you want, it will be most like the final game. A programmed prototype allows you to test aspects of your game that the before-mentioned prototypes lack, like user interface, controls and timing. A programmed prototype is also easy to share with other people and is therefore great for communication and soliciting feedback. Of all prototypes discussed, the programmed prototype takes the longest to create and is the hardest to change, so I recommend you start using it only after you have the basics of your game design and rules well in place.

You don’t have to stick to one kind of prototype, you can build different prototypes throughout the design development process. It can even be useful to let several people build their own prototype of the game and see if that results in some additional ideas. Experiment as much as you can; after all, that’s what prototypes are all about.

(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

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