Their are various considerations to keep in mind before and after the production of making a prototype starts. A big factor in this are time constraints, depending on how much time you've been allocated to work on a project will affect the size and scope of the prototype you'll be making, so good time management skills are key. Likewise, depending on what type of prototype you want to make, you must ensure you have the correct tools for the job (such as having 3ds Max installed if you're making prototype character models). As a final note it's important to consider why you're even making a prototype in the first place: is it to kick-start a game idea by pitching it to a publisher? Testing an idea to see if it's practical to make a game out of it while being a feasible game idea? Or even to just gage a general response to gather some feedback. This is all very important to consider, as you don't want to lose track of your focus or end-goal throughout development.
Now for different types of prototyping options! First off is paper prototyping, this involves physically having your idea written down by hand. As talked about by (Norman, 2016), paper prototyping can be used to test various aspects of a game early on during its development cycle, and various concepts of the game can be drafted on paper, like concept art or a layout for the user-interface (UI) for the game's menu. Using a set of flow-charts and diagrams, the designer can show the entire layout and structure of the game's main menu system by hand. Quickly drafting a game's base layout in a style similar to a flowchart (connecting all of the various options showing what happens when you click each button on every screen), can work very well as a piece of reference that is used later to be transferred digitally into the real game. Here's an example of drafting out different scenes of a game's UI on paper below:
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| Drafting the different screen for a mobile game, next to an actual phone to compare how it would look on screen, which is perfect for testing the functionality before the real menu gets implemented into the app. (Board of Innovation, 2016) |
Compared to digital working there are a few limitations to creating a prototype on paper to be aware of, such as not having tools and software to freely edit the prototype and make changes/ adjustments on the fly as you could using a computer. Unless you scan in the paper prototype to your computer for editing in software like Photoshop, once something's physically written down it can be hard to amend any mistakes (aside from using an eraser to physically rub it out, which is prone to smudging your work and leaving the end-product looking somewhat tacky as a result).
If you want to create your UI in a bit more of an in-depth or visually pleasing manner compared to on paper, it would instead be a good idea to create it using PC software digitally instead. There are various options, and a good one is Microsoft Powerpoint. Even though it's mainly designed as a presentation tool, the way all of the 'slides' are set up and connect with each other on the software allow for a surprisingly accurate prototype for what the real menu structure would be like in a game (although, without any of the assets and animations found in a real game). Powerpoint is also very useful for perhaps applying your original draft paper designs digitally for the first time to see how they look, as talked about by (Board of Innovation, 2016) in their step-by-step guide. This is fantastic for the developer to get a first taste of how their UI looks on a computer screen. Past then adjustments can be made before this design then gets ported into the game engine for the final product.
As another method you could use, you can even make physical pieces of a game for a prototype, which serve as a great demonstration tool since people can get hands-on with your creation and actually hold and touch it. You could make cards and a board for a version of Monopoly for example as an early version of the game, make some draft characters and props from the game using pieces of stationary (like paperclips and pins), or even recreate a small section of a level/scene in your game from lego bricks which you can later use as a point of reference when creating the level in a game engine (like Unreal 4). There's a lot of potential with this method and it's a very effective tool for people who are more artistically minded and love arts and crafts.
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| Many pieces of lego bricks, which can be stacked up to create an early design for how a finish game's level might look. It can work almost like a plan showing all of the rooms and corridors. (Groom, 2014) |
One final option for the prototype could be to create a demo for the game, which could exhibits the basic mechanics, characters or story. There are various game engines which this prototype could be made in, such as Unreal 4 or Unity 5, and each offer different experiences depending on your needs, Unity is more geared towards 2d games development, whereas Unreal 4 focuses on the more realistic 3d aspects. Since my game is a 3d third-person shooter, right off the bat I may want to consider Unreal 4 if I were to develop a functional prototype of my game idea. However I'll definitely be drafting my UI both on paper and in Powerpoint, and plan to make it very user-friend and accessible to match my own game's wide target audience.
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