Why Prototype? 

Assets shouldn't be liabilities

In this project you will find out if your game idea is fun through Prototyping. You will also learn how to make a plan for assets you will use in your game – the sounds, images, models, animations and other resources that make up a game – to avoid nasty surprises later in development. 

Prototyping

Course Introduction and Planning

Game Jams and Skilling Up

Set your goals and find your community

What is the Design Process? 

Scope

Constraints and Our Theme

Concentric Design

The Stages of Game Development

Planning your project

CRC Cards

Your First Milestone: Vertical Slice

Why Agile?

Vertical Slice - Part Two

Refactoring

Sprint Planning

Alpha Build

What is Playtesting?

How To Playtest

Sprint Plan

Review and Redesign

How to Release your Game

Alpha and Beyond

Bonus Content

In this project you will learn about what's ahead for you on your journey to finishing a game! You'll also get a chance to confirm that you have the right knowledge and skills to get the most out of the course, along with links to useful resources that will help you on your way. You will also learn how to equip yourself for your journey, and meet some of your fellow adventurers.

Goal Setting and Community Building

In this project you will learn about using a design process to take your idea from a broad concept into a finished, polished game, the concept of scope will help you achieve your goal of making a game, how constraints can help you create rules to keep you in scope,  and how to use the specific design process, concentric design.

The Design Process

In this project you will learn how to keep a sense of the big picture by dividing the game development process into stages and milestones, hit your first major milestone in the development of a game through creating a vertical slice, and learn two planning tools you can use to plot a course to a finished game. 

Milestones

Agile Development

Professional teams schedule some time for code cleanup after each milestone so their code stays flexible and easy to work with. This project will give you some tips and general principles for this process, known as refactoring. With your vertical slice done and your code in good shape, this is where you’ll start down the road to alpha.

Writing Better Code

Playtesting is more than just asking people if your game is fun. It's a structured process for collecting useful information about specific parts of your design. In this project you will learn why Playtesting helps you collect useful information on your design and how to execute the entire process. 

Playtesting

In this project you will learn how to release your game, what the next steps are after game release, and additional tips for getting to the end. 

Release your game

Lots of people start games, but it’s surprisingly hard to finish one. This course guides you through the process used by professional game makers to develop their ideas, keep their projects on track and deliver a complete, released game. 

Explore the Unity Asset Store for game toolkits and template assets that will help you quickly design and prototype your games. These resources can accelerate your development process and help you achieve your goal of releasing a polished game!

Design and Publish Your Original Game: Unity USC Games Unlocked

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Making Games is Risky Business

Prototyping is How you Find the Fun

How do professionals prototype? 

Assignment: Prototype your Game

prueba plataforma

raulsanchezmicheas

Prototype videos of different types of cameras.

Breakout 3D Perspective Camera.mp4

Breakout 3D Orthographic Camera.mp4

Breakout 3D different camera types

Al Kraus

Software Developer

Equilibrista

Agustin Dominguez

Macro Design and Playable Prototype

unity_ABBB8FB9151B27AEEBC3

Merge Shooter

tongthachpham22101997

Testing a mechanic that uses 100% audio as the core mechanic.  The player listens in a 3d spatial sound environment to avoid obstacles and collect pickups.

this just casino and yet i just bad in create all but i think i can did what good but you can better than i am and i'm know this what i am bad in all :(

safasfafsagj

Made a prototype to test AI nav, combat, and weapons.

I probably will not spend too much time on AI nav, not to waste time.

Scope is not too big – at least I hope so.

Strategy Combat Prototype

Arcane_Creator

It was my short writeup where I tried to answer the basic questions.

>When building the prototype, I tried many possibilities, and thus mastered some unexpected knowledge and skills,Such as the pixel rendering camera and the screen space coordinate conversion

Curse Backpack Prototype

CatshitOne

Making Games is Risky Business.mp4

Prototyping is How you Find the Fun.mp4

Even professional game makers with years of experience can't look at a game idea and say whether it is fun. How do they find out? Prototyping.

Unity + USC Games Unlocked

Games

Games_Design_and_Play_-_Macklin_and_Sharp_-_Ch_10.pdf

Before you start prototyping yourself read further about why and how professionals prototype: 

Macklin and Sharp’s compact, practical book covering the concrete details of making games, from brainstorming strategies to task planning spreadsheets. Colleen Macklin and John Sharp. Games, Design and Play. Pearson Education 2016. (A PDF version is also available in the Tutorial Materials tab)

An indie game designer shares what he learned from prototyping Dance Central and his own titles. Watch from 1:30 to 43:00. “why it's worth ... prototyping, 8 lessons for how to do it effectively, and 8 common pitfalls to watch out for and avoid” 

A designer/producer tells the story of developing HOARD, a successful indie game, through creative, quick-and-dirty prototyping. 37:00-41:00 discusses several specific tools for rapid prototyping, including drawing level maps in Excel. 12:00-36:00 follows the game through several prototypes, from board game to PS3 release. “I went to my friend Microsoft Excel and started laying out levels.”  

It’s time to put pen to paper! We’re asking you to make not one but two prototypes for your game this week. Here’s where you will take the first step toward making your idea into a real, playable game. This assignment has several steps, but you’re only going to turn in one thing, your write up about your prototype. 

**If you haven't already, read the chapter from Macklin and Sharp describing different kinds of prototypes. It's also available in the resources.

1. Professionals actually do take time to make and write down a list of questions at the beginning of their projects to guide their prototyping. So write down some of the big questions you’re currently dealing with, such as: 

Can I make the character’s jump feel good? 

Do players understand my elemental magic system? 

Will the player understand that green bars are health and orange bars are fuel? 

2. Choose one of the big questions and create a non-digital prototype that will help you answer it. These are the kinds of prototypes that designers usually make first: 

An art prototype, perhaps a mood board or a single character design

A paper prototype to test gameplay. (Remember that you can prototype many time-based games like tower defense by representing time as turns.) c. An interface prototype, such as a mockup of the game screen showing where and how score, health, etc. would be shown. 

3. Create a playable digital prototype of your game idea that shows its main mechanic. For example, if it’s a platformer, make a little test project that is nothing but two platforms and the character jumping. If it’s a tower defense, make a single enemy and one tower. DO NOT spend a lot of time on this – a couple of hours at most. It’s not the first build of your game, so your code will be messy. Make it just good enough to ask the question. 

4. Find players and ask them to look at/play your prototype. Depending on the kind of prototype, you might be able to ask other students for feedback using the forum for this assignment. Ask questions about what they’re seeing or doing – these can be yes/no questions, but they can also be open-ended, like “how does this mood board make you feel?” 

5. Create a short writeup of the results, about a page including pictures or screencaps of the prototype and/or players using it. Answer these questions: 

What question were you trying to ask with your prototype? 

Did you get feedback that helps you answer that question? 

What results did you obtain when people played/looked at it? 

What did you learn from those results?   

6. Share your write up via screen caps and the description in the gallery. 

7. Provide feedback to at least two other leaners using the comments in the gallery.  

Why Prototype?

1. Making Games is Risky Business

2. Prototyping is How you Find the Fun

3. How do professionals prototype?

4. Assignment: Prototype your Game

Your submission preview

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