Get started with prototyping

Before you get caught up in developing your dream project, it’s important to start a little smaller and create a prototype. Prototyping gives you the opportunity to work out what should really be at the heart of the real-time experience you want to make and to test out different approaches to achieve that.

There are lots of different approaches you can take to prototyping, but exploration and iteration are at the core of the process.

In Creative Core: Prototyping, you’ll learn about some different approaches to prototyping and explore an example we’ve created as you work on your own prototype. This learning experience is about process rather than a set outcome; if you’re new to prototyping, we hope you’ll find something useful no matter what you want to create!

When you’ve completed this project, you’ll be ready to create prototypes for projects whenever you need to. Ready? Let’s get started!

New to Unity?

This learning experience assumes that you are already familiar with the Unity Editor. If you’re new to Unity, the Unity Essentials learning pathway has been designed to help you get set up and ready to create in the Unity Editor.

Update the Unity Hub

Before you begin to set up your Unity project, consider updating your Unity Hub to the latest release. If you are using an older version of the Hub, there may be differences between the guidance provided and your experience.

Review the Unity Editor basics

If you need to refresh your memory of the Unity Editor basics, you can take a moment to review Explore the Unity Editor at any time.

Download the example Unity project

To access the sample project for this learning experience:

1. Download the project for this learning experience from Tutorial Materials.

2. Identify a suitable location on your computer and unzip the project folder there. Remove the Unity project folder from its empty parent folder.

3. Add the Unity project to the Unity Hub.

4. Install Unity 6.000, if you haven’t already done so.

What is the goal of Creative Core: Prototyping?

The goal of this learning experience is to guide you through the basics of prototyping a real-time experience in Unity. As you develop your own prototype, at each stage along the way you’ll explore an example walking simulator prototype that we’ve created.

Whether you want to be a generalist developer or specialize in a specific area, prototyping experience is very useful both for solo work and for collaborative projects.

What will I do in this learning experience?

This sequence of tutorials will guide you through taking an interactive experience project from initial idea to realized initial prototype. If you don’t have coding experience, you can still complete this experience by creating your own basic walking simulator prototype.

If you’re completing the Creative Core pathway, once you’ve finished creating the initial prototype you’ll use this as the basis for your independent project. This is where you will apply your newly acquired skills from each domain in the learning pathway to create a polished and engaging experience:

• Shaders and Materials
• Lighting
• VFX
• Animation
• Cameras
• Post-processing
• Audio
• UI

What will my learning outcomes be?

When you’re done, you’ll have a clear understanding of the basic process of prototyping for real-time experiences. You’ll also be able to use that process to work on your own projects. This might include solo work or contributing as part of a team.

Expert creator insights

As you work through this learning experience, you’ll find insights from expert creator Lual Mayen, founder and CEO of Junub Games.

Choose an object you commonly use in your everyday life as a tool, for example a key or a mug.

Take a moment to answer the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the object?
• Is the experience of using it intended to stand out or happen seamlessly in your day?
• What about the experience of using it is pleasing to you, if anything?
• What about the experience of using it is frustrating, if anything?

It’s rare that an object is designed and created perfectly the first time — or even the fifth! It’s likely that a lot of different developmental versions, or prototypes, were created before the final version of the object that you use every day was achieved by those who made it.

Prototypes aren’t just relevant to objects, they’re relevant to all sorts of other things too, including real-time experiences.

Note: In this learning experience you’ll focus on prototyping an interactive real-time experience that is either a game or game-like. However, the principles you’ll explore also apply to creating a wide range of other experiences too.

For as long as people have been creating games, they have been making new and improved versions of them to share with others. However, with the rise of video games in the twentieth century and the development of established industry practices and norms, prototyping has a critical role to play in the development of a game.

If you have a great idea that excites you, it’s natural that you might want to get started on it right away! This can particularly be the case when you’re working on it solo, as you don’t have to agree on an approach with any collaborators. However, that can be risky — the idea might seem good to you, but how do you know that your game will be? And how do you know that the idea in your mind for implementing the game is actually the most appropriate way to do so?

Prototyping is a great way to explore both of these areas: what your game idea feels like to play and ways to implement the systems needed to support that.

Our expert creators have experience in working on a wide range of prototypes — here they talk about the role that prototyping plays in their projects.

You can find out more about how prototyping impacts the final design of a game in the Unity USC Games Unlocked course.

Before you begin working on your own, take a few minutes to explore the polished version of the example prototype that we’ve created for this learning project.

The experience that we chose is a very basic walking simulator. With this core concept you can create a wide range of different experiences from a minimal set of user interactions. Your goal in this example prototype is to escape the enclosed area.

As you explore, consider:

• The core interactions of the experience and what they feel like to you as a user. Are there things that are particularly satisfying or frustrating? Can you identify why this is the case?
• Your initial thoughts on the impact the Creative Core pathway domains have on the overall experience of this polished prototype.

To review the polished version of the example prototype:

1. Open the Creative Core: Prototyping project in the Unity Editor.

2. In the Project window, go to Assets > CreativeCore_Prototyping > Scenes. Open the 4-FinalLook scene.

3. Select Play to enter Play mode and explore the prototype. The character controller is a first-person, FPS style controller. You can:

• Change direction using your mouse or controller.
• Move using the arrow keys or WASD.
• Select E or click to interact with a selectable item — your cursor will change to a small hand to indicate this.

Note: There is a small white dot in the center of your screen. This is to help with navigation and motion sickness.

4. Select Play again to exit Play mode when you’re done.

Now you’ve reviewed a prototype that we created, let’s review some prototyping fundamentals.

There are a range of approaches that can be used for prototyping — here are two common approaches used for interactive real-time experience design and some associated tools.

Rapid prototyping

Rapid prototyping involves defining requirements and then creating a quick prototype of an experience based on those requirements. This prototype generally won’t be taken through into full production — if it is accepted as a proof of concept, a new version will be created when the game enters production. In practice, however, rapid prototypes are sometimes taken forward into full production, particularly for projects by hobbyist and more small-scale indie developers.

The advantages of working in this way are that you can test and refine your requirements and assumptions, and explore multiple directions for the game in a relatively short amount of time. This approach can support quick pivots. This is frequently useful in the development process!

However, rapidly implementing an interaction for testing is not the same as properly implementing game systems, and so this approach may require starting again when you go into production.

Evolutionary prototyping

Evolutionary prototyping involves creating a functional prototype that is intended to become the final experience provided to users. The systems for these prototypes are built from the start with this long-term perspective as a priority; architecting systems appropriately for the scale of the full intended experience is often a key requirement for these prototypes. Evolutionary prototypes are worked on and refined throughout development, but the initial prototype is at the core of the final experience.

After an initial rapid prototyping stage to determine a direction, some game development teams may then create an evolutionary prototype to further refine their approach before entering full production.

In this learning experience, you’ll focus on rapid prototyping.

There are so many fascinating examples of prototyping in creative disciplines, including real-time creation. Before you decide on your own idea, it can be helpful to consider the experiences and prototyping approaches of other creators.

Here our expert creators discuss the first prototypes that they made.

They also have some advice to share with you at the start of this learning experience.

Extend your learning

To deepen your understanding, take some time to research the prototypes for the types of experience that are most interesting to you. You’re likely to find some very interesting case studies and stories!

Here are some examples to get you started:

• Iwata Asks: Splatoon: A detailed interview with the development team for Splatoon.
• Changemakers showcase: A showcase of social impact projects by Unity for Humanity creators.
• On The Level: A video series by Game Maker’s Toolkit, where the host plays and discusses video game stages with the developers that made them.
• Devs Play Season 1 and Season 2: A video series by Double Fine Productions, where game developers play through and discuss games that they made.

In this tutorial you’ve explored background information — next you’ll choose an idea and identify the target audience for your own prototype.