HDW - Game Prototypes I

Skills Improved

Selecting prototype needs from concepts
Prototyping gameplay elements

"Prototype coding" (Trading clean for fast results)

Unity Editor proficiency
Writing visual debug tools

Prototyping as a skill

Everybody can create a prototype if they put their mind to it; however, it takes experience and skill to be able to prototype specific elements for distinct results. A prototype can be anything too, from questionaries probing markets to technologically advanced machines. In my case, I'd be keeping it to Unity prototypes.

The main goal: Selecting the elements of a few concepts that need to be prototyped the most, and using Unity to create them.
One of these was to be further developed into a Vertical Slice, this meant I had to evaluate each concept's scope within the timeframe for the vertical slice.

Concept A

IDEA: Your plane broke and is now uncontrollable, but you are a grand master! Do the unthinkable, and control planet earth's rotation to fly through the hazards safely.

PROTOTYPE INTENT: Testing plausibility of fun gameplay, and testing the possibilities to make the player feel they are rotating the earth instead of controlling their ship.

RESULT: Fun gameplay could be achieved by ensuring a fast-challenging pace, and adding surprise moments in both environment and ship behaviour. Earth rotation can be made clear by physics on world objects.

Concept B

IDEA: You died. You're falling down your tunnel of memories, and you seem to be stuck in a loop! Skydive down while avoiding all your memories. Find portals and soul whisps to survive!

PROTOTYPE INTENT: Test if the concept is feasible to make fun, and if it can be a base to extra mechanics. Also a small test to check on the base-look of the game is interesting.

RESULT: The concept is a strong base to add a wide range of extra mechanics, both to the character as the level. This project was developed into a Vertical Slice.

Concept C

IDEA: You're a thief, and on the clock. Navigate the street to steal from guarded chests and pickpocket innocent bystanders by performing button combos! Beware of the other thieves, they might haul away with your loot!

PROTOTYPE INTENT: Test if the scope of the project is plausible, test if simple AI will cut it, test the importance of vertical level design.

RESULT: The project's scope is overambitious. Reducing it would most likely yield a boring experience. Simple AI can be used, if the thieves are other players. Vertical level design is key for gameplay-flow.

More results than the focus

Each concept yielded more results than what is described above, ranging from concept feasibility to production planning and stretch-goals. With each concept prototype, it became clear whether an idea was worth creating a vertical slice for, and how to plan for the production ahead. As an extra, the prototypes were also a great way of showing any other difficulties that would require extra prototyping.