Posts tagged with “prototyping”

Today Sharat and I gave a talk at the Singapore MIT GAMBIT game lab on rapidly building video game prototypes. It’s something of a rip off of Ethan’s and my IGCE talk from last month but this has a stronger focus on development and how to make different types of prototypes. I suggest checking it out! For more info on prototyping you can also see my guest blog from last week on Sande Chen’s game design website.

Sande Chen recently asked me to a guest post for her monthly blog on game design. I was happy to help, and honestly a little bit flattered/stupefied that she would even ask me to help. Nevertheless I was happy to help, and I’ve copied the entire post below. It’s a bit of a how to on video game prototyping, with emphasis on getting shit done and why this is important. Enjoy!

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So you’ve got an idea for a game, but you’re missing an artist, you don’t have the design nailed down, you need to find funding, and you don’t know what platform you’re going to develop for, you’re not sure that the concept is even feasible, or you [insert development hurdle of your choice here]. How do you even start? With prototyping!

Prototyping is the process of making a small, crappy, slapped-together version that demonstrates certain key aspects of your final vision. It’s a great way to start making games since it is far less daunting, and during the process you’ll learn a lot about what you should actually do in the full version. Prototypes are throw away, but that’s a good thing since it’ll give you more freedom to experiment in ways you might not normally try.
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Today at the IGC East Ethan and I gave a talk called “Rapid, Iterative Prototyping, or How to Rip Off Dinosaur Comics”. A lot of people were asking, so here’s the slideshow from the talk. Enjoy! I’ll gladly answer any questions in the commnets section.

Fire Hose has some talks coming up! Back to back talks in fact, on May 7th and 8th. Both are in Boston, so if you are in town be sure to stop by and check them out!

What’s that? Can’t afford the conference tickets? Never fear, I’ll be posting a short synopsis of each talk right here on this website. Here’s a sneak peek:

Thursday, May 7th, 10:30 – 11:20 – Rapid and Iterative Prototyping, or How to Rip Off Dinosaur Comics
Ethan and I are going to talk about how to make video games quickly even if you don’t have all the pieces in place. We’ll keep things exciting with lots of jokes, and we’ll be showing off early builds of our current game to illustrate points. The talk is guaranteed to entertain, or we’ll go back in time and save you the 60 minutes by telling you to skip it. You can read more about the talk here or on the conference’s website.

Friday, May 8th, 11:45 – 12:30 – Digital Distribution Panel
I really have no idea what the panel is going to be about beyond the title, but I bet it’s going to be pretty interesting as all three of us panelists come from pretty different backgrounds. My friend Al Reed from Demiurge Studios will be there, and he knows a hell of a lot more than me, so I’m exicted to see what he’s got to say. You can read more about the speakers here but I don’t see a page for our panel. Scot Osterweil and Dave Edery are doing a panel on Serious Games which should be pretty cool too.

The Independent Game Conference East is going to be held right here in Boston this May 7th and 8th. It’s going to be a fun conference where small indie gamers can get together, learn tricks and tips for making games with real impact, and meet their peers. A lot of our friends are going to be there giving talks, including Ravi Mehta (Viximo), Darius Kazemi (Orbus), and Scott MacMillian (Macguffin Games). You can see a full list of speakers here.

But there not the only ones! Ethan Fenn and I are going to be giving a talk as well, titled “Rapid and Iterative Prototyping, or How to Rip Off Dinosaur Comics”. We’re basically going to talk all about the super sneaky ninja techniques you can use to make games quickly before you work out every detail of a game. It’s going to be really fun, and yes, we really are going to talk about how we used Dinosaur Comics. Follow the link for the full talk synopsis – Continue reading →