Thoughts On Prototyping
Prototyping is one of the most important jobs a technical designer will have. Prototyping is necessary for good design and can serve a variety of functions. I tend to categorize prototypes into two different types: pitch and communicative. While both can be similar, the difference between pitch and communicative prototypes is how quickly they are developed. Pitch prototypes are designed to expand on an idea in a more refined and polished way. They are the type of prototype that would be shown to management to sell an idea. When working on these types of prototypes, I take time to iterate them and add a reasonable degree of polish. They are effectivity a demo of the mechanic/feature they are demonstrating. Communicative prototypes on the other hand, are very quick and rapid prototypes that exist to communicate a specific concept or idea. These prototypes are created within a few hours and exist to aid team discussion. They are not polished or iterated on before being shown to others. An example of a communicative prototype could be mocking up a mechanic that is hard to describe on paper to make sure the rest of the team is envisioning the same thing.
Pitch Prototypes:
Jet Ski Controller - Unity
This prototype was a chance for me to learn more advanced gameplay programming. I wrote my own water physics and water shader. The controls of the jet ski are meant to mimic the feeling of real world water vehicles. I intended for this controller to server as a base if I ever decided to make a water sport game.
Deep Riches Main Menu - Unity
I created this prototype to serve as a pitch for a hypothetical western horror game. I wanted to experiment with diegetic UI and tried to tie all interactions to diegetic effects. The prototype was also good practice for implementing less common UI features.
Communicative Prototypes:
Akasha Realtime Prototype - Unity
On my current team project Akasha, our team had been having some creative disagreements on which direction to take the strategy game. Our design team had a semi-realtime concept they were trying to pitch, but couldn't effectively communicate it to the tech team. The idea would of be dismissed for that reason. However, I filled my role as a technical designer and advocated for the design team by creating a working semi-realtime prototype that evening. Eventually the team moved away from the concept for unrelated reasons, but all the good discussion only took place because I was able to create the a prototype quickly enough to get everyone on the same page.
Alberio Weapon HUD Prototype - Unity
While working on Alberio I was having trouble communicating my design concept to the rest of the design team. In order to fix the communication issues I created a working prototype of the HUD within two hours. That prototype then became the precursor to our final HUD implementation. The outline that I made after this prototype was received well and expanded on can found here.
Soulcaster Early Prototypes - Unity
During the early stages of pre production on Soulcaster, there was a lack of consensus on how our projection mechanic would actually work. It was a somewhat unique concept and references were hard to find. To remedy this I took detailed notes of all the different variations the team had brought up and prototyped the three main ones in a single night. This rapid prototyping allowed the team to visualize each idea and come to consensus.