Prototyping advice
I shrunk as much as I could a list of useful advice I received from the developer I most idolize. Hope that’s useful to you.
- Explore new playable concepts
-
Clone at least one Mario mechanic
-
Start a prototype with a question
- Playable build ASAP
- Playtest each build a THOUSAND times observing the players’ patterns
- Everything starts with an input, it’s the only way the player can communicate with the game
-
Focus on GAMEPLAY and in your CORE MECHANIC
-
Your toy is your main ingredient, think of what you can mix with it
-
Analyze EVERY action parameter and experiment with them
-
Have a minimum and maximum for each challenge
-
Use the challenge to define the game’s flow
-
See your game as a OCR loop with another micro loop inside of it (Objective > Challenge > Reward)
-
Reward immediately EVERY positive behavior
-
Failures must have a cost
-
When polishing look for the best possible design, sound, and visuals
- Make a code library
I also started a mailing list, subscribe so you don’t miss any post or game I publish.