The Illinois of Art, Chicago	Prototyping for Games
	Instructor: Lindsay Grace

 

You have spent years learning and playing the best and worst of video game design. Outside of your personal experience, you have spent academic time looking at what makes games succeed and what makes them fail. Now is the time to prove your mastery of game design. Before you reinvent the wheel, review these often cited game design fundamentals:

• Chris Crawford's The Art of Computer Game Design [html | pdf](courtesy of Washington State University)
• Rollings and Adams on Game Design: Chapter 7: Gameplay [pdf]

 

When you derive your game concept, remember that this is a prototyping course. You are encouraged to take risks and prove what could be. The prototype is not a view of what is, it is a view of what could be. Find ideas that are unexplored and explore them. [end rant, descend from soapbox]

Consider this quote from a job posting at High-Voltage:

" If you really want to impress, write a one-page document that convinces anyone who reads it that a game titled 'Car Washer' would actually work. Warning: Unpublished pen-and-paper RPG material is everywhere; don't bother unless it kicks ass."

 

 

 

Provided by Lindsay Grace for students of the Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago. These documents may be used by others when properly credited. Please email lgrace at aii edu for more information.