Do you develop gaming software?

Do you prototype?

If you do prototyping then great! If you don’t, then it is time to start doing it!

A prototype is a representative model of the final product.

Why should you build prototypes?

Prototyping is an interative and generative process. You’ll never get the best solution at your first try. Prototyping will give you many new ideas when you work through the prototyping process. It helps you get your ideas into something everyone can play around with. This will generate lots of feedback and ideas for new and better solutions.

No need for loooooong requirement specifications

You don’t have to write requirement specifications that are hundreds of pages. Insted you use the final prototype as a requirement along with detailed notes. This will make it easier for developers to understand what you are trying to achieve and build. There will be less room for interpretations when everyone can try and use the prototype to see how it should work.

Finds requirements not going to be used and mistakes

Building a prototype can also show features not adding anything for the players. So why put time and effort on them?

Test on real players

When you have a prototype you can easily test new features on your real players and get valuable feedback early. This is a great advantage and you don’t release software that hasn’t been tried out.

Create a prototyping process

When you have decided that you want to do prototyping then you need to figure out the best way to work with prototypes within your organisation. So create a prototyping process that everyone involved can agree on and then start prototyping! :)

/Staffan

ps. Need help creating prototypes or implement a prototyping process within your company? Send me an e-mail staffan.schroder@inuse.se ds.