Week 10: Readings

GDW Chapter 7: Prototyping Your original Game Idea (p210—232)

As for the first prototype of my asymmetrical multiplayer game, we created a version of the game that focused on the core mechanic of the player's movement and the map. This follows how the chapter describes that it is recommended to isolate the core gameplay mechanisms and focus on that part first. In addition, this first prototype only have 1 rule which is to run around and find other players, so it solely focused on the movement.  According to the chapter, it is better to keep to rules to be as simple as possible to make sure that the game works first, before adding further features that doesn't affect the rules. We could see how the players feel about the controls, as well as how they used the minimap we have included. Since I'm in charge of the art, I decided to put in come environment models and no animations so that the playtester can focused their reactions on the movement, while still have an image of what the characters and the scenery would look like. 

With the prototype only focusing on one main mechanic, it was very easy to add in more features after the first prototype. In addition, it made us more open to feedbacks about what features could make the game more fun, since we still have a lot of space that can be filled up. Still, being too open could also make us indecisive in choosing what feature we should do over the other. As a result, for the later playtests, we can be focused on testing those additional features and whether or not they enhance the game.