But it is di?¬? cult to design an original game if
you skip the physical prototyping process. What happens
is that you are forced to reference existing games
in the design description. This means your game is
bound from the outset to be derivative. Breaking away
from your references becomes even more di?¬? cult as
the production takes o?¬? . When your team is in place,
with programmers coding and artists cranking out
graphics, the idea of going back and changing the core
gameplay becomes very di?¬? cult.
That is why a number of prominent game designers
have begun to adopt a playcentric approach.
In fact, Electronic Arts has created an in-house
training workshop on preproduction (see sidebar
in Chapter 6, page 157) that is run by Chief Visual
O?¬? cer Glenn Entis. This workshop includes physical
prototyping and playtesting as part of the initial
development stage. Entis runs development teams
through a series of exercises, one of which is coming
up with a quick physical prototype. His advice is to
make it ???fast, cheap, public, and physical. If you don??™t
see people on the team arguing,??? he says, ???you can??™t
know if they are sharing ideas.
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