1) A team of developers offer advice about how to make a successful game prototype in a short amount of time.
2) The writers discuss their experience prototyping games, what worked well for them (or did not), such as: experiment without fear of failure and embrace the results of experimentation, place restrictions and constraints on work (eg. themes, visuals) to force focus and creative solutions, prototype quickly and don't spend too much time on features (do not polish), and cut your losses if something does not work.
3) Prototyping quickly and successfully is an extremely useful skill for developers; it means ideas can be tested quickly and iterated upon. The team’s reflections on their own experience as well as detailed lists of recommendations of how to create a prototype are very useful ideas for developers of games to keep in mind.
1) Mark Lycette spoke about his work and experience in academia, the animation and creative industries in Australia, and using and learning different technologies and software.
2) Mark reflected that creative industries such as Animation can be exploitative, that learning new technologies was important, but to be mindful of how software, skills, and whole projects can become obsolete.
3) Mark offered some (perhaps cynical) insights into the industry which are not often shared to students and new creators, who (if otherwise ignorant about exploitative practises like crunch) may have found themselves exploited in the future. Mark’s warnings about programs and skills becoming obsolete is also useful as it encourages students to “future-proof” their work and skills, and understand that software developers’ goals are not necessarily aligned with that of creators that use the software, so to be ready to move on if necessary.
By Natasha Vranic-Peters
Email Natasha Vranic-Peters
Published On: 09/04/2020