Can't help but feel a sense of pride since I hail from CMU as well. :)

Unfortunately for some reason their methodology seems to inspire only puzzle/gimmick kind of games. Although I suppose some of the most popular games in existence seem to be extensions on that kind of theme - think Tetris to Katamari. Perhaps they should eventually move from researching Prototyping to researching creation of whole new genres of game. That's probably the place where the industry needs teh most creative input.

Posted by: Ivan Tumanov on October 28, 2005 02:42 PM

Well, you're right about the gimmick thing, but that's rather the point. The theme-of-the-week mentality gives you a starting point, but only taking 7 days (about half of which are lost to goofing around or just sorting through crappy ideas) means that it's hard to _not_ make a game that doesn't feel like it's just riffing on that starting point gimmick.

I disagree that a project like this would be any better by trying to create a new genre because that's what many game companies try to do, and it usually doesn't work. Instead of trying to innovate on a large scale, and then design the small gameplay pieces that make that game work, better to innovate on a small scale (ala these sorts of prototypes), and then combine and shoehorn the pieces into a cohesive whole. At least that way you know that the components of the game are fun in-and-of themselves.

This, by the way, is generally how Will Wright works these days. Lots of quick little feature prototypes to determine what's fun and what's not, and then take the fun bits and remake them into the real game.

Posted by: ClockworkGrue on October 28, 2005 04:01 PM

I enjoyed this piece on prototypes. I think people get inspired and creative in so many different ways (different strokes/folks) that many of these suggestions might be useless to some, but gold to another.

Personally, I related to the following idea:

As an alternative to brainstorming, we found that gathering art and music with some personal significance was particularly fruitful....In these and many other cases, the soundtrack and initial art created a combined feeling that drove much of the gameplay decisions, story, and final art.

This is exactly what allowed the concept design, game-play elements, and character design of a game I am working to bring to the market come alive. There's a game I've been stewing in my mind since 2000. For the most part, its just been sitting in the crock pot. However, the recent combo of viewing a friend’s FarCry map and listening to a song I composed in Dec. 2004 gave me a case of really explosive brain diarrhea. Wait. That makes it sound bad.

Anyway, when I heard my song in combo with the FarCry map, the song sounded so damn different to me. I originally created the song with a whole different purpose in mind (not anything game related, not commercial whatsoever, not meant to invoke imagery). Now, this song is really a piece of the creative backbone of my vision for this title. In this context, it’s the theme song for my protagonist (and the game itself). It’s pretty neat really.

The thing is, I always had problems envisioning how the gameplay concept behind this idea could actually become a real game. For example, the ultimate purpose of football is to score goals. The rest is secondary (yet still crucial). In that light, I knew the purpose of my game, which is based on simple and addictive game concepts/goals.

So then, it was the combo of visual and musical cues that provided that spark to 1) get me off my ass and start putting together an honest effort to bringing this game to life 2) have a more defined vision of how this root (addictive) gameplay would meld with character design, world aesthetics, "extras”, everything etc etc into one complete picture.

It’s interesting too, because it seems like I FIRST (uncharacteristically) came up with the gameplay concept in 2000 using the logical part of my brain (I don’t think I have used it since) and more recently, using my burst of creativity to fill in the blanks afterwards. Usually it’s the other way around for me.

Rock and Roll? I think so.

Posted by: mumra on October 28, 2005 08:53 PM

Rock and Roll indeed. Music has been a major influence for me as an artist and often helps me envision gameplay sequences. The 7 day proto-typing article was possibly the most useful article Gamasutra has published from an indie perspective. The heuristics they've been living at CMU using Flash provide the blueprint for what I'm gonna start doing with Erasmatron in early '06. Stay tuned.

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We are using the same way to prtotype our games. But main problem isnot to prototype games but create some kind of scenrio.

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