A talk given by Fire Hose Games to the MIT GAMBIT video game lab about rapid, iterative video game prototyping. The presentation covers many tips and tricks for quickly making useful game prototypes

1. Rapid, Iterative Prototyping or, How to Rip off Dinosaur Comics

3. Who Are We? Eitan Sharat 2007 Eitan 2008 2009

4. Starting out

6. Our First Game

7. Scope

8. Scope it right! NO Too Big Perfect Size (Awesome Game, btw)

9. Start Prototyping Four Days, Three Prototypes Test on the fifth day, and listen to testers Mon Brainstorm Ideas Tues Prototype ideas 1 and 2 Wed Prototype ideas 2 and 3 Thurs Prototype idea 3, polish all Friday Test all Day

10. Just get it done Art assets? Code base?

11. Ask Questions/Get Help

12. 1 st Week Demos

14. Find Creative Solutions

15. Small Team Management

16. Deadlines are your friend Test every week, no matter what! Mon Brain Storm Tues Prototype 1st idea Wed Prototype 2nd idea Thurs Prototype 3rd idea Friday Test! Analyze Mon Revise Design Tues Prototype Revision Wed Prototype Revision Thurs Prototype Revision Friday TEST!

17. Analyze Testing Results > Take feedback w/grain of salt

18. Is it viable?

20. 1 st Month Demo

35. Incremental Improvements = Big Progress Neil Armstrong: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

36. Identify + kill bad ideas

37. Do it now, get it right later And have fun in the process!

38. Questions? [email_address] [email_address] www.firehosegames.com