With these tools, you can prototype almost any game you can imagine. In the last article, I covered general principles for prototyping games. Today, I am going to go over specific tools you can use. Everyone I know has a different favorite set of prototyping tools, so experiment to find the ones that work best for you. Here are six useful ideas to get you started.
1. Physical Games and Toys
Keep a war-chest of game supplies. Your first goal should be to use tools that already exist and only build something yourself if you absolutely have to. I keep the following around at all times for playing with new ideas:
- Multiple decks of playing cards
- an Uno deck
- a Go board
- a variety of classic board games (monopoly, scrabble, etc.)
- dice of all shapes and sizes
- glass beads
- poker chips
- a hex board with some movable tiles (e.g. Memoir 44, The World of Warcraft Miniatures Game)
- small figurines of a variety of shapes and sizes (chess pieces work well for this, but I prefer more exotic miniatures)
- Pens, markers, and sharpies of a variety of colors
- Large pieces of paper
- Post it notes
- Protective Card Sleeves (sleeves + playing cards + a piece of paper inserted with your card info help make prototype cards shuffleable and easy to use)
2. Graphics Programs
If you have any skill at all with graphics programs, they can be a huge asset in prototyping:
Photoshop and Indesign are both great for making cards if you know how to use them.
3. Simple Word Templates
If you don’t have any graphics skills (I don’t), then you can use a word doc template like this one for cards. Just add in text and freely available graphics as needed to get going.
4. Card Game Creators
There are many programs designed specifically for mocking up and printing out cards. There is a great list here.
5. Digital Game Creators
During early stages, I advocate making paper prototypes if you can, but sometimes digital is the only way to go. Even if you don’t have programming skills, the below tools make it relatively easy to build simple mockups.
For 2-D Game Mockups: Game Maker Studio
For 3-D Game Mockups: Unity
6. Print on Demand Services
There are many print on demand services available for making pretty versions of your prototypes. Don’t do this for your early prototypes, but they can be useful for later iterations. I use Drive Thru Cards
Go Make Something!
You now have all the tools necessary to make your own game! Don’t get hung up on making “the perfect prototype” or finding “the perfect tool.” Just get a prototype made as fast as possible and worry about improving it later. Once your prototype is complete, you are ready to put your game in front of actual players! We will talk about how to run a great testing session in the next article. That gives you a perfect amount of time to build a prototype of your own!
P.S.- If you have any great prototyping tools not listed above, please share them in the comments!
Hi, I’m Justin!
I’ve been obsessed with games since a very young age. I won the Magic: the Gathering US National Championships at the age of 17 and played cards professionally for 5 years, travelling the world and paying my way through college. I started designing games professionally in 2004 and I founded my own game company in 2010. I’ve launched multiple hit games with some of the biggest brands in the world including Marvel, DC, and World of Warcraft. I love reading, writing, dancing, meditating, learning, and helping others. Learn more about me here.
"This post originally appeared on my blog ...... - it has been modified and updated exclusively for Steemit!”