What are the Benefits of Prototyping without Assets?

To understand what prototype means, let’s take a look at its definition:

A prototype is an early sample, model, or product in which other forms are developed.

How about the definition of an asset:

A useful or valuable thing, person, or quality.

Now that we understand them both, why is it important to build a prototype first with basic construction than build a prototype with production assets?

We don’t want to build an “early” sample, model, or product while using quality assets. It’s like building a home without a blueprint. Architects build simple models of a building before using quality assets on a job site.

For us programmers and game designers, it’s no different. We digital-prototype with the basic construction of things using primitive 3D objects or basic 2D sprite shapes.

2D Galaxy Shooter: Prototype

For one, you make good use of your time. Imagine building a game from the get-go with final art assets? Then later, the game design changes drastically over time. Not only did you waste a lot of time, but also you spent so much energy and effort that could have been directed elsewhere.

And if you’re in a team, you would feel the negative energy going around since it did not only affect you but the rest of your workmates.

Second, it’s a low-effort proof of concept. By that, I mean that we focus and identify the core mechanics of a game, ensuring it is “fun.” If it is not “fun,” then we iterate until it is “fun” or abandon the project while not wasting time and effort.

2D Galaxy Shooter: Progress on converting primitive objects to Final Assets.

Did you know, Super Mario Brothers, the original Nintendo game used “Graph Paper” to prototype the levels?

And lastly, you can go further by going through the paper-prototyping phase to save even more time and effort before digital prototyping! Just grab some:

• Paper
• Cards
• Post-it notes
• Whiteboard
• Graph paper
• Notebook

With these items, you can truly prototype ideas on the fly without going digital. It’s simple and fast to generate ideas beforehand.

With all of this being said, I think it is a good approach to have the slightest idea of what our newest game will be through the early phase of prototyping. This will allow us not to waste time and effort with the use of quality assets.

Thank you for reading!