A Development method to quickly create and test any game idea.
Have you ever had an idea about a new game? But dealing with how to start programming such a project, selecting its components, its data structures, and the logic flow is a daunting task if you've never had any experience with any of those things before — AND, if truth be told, even for those seasoned game developers too! You want to test your idea before committing any time, energy, and possibly money to only those brilliant "Minimum Viable gaming products" (MVP) instead of a "dud". You need a tool to evaluate your game ideas quickly; you need a Game Prototyping Tool.
As you already know, "Construct" is a JavaScript Gaming Framework for creating games that run in your desktop browser or mobile devices. Using Construct, you can quickly create any game genre like 2D, "2.5D", and 3D "Action Adventures", platformers, Role-Playing Games (RPGs), Jigsaw puzzles, brain-teasers, visual novels "Gamebooks", and so much more! All you need is your browser pointing at the ""Construct Online Application editor", an innovative game idea, and of course, your imagination. Let's explore creating a gaming prototype using Construct version 2 OR 3.
Let's begin with a simple "top-down" game prototype with block artwork (easily substituted later!), a gamer's avatar, some treasure, a room with exterior and interior walls, and an opponent. These are all the elements found in a typical "Rogue-like " Role-Playing Game (RPG). When we're done, you'll have a simplistic game prototype that looks something like this:
Making some minor adjustments, we'll use our game prototype for "3rd Person" and "Isometric" games as found in all platform genre, and even tweak the player's "camera view" into a "1st Person" game similar to "Warlord's Joust" (play it here)!
He also tells us that "No-art Prototypes have other major advantages; read his entire article to learn what those are.
So then, "What IS a game prototype", you asked?
Answer: It is an operational gaming foundation that can:
- Accept a player's inputs;
- Move game elements and components;
- Transitions between game phases, and translates "game actions" into visual "Heads Up Display" (HUD) feedback or information; and lastly
- Reacts to internal collisions.