Hello there!

A lot of us who have played games for most of our lives have had a moment such as this: You’re sitting on your couch, controller in hand, fully immersed in a game that you just found out about, and you have played it at least 5 or more hours a day in the past week. The graphics might not be mindblowing, but you are captivated by the gameplay, you picture yourself inside the game’s world and suddenly, a spark ignites in your mind. “I want to do this!” you declare, as you envision bringing your game ideas to life.

When we are just teenagers there’s nothing to stop us, besides well, having to study and all that. But when you are to the point where you have to juggle a 9-to-5, spending quality time with your family, having a hobby and also trying to get into game development, that’s when things get complicated. 

Before you start dreaming up the next Crusader Kings or how would you make a narrative-based Clash Royale clone, let’s talk about the journey you’re about to embark on. Transitioning from a game player to a game creator is no easy feat. It’s a whole perspective shift from what we are already familiar with, but a thrilling transition nonetheless.

The Daunting Start: Embracing the Learning Curve

Let’s acknowledge the monumental task ahead of you. Shifting from a consumer mindset to a creator mindset can feel overwhelming, and it is completely normal to feel a bit crushed when you finally have a personal perspective on the amount of work you’ve got ahead of yourself if you want your game idea to become an actual game. You might find yourself staring at a blank canvas, wondering how on earth you’ll ever bring your vision to life, or wondering what the heck is a Rigidbody or a Finite State Machine. But fear not, for this is where the magic begins.

It’s completely normal to face fears and insecurities during this transition. Will your ideas be good enough? Will you be able to learn the necessary skills? These doubts might creep into your mind and make you feel like you are just wasting time you could be using to do something else but do not let yourself be consumed by those thoughts. Perseverance is your superpower here friend. Embrace the learning process, gather your courage, and take one step at a time.

The first time I got into game development was when I was around 18 (between 2011 and 2012), and I started with RPGMaker VX Ace, the latest at the time. I had seen some promo videos about RPG Maker and loved the style of the games done in it. I remember I asked my grandpa to buy it for me because at the time it was the only way I could have access to digital USD, and he saw how passionate I was about it that he bought it for me almost without the need of convincing him. I worked on the mechanics and basic game design of that first game without any idea of what was waiting for me down the line. I got pretty far into that game, which was an adaptation of a fantasy world that I’m still working on to this day, but eventually, I figured out that what was on my mind would not be able to be done in RPG Maker without a deep understanding of code because of all of the modifications I would have to do. 

After researching game engines for the first time, I concluded that the best match for my idea would be Unity, and then I got into it. Without any training or reading beforehand. Big mistake. It felt like I overcame a small bump in the road only to be faced with a steel-reinforced concrete wall. What were all these script files? What was a polygon collider? What did I get myself into?

I tried watching some tutorial videos but at the time there wasn’t really enough free content out there to easily understand all of the basics, most of the playlists on YouTube were incomplete, and paying for an online course was out of the question due to how expensive they were compared to what my family could earn in a month. Then, I learned about Playmaker and how people were using it to make games without coding, then after a day of watching videos about it, I once again asked my grandpa about it and once again he helped me, $99 it costed, still remember that price tag. I started creating the world I had done in RPGMaker and started learning how to handle Playmaker… and I stumbled upon the biggest roadblock yet: Playmaker is a very powerful tool to make games with as little coding as needed, but that does not mean that you’ll do a game without ANY coding. 

I was in university at the time, learning a whole different set of programming languages, and learning C# was cool and all, but it felt overwhelming to me to add another thing to learn, and it wasn’t fun. Yeah, what I was doing as a hobby for the first time didn’t feel fun to do, and it took all the joy out of it. Quickly I let that project die, and even though I never forgot about it because I continued developing that fantasy world (still do, that thing has gotten massive), I didn’t touch anything related to gamedev until around 5 years later. 

But that time was very short-lived: I updated Unity, went into it, learned a bit about Playmaker as well and how it had changed during the years, and felt confident about starting a new project. But, I needed to watch a lot of tutorials again, and it took a lot of time. So much time that if I had wanted to make it work, then I would have had to stop playing games because at that moment I was already working in my first job at a marketing agency as a web analyst, and I took very seriously my gaming time, which was mainly just playing League of Legends with friends, we even took part in the first Latam qualifier for Worlds back so it wasn’t all just fooling around (well, it mostly was, but we sometimes took it seriously). So in the end I decided, once again, to leave it for later. 

There were a couple more similar instances between then and now that I won’t spend another paragraph narrating, but this is just to give a real-life example that you are not alone in this, there are thousands of people who want to get into this industry by making the games that they’ve dreamt of creating but stop themselves, like I did, because of… life. Sometimes it’s just not the right moment, sometimes it’s because it doesn’t feel like a thing you’ll enjoy, sometimes it’s just hard to find the right motivation for it, and it’s fine if you are getting into this because it’s your passion and because you want to do it, its also fine to stop if you are not enjoying the process. 

Some people say that you shouldn’t quit, that the way to success is to be able to do things that you don’t want to do, and I agree with that, but one also needs to understand that for something that you are starting as a hobby, that you are not yet sure if you want to do this for a big part of your life, it’s ok to try it before committing to it wholeheartedly. Just because you learned how to play guitar doesn’t mean that you have to strive to be the second coming of Jimi Hendrix.

But if you at any time get to the point where you find yourself thinking “I really want to do this, for real”, then let’s get to it! Thankfully, the industry has gotten big to the point where resources are everywhere, both paid and free, and tutorials of anything and everything are everywhere, and there are massive communities choked full of people who will help you. 

It will be hard, it will take a lot of time, and it will need a lot of dedication, but you will be able to do it. The key is considering the time you spend making games as part of your recreational time during the day: Find a way to make game development as fun as playing games, a way that fits you personally, and you won’t worry about wasting time ever. 

Unlearning and Relearning: Rediscovering the Joy of Learning

There’s something called “un-learning”, and it’s something you should apply to your own process. We have been coded by the education system to learn stuff in a certain way, but for you to be able to get into game development in a way that is fun for you, you need to let go of what you think you know and open yourself up to new learning techniques that cater to your individual preferences and learning styles. Maybe watching tutorial videos gets your creative juices flowing, or perhaps you prefer hands-on experimentation. Whatever works for you, embrace it with open arms.

And guess what? Through this process of unlearning, you’ll rediscover the joy of learning itself. No longer bound by a structured and inflexible environment, you’ll have the freedom to explore and experiment, paving your path in the world of game development. By doing this you will also start building your own style, the thing that will make you a unique figure in the industry.

For me, it’s a mix of short video tutorials on YouTube, from how to handle a Cinemachine to creating a combo system for a 2D platformer, and asking AI for help with certain roadblocks. Github’s Copilot AI has been my coding guide during most of the times when I’ve struggled to understand how to handle something code-related, for example, to understand how Dictionaries and Enums work in Unity. And I’ve dabbled a bit with Unity Muse to ask for more general questions on structure and debugging things. 

For example, I was practicing my skills by making a metroidvania game and I got a functional player character with all movement set up, enemies, traps, level design, and all, but I ran into a problem where my player character died immediately after I hit play mode. I spent 3 days trying to find the problem (Also, 3 days because I had to distribute my time between working 2 jobs, spending time with my wife and son, and taking care of the house). After an hour of chatting with Muse, I was able to figure out that I had unintentionally checked the “Destroy if not emitting” on a trail renderer that was attached to the player game object. It was frustrating to spend so much time on such a dumb mistake, but it also felt rewarding being able to solve it, much similar to playing any Souls game: It’s hard, but part of what makes it fun is the struggle, then the rush of dopamine after being able to overcome it. 

Find your way to learn, practice, and work on game development fun, it will make the difference between struggling to actually enjoying it.

Navigating the Struggles and Ideas: A Community of Support

Creating games can be a rollercoaster ride of emotions. You’ll encounter imposter syndrome, self-doubt, motivation issues, and creative blocks that feel impossible to overcome. But fear not, for you are not alone.

Online communities are your secret weapon in this quest. Remember that you are not alone, and you are not the first to have these same troubles. Surround yourself with fellow game developers who understand your struggles and can provide support, guidance, and endless inspiration. Share your ideas, ask for feedback, and bask in the warm glow of a like-minded community cheering you on.

Reddit and Discord have been my personal places to find such groups, and among them, being able to work as part of the core team at the Jili 77 & Scatter Game Academy has been my main motivator to continue pursuing this path. There’s something magical about being part of a place that influences the careers and lives of people in such a meaningful way, and being able to see those changes personally, makes you feel capable of anything. 

But wait, there’s more! 

Seek out mentorship and collaboration opportunities, networking is the name of the game. Find a seasoned game developer who can guide you through the treacherous terrains and share their wisdom. Collaborate with other aspiring creators to bring your ideas to life, join game jams to practice your skills, and collaborate with new people. 

The Triumph of Creation: The Reward of Perseverance

Now, picture this: you’ve conquered countless challenges, overcome fears and insecurities, and poured your heart and soul into creating your very own game. It may be small. It may be simple. But let me tell you, my friend, that sense of accomplishment is like reaching the highest score on an arcade machine.

When you’ve conquered the initial challenges, and not only found your personal way to move forward into this industry but also overcame all the inevitable blocks that you’ve stumbled upon along the way and finally, after pouring your heart and soul into creating your very first game, the sense of accomplishment is one of the best feelings in the world. The game may be small, and simple, but that’s not relevant. If you enjoyed the process, then that is literally all that matters. Remember that what matters is that you continue doing this over and over (No master was born in a day after all) and with time and practice you can be the best that ever was. 

Perseverance and dedication are key. In the beginning, you’ll feel like all of your time gets consumed by learning how to do every little thing, and with how many things you will have to learn before you become an expert, it is natural to feel like you’ve undertaken a daunting task, but even before you get there, you will get that feeling of accomplishment when you create something that you feel satisfied with the additional satisfaction that you did this in your own terms, not subjected by a stiff syllabus. 

You’ve embraced the learning process, you’ve sought support from your game development comrades, and now you stand proudly as a game creator. Whether your game is played by millions or enjoyed by a small circle of friends, celebrate the journey you’ve undertaken.

And don’t forget to revel in the small victories along the way. Every bug fixed, every level designed, and every line of code written is a step closer to your ultimate goal. Toast to your achievements, big and small.

Pick up your tools, sharpen your skills, and create the game you’ve always dreamed of, you are now in the best era that there ever was to get started. 

You won’t be alone in the process: Like you and me, there’s also a whole lot of people that are right in the middle of it (Like, what is a Scriptable Object supposed to be?). 

Let’s get started, my friend. 

Greetings! If you’re reading this article, you are surely wondering how to make your way into the wonderful industry that is games. You also have no doubt seen and heard and perhaps experienced what a challenging place it is to break into.

Well! Never fear! My name is Willem Delventhal and I’m here to help you out. I’m a veteran game developer and designer and I also happen to run the Jili 77 & Scatter Game Academy, a gamified online school for game developers. Through our work there we have now helped over 3,000 students build games, many of them starting their own studios or joining existing ones. In addition, we’ve now interviewed over 100 industry experts on our podcast, including designers, recruiters and hiring managers, and we’ve noticed some trends in the advice they have to give.

What are those tips? Well! You’ve probably heard them all before! But we have some fresh perspectives and resources for you. We hope they act as the push you need to pave your own beautiful, gamey path.

So! Let’s begin! Here are the top three tips we have both seen and heard will help you break into the video game industry.

Continuously Build Your Portfolio

Fun fact! If you want to work in the game industry, you need to make games! (Who would have guessed?) Junior roles now expect you to to have a few released titles to your name, preferably to actual stores for actual dollars, to gain entry level jobs.

This can be a little frustrating and I totally get why. “Entry Level” sure does seem to imply that you don’t need anything to get started. But in an age with incredibly powerful tools, game engines and tutorials at your fingertips, there really is nothing stopping you from gaining experience without a job.

Nathan Kellman, a recent guest on our podcast, actually secured his first industry job in part because he essentially formed his own indie studio back in school. Him and a few friends started working on Mantra back in 2017. Now the project has 50+ people working on it, almost entirely on a volunteer basis, where everyone is just there to gain experience. Nathan went on to get hired at Lost Boys Interactive and contributed to friggen’ Diablo 4 of all things.

So yeah. Make Games!

Game jams are your friends on this one. Basically anyone can fit a quick game jam into a weekend. But of course the more time you devote, the better. CONSTANTLY work on personal projects. Try to keep them fun, but think of them too as showcases and practice exercises. Find team members you like (which is only done through trial and error) and hold them near and dear.

Once you have these games, put them in an attractive portfolio website that focusses on released titles and outlining how you contributed to them. Portfolios alone are stupid valuable, with hover.blog putting 71% of hiring managers defining them as “very important” for a candidate.

Here is a student of ours who has a simple, strong portfolio for you to copy from. Put up your best 3-5 games with a separate page that lists the rest, and continuously build new games and add the best to your portfolio site on a regular basis!

Ludum Dare is the most well recognized jam

The Global Gam Jam is beloved too

Itch.io has a bunch of great jams

Network Like Crazy

After some frankly depressing math from Amir Satvat, the sweetheart of the game industry, it has become clear that you have a less than 1% chance to land a job from a cold application. IE an application through an automated service like the company website or LinkedIn itself where nobody at the company refers you.

Up to 80% of game industry jobs are filled by referral. Basically, somebody who knows somebody who works at the company is vastly more likely to get the job than somebody who doesn’t. Every job I’ve ever had in games has been at least in part thanks to a referral.

Growing and tapping into your network is absolutely PIVOTAL to landing a job in games

Go to events, in person and online. Hand out business cards. When you meet somebody cool, ask for their contact info. Email them afterwords and offer to buy them a coffee, virtually or IRL. Ask for advice. Use LinkedIn to cold-call cool people and start a conversation. Then keep those connections alive.

Any time you apply for a job, especially one you’re keen for, I want you to come back to LinkedIn and find at least three 2nd or 1st connections who know somebody at the company. Ask them for an intro, and work your way in.

Meetup is great for in-person groups

Maybe find your local IGDA chapter

Discord Groups are A+

Oh hey, come join IGA!

Apply Aggressively

And the last step. Assuming you now have a pretty solid looking portfolio and a strong network you can ask for help, I want you to go hard as absolute heck when actually applying for roles.

First, let’s talk volume. If you can, I want you to apply for a minimum of 10 jobs per week. And ideally, if you can handle it and find the jobs, I want you to apply for even more.

Track these jobs in a simple spreadsheet. Include progress, contact info, and any useful notes. Reach back out to these applications once a week until you get a definitive “yes” or “no.” When you do get a “no”, be thankful and polite, and ask for any tips or advice the recruiter may have. Ask them if you can reach back out to them in the future, and ask to be considered for future roles.

And yes, you need cover letters

When you do apply, always write a personalized cover letter. I have a formula where every one of my cover letters is three paragraphs long, and the first and third paragraphs are the generally same for every letter, meaning I only need to write a few sentences for the second paragraph per application.

Join the Discord/community space of studios you really want to work for and become a valuable community member. See if you can’t get some chat time with devs. Work. Your. Way. In. Be persistent, and try to enjoy the entire process.

Oh and one last thing, consider working outside of games first. Nobody wants to hear that, but if you can work especially in tech in the same or similar role you would work in games, this makes you a better candidate for future games jobs.

Oftentimes it is those who are unrelenting that get the job. Here are a few places to find roles:

Work With Indies

Remote Game Jobs

Amir Satvat’s Games Jobs Directory

LinkedIn Jobs

Tech Jobs on Blind

And there you have it

There you have it. Three things you can do right this instant to increase your odds of breaking into games, even during these crazy days.

Join a game jam or two to build some high quality, portfolio games. Once you find a few people you like, pick the best and build a few long form games with them, 2-4 months each. Then put the top 3-5 finished, released games on an attractive portfolio.

Network with cool people and ask for their advice and their help. Be humble and grateful, but be persistent.

And finally, don’t wait, apply now, and apply aggressively.

I wish you well on your journey, dear adventurer. Follow me here if you want more optimistic game dev content, and future tips.

Your forever Gandalf,

Willem

Understanding Game Design One Pagers

A game design one-pager is like the cheat code of game development. It’s a concise, (usually) one-page document that captures the essence of your game design. Think of it as your game’s backstage pass, allowing you to communicate your vision with clarity and confidence.

Why is this important, you ask? Effective communication is like the secret sauce in the game development industry. One-pagers enable you to convey your game’s vision, core features, and unique selling points to various stakeholders. Whether you’re chatting with team members, investors, or publishers, a well-crafted one-pager will be one of your most powerful tools.

The Key Components of a Game Design One Pager

Now, let’s break it down. Your one-pager should have all the juicy details that make your game shine. We’re talking about game concept, target audience, gameplay mechanics, story/setting, art style, and monetization strategy. Each component is like a puzzle piece that contributes to the bigger picture of your game design.

But remember, brevity is key. You don’t want your one-pager to turn into a GDD. Keep it concise and clear, and watch those heads nod in agreement.

The Process of Creating a Game Design One Pager

Ready for some hands-on action? Crafting a game design one-pager takes a step-by-step approach. First things first, research and concept development. Dive deep into the gaming universe and come up with a killer idea that will make players go wild.

But hold your horses. The process doesn’t end there. Iterations and revisions are your trusty companions on this journey. Refine your one-pager until it accurately reflects the heart and soul of your game. It’s totally normal to go through multiple versions. We’ve all been there, tweaking and twerking until we hit the sweet spot.

Pro tip: Organize information like a pro, sprinkle visuals that pack a punch, and don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through. After all, this is your game we’re talking about.

Conclusion

Embrace the power of concise and compelling one-pagers as your secret weapon. They’ll streamline your message, unite your team, and bring your game’s vision to life. Remember, every game development master started somewhere, and this is your moment to shine.

And hey, don’t forget to grab the Game Design One Pager Template we’ve prepared for you, and its image version on Canva. Now go forth, create amazing one-pagers, and conquer the gaming world, we are cheering you on!

Challenges of having your own indie game studio.

Being an indie game studio owner is not without its challenges. One of the biggest challenges faced by indie game studios is limited resources. Unlike big game development studios, indie game studios don’t have the luxury of a large budget, a team of hundreds, or state-of-the-art technology. This means that indie game studios have to be creative in their approach to game development, and they often have to wear multiple hats in order to get things done. For example, the lead developer might also be responsible for game design, art, and sound effects.

Now on, marketing and promotion is another major challenge for indie game studios. With thousands of games being released every day, it can be hard to get noticed in the crowded market. Indie game studios have to work hard to create a buzz around their games and build a community of fans. This can be done through social media, email marketing, and content marketing, but it requires a lot of time and effort.

Also keep in mind indie game studios rely on game sales for revenue, which means that they have to create games that are not only fun and engaging, but also commercially viable.

How to build your own indie game studio

Before you start your indie game studio, it’s important to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. What kind of games do you want to create? What’s your target audience? What’s your business model? Answering these questions will help you develop a roadmap for your studio.

Build a Team

Building a team is essential to the success of your indie game studio. You’ll need developers, artists, designers, and possibly writers. Look for people who share your vision and have the skills to bring your ideas to life. Consider partnering with other developers or freelancers to start, and as your studio grows, you can hire full-time employees.

Choose the Right Tools

Choosing the right tools can make a big difference in your game development process. You’ll need game engines, development software, graphic tools and more. Do your research and choose tools that are easy to use and cost-effective. There are many free and open-source tools available that can help you get started without breaking the bank.

Establish a Business Entity

To establish your indie game studio as a legitimate business, you’ll need to establish a business entity. This can be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a limited liability company (LLC). Each option has its own benefits and drawbacks, so make sure to do your research and choose the one that’s right for you.

Secure Funding

Securing funding is essential to the success of your indie game studio. You’ll need money to cover the costs of development, marketing, and distribution. There are several ways to secure funding, including crowdfunding, investors, and grants. Make sure to create a detailed business plan and pitch your ideas to potential investors.

Create a Marketing Plan

Creating a marketing plan is crucial to the success of your indie game studio. You’ll need to build a community around your games and create a buzz before they’re released. Social media, email marketing, and content marketing can all be effective ways to promote your games.

Conclusion

In conclusion, establishing your own indie game studio can be a challenging but rewarding experience. By following these tips, you can increase your chances of success and create unique and engaging games that stand out in a crowded market. Good luck!

Make sure to join our discord community!

The top 3 tips to help you break into the video game industry, developed with hundreds of graduates from the Jili 77 & Scatter Game Academy.

— # 3: Apply now, and cast a wide net —

I run into many fresh developers who stop themselves from applying for dream jobs for one reason or another. They say their resume isn’t polished enough, or that they need to revamp their portfolio website, or that they need to edit their cover letter etc etc

Those things will help you get the job, yes. But those dream jobs you aren’t applying for disappear pretty quickly. Let them decide if you’re the right person for the job. You always have a chance, however small, and you start to get better at applying the more you do it.

Additionally, apply for jobs you are underqualified for and that aren’t quite what you’re looking for. It’s not unusual for a recruiter who likes you to pass you on to another position (it happened to me!) and it’s always easier to break in with a horizontal move.

— # 2: Network like crazy, and get creative —

Something like 80% of open job positions in the game industry are filled by somebody who knows somebody at the company. While somewhat frustrating, this fact is a powerful tool for those who know how to wield it.

You’d be amazed at how many people will give you advice if you… wait for it… just ask! Use LinkedIn, Twitter and other tools to look up employees of your favorite businesses, and simply strike up conversation.

Don’t be salesy, and be eternally grateful for any help they offer. And remember, this is a numbers game. It only takes one person to respond to change your life.

— # 1: Make games, and release them —

And now for the most important, most secret piece of advice I can give. If you want to work on games, you have to build games.

I got my very first industry job in part because my hiring manager had played one of my games. Recruiters and your potential coworkers can and will play your content. So build good games, and release them somewhere to be played! Then be sure to include the best ones on your resume and portfolio.

Itch.io is a phenomenal tool for releasing games with minimal effort, and it hosts many game jams to get you inspired too.

— Closing —

And that’s it! My top three tips for breaking into the game industry: Apply Now, Network and Make Games. All advice that you have probably heard before. Which is good, because that means they’re true!

What about you? What game could you build in under two weeks? Who could you reach out to that would be exciting to chat with? How many applications will you send this week?

I’d love to know what your own tips are to break in. Share them with everyone down below!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about managing remote teams in which I mentioned “Celebration” as one of my top three tips. Today one of our community members asked me how I go about celebrating my team and keep them motivated. Here are a few ideas!

1. Call out and recognize the accomplishments of your team members:

Always be sure to call out cool stuff that people do. For instance, I’m consistently careful to mention who came up with ideas when talking to others, especially leadership. “Oh yeah this new system we’re building, which was Surya’s idea, is…” Also do this when talking to them 1 on 1. “I noticed that you added a new Discord channel and people seem to love it. Great work!” And finally, encourage them to do this for each other. This will happen naturally as you show it to be the norm, but you can speed it along by simply asking. “Did you see what Surya did? It was pretty epic!”

2. Compliment sandwiches actually work:

Compliment sandwiches, where you give a compliment followed by feedback followed by a compliment, work remarkably well for adults, not just for kindergartners. And it makes sense. We tend to remember “firsts” and “lasts” but everything in between gets a little grey. when you need to tell somebody that something needs improvement, start by telling them something they’re doing well. Then get into what could be improved, and frame it as such. It’s not a failure, it’s an opportunity for something even more epic. And finally finish with acknowledgement of their successes.

3. Sprint Celebrations:

If you are familiar with the concept of “Sprint Planning” (a scrum technique where the team decides what tasks need doing for the next two weeks) you’re also probably familiar with “Sprint Closing.” In a typical Sprint Closing people show what work they’ve done to hold everyone more accountable.

I often do what I call “Sprint Celebrations” instead. Instead of making it about accountability, make it about celebrating each other. Let everyone know that this meeting, usually about an hour, is exclusively to showcase what amazing stuff everyone accomplished. “Surya! What cool stuff did you build this week?” Add some clapping and jokes and suddenly you have an event people look forward to where they know they’ll get kudos from the team, instead of a chance for people to scrutinize them.

4. Make it fun:

And finally, just remember to enjoy your time working together. This means very different things for different people. My older brother loves an environment where people are kind of jerks to each other, but in fun way. Other people wouldn’t necessarily like that, but it worked for him and his team. So figure out what makes the work environment fun for your team, and then build towards that. Be a little silly where you can, and always stay patient and kind.

That’s all I have to say about celebrating for now! What are your ideas to encourage a culture of celebration?

A new age question I hear a lot is “How do I run a remote team?”

Well! It’s a tricky one. But I am pleased to say that I have run a heck of a lot of teams entirely online, for the most part successfully. As I sit here sipping my coffee, I have compiled 3 quick hints for you to do it yourself well.

Hint the first: Autonomy First

One of the greatest challenges for remote teams is staying coherent and organized. In a classic office setting you can simply walk over to somebody’s desk and collaborate with them, or check for that thing you really need right this second. In online teams, however, people can and will ghost you.

So how do you keep everyone on task? Honestly, I have found that giving a high degree of autonomy has worked best for my teams. At first I would meet regularly with team members, check in on their work, ask what they needed. But more and more I’ve realized that by empowering them to seek out help when they need it, and otherwise letting them get to work, your employees and coworkers will really shine.

Hint the second: Fewer, more flexible meetings

In my first online startup I met with my team members once every morning, plus a 1 on 1 once every two weeks, plus an all hands once a week. Yeahhh. They hated it. And so did I, honestly.

These days I much prefer checking in with each other digitally, and saving meetings for the big stuff. The schedule I have found that works best is:

– One team-wide meeting to kickoff the Sprint at the start of a two week timeframe
– One 1 on 1 with my three core team members per Sprint (every two weeks)
– One “Sprint Celebration” at the end of the Sprint to showcase what we each achieved in the past two weeks.

This winds up meaning I only have 5 meetings with my team every two weeks. We of course wind up with an ad-hoc meeting here and there, and we collaborate extensively on our Discord, and they meet with each other as well. But Just 5 meetings cover 90% of what we need. Crazy, right?

Hint the third: Celebrate

Did you know that we tend to remember those things that have high emotional impact on us? This is why you can’t remember what you had for dinner last night, but you can remember that embarrassing thing that happened to you 15 years ago.

In our classrooms at the Jili 77 & Scatter Game Academy we ask all of our students to adhere to three Core Agreements, and the second of these is “Celebrate.”

By celebrating the successes of your team members and making sure to call out these successes to the rest of the team, you build a greater sense of camaraderie and kinship, which is critical in an online team.

And by the way, be sure to celebrate failures too. “X didn’t work, but we sure learned a lot!”

And that’s all for now

So you’ve decided to build a game. You have your genre, gameplay loop, visual theme, and monetization strategy down pat. All you need to do now is sit down and start writing… the story.

Yes, the story. Yes, even if you’re not working on an RPG, visual novel, or point-and-click adventure game. And yes, even if your game’s a simple platformer, or multiplayer FPS.

Story’s more important to a game than you think. It’s easy to look at the often toxic backlash against story-focused video games (especially with so-called “walking simulators”) and conclude that narrative must be a new thing in gaming, and, therefore—by extension—that both are mutually exclusive. Quotes like John Carmack’s infamous quip likening stories in games to stories in porn certainly don’t help, either.

With all due respect to Mr. Carmack (and none to toxic players who can’t fathom the existence of games that don’t cater to their exact tastes), this is totally bogus thinking. Video games and stories are intertwined, and they have been since the medium’s earliest days.

Decades before insecure fanboys started wailing against the developers of “walking simulators” for centering story and leaving out challenge, competition, and “traditional” gameplay, Sierra and LucasArts adopted the exact same approach for their point-and-click adventures. Not only have these titles’ pedigrees as “video games” never been called into question, players of a certain age consider them essential, “must-play” entries in the gaming canon.

Even before then, text-based adventures like Zork were bestsellers as far back in 1976. And going back even further, the tabletop games which directly preceded video games were story-centered as well. Even Chess, the grandaddy of modern board games, is an abstraction of a medieval power struggle.

True, a game should primarily be a game—you should never elevate narrative at the expense of the gameplay that makes your game fun to play. It’s also true that several early gaming classics got away with either a basic story or no story at all, yet weren’t any less fun for it (Super Mario Bros. Comes to mind).

That said, if you lack the AAA-scale budget required to create hyper-realistic, 8K ray-traced, sprawling open worlds, the easiest and most effective vehicle to immerse your players into your game is its narrative. A good story is also a sure-fire way to ensure players find the experience of playing your game meaningful, and will remember it for years (even decades) afterwards.

If you don’t believe me, look at every Game of the Year award throughout the past ~15 years, and notice how many of them cite these games’ well-crafted stories.

But… there’s a problem.

You’re not a “writer.” You haven’t written a story since your high school English class. Dammit, Jim, you’re a coder/designer/producer/etc., not a narrative guy!

Well, don’t despair! For I am here to give you a few storytelling “hacks” that will give your game’s narrative a huge creative jolt, yet are accessible enough that literally anyone can use them. Best of all, these hacks are either free, or incur a trivially nominal cost.

1. Remember Your Three “3”’s

These are your 3 Essential Story Elements, 3 Act Structure, and 3 Style Essentials.

The 3 Essential Story Elements are Setting, Characters, and Plot.

Setting simply means “world.” The world your story takes place in—whether it’s our current, present-day world, our world in another past or alternate era, or a galaxy far, far away.

Characters are the agents which figure into your story. Whether they’re protagonists, antagonists, foils, NPCs, humans, elves, aliens, or whatnot, building believable characters is essential to writing a good story.

Plot is the story itself—the sequence of events that leads to your protagonist (lead character) achieving their goal.

The 3 Act Structure is the simplest, most hassle-free way to structure your plot. You divide your story into three acts: Introduction (Act 1), Conflict (Act 2), and Resolution (Act 3). As the story progress, the plot’s main conflict gradually escalates until it reaches the climax at the end of Act 2 / beginning of Act 3 (in a video game, this would be the final boss fight). Once the climax is resolved, use the remainder of Act 3 to quickly wrap up the story.

The 3 Style Essentials will help you write simple, clear, and believable dialogue, exposition, and even UI prompts. The 3 Style Essentials are Voice, Tone, and Readability.

Voice refers to how different characters talk. Think about it. Some stuffy and posh aristocrat is going to speak very differently than a salt-of-the-earth factory worker, even if they’re speaking the same language. Hence, they speak with different voices.

Tone refers to how a single character speaks in a particular context. I’m going to assume you don’t speak to your grandmother the same way you speak to your friends. You speak to each in a different tone.

Readability is simply remembering to write in a way that sounds true to the character, and accessible to the reader—not to make yourself sound smart. To test this, have a friend read your script. If they have to pull out a dictionary at any point, your writing’s not readable enough.

BONUS HACK: If you’re writing in English and are struggling with writing more simply or concisely, try and use words with Germanic roots instead of Latin roots. To illustrate, we’ll use a popular nursery rhyme:

“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream…” [Germanic Roots]

“Propel, propel, propel your vessel, delicately across the estuary basin…” [Latin Roots]

See the difference? Now, this tip applies to English speakers, because English is a Germanic language. If you’re writing in another language, then make sure you choose words from the same language family.

2. For Worldbuilding, use World Anvil and Inkarnate

There is no writer worth their clicks that isn’t concerned with setting. And setting is one of those things that sounds really easy, but is actually really hard to do correctly.

Regardless of what setting you’re building—fantastical, realistic, or anywhere in between—you must always ensure that the world you create is internally consistent.

As an example: if you’re building a megalopolis in the desert, you’d better be able to explain (at least to yourself) how said city makes sure its population has enough to drink. Do they tap into an aquifer? If it’s a coastal city, does it have rows of desalination plants? Does it import water by the truckload, or pipe it in from elsewhere in the realm? Based on the recommended daily water consumption of 8 cups per day, how much water would it need to sustain a population of 20 million? What ramifications does this have to the city’s economy? What happens when the water exporter experiences a severe drought or political instability, and stops exporting this water? What political and military apparatus is in place to deal with potential unrest? Is there a precedent for such an event in the city’s history?

…it’s a lot to think about, isn’t it? Fortunately, while you DO have to think about these things, you DON’T need to include them all in your game. In fact, you should only bring in around 4% (ideally) to 10% (max) of the world you create into your game.

Still, if the very thought of hashing out these details is giving you a headache, fear not! Here are three hacks for you to try out:

First: Get organized. There are dozens of world building checklists and worksheets that’ll make sure you think of everything you need to think of. World Anvil is my go-to, but if you’re a minimalist, all you TRULY need is a pen and paper (or word processor).

Second: Create a map. Don’t underestimate how useful this is. Actually SEEING your world will give you a visual reference point for all your world building. And as a bonus, you can reuse your map as an asset in your game! Not a cartographer? Sign up for Inkarnate—creating a map has never been easier.

Third: Play Civilization. Pick a random map, random opponents, and random settings. Then, after each turn, write down a historical chronicle of what happened with your fictional civilization. By the time you reach the endgame, you’ll have a full-fledged timeline that can serve as your lore anchor.

3. For Character Creation, use a Tarot Deck

Ok, now hear me out here. I know this sounds a little woo-woo coo-koo. Whether or not you believe in the Tarot as a tool of divination is entirely up to you. Regardless, it doesn’t change the Tarot’s power and versatility when it comes to character creation.

Why does the Tarot work so well for characterization? Because it’s based on archetypal imagery. Archetypes like the Fool, the Wizard, and the Ruler transcend cultural and temporal barriers, appearing in mythologies and folklore throughout the world, through the eons. 

So, how do you use the Tarot to create characters? Well, first you need to study up on the Tarot, because its imagery is very much wide open to interpretation, and can be hard to decipher at first.

Once you’ve got a good feel for it, lay out 8 cards, starting with the first card in the middle, then forming a counter-clockwise circle with the rest. The cards are as follows:

1. What ties them to the story (love, money, revenge, etc)
2. Their hobbies
3. Their greatest desire
4. Their biggest fear
5. Their greatest strengths
6. Their goal(s)
7. Their shadow side
8. Their biggest weakness (or internal obstacle)

Presto! By the way, feel free to adopt this draw to suit your style. For instance, combining Tarot with astrology is another popular method. None of this advice is set in stone, so make sure whatever you’re using works for YOU.

4. For Plot, use Story Cubes/Cards

Ok, so you’ve got your characters, and you’ve placed them in a setting. Now, what to do with them? Well, if you’re telling a story, you place them in a situation where they want something, but some external (or, sometimes, internal) force is preventing them from obtaining it. Bonus points if overcoming said obstacle involves your character(s) reckoning with or overcoming one of their flaws, traumas, or other shadows.

Really, as long as you’ve structured your plot properly (say, according to the 3 Act Structure I mentioned earlier), then it’s just a matter of placing your character in different situations where they have to overcome obstacles by way of personal growth.

But if you don’t know WHAT situations would work, try using story cubes to jog those creative juices. These are dice with cute little pictures on each side. Roll these dice, and try building a plot out of all the pictures you roll.

You may not end up using all (or even most) of them, but this is a great way to get started—or to break out of a rut down the line.

5. For Outlining, use Twine

I won’t say anything to you gifted writers who can just sit down and hammer out a novel from start to finish. You can simply skip ahead to the next entry.

But for those of us who aren’t that talented and need to plan and outline their stories in advance, let me let you in on something: Twine is your best friend.

Twine is a game engine built for narrative-driven, interactive-fiction type games. Think branching narratives, “Choose Your Own Adventure,” that sort of stuff. It’s not the only such engine, and it can be VERY buggy and temperamental. But it does have one feature to rule them all: VISUALIZATION.

Yes, with Twine, you can visualize your sequence of scenes—branches and all—with the click of a button. It’s an incredibly helpful feature, especially if you’re more of a visual person, or the narrative’s getting too complicated to follow through text alone.

Best of all, it’s free!

6. To get good at narrative, play a TTRPG

This here is the biggest hack for all you budding interactive storytellers: if you want to learn narrative design—like, REALLY learn it—play a tabletop roleplaying game. Think D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wards, etc.

Better yet, become a DM/GM, write a campaign, and execute that campaign from start to finish.

Seriously. It’ll teach you EVERYTHING you need to know about narrative design.

It’ll teach you about world building. And characterization. And story structure. And most importantly, it’ll quickly get you used to the reality that players will almost never do what you expect them to do—and give you the tools to anticipate and adapt to this.

So if you’re serious about becoming a narrative designer, get thee to a D&D Discord server (or inquire at your friendly neighborhood game store) and start roleplaying!

(Oh, and actually create a narrative-driven game. You can do it with Twine in a matter of hours. There’s no substitute for experience.)

—

Want more storytelling tips? I am collaborating with my fellow writers at IGA to host a panel that’ll cover everything writing—characters, setting, plot, actually writing the script and UI, and game-specific narrative trends like environmental storytelling. To stay tuned, be sure to sign up for the IGA mailing list!

In the Game Designer’s Pokedex of prototyping techniques, Word Prototyping is the Caterpie. Small, approachable, easy to train and grow. Accessible by pretty much everyone. But also not particularly powerful or exciting, and not used by a terribly high number of trainers. 

A Word Prototype is one of the simplest prototyping techniques out there, and it involves pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Rather than coding an actual playable version of the game, AKA a Digital Prototype, and rather than getting crafty with a representative mockup of the game, AKA a Paper Prototype, the Designer simply invents some stuff on the fly and speaks it out loud. 

Okay that may be a bit of a simplification, but for the most part it’s true. A Word Prototype is simply a game concept that is actually playable, but only via auditory or written input and output. Most of the time this comes in the form of a multi-choice story or narrative that the Designer delivers to testers either out-loud or in written form.

For example, the Designer might have a cool new idea for a narrative arc in one of their games. Let’s call it Obegron Trail. It’s a remake of the classic game Oregon Trail, only in space. Because everything is better in space.

The Designer can quite quickly, often in under an hour, put together a Word Prototype that a tester could actually play. The Designer would generally start with a little world building. “Welcome to Obegron Trail! You are a space pioneer aboard a space covered wagon being pulled by some mystical space oxen. You are on a quest to follow manifest destiny, and reach the golden land of space California where you hope to find mountains of space gold.”

But this is a game, after all, and what is a game without player autonomy and choice? So the Designer moves on and starts to get the tester actually playing the game. “You start by choosing your profession. You can either be a space engineer, a space doctor, or a space janitor. Engineers can fix anything but are awful socially, everyone hates space doctors but they have massive quantities of space bucks, and space janitors are just solid, middle of the road people. Which do you choose?”

Along the way, the Designer takes the auditory input from the tester and actually incorporates it into the game. This helps give the tester some meaningful choices, and allows them to experience something vaguely approximating the fully published game concept. I have seen this used for a number of different types of games, not just narrative focused ones. For instance, I once saw a Designer use it to test a fantasy escape room concept. The tester started in a locked prison cell and had to tell the Designer what they wanted to do to escape. The Designer would then respond with what happened in the attempt. 

It wound up playing a lot like an old-school text adventure game, a la Zork or Gnome Ranger, and by the end of the session the tester was giggling with excitement because they somehow managed to seduce a guard to help them escape. This helped to confirm that it was a promising game concept and was worth investing more time into. 

You’d be surprised at the kinds of games you can put through this test. Puzzle games can be reduced to just a few meaningful choices that mimic the eventual puzzle gameplay. Strategy games can be reduced to just the barebones decisions that a player would make in a full, live action game. “You have 50 wood and 25 gold, but only enough time to build one building. Which do you build?” And so many other interesting ones. It’s a nifty little tool, and I highly recommend adding it to your tool-chest.  

If you’re still unsure of what a Word Prototype looks like, there is an example of a fully playable Word Prototype at the end of this chapter. You may well recognize the concept.

Pros of Word Prototypes

The primary benefit of the Word Prototype is first and foremost time investment. An old mentor of mine, John Nelson Rose, who at the time of writing this is a Senior Technical Manager at EA, used to make up Word Prototypes on the fly. So his time investment per prototype was literally however long he’d spend playing the game with people. Remember that a big part of our job as Game Designers is to validate concepts as fun and therefore lower risk. Risk can be summarized as, “wasted time and money,” and so if you can spend 15 minutes to validate an idea before even investing in a full prototype, you can save a lot of time.

I also find that Word Prototypes tend to really activate the imagination of testers. Because they aren’t presented with any kind of graphical indication of how the game will look or play, the tester’s brain is free to fill in the blanks. This simple fact means you get tons of ideas of how to build the game that often vary dramatically. When you think about it, the console that the game is being played on is the mind of the tester, and therefore the game will look and play very differently in different people’s minds.

The final major benefit of a Word Prototype is that virtually anyone can make one on their own. With bulkier Digital Prototypes at least one engineer usually needs to be present to build a playable test of the game. This often also involves Artists, Sound Designers, Game Designers and more. And even with the smaller Paper Prototype, this often includes some visual design work that not every team member is capable of. But with a Word Prototype, anyone with a vocabulary and a spark of creativity can throw some words on a piece of paper and have a blast testing. 

Cons of Word Prototypes

Alas, poor Caterpie, for they never seem to make it in the big leagues, do they? While many of my students at the Jili 77 & Scatter Game Academy love Word Prototyping for the fun and ease of production, they are truly unlikely to be found in established studios. The simple fact of the matter is: the data you get from Word Prototypes is wildly inaccurate. Think of that second pro I mentioned above: that because there is no visual data, people interpret the concept very differently from what the final product winds up actually being. This means Word Prototypes are riddled with false positives. 

You may have thought Obegron Trail was a fun concept, but that is probably because your brain immediately filled the gaps in the prototype with exactly what you would want to see created. Our tendency to imagine our ideal version of Word Prototypes means that they are virtually never used alone. Even if a concept looks promising when testing in this way, it is essential that you then take the time to further test it. This may mean building out a full Digital Prototype anyway. This means those hours you saved could well become hours wasted instead.

Word Prototypes are also pretty awful at mimicking a wide variety of game types. They work well for pretty much anything that is narrative heavy and are decent for anything turn based, but the minute you get more complicated than that it becomes very difficult to translate the concept into a Word Prototype. Not impossible, but imagine trying to make one for Call of Duty.

When to use Word Prototypes

That being said, this doesn’t make them unusable, and I am a firm believer that they should be used more often than they currently are. Give the Caterpie its day, people! For instance, you COULD collect some data on the next Call of Duty. Say you’re trying to decide on the introduction to this new game. You could say, “You’ve just recovered from your drop out of the helicopter, and rounding the corner in front of you is a guard, armed to the teeth. He doesn’t seem to have noticed you yet. What do you do?”

For the most part, I find Word Prototypes most useful when used internally to validate ideas that you’re on the fence about. They are a quick way for Game Designers to bounce ideas off of their team members, and especially other Game Designers. “Hey Bob, I have this cool new idea for the boss fight. Can I walk you through a quick Word Prototype?” 

They are probably not a prototype that you will create for every single one of your concepts, but you might use them to help filter the last few stragglers. Let’s say you’ve brainstormed 50 ideas and used filtering techniques to reduce those to just 11. But your target is only 10 concepts, so you’ve got to eliminate one more. This is the perfect use case for Word Prototyping.

Make your own Word Prototype

Now that you have a white belt in Word Prototyping, it’s time to level you up to yellow, senpai. Let’s take you through the process of actually building one.

We have prepared both a Worksheet (You’ll find it at the end of this post) for you to use that will take you through the steps below as well as an example Word Prototype for you to check out.

Step 1: Choose a Concept to Word Prototype

First, you need to brainstorm. If you have never brainstormed before, that’s a deep enough exercise that I could cover it in an entirely different blog post. But for the sake of brevity: start by simply quantifying your constraints, and then give yourself say five minutes to write down as many ideas as you can. In this case, your constraint is simple: you must be able to play the game via a Word Prototype. Once you have some concepts, choose one that you’re excited about (or perhaps on the fence about) and that seems like a good candidate for a Word Prototype. Then write the concept on a piece of paper.

Choose your game concept now.

Step 2: Draw your Core Loop

Next, define the core loop of this concept. Remember that a core loop is a diagram of the actions the player takes over and over again in this game. If you’re familiar with a state machine, it’s similar. It’s a diagram of the states the player can enter into and how they get there. 

In Flappy Bird, a simplified core loop would be: jump, avoid pipes, get as far as you can. In Mario a simplified core loop would be: move right, jump over obstacles, ground pound enemies, collect coins, and reach the flag. 

Defining your core loop is useful for many reasons, but one of them is to make it easier to prototype. After defining your core loop, you know exactly what is most important to test in order to validate the concept. 

Draw your core loop now.

Step 3. Define your Testable Elements

A step often skipped by those who are fresh to prototyping is defining what information you wish to learn. Newbies will often spend days, weeks or months to make a playable version of their game and then just plop it in front of a player (or worse, themselves) and get generalized feedback.  While this is still valuable, you can accelerate the evolution of your little Caterpie by simply defining what you hope to learn from your Word Prototype. 

Remember that when prototyping a full game concept, you’re generally looking for three very important things: could this concept be fun, what are its magic moments, and what are its risks. Use these three prompts to help you think up what is most important to test. What are you worried might make this idea a bad one? What do you suspect could make it wonderful? Write down your top three testable elements now!

Write your top three three testable elements now.

Step 4. Create your Word Prototype!

Now that you have a game concept, a core loop to build the prototype from, and the top three things you want to prove or disprove about this concept, it’s time to write! Grab yourself some notebook paper or open up the doc we provided and get to work! Remember that the only differentiating factor for what makes a Word Prototype a Word Prototype is that our input and output channels are lingual. We use written and spoken words, with no visuals. 

Typically this means Word Prototypes wind up like a choose-your-own-adventure. Start by writing an introductory blurb. Tell the player about the setting, and give them a mental framework of the narrative you are trying to tell. 

Pretty quickly, within a paragraph or two, give them some kind of choice. Once they have chosen their path, progress the game forward a bit more. Explain new details, new events, etc. Ask them to make new decisions, and modify the outcomes of the game based upon those decisions. You can write down exactly what will happen given their different choices, or play it a little looser. 

In fact, if you have ever prepared or participated in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign (or other roleplaying system) you’ll feel right at home here. Word Prototyping is basically just roleplaying with a more professional fit, and the skills you apply to one definitely apply to the other. 

You want to set up enough detail to be able to easily play this game with a tester, but not so much detail that you waste a bunch of time writing things that never get surfaced. You can be very strict about choices, “You have options A, B or C” or you can be loose about it, “What do you do?” When you are more strict, you control the test better and get more specific data, but you also limit the player’s creativity. When you are more free form, you have to improvise responses more often, but get a wider breadth of feedback. 

If you’re still not sure how to handle writing your Word Prototype, skip the next section to see an example. You’ll find a fully filled out and playable Word Prototype that uses many interesting mechanics to get your brain juices flowing. 

Once you finish your Word Prototype, share it! You can post it in the celebrate_your_work channel in the Jili 77 & Scatter Game Academy Discord. Our community there is wonderful and you’ll quickly find yourself flooded with positive affirmations and feedback. You can also share it around using the hashtag: #igawordprototype to see other people’s Word Prototypes.

Step 5: Playtest your Word Prototype!

Now that you have a fully playable version of your game, find somebody who is willing to play! Just like Brainstorming, Playtesting is a massive concept to try to teach you in one small paragraph. I’ll have to write you another article soon!

In the meantime, the simple version is to: find someone to play, explain just enough about the game to get them playing, sit down and play together, try not to talk and only listen, finish playing, and finish by asking a few questions to answer your testable elements. 

Do that two or three times, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of whether or not this is a promising game concept! Remember, even if the game sucks, that’s a success! Another concept crossed off!

Wrap Up

So perhaps Caterpie is not so useless after all. They may not be the strongest, and the only useful skill they learn might be string shot, but they have a certain charm, don’t they? And they are immediately approachable, and easy to train. And hey, at least they aren’t a Metapod.

The Word Prototype is the simplest of the three major types of prototypes we will cover on this blog. They are made up of entirely spoken or written words, and offer a sort of gut check for concepts you are unsure about. They are extremely fast to create, and can even be made on the fly. This makes them a super low risk tool. However, they are also quite inaccurate, and hard to use on many types of games.  

In the end, my hope for our little Caterpie is that it gets brought out and used in more places! Perhaps not in all the places, but definitely the right ones. Caterpie won’t win the elite four for you, but it sure will help you get through those first few grassy patches, and maybe even level up your starter Pokemon along the way.

If you have enjoyed this article, this is actually one chapter of a book the author is writing on the Concept Validation Funnel, a process by which professional game designers choose the best possible game to work on. 

Should you want to get more chapters of this book free to your inbox, and hear about its progress, sign up for the Author’s Email List here.

Download our Word Prototype Worksheet here.

For the longest time, I thought game development wasn’t for me. Not because I didn’t think I’d enjoy it, but because I wasn’t a coder.

For most of my life, the word “developer” was synonymous with “coder” in my mind. It was only very recently that I realized that term was so much broader.

Suddenly, I could write for a game, and I’d be just as much of a game developer as a programmer or game designer. So I signed up for Jili 77 & Scatter Game Academy, and started learning the art and science of game development.

My team was recently in the prototyping phase, which meant I had to build a fully functional game prototype.

Wait, what?

Prototyping for Noobs

If you’re not familiar with game development, it’s easy think of a game prototype as a tech demo. At least, that’s what I thought. But as it turns out, that’s just one type of prototype: a digital prototype. There are two more: paper prototypes, and word prototypes.

Word prototypes are what they sound like—a written description of the game. These can be straightforwardly descriptive, or utilize a branching narrative (much like a Choose Your Own Adventure book) to simulate the gameplay loop. Word prototypes are the easiest to make, but generate the least useful data.

Think about it: a picture’s worth a thousand words, right? So imagine 30 pictures per second, for five minutes. There’s no comparison. Still, word prototypes will do in a pinch.

Still, if you lack time or coding skills but still need to make the right impression (and get better feedback), paper prototypes are where it’s at.

Paper prototypes are limited only by your imagination (although, depending on your needs, drawing skills would help immensely). Often, paper prototypes are exactly what they soundalike: analog reproductions of your project’s gameplay loop on paper or cardboard.

These can be as simple as a sequence of illustrated screens, or as elaborate as a full cardboard 3D mockup with moveable elements. And despite the name, they don’t have to live on paper. You can create a digital paper prototype, if you’re so inclined.

In my cohort, I saw some very creative paper prototypes, including one made on Figma—a whiteboarding app popular with graphic designers, but not one you’d usually think of for game prototyping.

But wait—I’m a writer. Why did I have to build a prototype? 

Well, besides being a great learning experience, I built it to help our team—House Warrior, aka WONDER WARRIORS (represent!)—to decide on a game idea.

During the initial brainstorming session, we spat out around 50 game ideas, which we narrowed down to 10, and then again to 5. 

There are five of us on the team, so we each chose our favorite of the five finalists, then built them over the weekend for our cohort to playtest in class (playtesting may well merit a future article).

So, here’s how I did it—in convenient list form!

Step One: Choose Your Weapon(s)

After I picked an idea to prototype—a VR Steampunk Airship Captain Simulator—I had to decide on what kind of prototype to build. I chose to do a paper prototype, and it was a fairly obvious decision—I reckon it will most likely be for you, too.

The decision after was far more consequential—what would I use to build the prototype? Living on the opposite side of the country as my teammates, an actual analog paper prototype was out of the question (my drawing leaves a lot to be desired, too). So I had to do a digital one.

But what could I use? I wasn’t a designer, so Figma would’ve been too steep a learning curve for what little time I had (and I didn’t yet know you could use it for prototyping, anyway). I couldn’t use a “traditional” game engine like Unity or Unreal, because—just in case it wasn’t clear—I’m not a coder. But professional-grade writing apps like Scrivener and Ulysses will turn out word prototypes, which I wasn’t going for.

Fortunately, I learned about several different game engines designed specifically for text-based games. Since I was—and still am—a writer, I could map out the gameplay loop in the engine, and then use my storytelling skills to paint a vivid and detailed picture in the player’s mind.

The two narrative engines I experimented with were Inky and Twine. Just like any game engine—or any tool, period—they each have pros and cons. I preferred Inky’s user experience, stability, and syntax. But ultimately, I went with Twine because it had a visual interface, allowing me to visualize each scene and how it linked to the others at a glance. Twine was much buggier and way more temperamental than Inky, and gave me more than a few headaches. But ultimately, it worked best for my own workflow.

If I’d known that, it would’ve saved me about a dozen hours of work. So do your due diligence ahead of time, and save yourself the stress.

Step Two: Map Twice, Build Once

Once you’ve chosen your idea, decided what kind of prototype you’ll make, and figured out what tool(s) to use, it’s time to map out your prototype.

If you haven’t already, now’s the time to hash out your gameplay loop—this is the sequence of scenes and events your player will experience while playing the game. For instance: the gameplay loop for Super Mario Bros. would look like: Start -> Jump Around -> Stomp Goombas -> Eat Mushrooms and Flowers -> Reach Flagpole -> Repeat.

Usually, you’ll use a diagramming app to map your gameplay loop (or, failing that, good ole’ PowerPoint is always an option). 

But since I was using Twine, which uses a visual interface, all I had to do was create each scene, which took all of five seconds. Then I’d link each scene, which only involved putting text in brackets. Boom, instant gameplay loop.

Regardless of what you use, be sure to stick to the path you laid out on the loop. Scope creep tends to creep up on you (pun intended), and it will sink your nascent game idea before you can show it to the world. If you’re using Twine, this is ridiculously straightforward, as you’re always looking at your loop. If not, print out your gameplay loop or pin it to a floating window so you can quickly reference it as you build out your project.

You don’t have to think of things like character names, dialogue, or even themes (be they visual or narrative). Not yet, anyway. When mapping your prototype out, only concern yourself with your gameplay loop, and how the player will progress through it.

Don’t neglect this step! As much as you want to jump into actually building your prototype, resit the temptation. The more you plan in this stage, the more your prototype will fall into place later. Fail to plan, and you plan to fail.

Step Three: Pump Up the Game

Ok, now that you’ve got your game mapped out, and broken up into discreet scenes, now you can focus on the fun stuff: theme, visuals, setting(s), characters, relationships, and plot. 

Run wild. You’re only limited by your imagination and your proficiency with the tools you’re using. Trust your instincts. If your ideas are “bad,” your playtesters will tell you. Don’t assume that just because you think it’s a good idea, so will other people (and vice-versa).

Depending on which tools you’re using, you can get really inventive and use creative “hacks” to make up for not having a digital, playable prototype. Recall the prototype built on Figma, or the literal paper prototypes I mentioned earlier.

With Twine, I could’ve gone really ham if I had more time. Since it’s HTML-based, you can use any formatting and styling you can on the web. This includes adding visual elements, and even “gamey” elements like HP meters and inventories. In the interest of time, I had to make do with mostly my words—but know that this is available to you and your prototype.

Step Four: Bring a Buddy

Wait, hold up: if I’m not a coder, how did I use HTML with Twine? Well, I didn’t! 

Twine has a robust WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) editor that makes adding things like variables and if/else statements easy and seamless.

Getting them to work, however? That was far beyond my pay grade. As I mentioned, Twine is very buggy and mercurial. And when the code invariably bugged out (#SorryNotSorry), I might as well have been translating the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

Fortunately, I was part of a team. A team that included coders! So I was able to get help ironing it out—and believe me, it was a doozy. No way I would’ve figured it out on my own (shout-out to Valencia—THANK YOU!).

Even if you’re not part of a bigger team, you have resources available to you! Ask your friends. Ask on a Discord server you frequent. Ask people on StackOverflow, GitHub, or a coding subreddit. Don’t think you’re incompetent or annoying for doing so—everyone needs help with something at some point in their lives.

Besides, people will be happy to help out. It makes them feel smart, and most folks like feeling like they helped someone.

So don’t be shy—your success could depend on it.

Step Five: Know When to Stop

“A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned.” ~Paul Valéry

Substitute “work of art” for “novel,” “film,” or “game,” and the adage still applies. If you’re creatively predisposed (and if you’re engaging with as supremely creative an act as making a video game, you most likely are), you know it to be true. You can revise any creative work from here until the heat death of the universe and it’ll never be done.

This means that if you don’t have a deadline, you’ll never finish your game. Or prototype, in this case.

Having a deadline does wonders for your focus. I don’t condone procrastination for anyone who values their sanity, but I’ll readily concede that there’s nothing like an impending deadline for getting your creative pistons pumping. Especially if others are counting on you.

Furthermore, deadlines help you properly finish your game, for similar reasons. It’s one thing if you’re working on a personal project, and have the rest of your life to get it out. It’s quite another if you’ve got artists, programmers, and project managers expecting your script or narrative at a certain date and time. 

Basically, you have no choice but to release the fruits of your creativity, no matter how incomplete it is. Not only does this actually get your game out into the world, but it also trains you to actually “abandon”—no, finish your projects.

Epilogue: Have Fun!

“Nobody knows what’s gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might as well enjoy the trip.” ~Manny Calavera, Grim Fandango

Far too often—and not just with creative folks—we get so fixated on the outcomes we expect from a project that we forget to enjoy the process of working on it. You’ll have a much better, easier, and more enjoyable time making games if you remember to enjoy yourself.

Everyone wants to make a splash (or make a lot of money). That’s totally normal, and totally fine. But we need to temper our expectations. Chances are, your first game will not be the next Elden Ring or Cuphead. Your first prototype could bomb harder than Diablo: Immortal. That doesn’t mean you wasted your time, or that the experience wasn’t worthwhile.

We’re always learning, even from our failures—actually, especially from our failures. Better to make mistakes early on, and learn from those mistakes, than to losing everything because your ultra-niche passion project didn’t have a large enough market to recoup its costs. 

Besides, just by taking the initiative to bring your vision to life, you’re already ahead of 99% of everyone who’s ever wanted to chase a dream or sell an idea. You’re doing all the right things, even if it feels like you’re doing all the wrong ones. Yes, it’s true—there’s always a possibility (often larger than we’d like to accept) that your prototype, alpha, beta, or even final release will be a total stink bomb. But that’s ok!

Pat yourself on the back, be kind to yourself, celebrate your wins, take your Ls, always be learning, and most importantly: HAVE FUN! These are among the fondest memories you’ll back on when you’re old. Enjoy every minute of them.

Jay Rooney is currently enrolled at Jili 77 & Scatter Game Academy. He writes about the lesser-known and unexplored aspects of gaming at https://gameandword.substack.com