Benefits of Prototyping without Assets

Objective: Explain the benefits of prototyping with game assets.

It may not look right, viewing a game full of cubes, caplsules and spheres but it does have its use. The main benefit is the simplicity of blocking out a level or implementing simple game logic without the hassle of finding the right characters, materials and sounds.

We’ve all been there, trying to get that perfect shade or blend of color, the one we think will look just right. Only a few hours into working on getting it right, it doesn’t match the next lot of assets or a change in the plan.

Prototyping without assets makes it simple. Choose a simple color to represent one type of asset, another color for another and simple shapes just to get some movement or other logic working.

Once you have the logic worked out, having some gameplay ready to test, you have a better understanding if you’re on the right track. Sometimes what feels like a great idea changes when you have the logic working and you go in a different direction but at least you haven’t spent hours, days or even weeks trying to get the assets looking right then working on the logic and realising it doesn’t work.

Prototyping without assets may also help with the reducing of feature creep. You have a set of tasks to complete and because you don’t have the fancy art/assets you may be less likely to wander off track.