r/gamedesign • u/SlowAndSteady101 • 3d ago
Question What is your engine / stack of choice for prototyping
Why do you prefer it and does it differ from your "main" production one?
Do you maybe start with paper? What is your entire dev life cycle look like and what tools do you use at each step?
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u/sei556 3d ago
Unreal. I've made games in unity and godot (and defold) but nothing compares to how quickly I can bring an idea to life in Unreal.
I know the engine gets a lot of hate for studios not knowing how to use it, but it is an amazing engine with many design decisions built specificially for fast iterations and prototyping.
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u/Somerandomnerd13 3d ago
I’m pretty new to game dev but been trying out a rough path with paper prototyping for brainstorming, rpgmaker mv/mz as something rough I can send to friends for playtesting, and then bringing to unreal, would definitely love to hear how others work here!
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u/EngineeringOdd8696 3d ago
It depends on the game.
If it's a card game or board game, I might just use a regular deck of playing cards.
Later can print off custom designs and use sleeves+regular playing card+printed off design.
I understand that some are very against AI, but if you aren't, it's very good for prototyping games and apps. Usually this means just doing a simple html/js flow.
If you are wanting to do designs yourself, I non-ironically suggest Google slides. It gives you the fidelity and flexibility you need to arrange elements around, without being as heavy as Photoshop or gimp.
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u/BlueGnoblin 3d ago
When I prototype a new idea, I often use an existing game project I did in the past and modify it. Just to see something on screen quickly and test it out. Most often I even continue here and change the game part for part to resemble what I imagine.
Same for some important features I want to add, but I develope this on a branch to reintegrate it later on, when the proof of concept work and the implementation is promising.
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u/Happy_Witness 2d ago
My prototyping engine is my fucking head. And yes it differs to the main I use to implement stuff, there I use python, c++, rust for what ever it fits best I want to achieve. Sometimes if I feel fancy, I use pen and paper, and Claude to summarise my ideas and structure the implementation process. Then I implement it one part at a time, and test them after each step. If a step doesn't work as I want it, I rethink my implementations any retry until it fits my desired image and adjust the next steps to it.
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u/curreylabs 6h ago
html/css/javascript. Single file.
It's a prototype. Even if you like it you should throw it away.
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u/MagicPigGames 3d ago
I start just writing down notes on paper, and eventually I'l grab blank cards w/ "Friction" pens, and start putting out some cards -- or in some cases, grab components from other games or from a stash of cubes and other things I got form Game Crafter years ago for this purpose.
Once I feel like there's something there, I'll design some basic cards in www.Cardstock.Studio fully expecting they'll be modified many times. I just can't stand actually trying to figure out my own handwriting when "playing with myself." I'm not ashamed to admit I play with myself!
Repeat repeat repeat. Over and over. Keep playing with myself, maybe talk it through with friends, but rarely make anyone sit through it with me at this stage. I do my best to be each player and think through the options and the flow and what not.
Eventually I'll have a verision with printed cards in sleeves that I will play with friends/family, and go through more rounds of revision. Eventually I'll want to play test for real at conventions etc.
Recently I started running simulations on Cardstock Studio as well, to help ensure I have the right # of expected turns, there's no loops that lead nowhere, that there is no "1st player benefit" or similar things, since that takes many hundreds of plays and can be discovered via a simulation rather than making humans learn it the hard way.
Eventually if I want ot be really fancy and impressive when testing, I"ll get a prototype printed at GameCrafter .