So there’s a LOT sitting in this question. I’m fairly amateur when it comes to game development but a “prototype” means different things to different people.
Below are list of components that I tend to check off when I’m thinking of something to build out.
Mechanics
- None
- Bare minimum
- Minor polish (varies from person to person)
- Release Ready
Map
- Startup Level / Debug room
- Demo Level
- Graybox
- Polished
- Release Ready
Visuals / Audio
- None/Defaults
- Basic Representation / testing samples (unfinished animations, uncustomized models, etc)
- Minor polish
- Release Ready
The basic premise is that for each element of the final product that I want to see when released, I want to know how far towards “complete” I need to go.
The biggest question you face when choosing this is what is the purpose and who is the audience?
If you’re aiming to show off some simple mechanics on your twitter for some early production discussions, just having the basics of the mechanic is good enough.
If you’re talking to investors or producers, you may want to have some polish to your visuals and audio, even if your mechanics aren’t 100%.