during the last two episodes, we've stressed
how important it is to make your first game something small
but this is so important that this time
we're going to dedicate the entire episode to it
this will serve you in good stead
not only when you're creating your first game
but also in prototyping for anything else you do
in development there is a term called a minimum viable product
which refers to the smallest thing you can possibly make
that will still give you useful data once released
that should be your goal
even when James is called in to work on a multi-million dollar project
that has a development time of three years
one of the first things he'll tell them is that
if they don't have a prototype up in the first three weeks
they're doing it wrong
when you can actually play your game
you'll discover all sorts of things that you didn't account for
when you were just designing the game in your head
you'll find edge cases where your mechanics are broken
or places where your game just falls apart
you'll find what's really engaging rather than just
trying to build something that you hope is engaging
and you'll discover what will have the most to the experience you're creating
ok so you've heard me say cut and cut and cut
and that when you think you're done cutting
you're probably not done cutting
but you do have to stop cutting sometime
so how do we determine when we're done
to that minimum viable product
well this one is a bit tough
and you're gonna get better at it with experience
but the basic idea is to find the absolute minimum set of features
that won't affect core development
if you could cut a feature and still technically ship your game
it's probably not part of your minimum viable product
but because this is as much as an art as it is a science
let's run through some examples
so we're on the same footing
let's start with super mario brothers
what do we need in order to test
if the fundamental gameplay of Super Mario Brothers is engaging
what is the minimum that we can build and test before deciding
if what we have is something worth expanding upon with additional features
well do we need Koopas?
no
fire flowers?
nope
Bowser?
nope
pipes that you can climb down?
No
pipes at all?
hmm...no
water levels?
water levels? mushrooms?
water levels? mushrooms? hidden blocks?
water levels? mushrooms? hidden blocks? extra lives?
no no no no
no
so what do we need
well, for Mario the minimum viable product
is probably one level where you can
move, jump, and fall into pits
that's it
if just that much is engaging
you'll be able to add all those other features later
and make it even better
but if running along and jumping over pits doesn't feel good
Super Mario Brothers simply doesn't work
no matter how many extra features you throw in
so you've got to make sure of that core is working first
although in this particular case
I'd probably throw into other features that aren't strictly necessary
but they will make a big difference
first
a trigger which resets the level of the player falls into the pit
just so testing is easier
and to make sure that this aspect isn't just unpalatable players
and second
the ability to change from walking to running
since the Mario jump mechanic is so dependent on the run button
but that's it
one level 3 features
and you've got a game
don't believe something this simple could be engaging?
well set the character to auto run and you've basically built Canabalt
when building your first game or prototyping a larger one
you'll find that you can strip out all of the content
all of the things that aren't rules that control the play itself
but rather elements that are created out of those rules
so enemy types
levels
different weapons
all of that can usually get cut
you might want to include one thing from each category
just to test larger rules
but no more than that
because it's really easy to get mired down
and making all of that content
and the truth is
games with lots of content but without a solid foundation are rarely good
perhaps worse as a creator
when your games packed with content
it's generally harder to figure out why the foundation is not working
if you test your prototype with a lot of content thrown in it
it'll be harder for players to put their fingers
on exactly what it is that needs improvement
as all of that content just clutters what's wrong
and they'll be more likely to tell you about bad pieces of content
than the underlying reasons why that content didn't create a positive experience
it just adds complexity
in a situation where you really need to be honing your game's core foundation
ok so let's try another one
old-school JRPGs
now this one can fool people because most designers
tend to think of these games in terms of content rather than game play
it's easy to get caught up in the story you want to tell
or the massive list of items and enemies
but if the player has to slog through 80 hours of week gameplay
in order to access that story you've got in mind
you've done your player a disservice
in fact that's some of what contributed to the decline
in the popularity of traditional JRPGs this decade
so take a game like final fantasy 4
here I would cut everything but the menu based combat system
I would even cut out all the graphics
monsters can just be words on the screen
that's really all you need to test the system
now many of you might object
saying "But that doesn't work. I can't make that engaging without the content."
this is actually great though
it immediately tells us that we should probably find a more robust system
all right
let's try one more
this time let's look at Ikaruga
here we could probably cut down to the color switching mechanic
and enemy which switches color randomly
and shoots random bullet patterns
or maybe you randomly chooses from
a small list of pre-built bullet patterns
as that wouldn't be too hard to construct
also you'll need the ability for the player to move and to shoot
a counter which takes upward as you shoot the enemy
and a death mechanic that simply resets the game when the player gets hit
this will get you all the player behavior you need
to find out if your game is engaging
your players will try to dodge and shoot the enemy
while attempting to take advantage of the color swapping system as much as possible
that's all you need
hopefully that helps you frame your thinking
about just how small your first project should be
now I'm going to give you a quick and dirty list of games genres
ordered by how difficult they are to create a minimum viable product for
and this is only going to apply to digital games
some of these genres are actually much easier to build a pen and paper or board games for
also this list isn't by any means absolute
as game engines change
this list is going to become outdated
but it should give you a place to start at least
so game genres in order of difficulty to produce a minimum viable product
from simplest to most difficult
Racing Game
Top Down Shooter
2D Platformer
Color Matching Puzzle Game
2D Puzzle Platformer
3D Platformer
FPS
JRPG
Fighting Game
Action Adventure
Western RPG
RTS
I'm leaving put Point And Click Adventure Games here
as those games are entirely built out of content
so while getting a Point And Click Game up and running is relatively easy
getting anything together that'll actually tell you if you're on to something engaging
is a lot harder
you'll notice I'm also leaving out anything network or multiplayer
as that generally multiplies the complexity
honestly I would just recommend avoiding multiplayer stuff entirely for your first game
and again
don't think of these genres in terms of the games you know
when I say Racing Game
don't think "gran turismo"
think 2 grey blocks on a black background
with acceleration and collision mechanics
that is all you need to hit that minimum viable product or prototype stage
where you can really start to get it out there and play it
and learn what's needed to improve it
you can always build from there later
and add more cool features
but your game w ill be better off
for having spent the time testing and refining the foundation of your game idea
this is way more productive than dreaming up a project
which is far too big to ever tackle
hopefully that helps you decide where to start and how far to scope down
join us on the next episode for what to do
once you're done with your game
see you then
subtitle author: Spencer Wang