Hello everyone, Which tools do you use/recommend for creating a prototype? preferably not something I'll need to code . Thanks
Do you mean designing the interface, or a game prototype? If it's the latter, I think the only option would be to code it.
By far the best tools for creating a game without coding are The Games Factory and Multimedia Fusion from Clickteam(remember Klik and Play?). There's still a tricky learning curve to it, but you can make ANYTHING with it. It's proper programming, just without writing any code. It's basically how I learned to program(after learning Basic). Oh, and it's Windows only. http://www.clickteam.com/website/usa/thegamesfactory2.html For a more... plausible... choice, check out PlayCrafter at http://www.playcrafter.com/ It's a complete web(flash) based tool for making your own games... and it actually work reasonably well! Sploder(http://www.sploder.com/) sounds like the same kind of thing as PlayCrafter, but I've never tried it, and it seems more limited(you can only make a platformer or a shooter).
Chisels, putty knives, carving tools etc. I make all my prototypes out of wood, clay plastersine, meltable wax and soft plaster. Make the Prototype photograph and ready for the iPhone. Here are some samples ...
I hadn't thought about The Games Factory in a while 'til you posted this EG. I'm curious now, in light of Click Team's announcement that they're releasing a Flash Exporter: Also in light of Adobe's announcement a while back that you'll be able to build iPhone apps directly from Flash. Do you think that means you'll be able to create apps in Multimedia Fusion (just a beefed up version of The Games Factory), export them to Flash and then build an iPhone app? It's a bit of a round about way of developing for the iPhone, but possible?
Ahh, I completely forgot about that announcement! Yeah, I imagine you actually COULD develop in The Games Factory and then go to Flash, and then go to iPhone... But if something went wrong, that would be CRAZY to debug. It's funny, because back when I was part of the whole clickteam community, we all kind-of hated Flash with a bit of an "us vs. flash" mentality. There was even a web-plugin for TGF called Vitalize. I eventually went over to the dark side, and now I've been developing stuff in flash for almost 10 years. Anywaaaay, I think that if you can figure out the interface, The Games Factory and MMF are fantastic ways to learn programming... And if you can get from there to the iPhone that'll be awesome.
I realise this is probably not what you're wanting, but... Pen and paper are wonderful tools for prototyping. Useful for all sorts of genres. And there's no learning curve (Except in terms of how much you can do with them). A related idea is to write out a description of a short period of game play. It's surprising how many questions this raises, and how well it tests your understanding of your game's mechanics. I've been doing a lot of prototyping in Cocos2d - I realise this means coding, but it's so easy to get stuff on screen and moving around that it's worth it. Especially now that recent versions of Cocos have built in project templates.
Both EXCELLENT suggestions. The table-top edition of Duels of the Runemasters was developed entirely in this way through several iterations before the bulk of the rules and game components were finalized. It's time consuming (especially for a game like this) but incredibly valuable in refining both game-play and rules.
Hey guys, Just wanted to vouch for Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion 2. It's a wonderful piece of software that gives you a lot of power for minimal effort. Once you get the hang of how it works, you can do just about anything in a matter of hours, tops. For most projects, minutes. MMF is what first got me into programming, and I still go back to it occasionally, especially for its superb pixel-graphics editor! If you're looking to create a working prototype for your game with minimal time investment, I'd highly recommend MMF. It has worked wonders for me. Tom
Haha -- sorry for not being more clear. MMF is the acronym for Multimedia Fusion. You can check it out at www.clickteam.com. They have three versions: The Games Factory 2 (fewest features), Multimedia Fusion 2, and Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer (most features). I'd personally recommend MMF standard, which has been more than enough for my past endeavors. Last time I checked, it was $100. The only downside is that it is Windows-only.
