When you're working with a game concept, it's important

not to get married to too many ideas early on.

This is where prototyping lends a hand.

Prototyping helps us fail quickly to weed out

weak game mechanics and improve on the promising ones.

By prototyping we can take our sketches

one step further, and create something interactive.

Working with an interactive prototype that you

can share with friends, family, or even

strangers will help you quickly identify what works in your game, and what doesn't.

Let's talk more about game mechanics.

Now the true definition of game mechanics is widely debated among developers,

but they are essentially the rules and actions built into the game.

Every game has its own unique mechanics.

And if you're already a gamer, you probably know quite a few.

Points, levels, movement, attacking, bonuses, achievements.

These are all examples of core game mechanics.

So, where should we start in deciding which mechanics will best suit our game?

Let's take a look at Space Cat to put things into perspective.

Now think about the ultimate goal, or mission of our game.

In Space Cat, the goal is to shoot down

the alien dog ships before they reach the moon's surface.

We've already stated one core mechanic of the game, shooting.

The next question we should ask is what

happens when you shoot and hit the dog ships?

Let's say they explode and you get some points as a reward.

What if you miss?

Well, we know we want to incorporate a life bar, so let's decide that

space cat looses a bit of health when the ships make it to the surface.

If too many dogs get by, then it's game over.

We'll be keeping things simple for Space Cat.

So let's keep him in one place to make shooting straightforward and easy.

We're working with a touchscreen device.

So it feels natural to have the user tap anywhere to fire at the dog ships.

It seems like we have just about everything worked out.

But the truth is sometimes things don't always go exactly as we had planned.

One of the most frustrating things about making games is realizing

that you may have to go back to the drawing board.

That's why prototyping several versions of your game is one of

the best ways to learn what's working and what needs to change.