To Prototype or To Iterate

Up to this point, the question of whether or not the team would be prototyping multiple game designs or iterating on a single game design was up in the air.

Originally, the team came into the semester interested in the idea of rapid prototyping and the ability to try out different art styles, game mechanics, and general designs.

• The original project description and original client that had attracted our team advertised prototyping.
• Our client had changed to Susan since then, but given that Susan was interested in expanding her educational research into what would be a new space for her (iPad games), we figured that prototyping would allow us to research what would work best.
• Our team has two members who are familiar with and worked previously with rapid prototyping.

However, the team has made a choice to iterate on a single design for the whole semester.

A couple of factors swayed us towards this decision:

• The team’s idea for the first prototype had a lot of potential and instead of making a small part of it, the team became excited about building the whole thing.
• Moreover, the idea for the first prototype, learning about where food came from, really resonated with Susan and our advisors, especially with the push to teach kids about healthy eating.
• Most importantly though, after discussing with Susan today, she made it clear that she would like to have a single very polished project to demonstrate at the end of this semester.