Monday, October 18, 2021
By: Matthew Doucette

I have shared about how to prototype games in the past, with help of Jonathan Blow. This time I am doing so with the help of Mark Brown, aka Game Maker's Toolkit:

How do you make games? Prototype them.

I believe the successes of our games is largely because we prototyped our gameplay. Gameplay -- empowerment of the player -- is part of our philosophy. It is so core to our company, we attempted to call our company GamePlay Inc. before deciding on Xona Games Inc.

Jason shared an insight just last week with me, where he noticed that many games do not alter their gameplay after their first prototype or first playable. Games often "live or die" based on the gameplay designed in the first few weeks.

P.S. Also see our game prototypes.

That is all.

About the Author: I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning indie game studio that I founded with my twin brother. We make intensified arcade-style retro games. Our business, our games, our technology, and we as competitive gamers have won prestigious awards and received worldwide press. Our business has won $190,000 in contests. Our games have ranked from #1 in Canada to #1 in Japan, have become #1 best sellers in multiple countries, have won game contests, and have held 3 of the top 5 rated spots in Japan of all Xbox LIVE indie games. Our game engines have been awarded for technical excellence. And we, the developers, have placed #1 in competitive gaming competitions -- relating to the games we make. Read about our story, our awards, our games, and view our blog.