A few weeks ago, we flew down to Melbourne to take part in the Freeplay Independent Games Festival.
"Freeplay exists to provide opportunities for Victorian and interstate independent developers, educators, and industry practitioners to interact with each other and their audience in an environment designed to stimulate debate, share new ideas, explore theories, and take part in discussions on the creative direction of the medium."
The festival was fantastic, the founders, Paul Callahgan and Eve Penford-Dennis, did a tremendous job, and we'd like to thank them for having us.
We think it's really important for the different design disciplines to continue to share and learn from one another. After all, aren't we all just solving problems?
Michelle, Rebecca and I facilitated a "Live prototyping challenge". The aim of the 60 minute session was to demonstrate the value of prototyping in the early stages of a project. It was a huge success. We found that the gamers, writers, art directors, teachers, students and developers in the room were not only more than happy to get their hands dirty but had some great insights about our prototyping process.
Group number three getting into the prototyping activity
We wanted to share the format of the workshop with you.
This is how it all played out.
Framing
Prototyping is a technique that we use to explore and experiment with our ideas, we use a variety of tools to do this.
Software (like omnigraffle, drupal and flash), processes like 3d printing and form studies using high density foam, and of course markers, post-its, butchers paper and stickers.
We generally prefer the more lightweight tools, they're cheap, fast and enable everyone to get involved.
The projects that we work on usually involve a variety of conflicting perspectives and ideas, prototyping early is a great way to get agreement on the project approach.
We're going to get you guys to build a prototype and do it with specific project constraints in mind.
Establishing some constraints
Design is never without constraints, so let's build some together.
The "context" wall, outlining what activities take place in a scoping workshop, who makes up a core team and the brainstorming rules
What is our design problem? 60 second brainstorm
Outcomes:
• A form of public transport
• A form of space travel
• A game (of course!)
• A hovercraft
• A laptop bag
• A toy
• A juicer
A quick prioritisation excercise with one voter per person let us find out exactly what we would be prototyping. A form of space travel!
Who are we designing for? 60 second brainstorm
Outcomes:
• The military
• The general public
• Business men
• Aliens
• Pirates
• School kids
• Ninjas
• Animals
• Children
• VIPs
Another quick prioritisation excercise let us find out exactly who we would be designing for. Pirates!
What do these primary stakeholders need? 60 second brainstorm
Outcomes:
- Guns
- Medical Insurance
- Weaponary
- Storage
- A tractor beam
- A bird cage
- A flag holder
- Branding
- On board entertainment
Rapid prototyping 10 minutes
Brake into groups, grab your facilitator and let's get moving!
Group number two exploring options for storage and entertainment for the pirates
Discussion
Prototyping early:
- Forces us to ask questions and expose unknowns
- Helps us to explore solutions without spending money on implementation
- Helps us to understand the implications of decisions quickly
- Enables shared and more concrete discussions around what's possible
- Allows everyone to be involved and gets us closer to a shared approach
Tips:
- Don't be precious or attached to ideas
- Think about feasibility always
- Fail early and often
- Think about the people that you're designing for
- Keep it fast, light and messy
- Never prototype alone, involve as many people as possible
