How does a game is made (well, by my way)??

Yes, I am back. This is the second article on how does a game is made? After you plan out your idea, you should start constructing your first prototype. Prototype is like a experimental verison of the real thing.I made about 15-20 version of prototypes before I got my Office 21 published. Ya! 20 different one for a small card game. I can still remember on messy card layout, wording and game language problem. These are all things that I have learned after my first game.
Here are some photos about the evolution of Office 21.

  Something like Prototype 6

      Prototype 11+

Making prototypes are essential, and sometimes make you think the question of "why are there so many components in this game?"  There are several things that I think are important when making prototypes.

First Prototype
Print or draw even something really rough for your first one. you will throw them into the bin less then a day sometimes, because you will find a problem or wt so ever.

2-10th prototypes
This depends on how many variables and how many times you test the game. If you do a lot of play testing and many minor changes in your game. You will produce more prototypes. At this stage, your prototypes need to be playable and maybe with some image from Google or painter will do the job.

11+ prototypes
This is getting close to the finish line and the prototype here has to be "good" if not "great" quality. it should have meaningful artwork, player's aid, a small tuck box for you to carry around and open it up when you show it to the others. At this stage, you should even be proud of yourself, since you have made something and you continue to do so for quite a while now. At the end of this stage, professional artwork shall come in.
This will likely be the final version of the artwork and as close to the final production as possible.

The route of building a game is not as easy as people thought. In my first game, my mom always ask me about the status of my game. Is it finish?, What?! you are still changing things in the game? or What?! The art works has to be re-done? blablabla~ etc.

Making a game is not easy, is like writing a novel or a script. by play testing, we try to see is there any problems or unnecessary parts in the game. We can not afford a game that has a problem therefore we play test them all the time.

Last few days, my colleagues propose a game idea and we did test the game out. It was a  bluffing game with teams. I am now working on the illustration and prototypes for him. This is like the 2nd prototypes, which means still at least 10 copies still to go.
Let me show you about it:

The game is likely to be published in April (ENG version) too. 

Next Time, We will leave the game making topic for a few times and will focus on the other stuff!

See YA!