Game Dev Glossary: Prototype, Vertical Slice, First Playable, MVP, Demo
Someone on our discord brought up a good bit of nuance in response to the Vertical Slice talk - there's a bunch of different terms for things that seem really similar. Each of the terms are the same basic concept - a demonstration of gameplay - but they each have small but important distinctions. Let's go over them here.
[Vertical Slice] - We just went over this. It's a functioning version of all planned game systems in the game working together for a representative final game experience.
First Playable - Basically the same as a Vertical Slice. Some people have some bigger distinctions between the two, the First Playable is the milestone that marks the end of preproduction and the beginning of production.
Prototype - A playable example of a single gameplay system to prove out the concept. Examples might be character movement, a combat combo system, or a specific game mechanic. The above screenshot is from the Breath of the Wild systems prototype - wind, fire, etc. was modeled in this prototype before being translated to the 3D game world.
MVP - Minimum Viable Product. The absolute bare-bones critical path minimum of whatever deliverable we're working on that meets acceptance criteria. This can refer to the whole game or a specific chunk of work we're doing (e.g. a specific system, a feature, etc.).
Demo - A stripped-down build of the game for exhibition, either for executives, tradeshows, or public-facing. Split into pre-release demo and post-release demo, with the post-release demo being easier to deal with.
[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]
Space Chase, created by myself, Alyssa Castaneda, and Bryse Rochester, is a top down spaceship shooter in which players must blow up enemy ships to survive.
My titles in the team were that of Artist as well as Producer. As the Producer, I was the one keeping track of progress, making sure we were meeting at least once a week, etc.. My main objective as Artist was creating all the necessary visuals to work the game.
At the beginning stages of the game creation, my main priority was choosing a style and theme for the game, in order to be consistent with the rest of the assets in game. Choosing color pallets and style of art was difficult at first, but thankfully my partner was happy with the work I was producing, as essentially let me choose the artistic approach to the project. Another factor was understanding the components and play style of the game, so I could establish what assets would be needed, such as: any bullets? How many enemies? How many ships? Any collectibles? Once these questions were answered and established, it was mostly a matter of time to draw the components.
Play Testing
I was ready to hear a lot of feedback and criticism due to the fact that I knew the game wasn’t complete. However, despite that, I received compliments regarding the art style, and components of the game, such as the collectables. A main criticism was the speed of the game—too fast! The enemies came on too strong before the player even had a chance to understand the mechanics.
The speed of the game is the main change I think needs to be made to make the game successful. Currently, there is no end to the game, other than dying. Adding a “win” component would make the game enjoyable to play.
La line-up digitale per il 2020 comprenderà anche un’edizione degli Italian Video Game Awards dedicata esclusivamente ai videogiochi italiani
IIDEA, l’Associazione che rappresenta l’industria dei videogiochi in Italia, annuncia che la seconda edizione di First Playable, l’evento B2B internazionale di riferimento per il settore del gaming in Italia, si svolgerà in forma digitale i prossimi 15 e…
Nasce First Playable, evento business internazionale italiano nel settore del gaming
Nasce First Playable, evento business internazionale italiano nel settore del gaming
A Pisa, dal 3 al 5 luglio 2019, tre giorni dedicati agli sviluppatori di videogiochi italiani che potranno incontrare mentor e buyer internazionali, grazie alla partnership tra AESVI e Toscana Film Commission in collaborazione con ICE-Agenzia, e con il supporto di Game Connection
AESVI, l’Associazione di categoria dell’industria dei videogiochi in Italia, annuncia la nascita del primo…
Holy cow, dude. Mechachess (.jar download) has an AI now. Like, an honest-to-goodness decision-making algorithm that makes units do things onscreen in an attempt to win. I tried winning against the computer and succeeded, prompting the You Win screen and taking me back to the menu, where the second mission was unlocked.
So... this is a First Playable! Everything's placeholder assets (including map layout) at the moment, but this is seriously a playable video game I made! I'm SUPER PSYCHED
(placeholder music is BITE by Benjamin Briggs from the OCRemix Eevee EP, i figure even if it's just there to test the sound system, it's a good idea to attribute)
In a new sort of series here on the blog, I'm going to write a little about the various terms used in the industry to refer to things. Some of them may be old, some of them may be new, some of them may have different meanings to the layman. This time around, I'll be writing about something called the Vertical Slice.
Imagine that you've got a game that's being planned. You've got concepts and a design ready, and you've gotten a few prototypes built to showcase the individual major systems at work, but you still have to get final approval before leaving preproduction and entering full production mode. Why? Because in order to finish the game, you're going to need a bunch of additional engineers, designers, artists, and QA to create, proof, test, and validate the systems and content in the time you've scheduled, and all these people are going to cost money. The people who write the checks will want to see some sort of demo of the product working before they start paying for developers to come on and work on it. So what do you do?
Here's my awesome MS Paint rendition of that preproduction development and prototyping process:
Here are four different major example systems that need to be constructed and built, and they are all proceeding at different rates based on how many people are working on them, how complete the design is, and so on and so forth. Some of them are further along than others, but they represent all of the major systems in the game. You can show a prototype for each system to the check-writers, but just because the individual parts are good doesn't mean you can easily put them all together for a fun product. So what you need to show is a "vertical slice". This is sometimes also called a "first playable".
The vertical slice is a small, self-contained chunk of the game that allows someone to play through it and see all of the major systems of the game working together. Is it fun? Does it work? Is it interesting? What sorts of issues might come up in the future?
It's actually similar to a TV pilot is to a TV series. If the studio executives like the pilot and think it is interesting, they'll place an order for a whole season of the show and fund the production. If they don't think it will fly, they pass on it and the team goes to work on something else. If they think it might work, but there are issues with it, the team goes back to work to fix the things that the execs think need fixing. The execs may also provisionally fund it (a half season) and see where it is in a milestone or two.
There are all sorts of reasons why a game might get funded... there might be a hole in the release schedule down the line, so the execs could say something like "We'll fund it on the condition that you fix crafting, stealth gets better, and you absolutely get it on shelves in March of 2015." They might need something in a particular genre - "We're good on AAA shooters, but we need something with a more RPG bent." They might offer some stipulations - "The Ultra Dude comic license is about to lapse, and we need to make some money off of it. Can we retool this game to be about Ultra Dude?"
Here's an example of a first playable. In 2010, Capcom and Armature Studio collaborated on a vertical slice for a reimagined Mega Man X FPS title. Imagine playing through this, rather than simply watching a pre-rendered video and you'll have a good idea of what a vertical slice is.
Do you see the demonstration of all the different systems and features at work? Try to create a list. Here's what I got:
