Game Prototyping: The Negotiation of an Idea

Key insights

7 takeaways

01
Prototyping in game design is framed as a communicative and negotiative process, in which prototypes act as a "language of experience" that helps design teams resolve contested problems and build pistis (trust and consensus) among collaborators.
02
The study draws on qualitative interviews with 27 respondents (16 game designers, 10 students, and one teacher) in Sweden and Poland.
03
Prototypes typically isolate a single mechanic or experience to stand in for the whole game, acting as reality checks that turn vague ideas into playable form.
04
The industry is trending toward lighter documentation, with images and prototypes increasingly replacing lengthy Game Design Documents, and the lived "feel" of play is central to design validation.
05
Prototypes serve multiple audiences, from individual designers to publishers, and traces of earlier work, such as those in the engine's "white room," shape later design decisions.
06
The author analyses prototyping through six rhetorical stages (intellectio, inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and actio) and concepts such as topos, hodos, and synecdoche.
07
The author concludes that negotiation theory offers a useful framework for clarifying prototyping practice while preserving its creative and improvisational character.

Summary

Game Prototyping: The Negotiation of an Idea examines prototyping in game design as a communicative and negotiative process rather than merely a technical or testing activity. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 27 respondents, comprising 16 game designers, 10 students, and one teacher, in Sweden and Poland, the study argues that prototypes operate as a "language of experience" through which design teams resolve contested problems and build pistis, or trust and consensus, among collaborators. The central research question asks how prototyping might benefit from being understood as a form of communication within game design.

The author frames this process through the six rhetorical stages of partes (intellectio, inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and actio), alongside concepts such as topos, hodos, and synecdoche. Findings indicate that prototypes typically isolate a single mechanic or experience, standing in for the whole game and serving as reality checks that transform vague ideas into playable form. The study also identifies an industry trend toward lighter documentation, with images and prototypes increasingly replacing lengthy Game Design Documents, and it stresses that the lived "feel" of a game during play is central to design validation.

The research further observes that prototypes serve audiences ranging from individual designers to publishers, and that accumulated traces of earlier work, such as those in the engine's "white room," shape subsequent design decisions. The author concludes that negotiation theory offers a useful conceptual framework for clarifying game prototyping practice while preserving its creative and improvisational character.