AlterLab GameForge -- Hypothesis-Driven Prototyping

Prototypes are experiments, not demos. Every prototype exists to answer one question: "Is this worth building?" The moment you start polishing a prototype, you have stopped prototyping and started building -- and you may be building the wrong thing. Undertale's original demo was rough, ugly, and proved exactly one thing: the bullet-hell-meets-RPG mechanic was worth a full game. Hollow Knight started as a game jam prototype that validated tight combat in an atmospheric 2D world. Celeste began as a PICO-8 prototype that proved a single idea: precise air-dash platforming feels incredible at 8x8 pixel resolution. This workflow enforces that same discipline: define a hypothesis, build the minimum viable test, observe real players, make a binary kill-or-promote decision based on evidence.

Purpose & Triggers

Invoke this workflow when:

• A team member proposes a new mechanic and the response should be "prove it" rather than "ship it"
• The design document contains an assumption that has never been tested with real players
• Two competing mechanic designs need a head-to-head bake-off to determine which one feels better
• A feature sounds good on paper but the team has no visceral sense of whether it will be fun
• Pre-production needs to validate core loops before committing engineering resources
• A pivot is being considered and the new direction needs rapid feasibility confirmation

Do NOT use this workflow when:

• The mechanic is well-understood and already validated in similar games (just build it properly)
• You need a vertical slice for stakeholder presentation (that is a demo, not a prototype)
• The question is about content, not mechanics (content questions need playtesting, not prototyping)