Using MS Excel to Protoype Game Mechanics
by Damien Calloway · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 04/23/2009 (8:10 pm) · 1 replies
I read Ted Southard's sticky post, and it is something he has mentioned a few times in the forums. Can someone please go into more details about how to use Excel in this fashion ? I know how to use Excel, but have not spent a ton of time with it... I am looking more for info on how to use it specifically for games, and not a basic tutorial on Excel. Thanks !
P.S. - If anyone has any other tips on how to use things for "non-traditional" purposes in game design or prototyping, that would be awesome.
P.S. - If anyone has any other tips on how to use things for "non-traditional" purposes in game design or prototyping, that would be awesome.
Torque 3D Owner Tony Richards
For example, for the IndieZen community project CyberTD, the game designer used a Google spreadsheet to provide the stats for the creeps and towers.
Another guy, Darius, was creating a Rogue-like game for the Meggy Jr RGB game system, and he used an Excel spreadsheet to help him lay out the levels.
But you don't have to be limited to using Excel (or Google spreadsheets) to help you design your games and levels.
I've also seen games being designed using Photoshop. Different colors on each layer would mean a different thing. You just add some sort of file that goes along with it that describes what the colors mean. Export each layer in a non-compressed file format and voila, instant level editor using a robust, stable tool.
For static, stateless game data (like DataBlocks in Torque), it's a fantastic approach.
Free your mind... if you're creative, you can find all sorts of off the shelf tools out there to help you design your game.