Luke Muscat
Designer of Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride and Feed the Deep
Where to hear and read about Luke Muscat1 episode or test
Luke Muscat is a game designer whose work includes Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, and who prototypes thin, fast and honestly. The most useful lesson from him is that a prototype he loved and released to silence saved him two years of work.
it just gives you confidence that you're heading out into hopefully fertile soil
What's the Point of Prototyping?
Luke Muscat: the story and the lessons
1How Luke Muscat prototyped Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja
Muscat's Jetpack Joyride prototype was only a jetpack, a roof and obstacles. He took the Monster Dash machine gun jetpack, removed the level, added a roof and put in some obstacles. The challenge system, missions and vehicles that made the game stand out all came later, in production.
The challenge system was never prototyped at all. Muscat says most of his prototypes are pretty thin.
Muscat kept splatter particles in the Fruit Ninja prototype on purpose. The prototype was very simple, but it still had fruit splatter particles to prove the game would be viscerally satisfying.
For a visceral game, feedback is part of what makes the core fun, so stripping it out can hide the truth. His warning is that spending a month adding 20 effects can bandaid over a core that isn't fun, and that you have to judge this very honestly.
Muscat treats a prototype as confidence, not as a full answer. In his words, a prototype gives you confidence that you're heading into fertile soil. It does not tell you everything you will end up planting.
That is why a thin prototype was enough for Jetpack Joyride: it tested the biggest risk and left the rest for production.
2The prototypes Luke Muscat dropped
Muscat's one-button Uzi shooter showed that recoil as movement wasn't fun. Every shot pushed the player backwards, so shooting doubled as locomotion. The idea was simple, but it simply wasn't fun to play.
Always being pushed away from targets didn't feel assertive, the opposite of how a game about shooting crowds should feel. Only playing it revealed that.
Muscat cancelled Luck of the Draw after a few weeks of work. It was a roulette-wheel deck-builder versus mode mixing Luck Be a Landlord and Super Auto Pets. He thought it might be the smartest thing he'd made, but when he released it, no one cared.
The silence told him this isn't it, in a way he hadn't expected. Going on his own enjoyment of playing it, he would have spent two years on it.
What's the Point of Prototyping?
A prototype is a quick, disposable way to answer one question about a game, such as whether it is fun, whether it is viable, or whether people will like it, before real production starts. Luke Muscat's Luck of the Draw prototype, which he loved and then released to complete silence, shows how a failed prototype can save two years of work.
Muscat's Jetpack Joyride prototype was only a jetpack, a roof and obstacles. He took the Monster Dash machine gun jetpack, removed the level, added a roof and put in some obstacles. The challenge system, missions and vehicles that made the game stand out all came later, in production.
The challenge system was never prototyped at all. Muscat says most of his prototypes are pretty thin.
Muscat kept splatter particles in the Fruit Ninja prototype on purpose. The prototype was very simple, but it still had fruit splatter particles to prove the game would be viscerally satisfying.
For a visceral game, feedback is part of what makes the core fun, so stripping it out can hide the truth. His warning is that spending a month adding 20 effects can bandaid over a core that isn't fun, and that you have to judge this very honestly.
Muscat treats a prototype as confidence, not as a full answer. In his words, a prototype gives you confidence that you're heading into fertile soil. It does not tell you everything you will end up planting.
That is why a thin prototype was enough for Jetpack Joyride: it tested the biggest risk and left the rest for production.
Muscat's one-button Uzi shooter showed that recoil as movement wasn't fun. Every shot pushed the player backwards, so shooting doubled as locomotion. The idea was simple, but it simply wasn't fun to play.
Always being pushed away from targets didn't feel assertive, the opposite of how a game about shooting crowds should feel. Only playing it revealed that.
Muscat cancelled Luck of the Draw after a few weeks of work. It was a roulette-wheel deck-builder versus mode mixing Luck Be a Landlord and Super Auto Pets. He thought it might be the smartest thing he'd made, but when he released it, no one cared.
The silence told him this isn't it, in a way he hadn't expected. Going on his own enjoyment of playing it, he would have spent two years on it.