Live Game Design: Prototyping at the Speed of Play

Automated Game Design empowers game designers with languages, techniques and tools that automate iterative design processes.However, these tools currently lack suitable input and feedback mechanisms for creating rules and perceiving how changes affect running game prototypes.As a result, iterating takes too long, forming mental models about cause-and-effect relationships is difficult, and learning how to program can be tedious and frustrating.We investigate how Live Programming can accelerate game design iterations, make visual tools more accessible and engaging, and provide immediate feedback that brings code to life.We propose Live Game Design, a novel approach for rapid game prototyping that introduces mini-cycles to help designers of all skill levels explore, learn, and see a prototype come alive.We introduce Vie (pronounced /vi/), a game-making game for simultaneously prototyping and playtesting simple 2D games using Machinations.In an observational study, we evaluate the app during a Game-Based Learning tutorial for children aged 8 to 14.Our results show Vie is accessible to novices and Live Game Design enables prototyping at the speed of play.