Inspire yourselves

While it is expected that your game has something unique and original to it, taking inspiration by looking at other games is a must. 

Being able to reference a game or two to guide your prototyping efforts will be a nice help and a good conversation starter for your team! It will also help you identify the mechanics you’ll need, and the minimum it takes to make your game idea work. 

Let’s say you are making a 2D platformer. Your prototype should have an original twist on it, but it will probably still be bound by the same general rules of the genre. Looking at Celeste (Matt makes games, 2018) and other highly regarded games can give you invaluable insight into movement, handling, etc. 

When faced with an issue while developing your game, refer to your inspirations and ask yourselves “how did they solve this?”.

This is also true for things beyond design. Artists, for example, should look at what other artists are doing, in games and elsewhere.