JOHN ROMERO DOESN’T BELIEVE IN PROTOTYPES

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

Rather than relying on prototypes, legendary game designer John Romero believes in shipping and polishing as you go. According to Romero's biography, id Software's success was primarily built upon emphasizing speed above all other design principles. However, its massive success might have less to do with avoiding prototypes and more with the sheer volume of ideas it shipped, smart division of labor, insane work ethic, and its novel distribution model coinciding with the rise of the internet and the PC.