A prototype exists to answer one question - is this fun - as cheaply as possible. It is not a small version of the game. It is the part of the game that carries the fun, with everything else deliberately absent.
That means placeholder art, no menus, no save system and no polish. Every hour spent making a prototype look finished is an hour not spent finding out whether it is worth finishing.
A prototype starts at A$8,000. Against A$25,000 and up for a mobile title, that is a small price to find out whether the idea holds.
A prototype that is not fun has done its job. So has one that is fun in a different way than expected, which is a common and useful outcome.
Typically a few weeks. It is deliberately short, because a prototype that takes months has stopped being a prototype.
Some of it. Prototypes are built for speed of iteration, and it is normal and healthy to rewrite parts once the design is settled.
A playable prototype is far more persuasive than a deck, and it is a common reason to build one.
Tell us what you are trying to do. If something off the shelf already does it, or the job is smaller than you think, we will say so.
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