By "reaction-time gameplay", I mean games where the player's reaction time to game events is a crucial element of gameplay.

In some genres, it is possible to make a simplified model of the game that factors out reaction time as an element of gameplay (one could conceivably make a turn-based model of a real-time strategy game, for instance).

For some sorts of games (mainly puzzle or strategy), it's possible to use something like a Machinations feedback diagram .

However, once reaction time becomes more and more crucial to the gameplay, it becomes harder and harder to prototype the game without actually implementing it. An example of a game where reaction time starts becoming crucial would be a typical platformer, with a speed-based platformer such as Sonic or an infinite runner being intermediate examples, and a fighting game being at the extreme end of "reaction-time-dependant".

With all that in mind, is there any way of prototyping these kinds of games other than building the games themselves?