A Journey of Game Design Process for ‘Kingsrim’.
Have you ever wondered, why do Paper Prototypes exist? If you are a game designer or belong to any field of design or development for that matter of fact, you understand that prototypes are a necessary tool from both designing and development point of view. They help in creating the foundation or the infrastructure on which the project will be based, they help in rectifying errors in early stages, last but not least, they help in visualizing how the end product will look and work. We can see a wide variety of different types of prototypes that are used for designing and developing a product.
So, in the era of digital media and digital design, why do paper prototypes still exist?
A Question I asked myself when I was starting my semester of Game Design course, and an Answer to which I found while designing the Kingsrim with my teammates.
The ‘Kingsrim’, a fantasy RPG game, inspired by the famous Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and an idea born at Kingston, hence the name… Kingsrim.
It’s Easy
Paper prototyping is easy, you do not require any setting up of pre-requisites, softwares, or even a computer. You just need everyday household stuff that might be lying around in your bedroom, an old toy perhaps, or some cards, or maybe just some papers and last but not least, your imagination.
‘‘ We wanted to design the first level of our game in which our protagonist finds himself in a dungeon and is trying to find his way through the same, requires a key and encounters enemies. What’s better than an old school maze, which can be scaled to any difficulty, some puzzle pieces to depict enemies and our player as well as the key. And there it was, visualization of our first level. complete. ’’
Work Environment
Paper prototypes are not bound by any work environments. They do not require any environment to be set up, they are flexible enough to be worked upon at any place at any time… (P.S.: Don’t forget to bring your papers).
‘‘ Most of the time we just found ourselves working at any place available, cafeteria, empty classrooms, maybe on a bench in a park… just be sure the wind doesn’t blow your stuff away xD ’’
Easy Modifications and Visualisation
Paper Prototypes are easy to modify and can be modified at any point of time in the discussion session, no starting from scratch, no module deletion or editing, previous work intact for current comparison.
Paper prototypes are also a good way of visualizing functionalities which are unsophisticated in viewing yet become sophisticated while implementing. Digital prototypes may take hours to render graphical elements and still may not be able to convey what the designer had in mind. Visualizations made during paper prototyping can be, however, converted easily into digital assets since the idea that needs to be conveyed is clear and does not require any fundamental changes.
‘‘ To increase the difficulty of the level, we wanted to add a functionality which would restrict the player’s overall perspective, minimise visibility and make navigation through the dungeon a little difficult. A ‘mist’ seemed like a good option. In the image, the mist is depicted by another paper lying on top of the maze with a circular cut in the centre. Here the centre depicts the overall perspective or the allowed peripheral visual for the player. ’’
Tools and Equipments
As mentioned earlier, you do not require any specific softwares or hardware for creating a paper prototype. Anything you see in your everyday life can become your tools and equipment. Sometimes, even hand drawn sketches are enough to be termed as a paper prototype. Especially while designing a user flow, paper prototypes seem like a faster option.
‘‘ To visualise a ‘Turn Based Combat’ system, we needed something that would depict a player, an enemy, drop items, health gauge and something that would simulate attack sequence. Hence, a deck of cards and a few dice came to rescue… Cards were used to depict the player, an enemy as well as a ‘chance drop item’, the numbers on dice worked as health gauge amount as well as rolling a dice, turn wise, we were able to depict the amount of damage dealt and subtract the same from respective health gauges.’’
Easy Testing
One of the major advantages of a paper prototype is that they can be easily tested and then retested. No testing environment is required to test the prototype, designers can play and have an almost end product like experience, share real-time views as well as make real-time corrections and modifications in case a certain functionality doesn’t seem to fit the memo. Plus it’s fun!
‘‘ We tested (played) our game level prototype numerous times. We went through various iterations, modifying the rules on the fly, adding and removing elements as we saw fit for the level, decreasing complexity of the game design, and increasing the comprehensibility of rules and the gameplay. It was interesting to note how closely we were able to visualise the functionalities that we wanted in our level. We were able to experience how the level would turn out when converted to digital view. We had a ton of fun while playing the prototype as well. We were able to do that all with just a couple of papers, some cards and a few dice. ’’
The list of reasons why paper prototyping still exists in the field of design and development shown here is inexhaustive. You can still find a few more reasons why Paper Prototyping is preferred in the initial stages of a product design. Although digital designs and digital prototypes are crucial, paper prototypes play an important role in making the process of conveying ideas easier.
What are some of your own best ideas of Paper Prototyping? Share them with us below!