Paper Prototyping in Game Development

Foreword

Last week one of the instructors at the University of Applied Science in Dresden said that he insists that I develop a game prototype this semester. My plan was actually to just develop a mech configurator and tackle video game development next semester. Reasons for this are that I have already developed many configurators for 3D Interaction Technologies and also my full time job at this company.

Developing a video game can take a lot more time than developing a 3D configurator. But the customer is king after all. So I have started creating a paper prototype yesterday.

The advantages of paper prototypes are that they can be created quickly and without technical know-how. Moreover, you can test your game idea very quickly and make changes easily.

Let's take a look at the current state of my paper prototype, shall we?

Realization

Figure 1 shows my first paper prototype in its entirety. In summary, this is the planned tutorial level where players will learn to move their mech units across a regular grid like in X-COM and stop enemy units from destroying 4 shield generators.

As you can see, cardboard boxes that are supposed to represent buildings are still missing.

Figure 2 focuses on the player's starting position. A custom selection of mechs has been placed there. Each unit as well as the transport aircraft currently have a health indicator. Losing the aircraft would mean leaving the entire squad behind.

By the way, the pictures for the units are not created by me and also not by an AI. Googling images seemed to be the least time consuming solution at the moment.?

Figure 3 shows additional cards that are not needed at the moment. However, they may become necessary in the course of the game. So it's worth being prepared and having enough cards ready with numbers and letters printed on them.

What is still missing are dice, which are needed for the hit calculation.

Last but not least, the game objective is shown in Figure 4. Players must take out an artillery unit inside a city. Either by a direct attack or by destroying three generators.

Final Words

It took me about 6-7 hours to develop the paper prototype. That sounds like a lot, but it's not much when you consider that game rules would have to be implemented for a digital prototype.

In my case, I needed a printer and some paper and cardboard. In addition, I had to borrow some glue from one of my neighbors.

Based on my observations, I will probably need a larger table for future prototypes or will need to reduce the units and tile size.

Next up are the first playtests to evaluate weapon damage and range, as well as movement range, etc.

That's it for today.

What do you think about today's topic? Have you ever created a prototype on paper before actually developing a video game? Or would you prefer that I write articles about programming in?#Unity?as I have in the past? Feel free to leave a comment.

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