Creating a Paper Prototype and Our Own Board Game

We were told today that we were going to be looking into the idea of a paper prototype, what it is and actually making one ourselves. To start the session off, we had to grab a sheet of grid paper and construct our own  board game. As we were in our groups for the winter submission, we had to each discuss what game that we could construct and a set of rules that we had to follow.

In the end, we decided that the game that we would make would be a mix between Monopoly and Risk. The player had two separate boards, one being set for the player to advance round, where as the other had the players castles on. As the player advanced round the board, they would pick up items that would help their castles at different stages. These would be things such as arrows and boiling oil. The winner was the last castle standing.

Constructing our own board game.

The board was simple enough to construct, using grid paper to block out the board, which also was a simple square. The map in the middle was a few circles that were dotted around. You can see in the picture above that we wanted to use a combination of orange and green for the board squares. We also ended up making counters by drawing stick men and castles on.

The last thing that we were told to do with the game was to actually play it. So we managed to get hold of a dice and start to play. The game played quite well and it was enjoyable to play. In the time that we had to construct the game and come up with the rules, I felt that we did a good job with it

Mapping out the paper prototype.

The next thing that were told to do was make a paper prototype. This is when a developer will make a paper version of the game that they want to make, this will help them locate any errors, any mechanics that they wish to put into the game and find out if there is anything missing. 

This paper prototype that we were going to make had to be a shooter, so we had to construct a map from overhead view. This meant that we could move the counters evenly and not one person would have an advantage. When we made the map, we made it symmetrical on each side, this meant that there was no advantage to any player. We used a clicker on that our tutor had found on the internet to move the players, every time that we heard a click, we could move our player. If we were in sight of another player, we could shoot by shouting bang.

Playing our paper prototype.

This whole experiment was a fantastic way to test if the game could work. Just by doing this on the shooter, we found many different problems already. This is something that we will defiantly use when it comes to the winter submission game as it could reveal elements of the game that we are missing that we are not fully aware of. It will also tell us what we could add to the game to make it an overall much more enjoyable experience.