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Today I'm gong to talk about paper prototyping (with cat). An accessible, fast, easy way to refine the mechanics of your game before real user testing or playtesting.
Weather you work on video games or TTRPGs, I think this is a useful tool to have in your arsenal.
Weather you work on video games or TTRPGs, I think this is a useful tool to have in your arsenal.
Paper prototyping is a method of investigating system flow and user experience without concern for fidelity. I got to my paper prototyping method by first learning from Tom Chi about rapid prototyping for tech product solutions.
My personal belief is that 'If you can't paper prototype it, you shouldn't build it.' This especially goes for video games. Don't waste a week of coding time when you could figure out something isn't going to work with 15 minutes and some notecards.
Paper prototyping is a rapid iteration process. It's best to give yourself a steep time limit for preparation. Like, and hour or two AT MOST. Do not spend days putting your paper prototype together.
When it comes to the prototype itself, the goal is to represent the player experience. When your prototype is complete, you want to run the "player" through the experience. This can be you pretending to be the player, but it is better if a friend does it.
You want the "player" to navigate the experience with as little explanation from you as possible. Then, watch; where do they hit snags? Where does structure get muddy? Where are there broken gameplay loops? What worked? What was unexpected?
Take what you learned from this run through, and iterate again! Paper prototyping is the place for wild experimentation. If your loops break, that's fine. You are hunting for good structure, and sometimes the only way to find that is by tangential failure.
So what does this physically look like? What's an example? Personally, I like to use colored index cards. Each card can represent a discrete object or function or descriptor, and the colors help code Types. But literally you could just use printer paper if you wanted.
Let's say I'm paper prototyping Bluebeard's Bride (because we did!), and I want to know if the math I've set up for gaining tokens of Disloyalty and Faithfulness results in a lopsided or snowballing experience, or if it feels even and satisfying.
For reference, once you collect either three tokens of Disloyalty, or three tokens of Faithfulness, the end of the game is triggered. So it's an important mechanic.
Players naturally want to take tokens of Disloyalty because Bluebeard is a bad dude. We need a satisfying mechanical reason to take tokens of Faithfulness. So taking a Disloyalty token injures, and a Faithfulness token heals (leaving players with a wonderfully icky feeling).
Encounters in rooms can also harm you, but some player moves allow them to heal in certain circumstances. Take too much harm, and the game ends with a Very Bad outcome. We want a quick and dirty way to represent all of this.
In this scenario the orange cards represent player actions or triggers, and the blue cards the final outcome of the game. Pink is the Bride's health, and green are token cards. In about 5 minutes I've stripped down the eloquence of Bluebeard's Bride into this raw mechanical flow.
I've boiled down all the GM and player moves into health outcomes because health is the mechanic we're focused on. The big question is, does the flow of health work? (the short answer for the real game is yes)
But more importantly, it exposes to me, the creator, how exactly my system is functioning, whether it is intellectually legible to others, and how I may change it in the next iteration to get closer to the outcomes I want. For instance, if the Bride was shattering too often.
You can use this method for character creation mechanics, or moment-to-moment gameplay. Really, any of your systems, in whole or in part. Paper prototyping keeps you from thinking yourself to death and getting mired in complexity or obscurity.
It may seem weird to get the hang of at first. After the first or second iteration though it tends to really click for folks. Paper prototyping is about tangibly representing systems thinking. And it helps you be extremely deliberate with your system flow and outcome.
It will expose things that don't work quickly, and gives you the space to try new solutions equally fast. I hope you consider giving it a try on your next project, or take it into your next game jam. It's helped me immensely as a game design professional.
P.S. paper prototyping also works for creating new tarot/oracle systems, for my witchy friends out there.
Have a wonderful Tuesday, folks. Create great art.
Have a wonderful Tuesday, folks. Create great art.
I'd be interested in other designers that use this tool sharing their insights! @nweisma I feel like you'd be an expert in this. Anything come to mind?
