The Illinois of Art, Chicago	Game Prototyping
	Instructor: Lindsay Grace

 

Paper Prototype Design Basics:

The benefits to paper prototyping are clear. Low cost and rapid development.  If we are going to learn prototyping, we can’t ignore the paper prototype. Besides, it’s nice to get away from a computer every once and while.

• One key to paper prototyping is common to all prototypes. You need intention. You must aim to test a specific concept, gameplay idea, etc.  There is no use testing whether or not rolling dice can be entertaining, unless you are learning something new about:

How we roll the dice: With your nose, with your foot, etc
Where we roll the dice: On a board with holes in it, under a time limit against other players, etc
The type of dice we roll: 18 sides dice, dice with color instead of numbers, etc
Again, the key to prototyping is intention. Make sure you are testing something specific and make sure that your prototype helps you understand where or not you are succeeding. 

• Keep it simple or design it thoroughly.  If you have never built a paper prototyping you will re4alize pretty quickly that there are two types. The well conceived, well delivered “epic” prototype. These are almost ready for publishing by Milton Bradley – they are very near board game or card game prototypes. The other, the one on which we will focus, tests one specific idea. It is ready to be thrown away. These are simple little exercises, tests in entertainment value.  If, for example, you were working for Nintendo looking to design a WII version of Ice Hokey you might being by:
• Building an individual paper prototype of each of the main “verbs” in the game (shoot, block, check, pass, “fight”)
• Testing each verb
• Choosing the top three verbs that are most fun (maybe shoot, block, and check)

 

• Iterate.  The benefit of paper prototypes is that they are cheap. So build, document, throw it away, and build on what you have learned

How?
These articles will help you understand the how a little better. The most important concept for our class is the idea of using the game master as the computer. You, as the game designer, should probably just build the implements for your paper prototype and then act as the computer for 1player games. You’ll read more about this in the reading:

• Industry Experience in Paper Prototyping (Gamasutra)

Optional Additional Reading:

My expereince with paper prototypign started with web design and usability. These people have some useful information from that perspective, but the content is useful for game design students too:

• Overview of how to test using paper prototypes (Snyder Consulting: The Paper Prototype People)

You may also find this useful:

• A steb-by-step paper prototype guide for designing your interface (PocketPC Mag)

Last modified: Janaury 1, 2009
Previous Version: February 4, 2008

Provided by Lindsay Grace for students of the Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago. These documents may be used by others when properly credited. Please email lgrace at aii edu for more information.