Ethan, our environment artist, is here to talk to you about the time he made a paper prototype to help design the game loop before the game existed in-engine. Take it away, Ethan…
Ethan:
If I’m making a video game, why on Earth did I make a board game? Good question! I’m Ethan, environment artist, but also game designer for ‘The Pale Beyond’ and ‘The Hearth & Harbour’. I started out small with game design, making my own tabletop and card games with my friends. As an artist first, I was just excited to draw cool stuff that could become a game with little more than a printer and a table to play on. I’ve actually been making games like this for years as passion projects and game jams and I found many, many dos and don’ts along the way.
Early on in production for The Hearth & Harbour, I suggested we could make a paper prototype -a board game version of our game’s restaurant gameplay, just to see if we could sit down and play some turn based strategy before we committed big development time. Remembering many conversations with James and Thomas, friends and family all who had worked in the service industry at one time or another, there were some common themes of stress, patience and time management. Can you still keep customers happy in a stressful environment?
So much of what we’ve landed on with the game was originally sketched out in this paper prototype, having two characters, the waiter and the cook, seating tables and cooking meals gaining and managing stress all the while. The team were down for me making it, so I gathered together some of our early concept art and got into the weeds.
Boy I had created a monster, Katie and I played the first version together and yes, I nailed the stressful experience for sure -but I forgot to put in anything to reward the player or relieve the stress. The next draft was when it finally clicked for me, I got to create some rewards, trim down some complicated steps and reduce the cost of some actions.
As I taught the team how to play this version of the game, we were already in the shoes of players there and then. This prototype was rough around the edges sure, but it worked, it was fun and it only took a couple days. Maybe a paper prototype is just what your video game needs too!
From,
– Ethan (Environment Artist, Game Designer),
and Jess (Art Director)