Games Engineering Project Part 3: Paper Prototype

Part 1 - here
Part 2 - here

We created a paper prototype so that we could test movement and if the game was enjoyable. A playing field was created using a hexagonal grid printed on a piece of paper and players played as either 10p or 20p coins. We asked some of our class mates to help us play the game. you can find their blog's here and here.

Playing Grid

Iteration one
For the first test we had 3 players, 2 runners and 1 catcher. Each player could move one space per turn in any direction, the runners objective was to reach the other side of the grid and the catchers to catch all runners to win the game. when a runner was caught they would switch to the catchers team.

From playing a few games using these rules we discovered that the catching team would always catch the runners after two rounds and that the game was not very fun because of this.

Iteration two
This time we changed the rules regarding how the players could move across the board. we introduced a die into the game and depending on the number the player rolled would decide how far they could move. If the player rolled a 1 or 2 they could move one space in any direction, 3 or 4 they could move two spaces and a 5 or 6 they could move 3 spaces.

After testing these movement mechanics for a few games we discovered that it gave the runners more chance to escape and games would last for more rounds and were less predictable than the previous iteration. It also created some interesting scenarios were players were being chased but were still able to escape because of the random movement or were run into a corner and captured by the player. The feedback from our test players was that this iteration was also more fun to play than the previous iteration however after a few games it began to become boring.


Iteration three
To attempt to keep the game more fun for longer than a few games we introduced a second die which was a scatter die which had arrows and hit markers similar to the image below. the player would roll both dice and as before the number on the first die would determine the number of spaces the player could move and the scatter die would determine the direction. If the player rolled a hit marker then they could move in any direction.

Scatter dice

This idea failed as it created too much chance and it was too random with the direction that the players moved and resulted in little conflict resulting between the players and just came down to luck if the runners were able to reach the other side or if the catcher was able to catch anyone.

Iteration four
we decided that of the 3 previous iterations the rules of iteration two were the best, however we decided to try and add some more rules and mechanics to the game to see how it affected the gameplay. We added walls into the playing field  and gave the players the ability to "shoot" each other from a distance. The movement rules were the same as for iteration 2. Players had 4 health points and started with 2 lives, when a player was killed they would re spawn back at their base until they had no lives left. Players could only shoot at the begging or end of a turn and if they had line of sight on the opposing player.
A hit was decided upon the roll of a die, If the player shot at the begging of their turn they had a higher chance of hitting the opposing player and needed to roll 3,4,5 or 6 with a 6 causing double damage(standard damage is 1 health point) and their turn ends. if they decided to move they could do so using the rules of iteration 2 if after they moved they chose to shoot they had a reduced chance to hit and needed to roll a 5 or 6 with a 6 only causing standard damage.

This iteration proved to be more fun for our players and the turn based aspect and varying chance of shots causing damage brought a strategic element to the gameplay which our players seemed to enjoy. It also created conflit between our players and brought us closer to fulfilling our player experience goals.

iteration 4 and 5

Iteration five

For this iteration we added in more weapons with different damage ratings and rules for fire and health packs and kept the rules and our playing field the same. We added:

Machine gun - Causes 2 damage but can only be used twice before it runs out of "ammo"

Rocket Launcher - can be fired in any direction and at any range, the player rolls the standard die to determine the range that the rocket will scatter(same as movement  rules) and the scatter die to determine the direction of scatter, a hit marker is a direct hit. If the player rolls a 1 it is a misfire and damages the player. The rocket launcher causes full damage if it is a direct hit and 2 damage if it lands 1 position away from the opposing player. Also only has 2 shots.

Grenade - The range of the grenade is determined upon the roll of the standard die and can be thrown up to the number of spaces that is rolled. The grenade can also be thrown over walls but cannot bounce back over them. the scatter is the same as it is for the rocket launcher and causes 2 damage for a direct hit or 1 for splash damage. Also has only 2 shots.

We tested this out for a few games and used two groups of players to test the iteration and gain feedback from them. This proved to be the most fun of all the iterations and once again brought us even closer to reaching our player experience goals.

Thanks for reading! Any questions or feedback i would love to hear from you.

Email: 10004794@napier.ac.uk - Please put blog in the subject.

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