Making of Game01: Paperstorming

When I was a kid I loved to draw. I’d draw on notebooks, books, tabletops, anything. My father used to work on a government data center and every couple of weeks he would bring tons of used printer paper he had painstakingly analyzed line by line and give them to me. In my mind each of these sheet of paper was a world in itself.

Now, you see, I knew there were tons of paper, but what I liked was to imagine things while using paper and pencil as a guiding force. I’d start a drawing with Decepticons ambushing Autobots, then they would start shooting. GI Joes would parachute in with laser rifles and grenades. By the end of it the Autobots and their Joe allies would win, though at a heavy cost.

And all of that happened on a single sheet of paper.

You can guess the end result was a mess. No one else could make sense of it. And I didn’t care. All that action happened in my mind’s eye and no where else. The paper was just a tool to help me create.

It’s not so different now designing games.

This week I worked on both implementing the code I defined last week and making a better (final?) GUI (Graphic User Interface). Just like when I was creating mind-cartoons, it began with white paper and interface sketches, and it ended up like this.

Maybe you can make sense out of some of it. At least this time Grimlock didn’t eat the dialogue boxes.

That usually happens at some stage of designing a game. I’m seated in front of the PC, but I have a drawing notebook or sheets of paper in front of me, a pencil hanging from my mouth, a few others nearby (I hate drawing when the pencil is not sharp enough. Must be a tic). I’ll already  have a concept in mind, but as you’ll learn working in the industry, ideas as cheap. What matters is if and how you implement them.

“Paperstorming” (which might as well be a term that already exists and not something I just made up) helps me figure out how things should work, and if they are fun. You’ll find interface designers doing something similar (but a lot neater) when testing usability. They’ll print their interface, cutting out menus and windows, and ask people to “play” with the interface. It’s basically a paper prototype (which is also useful in game design, by the way). But paperstorming is an early step, something raw and unfinished that is bound by your imagination only. It’s just there, waiting for your input, and it won’t judge you. You will. So let it loose, even if you later need to rethink and redraw.

The thing with ‘boundless imagination’ is that only experience will tell you that enough is enough. There are budgets and deadlines, and you must stick to them. If you don’t have budgets and deadlines, you are doing something wrong. You need those. They will help you figure out when to stop, or else you’ll never get your work done.

On my case, paperstorming got me thinking about the actual gameplay of Game01. Was it fun? Was there something missing?

While I still believe content (story, decision-making, aftermath) are key to making this game fun, I still feel there is something missing in the experience. Paperstorming helped me get the feeling of flow in the game, and realize there was something wrong with the idea of shifting between 3 ‘zoom levels’ (sector, system, station). It wasn’t clear why (or when, really) the player should shift between screens. Also, ‘system’ because pointless compared with others. I actually got to the point in which I was trying to add eye-candy to ‘system’, like objects in orbit around the sun and meaningless ships coming and going. That as a clear indication something was wrong.

Which was when I remembered the first ever version of Space Station UIlinah, the tower defense game.

Now, you see, I’m not going back to it. I still believe those are two different games. But this IS a strategy game, still. And I want to add some sort of exploration and discovery to the game that does not depend exclusively on events coming up randomly. Could I do something interesting with the system screen that made sense? Could that improve the game flow?

As of the writing of this article I’m tinkering with an idea that gives the game a set flow without killing the concept:

1. The player selects a trade route to open or expand on the Sector screen. The more you expand a route, the bigger are the risks (same as before);
2. The player heads to the System screen where he watches the flow of ships coming and going. Here he can click on incoming and outgoing ships to inspect them for contraband or weapons. Detecting danger means you need to dispatch fighters to deal with the problem. There are also other elements here: freighters SOS, pirate attacks and exploration elements. Detecting contraband, pirates and helping convoys give you a bonus; exploring gives you extra storylines;
3. Once your shift is done, you go to the Station screen where you can choose between getting your officers to train (which affects story and ‘system’ gameplay) or have a night off with them, with the opportunity to chat and learn more about them (which also affects story and gameplay). There may be a fatigue attribute there for each officer, but I’ll not sure of it just yet.

The most important aspect of this chance is that there is an improvement to flow while still maintaining core gameplay. Stories still happen based on what trade route you are investing on, but it becomes a little more visual. While playing on ‘system’, things happen. You may inspect a convoy that triggers a crisis you must deal with, and this crisis will have long-lasting ramifications. But you also have smaller, random events to deal with, like a freighter with a faulty FTL needing repairs. It also adds back the idea of upgrading station sections (or officers) that was missing from the previous concept.

And that is where we stop. Budget and deadlines dictate I can’t go back anymore. I can, of course, improve on what there is, but not go back to the basics again. This is the game, even if I change elements of it (like the fatigue attribute). That is where I say ‘this is it’. Which is why paperstorming is important (for me). Only by playing the game (even if just in my mind) did I realize that it needed to be improved.

Now I need to get cracking, ‘cause IGF’s deadline is right next door and I’m aiming for it.