“It’s simple because it’s analog” is a big misconception. Session report introducing the advantages and disadvantages of paper prototyping [CEDEC 2024]

At CEDEC 2024, a game developer conference, a session ``Modern Values ​​and Weaknesses of Paper Prototyping'' was held by game journalist Masaaki Tokuoka .

　Paper prototyping is the act of creating a prototype using an analog method when creating digital content. It is often used in game development, and has created new value in recent years, but there are also various problems lurking there. Let's report on a session where the current state of paper prototyping was discussed.

Paper prototyping is generally used for user interface (UI) design in web design, but in the game industry there seems to be a strong tendency for it to be used not only for UI but also for the entire game design. Although it has "paper" in the name, recently there have been an increase in the number of products that do not use paper. Using
"Tabletop Simulator"
, it is possible to do things like "paper prototyping in a digital space," and it seems that there are also methods such as using figures to check the positional relationships of characters.

Games that support analog games with electronic devices have existed for a long time, and it is also possible to think of current paper prototyping as such ``analog games with digital support.'' Paper prototyping in current games is mainly used in

educational settings
and production sites. A well-known successful example of its use in educational settings is the incubation program ``Sweden Game Arena'' developed by the game design department of Skövde University in Sweden.

First-year university students who have never actually developed a game don't know what kind of game they want to make, and even when they start talking about what kind of game they want to make, they remain in the realm of imagination and are reluctant to start working on it. There are many cases where this is not the case.

Paper prototyping is said to be effective in making it easier for these students to express their passion and letting them check whether their ideas are worth the challenge.

Even in Japan, paper prototyping classes are being held at vocational schools. It seems that confident students often have their noses broken, but Mr. Tokuoka said, ``Being aware of how boring your ideas are is a path you have to take.''


Paper prototyping at the production site is used in various ways to formulate game specifications.

　In addition to things like UI, level, and rule verification, there has recently been an increase in the number of games aimed at ``basic design of analog games.'' This seems to be due to the fact that recent game titles increasingly include card games and Goroku-style mini-games.

In addition, the objectives are wide-ranging, including basic design of battle systems, basic design of character motion (sometimes these are done using figures), and economic model verification.

Paper prototyping is sometimes used for debugging purposes rather than pure game development. For example, in a system where the player character grows by acquiring various skills, when checking to see if the player's abilities are improving properly, the only part that is ``combining skills at random'' is an analog method such as cards rather than a program. The method is to use debugging tools for actual verification.

In this way, paper prototyping in current game development is generally used to ``compensate for a lack of engineer resources.''

In this way, the reasons why paper prototyping has come to be used in various situations include, in addition to compensating for the lack of engineering resources,

"good compatibility with indie games"
, and "comparison with analog games." ``match with market interests'' . If you think of an indie game as a game that expresses a certain theme from the unique perspective of the creator, the basics of analog game design, ``exaggeration and omission,'' are very compatible, and paper prototyping is It becomes useful as a means of ``exaggeration and omission''.

4Gamer readers will know that the analog game market has been active in recent years. The popularity of TRPGs is increasing, and ``Baldur's Gate 3'', which is based on the TRPG ``Dungeons & Dragons'', became the 2023 Game of the Year title. Additionally, ``Slay the Spire'' clones have formed something of a genre, and digital trading card games remain popular.
Under these circumstances, paper prototyping has become a method that cannot be overlooked when developing games in popular genres.

Of course, paper prototyping has its weaknesses. Naturally, since it is a method that ``approaches analog games'', it is not compatible with action games, and tends to be drawn in by the ``exaggeration and omission'' mentioned above.
``Thronefall'', which is currently in early access, apparently used a lot of paper prototyping in the early development, but the ``limitations due to being analog'' were greater than expected, and the work in development was once abandoned.

Mr. Tokuoka also mentioned other typical issues such as the ``20% wall'' theory, which states that ``only about 20% of analog games are interesting when converted to digital,'' and the ``20% wall'' theory, which states that ``throwing dice'' and ``drawing cards'' He cited ``physical noise,'' which leads people to believe that the fun of the game itself is due to the game design, and the personal nature of a game, where the fun cannot be realized unless the creator of the prototype is present.




　また，ペーパープロトタイピングには「システムをシンプルにする」というメリットが確かにあるが，それには「複雑な計算をブラックボックス化してシンプルにし，プレイヤーの負担を減らす」というデジタルゲームのメリットを生かしづらくなる面もあるとした。

　徳岡氏はまとめとして，「サイコロを振ることは面白いので，振るのなら必ずデジタル環境で」と，デジタルサポートの積極的な利用を推奨し，ペーパープロトタイピングの限界を意識し，固執しすぎないことが大事だと呼びかけた。そのうえで，「アナログゲームの面白さとは何であり，どこをデジタル化して切り取るべきなのか」をしっかり検討する必要があると最後に語った。

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