We just released our first game! Ether One is out now & we’re hugely proud of what we achieved. It took 3 long years of figuring out who we were as designers and people. We’ve learnt a lot in the process and I’ll be sharing a lot of those experiences throughout this blog in reflection to the development and what is coming next for White Paper Games.
We have received a higher level of critical acclaim than we were ever expecting. It’s definitely taken us by surprise. We designed Ether One to be something special to us and we were confident we had made something interesting, but we had no idea people would rate it so highly. It’s rewarding to see and it shows that we’re heading in the right direction with White Paper Games. Thank you all so much for playing and saying such great things about the game. We’ll continue to learn from this experience as we start to develop our next game.
If you were interested in supporting us you can buy Ether One directly from our site, Steam, GOG & Humble.
You can also find a full list of Ether One Reviews here.
THANK YOU!
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So following on form last week, students got into groups to create a prototype. This time, instead of in a few hours, this project will be over 2 weeks. The first was to show how much planning and iteration designs take instead of leaving it until last. So now all the students mistakes (hopefully) are out of the way, time to get designing. Each group had to create 3 rules which their game must be based on.
Group one set their own restraints as:
1. A single player game
2. Puzzle based
3. Designed around the word “Beard”
They spent quite a while throwing out different ideas so didnt really get going until the end of the day. However I was impressed with the willingness to scrap crap ideas and to start fresh when they realised it wasn’t really working instead of just forcing the design.
Keeping in mind the students didnt have to do a paper prototype, it could be engine/software/life based, the second group initial went with using UDK. However, they soon realised they were shoe-horting their designs to fit with their own skill of UDK rather than letting the design direct the project. They soon went back to basics and started developing an interesting Photoshop prototype.
Their rules were:
1. Fixed game space (i.e a board)
2. Turn based
3. Gameplay must be defined by a dice role.
The came up with a prison game (kind of like cluedo) where they each role a dice (done on the computer) to check the order of play. Theres a central ‘Warden’ who controls play by assigning cards to the players. Players start in their prison cells and are each given a target. They must hunt down their target without their target realising and kill them. When killed, players spawn back in their cells. End game is defined by how many turns you want your game to have then the person with the most kills wins.
10minute board prototype with grid
Excel sheet with a ‘random number generator’ to simulate dice roles for people – Genius
The Warden
Playtest
Game master
Playtest
Which weapon should I choose?
Excited to see what both groups have next week!
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Hey guys!
We’ve finally got our game up on Steam Greenlight after a couple of weeks of long hours! If you’re following what we’re doing and like our project please sign in and vote for our game! We’d really apprecaite the support, every vote counts! Also, if you favorite the game it helps us out even more 😀
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=96424148&searchtext=
Also, be sure to check out the new trailer:
Thanks for all your support so far! Still a long way to go though 😀
4 thoughts on “Steam Greenlight”
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So we did a similar task today as the first years tackled with some really positive results. Each group got given a core set of rules to follow by. Got some cool games designs out of it and it was a nice introduction to the semester.
Looking at these pictures the students were very imaginative with the limited resources available to them. We even had origami dice!
This was a 1-day games design experiment where they had to plan, build, test and iterate their designs in 5hrs. They were then asked what they would have changed/implemented if they had more time to refine. We also had a group session where we got to see all the games in action. Some excellent ideas came through. Next task is to start over but with a bigger time frame to see what they come up with!
Dungeon Master type game
Chicken run?
Orange
Will post pics of next session! I would encourage all designers to try this out, students or not. Fast paced prototyping!
2 thoughts on “Paper Prototyping (second year)”
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I wish study in your school :_[
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You should come over then! I’ll be uploading loads of different things hopefully like mechanic designs, level designs and also some UDK block work!
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Hey guys!
We’ve been working hard over at White Paper Games to get out game developed and out! We finally released a teaser trailer for you all to check out (if you havnt done so already!)
We’re putting a lot into this game at the moment so it would be great to hear any feedback you all have!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UauSyJDAJT4]
Also be sure to check out the Ether Game website! I’ll be sure to keep adding more WiP and any other interesting things I come across but for now, back to development! Thanks for following!
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Spent a few more hours fleshing out the scene. Its getting there now, nearly time to start adding gameplay!
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Hey guys,
Just a quick update on a blockmap I’m working on showing the different stages of fleshing out. Around 3 hrs work time. Planned it out and gathered some architecture reference for around an hourr beforehand also.
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Recently I set my students a task to prototype a game idea. I gave them a set of parameters (rules) by which to design by and also put them into groups. They had 1 weeks to idea generate, prototype, iterate and write a design document. We did this process twice in a 2 week period. We had some great results and I would highly recommend getting students to prototype their ideas first before taking them into any 3D program. Even if the game really needs a 3D engine, this process is a great way of teaching good design. These students are also first year students and really engaged when they could see they game visually and we able to make the relevant changes through play testing.
All the following images are the results of their hard work. They even went as far to print and mount the game boards! It’s also great fun!
I hope is not finished. I´ll vote.
Aww thanks Igor! Nah, it won’t finish until we get Greenlit.. Depends how many votes and favourites we get though! Thanks for voting!
also, I have said to my friends!! ; )