Level 5.5: Prototyping Real-Time Systems

Prototyping Real-Time Systems

For a turn-based game like Battleship, a non-digital prototype is easy enough to put together. What if you wanted to prototype a First-Person Shooter video game like Halo? Is there any possible way to do that on paper, when most of the game is running around and shooting things in real time? The answer is yes, absolutely. Here are some hints:

• One “turn” of a board game is equivalent to some amount of time (say, 3 seconds) of real-time play
• For “twitch” mechanics like dodging and accuracy that require accurate timing, either a player succeeds or fails at these based on how difficult they are and how skilled the player is. This can be modeled with a random die roll. Note that even though the video game’s system is not random at all, it may as well be random from the opponent’s perspective: if I shoot at you and you either do or do not successfully dodge, I have no control over that.
• Many real-time games take place on an open 3D map that is not subdivided into “spaces”. This does not prevent you from making a game board that has spaces anyway.

For example, consider these rules:

• Players: 2 to 6, free-for-all
• Objective: shoot your opponents
• Setup: Players start at designated starting locations on the board. The board is subdivided into hexagons (“hexes”). Each player is facing in one of the six directions leading away from their space towards another hex. Each player takes a set of the following cards: Move, Turn, Move/Turn, Fire.
• Progression of Play: Each turn, all players select one of their cards and play face-down. Cards are revealed simultaneously. First, any players who selected Move get to move up to 2 spaces away in any direction(s), but they cannot turn and must continue to face the same direction they started the turn facing. Next, any players who selected Move/Turn may move up to 1 space and also change their facing by a single hex (60 degrees) in either the clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Next, any players who selected Turn can change their facing to any direction they want. Finally, any player who chose Fire immediately hits and kills any opponent(s) that they can see. Any player who is killed is eliminated from the game. After the turn, players collect the card they played. They may play this card or another one on the next turn.
• Resolution: When one player is left standing, that player wins. If two or more players shoot and kill each other on the same turn simultaneously, the game is a draw.

Then you just draw up a quick hex map, maybe fill in a few hexes to represent obstacles that players cannot walk or shoot through, and play. Try it out!

And if you do try it out, you’ll immediately notice the game needs some iteration. For example, I didn’t define what a player “can see” so there is no way from the rules above to tell if a shot hits or not. You will have to define this more explicitly on your own (maybe it means in a straight line, or maybe within a certain range, or maybe something else). You may also notice that the game is not very deep; there are no respawns, power-ups, ammo, health packs, special weapons, or anything else. The game does not immediately support common variants like Capture-the-Flag or King-of-the-Hill. All of these things could be added, however, in just a few minutes.

What would this kind of prototype be useful for? You could use it to playtest a proposed level layout, before implementing it in the game’s level editing tools. If you add enemy monsters and play as a cooperative team, and you add limited ammunition and health as new mechanics, you could balance the number of monsters versus the amount of ammo and health on a level to get a pretty decent first stab at a level that would provide a desired level of challenge. If you add different weapon types with varying range, damage and accuracy, you could get a pretty good idea of which weapons would be the most powerful on a given map. You would still need to revisit these things if you turn it into a digital game, because things do not transition 100% perfectly from one medium to another… but you will have a better starting point, and a better understanding of the game’s mechanics and how they are likely to interact.

And maybe even if the digital game fails, you’ll still at least have a fun little tabletop game to play with your friends.

I hope this example serves to show you that most video games can have at least some of their elements prototyped in paper. And naturally, games that are meant to be released in non-digital form can be prototyped that way as well. Even some systems from tabletop RPGs and LARPs can be prototyped in this way, in their early stages.

A Short Note on Grids