Overview

Given that my role as developer means I work with the game's mechanics and the core gameplay loop, it was decided that I should create our game's paper-based prototype. I used Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and sounds found online in order to create the prototype. I also used Unreal Engine for some of the VFX.

Technical Description / Explanation 

Part 1 - Introduction

To begin, I created the introductory puzzle segment at the start of the game. The video starts with an announcement that the next train is cancelled, followed by a scene change to a console that looks to be damaged (using a sprite VFX created in Unreal Engine). The player then travels over to the platform that the console is on. They are then prompted with a puzzle to fix the console.

To use the sprite VFX in After effects, I created a greenscreen asset so that when I record the sprite I can greenscreen it out in aftereffects using keylight. In case I ever need to create greenscreens of other colours, I set up a default material that I can configure using material instances. 

Part 2 - Pre-Battle Train Scene

Once the player solves the puzzle, they're able to board their train. They're quickly confronted by a train conductor who asks for the player's ticket. The player confronts the conductor for being malicious before quickly moving into combat. There isn't much here that I did outside of compiling images and sounds together.

Part 3 - Battle (Regular)

This section of the prototype showcases how combat may look in the final product. The player will be prompted with three options - items, where they can use items to heal or buff, run, which ends the battle (and given that this will be a vertical slice, the game), and attack, which then opens a submenu where the player can choose which attack to do. When the enemy reaches a certain point, they will drag them and the player into the mirror dimension (discussed further in part 4).

Part 4 - Battle (Mirror)

The player is dragged into the mirror dimension by their enemy part way through the battle, causing it to inrease in difficulty along with visually changing the battlefield. The player and enemy are transformed into their 'mirror' or 'inner' selves. To transition between the two scenes smoothly, I used a fade in/out effect alongside a swirl effect on the background to give the impression that a portal has opened up and swallowed the player's surroundings. 

Final Touches

I went back through the whole project and added small pieces of audio to 'fill up' the less action-packed segments of the prototype. I also compled all of the prototype into a finalised composition to exporting and uploading to YouTube. I also created a thumbnail for the video using some of the assets from the prototype (such as the player and conductor in both of their forms).

Revision

Following the completion fo the first paper prototype, we got some feedback from Josh that mentioned issues with the first one. For example, our first prototype was less of a paper prototype and more of an edited video. To fix this, I remade the prototype using photoshop and recorded myself moving & hiding each segment of the prototype myself. I then imported this video into after effects for some final touches and sfx / music. One additional issue was that our original prototype used copyrighted audio, so I swapped it out with audio that is copyright free.

Reflection

Given that there is little to do with my preferred specialisation (programming / development) in pre-production, and that I have never claimed to be good at video editing, I think the paper prototype that I have produced is of a fairly good quality, both the original and the revised version. It showcases the core gameplay of each section of the game in a concise manner while also showcasing visual and auditory feedback given to the player for their actions (e.g. UI button & attack SFX, attack VFX). Our prototype also showcases an early interpretation of how we plan to make the game's UI look during the battle segment, where it floats above / around the player's head, with sub-menues (such as the attack menu) moving outwards from where they're activated. To improve, it would've been nice to have been told to revise my prototype sooner to give us more time to complete it so I could more meticulously plan out how it would look and where to improve. Additionally, with more time I could've better refined the revised paper prototype visually.

As for what I can improve, I would have started working on the prototype a little later into pre-production in retrospect so I could use more of the art assets that our two artists had developed. Additionally, I would've tried to keep the first version as a more faithful paper prototype so that (if needed) further revisions can be built on-top of work I had already done rather than redoing the entire prototype from scratch, as I had to with the actual 2.0 revision.