I created another paper prototype for the flash fiction story “Possessions” by John Smolens. I based this off the last paper prototype I made but made it more playable and more advanced with new ideas. The goal of this paper prototype was the goal being to get the most items to receive the most stones at the end of the game. Still included the ghostly wife can take away items hence less stones won at the end of the game. With the addition of the full map, there was the bedroom, kitchen, living room and the everything must go room.
The player starts by choosing a room, but beware in each room the ghostly wife follows. The player must go up to each object and see if an item is behind it. If an item is behind the object, you will receive the item and it will be put in your inventory. If an item is not behind the object the ghostly wife takes away one of your items which cannot be found again in that room. After finishing finding the items in the room, you must drop everything off at the everything must go room.
Watching my paper prototype be played out today I realized a lot about my game. The dominant reaction I received that the concept of my game was not fully grasped or that there could be so much more done with it but it had good potential. I thought about how there could be more objects within each room so it is a little harder to find the items. One comment was that the ghostly wife could do so much more than she is in the game, she could reck havoc so much more than she did instead of just taking away an item. The items themselves I thought could be a little more exciting/random. Maybe specify items specifically like a shirts, dresses and shoes, cans in the kitchen etc. Also some items could have a kind of reaction when you find them, good or bad. For example if you find the shirt you get extra stones but if you find the dress you get one stone for it and dresses fill the room as a bad reaction for getting rid of it.
My use of abstraction in this paper prototype I feel is a lot better than my first one, but I still would not say its great. I defiantly need to add more color and emotion to my games characters and items. The structure of my game is defiantly still linear/branching style.
My goal for this game if i were to go back and change it would be to have it play out better without any explanation and a better understanding for the games goal.
