Week 06 - Fear the Old Blood

This past week we once more delved into paper prototyping, though this time, we were to work by ourselves or in pairs before presenting what we had created to designated groups. However, rather than meshing two sports together or thinking of something original, our goal was to paper prototype an existing video game. After being indirectly called out at the use of Bloodborne as an example, I joined the rest of the students choosing their games and chose (unsurprisingly) Bloodborne. Specifically, I focused on the chalice dungeons. 

Chalice dungeons are an optional part of the game, made using materials you can find around the map as pick-up-able items or that are dropped from enemies. These materials, used on a chalice first gained from an option boss - the Blood Starved Beast - unlocks the chalice dungeons. From here, you enter the randomly generated chalice dungeons to reap rewards. Each chalice has three levels and three predetermined bosses to defeat before they can be considered defeated. The aspect of randomness in the environment and the combat system are what my partner and I decided to focus on.

Trying to mimic the environment was arguably the most difficult part iof the design idea to convey, as environmental design values ``address the concerns of the environment and sustainability” (Macklin and Sharp). While this idea has more practical use in real life, environment design in video games is a vital part of many people’s enjoyment of the games. The fact that in Bloodborne chalice dungeons, the environment is randomized, makes focusing on this aspect seemingly not sustainable. However, I figured out a solution soon into brainstorming - use separate paper pieces. For example I cut out geometric shapes with the idea of walkways and hallways in mind, every way to move being symmetrical. With many differently shaped pieces and one boss room piece, I made it so you could have many different combinations- just like in Bloodborne’s actual chalice dungeons.

Another thing we needed to consider was enemies and their placement, as inspiration stemmed from TTRPG’s and we needed to consider “what skills does the game ask of the player?” and if “the development of strategy important to a fulfilling play experience?” (Macklin and Sharp). Ultimately, we sacrificed the skill and strategy needed in Bloodborne’s playstyle for a more loyal paper rendition in terms of environment and combat. Doing so; however, gave us a great opportunity in terms of fixing enemies and their positions. In Bloodborne, if examining the randomly generated corridors and the maps they belong to, many of them fix their enemies to a certain point even if their corridors have changed position. Following the suit of the original game, we did the same. Enemies were decided to be fixed both in position and type even if we changed the orientation of the papers.

Lastly, we had to figure out a way to ‘win’. In Bloodborne’s chalice dungeons you ‘win’ a chalice dungeon by going through all three layers and defeating the boss; however, in our rendition, there was no way to ‘unlock’ the boss like the actual game. However, we retrofitted this by making it so to unlock the boss, you must have defeated all the normal enemies. Every floor ended up very similar, “with the action completed, we begin the cycle anew” and being a cause for repetition. Though, this is quite loyal to the actual game of Bloodborne so despite the tedious situation this could cause, we continued on with it to make it easier to understand. 

Paper prototyping Bloodborne’s chalice dungeons was more difficult than I and eventually my partner first thought it would be as the video game itself is very complicated and we had to understand “that players know what they are looking at. [but] There is a difference between seeing and understanding” (Macklin and Sharp.) Ultimately, I think this short project ended up much better than the rest and will prove to be a paver for the road ahead.