Critiques on the First Round of Paper Prototype Presentations

Alright, here's my verdict on the four paper prototype presentations seen so far. Hopefully we'll go through more than four tomorrow or these presentations will never get done. Anyway, here goes:

Antlion

I have to say I didn't particularly like this presentation, and got very little sense of what the game or prototype was about. The teams's initial research and revision slide seemed unnecessary and an overly elaborate way of saying 'making an RTS was too hard, so we're making something else.' Also, the presentation never made it clear what type of game the team was working on, and what aspects of it they were trying to test. It seems that either escaping from an antlion or trying to catch an ant is the object of the game, but it remains unclear what game mechanics are used to represent this, either in the final game or the prototype.

As a final point, the game also seems incredibly simple, and indeed rather underwhelming for a full-semester, four-person project. But it is difficult to suggest ways to expand the game when I have essentially no idea what the gameplay is like.

Fins of Fury

Once again I was a bit unsure about the nature of the game at first, but eventually realized it's an action-adventure game, possibly with rpg elements and done in 3D. Once I understood this context, the presentation made more sense. Not much was mentioned about the paper prototype but it did seem like a good representation of an adventure game/rpg, as many of the core mechanics (point collecting, fighting, avoiding enemies, leveling, etc.) were accounted for.

With regard to the project in general, this game does sound incredibly ambitious and I hope they can pull it off. With full 3D, animated characters, story, levels and a character that apparently grows up through the course of the game, they've got their work cut out for them.

Mizu

As I understand it, Mizu is intended to be a side-scrolling platformer like Mario or Sonic where the player plays as a water-creature, fighting the other three elements. It was rather unclear how the paper prototype presented these mechanics, as all I remember hearing is that it was inadequate in many respects. This is understandable, considering that much of the fun in a playformer comes from the immediacy of jumping around and hitting enemies.

Untitled Game (previously known as School'd)

First off, I think this game needs a name, at least a working one. But with that said, the paper prototype seemed quite successful, even though the presentation was a bit crude. The game appears to be a medieval adventure/rpg with different character types, attacks and probably items. The testing approach for this game did seem quite interesting and very flexible, as new elements can be roughed in on this grid sheet on the fly.