Videogames and their material representations: Prototyping interactive experiences for social and cognitive purposes

Alternative Title

The many varieties of prototyping interactive experience: Videogame prototypes and representations as" social prototyping"

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

10-2022

Abstract

This article explores a formative era of video games during which paper prototyping was widely used. By examining a range of paper prototypes, we extend the conception of a prototype to involve types that incorporate multiple aspects of video game design, including the mapping of content, locations and events, and the logics structuring player interactions. The prototypes integrate multiple dimensions in order to help designers structure the player experience. Such prototypes are critical antecedents to the construction of working interactive prototypes, as they represent layers of the player’s experience. We find that paper prototypes fulfill different social roles, including: conveying past cultural knowledge and embedding it into the design; coordinating and reconciling different views on the design; and elaborating the design (potentially to instruct other developers). In explicating these roles, we draw on the notion of boundary object to discuss the range of prototypes and their uses for uniquely describing the design of experiences.

Keywords

video games, paper prototyping, formative era, prototype conception, video game design, content mapping, locations, events, logics of player interactions, player experience, interactive prototypes, social roles of prototypes, cultural knowledge, design coordination, boundary object, design of experiences

Discipline

Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Strategy and Organisation

Publication

Entreprises et histoire

Volume

109

Issue

4

First Page

138

Last Page

156

ISSN

1161-2770

Identifier

10.54695/eh.109.0138

Comments

Note that this is an English publication in a bilingual (mostly French language) journal titled "Entreprises et histoire". The citation page is here. https://www.cairn.info/revue-entreprises-et-histoire-2022-4-page-138.htm I don't have a date of publication, so I have listed the first day of the month that the issue (being the 4th issue) was supposed to be published on. The actual hardcopy of this issue was published later than normal, sometime in January 2023, I believe.

Additional URL

https://www.cairn.info/revue-entreprises-et-histoire-2022-4-page-138.htm

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