Pixelsocks: Can you describe Paper Cakes?

Machiel van Hooren

Machiel: It’s a game we designed for a tablet. It’s a platform puzzle game where you’re a cute little guy who wants to eat cake, but you have to find it. The platforms are on two sides of a sheet of paper, which you can fold to use platforms from the other side.

Pixelsocks: How did you develop the idea for a platform game with dynamic levels?

Machiel: We had lots of ideas about that: too many actually. So we simplified it to four worlds where each world has a mechanic. In the second you can fold twice in the same direction. The third has enemies who walk around. The fourth adds holes to the paper, so you can travel to the other side.

We make the levels on real paper before any coding gets done. So we just use a finger and fold the sheet of paper to figure out if a level works or not. It’s the perfect game for paper prototyping. There’s a video of the beta prototype on Vimeo.

Pixelsocks: I’m guessing that vertical folding is one of the ideas that didn’t make the cut. Why not?

Machiel: We experimented with it, but it makes the game much more complicated. For one thing, when you fold vertically, folding the paper back leaves you upside down . It makes things too difficult to grasp, so we didn’t include that. It’s the same problem for folding at an angle.

Pixelsocks: The game lets you fold a sheet, but if you’re not happy with the fold you have to reset it and start from scratch. Have you considered letting players modify their folds instead of resetting them?

Machiel: We’ve noticed through playtesting that people try folding the paper back. So we’re planning to add that feature to the game probably in the next couple of weeks. It does complicate things when you have two folds, so that may be a problem for the code.

Pixelsocks: If you’re adding features, does that mean that the project isn’t finished yet?

Machiel: Well, it has been released, so it’s basically finished. There are some additional ideas we can add to the game, but we don’t have much time to work on it any more. So we’ll probably fix some bugs and add some critical features like editing your folds, but not much beyond that. We are looking for developers to port the game to iPad, iPhone, or maybe DS. However that’s more a long term plan.

Paper Cakes from Machiel van Hooren on Vimeo.

Pixelsocks: One thing that’s cool about Paper Cakes is that surfaces don’t have to be parallel to join as you’re folding: you can have V-junctions if you like.

Machiel: It’s more challenging, I think. You have to think of new ways to combine platforms. You can be creative and just try things out. I think that one of the earliest levels has the first sloped surface that you have to fold, so it’s a fundamental part of the game.

Pixelsocks: Did the sketch art style follow the design or did it inspire the gameplay?

Machiel: The art followed the design, because we wanted a very “tactile” experience—we wanted to simulate the paper. So along with the paper coming to life, the guy is a doodle. He’s drawn quickly on paper, and the lines are just quick brushstrokes. However, one didn’t really follow the other, they evolved simultaneously.

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Tags:   GDC · gdc 2010 · IGF · IGF 2010 · Machiel van Hooren · paper cakes · Student ShowcaseNo Comments

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