[In this reprinted article from Game Developer magazine, the student team behind the 2011 IGF student finalist PaperPlane reflects on the origin and production of this atmospheric flight game.]
IGF 2011 finalist PaperPlane aims to capture the spirit of childhood innocence, allowing players to glide through the countryside and uncover what it has to offer. As the game progresses, the initially barren landscape becomes populated with swing sets, farmlands, and more, depending on where players guide their small paper airplane. Here, the team from French game school ENJMIN discusses the inspiration and work that went into creating this atmospheric title.
Please tell me a bit about how your team came together to work on this project.
PaperPlane was our second year student project in our master's degree. For these projects, we have to submit a pitch to the school's board and they select some of them. Then, you have to build a team around your project and you can start working on it. We were three proposing this pitch and quickly we were able to find six other teammates. We have six months to develop a prototype and we have to deliver three presentations during this time, the final one being in front of a jury for the end of the project.
How did you all decide upon the premise for the PaperPlane?
The proposed pitch was not quite like the final prototype. At first, it was more oriented on the concept of Rube Goldberg machines but where you use the paper airplane as a means to chain actions together. We were a little lost with this concept during the first or two months of development and after a few meetings with some of our teachers we were able to take a different direction that suited all of us. The idea of childhood memories came around that moment and it was from there that everything got in place.
The game pays a lot of attention to what life is like in the rural countryside. Did any of you grow up in such an environment?
Most of us did, or at least had parents or grandparents who grew up in the countryside and we all kept different memories of this environment. When you're a child it's such a rich and enjoyable setting. To get a good feeling of the countryside we did some "project hikes" with the whole team: we went around the city we lived in (Angoulême, where our school is), that was really fun to do and it created a bond among the team. Also, mountain bike rides and books by French author Jean Giono were major inspirations in this game development.
We didn't want to show a kitsch, adult-idealized vision of rural countryside. It's not all flowers and cows there, we also feature things like a highway or a tractor, because everything is an equally appealing occasion for fun in a child's eyes.
