The article discusses how students often struggle with creating good gameplay and assets in academic game projects. The researchers analyzed a game project called Taman Putroe Phang, based on Aceh's Kingdom Romance History, to show how using board game/tabletop prototyping can help in developing successful game prototypes. The main goal was to help beginner game designers understand the process better. The key finding was that starting with a tabletop mock-up can improve the final digital game design.