Paper Play in Digital Places

From paper fortune tellers we used to make in school, to intricate origami birds, the playful folding of paper into interesting objects has long overlapped with other types of games. Origami appears in video games and board games surprisingly often. This list looks at the best games that put paper folding to the test.

This is sometimes the inclusion of origami objects, like Heavy Rain's killer leaving folded objects as a calling card. In other games, the world itself is made out of paper, that leads to a variety of unusual settings, like Tearaway, Paper Mario and Rappa the Rapper.

Perhaps most interesting are games that use paper as the mechanic for puzzles and interactions. This includes games like A Fold Apart and Paper Trail where you fold the world you play in to solve increasingly complex puzzles. Or Snipperclips where you angle interactions to cut shapes out of your character so you can achieve specific goals and progress.

Then there are games that reward your video game prowess in the real world. Tearaway is the headlines title here, as it let you download and print foldable-paper versions of the characters you met in the game. Nintendo Labo also stands out for using physical folding to create tangible objects you use to control the play.

This list includes 34 games from the last 26 years, with 461 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to play with paper. We break them down into the following areas:

• Paper Folding
• Paper Puzzles
• Paper Worlds