Crease Pattern Studio: the origami mini-game for World 1 boosts
The Great Paper Expansion is a free idle game about folding paper, and late in World 1 it becomes an origami game too. The Crease Pattern Studio is an extra mini-game in World 1, The Paper World: you trace the real crease patterns of classic origami bases with your finger, from the simple kite base to the bird base that folds a paper crane, and earn boosts for your World 1 climb.
This page explains how origami diagrams work, shows every base in the game, and walks you through folding one at home with a real square of paper. World Origami Days run every year from October 24 to November 11, so it's a good time to try.
What is origami?
Origami is the art of folding paper into shapes, usually from a single square sheet with no cuts and no glue. The word comes from two Japanese words: oru (to fold) and kami (paper).
Paper was invented in China and reached Japan around the 7th century, where folded paper became part of ceremonies and gift-giving. The oldest known book of origami instructions, Hiden Senbazuru Orikata (1797), is all about folding paper cranes. Europe had its own folding traditions too, like Spain's little paper bird, the pajarita.
Modern origami owes a lot to Akira Yoshizawa (1911–2005), often called the father of modern origami. He folded tens of thousands of models and, with Samuel Randlett and others, created the system of dashed lines and arrows that origami diagrams still use today.
Valley folds and mountain folds
Every crease in origami is one of two kinds, and diagrams draw them differently:
A mountain fold is just a valley fold seen from the other side: turn the paper over and every mountain becomes a valley. The game uses the same colours as many origami books: blue for valleys, red for mountains.
What is a crease pattern?
A crease pattern is a map of every crease on the unfolded sheet. Instead of showing each step, it shows where all the folds end up, all at once. Origami designers use crease patterns to plan complicated models, and folders use them as a puzzle: look at the lines and work out how they fold.
Crease patterns follow surprising rules. Maekawa's theorem says that wherever creases meet in a flat fold, the number of mountains and valleys always differ by exactly two. Kawasaki's theorem says that around that point, every other angle adds up to 180°. Mathematicians and engineers study these rules to fold solar panels, airbags and space telescopes.
Fold a kite base at home
You only need one square of paper. Origami paper (a 15 cm or 6 inch square, coloured on one side) is ideal, but a square cut from printer paper works too.
- Fold in half and unfold. Put the paper coloured side down and turn it so a corner points at you, like a diamond. Fold the left corner over to the right corner, crease firmly, then open it again. You now have one valley fold down the middle.
- Fold one side to the middle. Take the lower left edge and fold it in so it lies exactly along the middle crease. Start the fold at the bottom corner and keep the point sharp.
- Fold the other side to match. Fold the lower right edge to the middle too. That's a kite base! Open it up and you'll see the same three creases as the crease pattern above.
From here, a few more folds make a swan or a whale. The kite base is where many beginners start.
The origami bases in the game
A base is a standard starting shape that many different models grow from. These are the bases you trace in the Crease Pattern Studio, in the order you meet them, from the classic bases of traditional origami to folds studied by artists and engineers.
Kite base
The simplest of the classic bases: fold two edges of a square in to its diagonal. Folded, it looks just like a diamond-shaped kite, and many beginner animals start here, like the swan and the whale.
Blintzed waterbomb base
All four corners folded to the middle (a blintz, named after the folded pancake), then the waterbomb: diagonals one way, middle lines the other. The waterbomb is named after a little paper cube you inflate by blowing into it.
Fish base
A kite base folded from both corners, giving two long points and two short flaps called rabbit ears. It is one of the four classic bases of traditional origami and starts many sea creatures.
Frog base
A square base with every flap squash-folded and then petal-folded, giving four long flaps. Despite its name it mostly makes flowers, like the lily and the iris.
Miura-ori
A zigzag fold that packs flat and opens in one pull. The astrophysicist Koryo Miura designed it, and it folded a solar panel flown in space in 1995. Some maps are folded this way too.
Hyperbolic paraboloid
Concentric squares and both diagonals: fold them, and the flat sheet twists into a saddle shape on its own. It was taught at the Bauhaus art school in Germany in the 1920s and still interests architects.
Bird base
Also called the crane base: a square base with both sides petal-folded, the move that lifts a point up while the sides fold in. The paper crane and the flapping bird both start here.
Curved-crease rings
Circles folded alternately up and down bend the paper into a curving sculpture. Students at the Bauhaus explored curved folds in the 1920s, and artists still use them today.
Square twist tessellation
Pleats meet at a little square that twists flat. Shuzo Fujimoto made twist folds famous in the 1970s; repeat them across the sheet and you get a tessellation, a whole field of folds.
- - - valley fold - · - mountain fold
How the Crease Pattern Studio works
When it unlocks and where to find it
The Studio opens late in World 1. When your paper stack reaches the edge of the observable universe at fold 102, a locked 📐 ??? card appears in the Unfold tab. Keep climbing into the dark past the edge: a hidden landmark out there opens the Studio. From then on, the card reads 📐 Crease Pattern Studio, and tapping Open takes you in.
It's a journey of chapters. Each chapter has a couple of warm-up shapes, one real origami base and a finale model to fold, ending with a paper dragon.
- Trace each crease from dot to dot with your finger or mouse. Valley and mountain folds are drawn just like on this page.
- Earn up to five stars for accuracy and speed. You can't fail: you can retrace any step as often as you like, and only your best result counts.
- Stars give powers that last forever, such as more paper, stronger mills and more offline earnings.
- Every step comes with a real fact about origami, its history and the science of folding.
Until then, the game is about folding one sheet higher and higher, past a house cat, Mount Everest, the Moon and the stars. Read How to play to see how that part works.
Questions
Is the origami in the game real?
Yes. Every base in the Crease Pattern Studio is a real origami base with its real crease pattern, from the kite base to the bird base that folds the paper crane. Each one comes with a true fact about the fold, its history or the people who made it famous.
Do I need paper to play?
No. You trace the folds on screen with your finger or mouse. But every base on this page can also be folded with a real square of paper, and the kite base above is a good one to start with.
Where is the Crease Pattern Studio in the game?
It's part of World 1, The Paper World, and opens late in the game. Once your stack reaches the edge of the observable universe (fold 102), a locked card appears in the Unfold tab. Keep climbing into the dark past the edge, and a hidden landmark there opens the Studio. From then on, tap Open on that card in the Unfold tab.
Is it free?
Yes. The Great Paper Expansion is free to play in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no download. An optional Store sells cosmetics for anyone who'd like to support the game.