作者：Thomas

对于游戏开发新手来说，人们给出的普遍建议是专注于机制、快速构建原型以及提升核心游戏趣味性等。比如，CliffyB在GDC 2012上给出的就是此类建议。这些建议确实值得参考，但是并非制作游戏的唯一方法，而且结果往往是制作出相同类型的游戏体验，这也是这些建议的问题所在。所以，我决定分享自己的游戏设计建议。具体内容如下：

从上到下构建游戏

找到控制游戏以及与游戏互动的核心机制，比如横向卷轴射击和指向点击等，然后专注于整个大框架。游戏能够创造出何种感觉？主题是什么？游戏应当呈现哪些信息？这意味着，先为游戏制作大体框架，然后在你开始设计机制和关卡等内容时，以框架为基础来构建。通过这种方法，你可以设计时间跨度较长的游戏体验（游戏邦注：它让你更能够控制游戏的情感体验）。

按时间顺序设计和制作

将开发过程视为扩展性的游戏体验过程。先设计和创作游戏的初始关卡和区域等内容，你就更能够感受到真实的游戏体验过程。这使得你能够更容易地理解整个游戏的体验，使你可以根据玩家在游戏中将体验到的内容来设计随后的关卡和区域等内容。

当然，你仍然可以回到前面的步骤，根据自己的需要改变内容，随后的测试阶段也会需要你这么做。但是你需要尽可能坚持按时间顺序制作的框架，直到游戏完成。

不要过于看重趣味性

不管别人怎么说，我认为“趣味性”只是个特殊词汇而已，没有概括许多类型的体验。比如，很少人会认为“辛德勒的名单”含有趣味性。因此，你不应当使用“趣味性”。“吸引力”是个较好的用词，可以用来描述任何传达喜剧效果内容的质量。

其次，你需要关注高层次目标。这是游戏中最重要的部分，你添加到视频游戏中的任何内容都是为这个目标服务。如果增加内容趣味性可以帮你实现这个目标的话，那么用尽所有方法增加内容的趣味性。但是，如果你希望玩家在游戏中有个黑暗和恐怖的历程，那么趣味性可能不会是你想要的东西。

制作合适的资产

图像、音乐和音效等资产比许多人想象得要重要得多。并非所有的视频游戏都能够用机制来衡量其质量。玩家的视觉和听觉效果会对他们与游戏的关系产生很大影响。有时，有些机制一开始看起来很差，但是使用高质量资产就能够使其变得更为出色。如果你希望玩家能够在移动的游戏环境中体验故事情节，那么你需要设置恰当的音频和视觉反馈。

这并不意味着你需要制作出极高质量的游戏资产，我们很难知道原型的视觉和听觉效果要达成何种程度才算足够。但是，如果将资产的重要性铭记在心，就可以算是朝正确方向前进。

Limbo from whatafy.com

游戏世界多样化，不要恪守游戏核心

不要认为你想要在游戏中呈现的所有东西都需要以核心机制为标准。保持机制的简单性，让游戏世界来完成传播丰富体验的任务。比如在《地狱边境》中，玩家可以做出的核心动作只有几种，但是游戏的内容仍显得丰富多彩，与其他游戏大为不同。

这是种较难的游戏设计方法，因为你无法以原型为基础来制作内容，但是最终结果却可能是丰富的深层次体验。

游戏尽可能简短

呈现应有内容后，游戏就应当结束。不要以毫无必要的理由来增加游戏的长度（游戏邦注：你最终想要创造出的是能够以最佳方法呈现高层次目标的产品）。

从商业上来说，这也是个较为合适的选择，因为你无需同其他打发时间的视频游戏竞争。如果你的游戏无需耗费大量时间却能够给玩家提供精彩和饱满的体验，那么玩家很可能就会愿意花时间来尝试你的游戏。就我个人而言，我也更喜欢包含众多较小有趣体验的游戏世界。

这就是我对游戏设计的部分见解。当然，这些技巧并不能确保让你通向成功之路。开发者必须努力尝试和寻找最适合你想要制作的游戏的最佳过程。但是，我希望这篇文章能够让某些开发者意识到，除了那些传统方法外，视频游戏的创作还可以利用其他方法。在Frictional Games，我们恪守以上准则，成功使工作室持续运营5年时间，目前依然有着稳定的收入。所以，以上技巧是我们从实践中总结出来的经验。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Unconventional Design Tips

Thomas

The general advice for upstarting developers seem to be to focus on mechanics, building fast a prototype, getting the core game fun and and so. For instance CliffyB did so at GDC 2012. This is not bad per se, but it is really not the only way to make games and usually, and this is the issue, result in the same kind of experiences. So to create a counterweight to this, I decided to make my own list of design advice. Here goes:

Build top-down

Find some core mechanic of controlling and interacting with the game, be that sidescrolling shooter, point and click or whatnot and then focus on the big picture. What feelings should game create, what is the theme, what kind of message should the game get across? This means creating an overarching structure for the game first, and then when you start designing the mechanics, levels, etc you make sure that it goes along with this. By doing so you can design games that try and convey things not possible over shorter time spans. It lets you control build-up and emotional journey to a much greater degree.

Design and create chronologically

Try and see the development process as a very extended playthrough of the game. By designing and producing the initial level/area/etc first you get a better feel for the player’s journey through the game. This make it easier to understand the how the holistic experience will play out, and it allows you to always base later levels/areas/etc upon what the player’s frame of find (as it is formed by the previous experiences) is at that point.

Of course you can still go back and change things as needed, and this is often required later. But you want to stick with the chronological structure until as much as possible of the game is completed.

Do not care about fun

First of, despite what some might say, fun is a very specific word and leaves out many type of experiences. For instance very few people would call “Schindler’s List” fun. Hence you should not use fun, unless you are specifically after creating a “fun time”. A better word to use is “engaging” which can be used to describe the quality of anything depressing dramas and lighthearted comedies.

Second, what you want to care about are your high-level goals. The most vital part is that anything you add to the videogame serve these. If making them fun help this purpose, then by all means make them fun. But if you want the player to be part of a dark and disturbing journey, then fun is most likely not what you want to aim for.

Proper assets early

Art assets such as a graphics, music and sound effects are far more important than what some might argue. Not all videogame ideas can be properly evaluated by using simple blocks and beeps. What the player sees and hears has a great impact on how they can relate to the game. Sometimes mechanics that at first seem really crappy, can start to shine once higher quality assets are used. If you want the player to experience a story by moving through an environment, then you need to have the audio-visual feedback that immerse them in that.

This does not have to mean that full production quality assets are needed and it is not always easy to know when your prototype looks and sounds good enough. But if make sure to keep in mind that the underlying system is not everything, then that is one step in the right direction.

Diversity in the world, not game core

Do not think that everything you want to represent in the game needs to be inside the core mechanics. Instead, keep the mechanics simple and then let the world do the work in delivering a wider experience. For instance in Limbo, there are only a few core actions available for the player, yet the game keeps the activities varied and unique through out the game.

This is the hard way of designing games as you cannot simply extrapolate from a prototype, but the end result is a deep experience that is easy to get into.

Do it as short as possible

Do not make a game that is the best value possible. Let the videogames say what you want it to and then STOP. Do not try and drag sections out for no real reason. In the end what you want to create is a product that delivers your high level purposes in the best way possible.

This is also a legit business choice as you do not compete with other time consuming videogames. If your game does not take up huge amounts of time and yet gives the player a coherent and fulfilling experience, there is a bigger chance they will have time and motivation to give it a go. I would also rather see a world with many smaller interesting experiences than long ones whose only motive is to eat as much time as they possibly can.

There you go! Now of course these tips are not some ancient wisdom that lead you to the path of glory. One must always try and figure out the best process for the type of game you want to make. But what I hope this does is to show any aspiring developer that there is more ways to create videogames than the conventional ones. At Frictional Games we pretty much follow the above and have managed stay in business for over five years and are currently financially stable. So what I just said are tips that have been tried in practice.

If you know any other tips that goes against the “fun mechanics are everything” line of thinking, do share! (Source: In the Games of Madness)