最近，詹姆斯·帕特森（James Patterson）的新Facebook游戏Catch a killer成为Facebook社交网站的首款“成人”游戏，该游戏中涉及很多死尸，血腥场景。

据游戏邦了解，作为著名作家的詹姆斯·帕特森拥有“人形畅销机器”的美誉，他的小说中充满了细致入微的场景描写。同时，詹姆斯·帕特森凭借着33年出产65本小说的伟绩成为了最畅销精装本小说的吉尼斯纪录保持者。

James Patterson

詹姆斯·帕特森作品中作为著名的是《女子谋杀俱乐部（Women’s Murder Club）》系列和心理学侦探亚历克斯·克劳斯（Alex Cross）的破案故事。然而，詹姆斯·帕特森同样进军游戏领域。此前，他曾发布过面向电脑和任天堂DS平台的《女子谋杀俱乐部》系列游戏。最近则在巡回宣传自己的新款Facebook游戏，Catch a Killer。

问：新款Facebook游戏Catch a Killer是否采用与《女子谋杀俱乐部系列》类似的冒险和隐藏证物相结合的游戏模式？

答：不仅如此，Catch a killer将令玩家体验到以往不同的悬疑类游戏，既不同于阅读詹姆斯·帕特森小说，也不同于在电视上观看《犯罪现场调查》。在游戏中，玩家将扮演侦探的角色，置身于案件之中，亲自将犯罪者绳之以法。虽然游戏中亚历克斯·克劳斯会向玩家提出各种意见协助处理案件，但是否能最终将真凶绳之以法还是取决于玩家的“侦探”功力。

通过与索尼网络娱乐公司的合作，我希望拓宽游戏领域。在某种程度上，该款游戏面向的是侦探小说迷。这也是一款适合女性玩家和非设计类游戏爱好者的游戏。

catch a killer

问：你从前是否玩过射击类游戏？您对射击类游戏有什么看法？

答：我大概玩过五六款射击类游戏，但觉得这类游戏大都十分雷同，不符合我的喜好。

问：那么，话题回到Catch a killer——游戏情节是否与书中情节一致呢？

答：目前，Catch a killer中的所有剧情都是新设计的，因此玩家只有在游戏中才能体验到各种新剧情。其实，我并不赞同将书中的情节搬到游戏中。我认为设计新的剧情会令游戏更有新鲜感。

现在，Catch a killer游戏中一共有11个不同的谋杀案件，之后我会逐渐增加新的游戏内容。比起书只能捧着看，游戏让玩家更生动地体验整个案件的侦破过程，这也正是Facebook游戏吸引我的地方。

问：为什么您以亚历克斯·克劳斯（Alex Cross）为题材开发Facebook游戏而不是《女子谋杀俱乐部》呢？女性玩家是否仍是新款Facebook游戏的目标客户群呢？

答：其实，亚历克斯·克劳斯比《女子谋杀俱乐部》拥有更庞大的女性读者群。

问：据称，你一般会参与作品问世的每一个步骤。这次发布Catch a killer，您是否也这么做了呢？

答：索尼是个十分杰出的合作伙伴。上周，他们刚刚配合我完成了游戏对白的修改。我们都认为游戏对白仍有提升空间，因此我们再次对对白进行了修改。

之前，我们也对游戏的画面等进行了反复修正。我们就游戏剧情发展进行了讨论，不断地在游戏中加入新的创意。

问：将小说制作成游戏最大的挑战是什么？

答：我们希望不要像《女子谋杀俱乐部》那样出现很多倒退情节，我们希望可以将剧情慢慢拓展开来。

我们尝试着在游戏剧情中放进各种离奇的转折。让玩家的游戏体验中充满各种“惊喜”。我认为，惊奇感是悬疑游戏中比不可少的元素之一。我很重视游戏中的对白叙述，同样配合上一定的音乐旋律，整个悬疑氛围也会更突出。

问：现在Facebook社交网站曾为了众多游戏开发商发布游戏的场所，您为何也选择Facebook平台呢？

答：目前我的网站中大约有80万粉丝。但按我12岁孩子的话来说，他们不是我的朋友，他们是我的书迷。”因此为了获得更多的玩家我选择了Facebook平台。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

James Pattersonis one of the most published authors in the world and has been dubbed a “human bestseller machine.” Take a look at his productive career, and you’ll see that, that’s a pretty accurate description. Patterson holds the Guinness World Record for the most Hardcover Fiction bestselling titles by a single author and has cranked out 65 novels in 33 years.

In the reading world, Patterson is best known for his Women’s Murder Club series and his detective novels starring forensic psychologist Alex Cross, even though these represent just a portion of his repertoire. Patterson is also no stranger to the gaming world. Over the years, he has released a handful of Women’s Murder Club games (for PC and Nintendo DS) and is doing a publicity tour to promote his new Facebook mystery game, Catch a Killer.

Patterson talks to us about the challenges of writing compelling narrative for a game and why shooting games, such Call of Duty and Halo, are not his “cup of blood.” catch a killer facebook game

Is Catch a Killer on Facebook similar to your Women’s Murder Club games — part adventure/part hidden object game?

It’s a lot more involved then that. I think to some extent it’s a whole new way to experience the mystery-suspense story. It’s very different from reading a James Patterson novel. It’s different from watching CSI on television. You are the detective and catch a killer. You have to solve the crime yourself. You do have help, because Alex Cross is at your side. He will offer suggestions. But ultimately it’s — Are you good enough a detective to catch a serial killer or a kidnapper or a husband who murdered his wife, etc.?

I am attracted to partners [like Sony Online Entertainment] who want to do things that are as good as you can do it in that theater, whatever it is. So what appeals to me here is this notion of expanding the universe of games. At one point, we’re just for fanboys. It’s one of those games that let’s women in, it lets non-shooters in. I’m not a shooter, so it appeals to me.

Have you played many shooters? What don’t you like about them?

I’ve played about half dozen of them. I just found it too repetitive. It wasn’t my cup of blood.

So, back to Catch a Killer — does the Facebook game follow the story line from any of your books?

To date all of the stories are new on the game. So the only place you can deal with these stories is playing the game. We haven’t really talked about whether we would use any of the book stories. I’m not opposed to it. I think initially it felt to us cooler and fresher to do new things.

At this point, there are eleven murder mysteries and I think it’s going to go up. What’s nice about this kind of thing is if you’re done with a book, you hand it in and that’s the end of it. This thing keeps living and growing and changing and getting better. That’s another thing that appeals to me about [Facebook games].

Why did you decide to launch an Alex Cross game on Facebook instead of a Women’s Murder Club game? Are you still targeting mostly women with this game?

I would say Alex has an even larger female audience than Women’s Murder Club, believe it or not. I guess they’re pretty close proportionately. Alex Cross’ audience is much bigger. （Source：Games.com）