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澳洲开发商谈游戏创意来源:成功等于汗水加灵感

发布时间:2010-12-16 17:46:38 Tags:,,,,

在时尚流行领域中,IQ代表“想象力指数”(imagination quotient);在外包服务行业中,创造力可是一大商业财富,这也正是商务培训专家一直奉劝企业家要摆脱惯性思维的原因所在。

这样看来,虚拟世界的游戏开发商的创意、想象力应该最为丰富。据游戏邦了解,近日由澳洲昆士兰大学科技研究员约翰·班克斯(John Banks)主导的一项针对游戏行业技术创新的调查指出,Firemint、Halfbrick和3 Blokes Studios这三者当属澳洲最具创意的游戏开发工作室。

班克斯表示,这三家公司在手机游戏、社交游戏领域都有出色的表现,很有与世界级开发商一较高低的潜力。下文主要介绍这三家公司捕捉游戏灵感的方法。

Firemint

Flight Control

Flight Control

该公司成立于1999年,位于墨尔本市,代表作是空中交通管制题材的手机游戏《Flight Control》,它是20多个国家热销的iPhone应用。据该公司客户沟通经理亚历山德拉·彼得斯(Alexandra Peters)介绍,初学者花一分钟熟悉游戏操作后,就会被游戏玩法深深吸引,因为人人都希望向最高分冲刺,所以不舍得轻易放手。

彼得斯表示,Firemint的创意来源无所不在,“有时候只是一瞬间的灵感,有时候是深思熟虑所得的结果。”这个说法恰好印证了科学家史蒂芬·约翰逊(Steven Johnson)最近出版的新书《Where good ideas come from》所提到的“渐进式灵感”(slow hunches)这个观点。

《Flight Control》的调查发现,现实生活中的空中交通管理人员认为自己工作压力很大,但是很有成就感。彼得斯表示,“他们好像很热爱自己的工作”,于是《Flight Control》就将这种忙碌而充实的感受贯穿到游戏理念中。

在彼得斯看来,任何工作都需要辛勤的汗水和充分的灵感,只有这两者达到平衡才能实现预期的目标。但是如果没有努力付出,空有伟大的创意,也不可能获得成功。

Halfbrick

Fruit-Ninja

Fruit-Ninja

该工作室在2001年开业,位于布里斯本,因精彩壮观的游戏画面而闻名,主要代表作是iOS游戏《水果忍者》(Fruit Ninja)。用户只需在手机屏幕上动动手指,就能“像真正的忍者武士一样舞动剑花,将水果砍削成碎片”,据称这款游戏的收益已经超过200万美元。

有一名Mashable网站评论员将《水果忍者》誉为2010年Mashable最佳手机游戏提名作品,理由是该游戏“没有枯燥的操作指南,没有累赘的玩法设置,玩家的任务就是削水果。”

Halfbrick创造《水果忍者》的理念也同样很简单,据该公司董事长Shaniel Deo所称,Halfbrick只是研究了市场上的其他竞争作品,分析了苹果App Store前25强游戏的功能设置和玩法等元素。

市场营销经理菲尔·拉森(Phil Larsen)表示,Halfbrick还做了多次试验,不断抛弃无价值的想法,尝试新鲜的创意。拉森的观点再一次对应了史蒂芬·约翰逊那本书的说法,那就是集思广益。市场调研和“尽情发挥想象”就是《水果忍者》的开发决窍。

3 Blokes Studios

Brainiversity

Brainiversity

该公司在2006年创立,位于昆士兰,很擅长根据“时间和预算安排”开发有趣的社交游戏。据该公司技术总监Marko Grgic介绍,3 Blokes Studios经常向《Diablo》(幻想题材的动作类游戏)、《StarCraft》(实时策略类游戏)等业内顶级的作品取经,从中获得灵感来源。

Grgic称公司的秘诀就是多关注用户反应,让用户来检验自己的游戏创意,只有这样才能清楚游戏是否具有吸引力。靠这种方法,3 Blokes Studio推出了益智类游戏《Brainiversity》和Facebook冒险类游戏《Galactic Trader》等富有创造性的代表作。

Grgic也认为成功等于“辛勤的汗水加上有效的方法”,表示要坚持自己专注的目标,努力付出必不可少,因为它是创意的重要支柱。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Slow hunches: creative secrets from games gurus David Wilson

In trendy business circles IQ stands for “imagination quotient”.

Reflecting the belief that, in our outsource-the-grunt-work world, creativity is a hot commodity, business coaches urge entrepreneurs to think outside the box, however you do that.

What better source of insight than those storyteller designers of virtual worlds, game developers?

A lightbulb called Edison hosts a quiz in the game Brainiversity by Queensland company 3 Blokes.
Queensland University of Technology researcher John Banks, who is leading a federal government-funded investigation into games industry innovation, pinpoints three of Australia’s hottest contenders: Firemint, Halfbrick and 3 Blokes Studios.

“All these three companies are doing amazing things in the mobile games/social network games space and definitely swinging above their weight competing with the best in the world,” Banks says.

Discover where the companies’ design wizards find inspiration and how they get their original ideas.

Firemint

Founded in 1999, Melbourne-based Firemint is best-known for the air traffic control game Flight Control, which became the top-selling iPhone app in over 20 countries. Wickedly addictive, Flight Control takes a minute to learn but has depth because it makes you want to beat your top score, according to Firemint communications manager Alexandra Peters.

Firemint’s ideas can come from anywhere. “Sometimes it’s a bolt of inspiration out of the blue, and other times it’s a very considered process,” Peters says, echoing a point in the new book Where good ideas come from by scientist Steven Johnson about the power of “slow hunches”.

Research for Flight Control revealed that real-life air traffic controllers see their job as demanding but satisfying. “They seem to love it,” Peters says. Flight Control distils the idea of enjoyable stress, she adds.

In her view, anyone keen to achieve comparable style needs to strike a balance between perspiration and inspiration. The exact mix depends on the task at hand, but without a healthy dose of perspiration, however brilliant your inspiration, it will never see daylight.

Halfbrick

Since its 2001 launch, Brisbane-based Halfbrick has achieved stunning success driven by spectacular graphics. In Halfbrick’s Apple devices game Fruit Ninja, you swipe your finger across the screen “to deliciously slash and splatter fruit like a true ninja warrior”. The sensationally messy martial arts carve-up has earned Halfbrick over $2 million.

One reviewer praised Fruit Ninja – a popular nomination for Mashable’s best mobile game of 2010 – as “slashtacular”. “No tedious instructions. No unnecessary gameplay. You just slash fruit. That’s it.”

Halfbrick’s strategy for concocting Fruit Ninja was as simple as that assessment. According to Halfbrick chief executive Shaniel Deo, Halfbrick just studied the competition, analysing what made the top 25 App Store games cool.

According to marketing manager Phil Larsen, Halfbrick also experiments a lot, merrily scrapping dud ideas and trying new ones. Larsen’s tip, which mirrors the thrust of the Steven Johnson book mentioned, is to brainstorm. Research and “play your way to a good idea”.

3 Blokes Studios

Founded in December 2006, Queensland-based 3 Blokes specialises in fun social games and claims to deliver content “on-time and on-budget”. According to 3 Blokes technical director Marko Grgic,the start-up’s ideas come from studying top industry products such as the fantasy-themed action game Diablo and the real-time strategy game StarCraft.

Test your ideas on users. That is the only way to know if the ideas are fun, according to Grgic whose firm has made the creative leap from casual downloadable products such as Brainiversity – an uber-quiz hosted by a lightbulb called Edison – to social games such as the Facebook adventure Galactic Trader.

A believer in “perspiration combined with smart work”, Grgic advises would-be innovators to find a market that you are keen to commit to and which is ripe for the picking. “Narrow your focus, ” he says, adding that hard work is vital – sustaining creativity takes guts.(source:smh.com)


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