当《Doom》和《Quake》的设计师约翰·罗梅洛（John Romero）出现在首届SFGDW论坛时，不少人都大感意外，因为他演讲的主题并非传统的AAA游戏，而是《Ravenwood Fair》这款于去年10月发布的社交游戏。

游戏邦获悉，在本周二，数百人聚集在旧金山艺术学院中倾听罗梅洛以及LOLApps工作室的创意总监布伦达·布瑞斯伟特（Brenda Brathwaite）的演讲，了解他们如何通过《Ravenwood Fair》虏获1000万以上的月活跃用户，以及这款兼具AAA级品质、病毒式传播机制的游戏如何改变人们对社交领域的看法。

在《Ravenwood Fair》这款游戏中，玩家的使命是改变所在地景观，砍树建造一个壮观的集市。在这个过程中，不时会有怪兽从恐怖的森林中窜出来，阻碍玩家的游戏进程，威胁人民的生命安全。这个模式与《FrontierVille》有点相似，但它确实比其他的宠物主题游戏、农场类游戏更有吸引力。

据游戏邦了解，罗梅洛和LOLApps主要通过画面、音效、互动性这三大元素，让该游戏从众多竞争对手中脱颖而出。

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画面：“该游戏开发者使用的是由《Wizardry》制作人员创建的引擎，它的代码编写得非常完善，支持多个物体在屏幕上快速生成。”罗梅洛表示，《FrontierVille》这类游戏使用的引擎要求开发者分别画出各个物体，它们最终会从不同方向整合到同一个屏幕上，这样很容易影响画面质量。据称罗梅洛等人使用的引擎，支持一次性渲染所有物体，所以无论用户在哪看到游戏，它的视觉效果都不会出现变化。

这样玩家就可以尽情建设自己的世界，直到它真正成了一个熙来攘往的集市为止。除此之外，该游戏还具有另一种AAA游戏的特点，那就是它不会弹出干扰性窗口或者广告，也不会出现间歇性的程序漏洞，它提供的是更为丰富的用户体验，但在Facebook平台上的大多数社交游戏中，弹出式广告和间歇性障碍已是屡见不鲜，甚至一些传统的单机游戏也不例外。

音效：为了达到最佳音效，约翰从第一天起就开始与音乐制作人员协作，“多数Facebook开发商是在最后一刻才为游戏添加音效，但《Ravenwood Fair》不会这么做。”据游戏邦了解，今天颇令人叫绝的传统游戏《Red Dead Redemption》也很重视音效的作用。

所以罗梅洛经常腾出时间与音乐制作人员沟通，不断挖掘游戏配乐，直到找出一种不但附合游戏情境，而且达到他们所需效果的声音为止。这完全是AAA游戏的制作风格。

互动性：为了达到这个目标，该游戏开发团队研究了席德·梅尔的《文明》（Civillization）的相关设置，“他们很擅长给玩家喂胡萝卜，让他们知道总有新的奖励值得期待。当然，这里所指的胡萝卜绝对不是我们所吃的那种，而是指一种奖励。”用布瑞斯伟特的话来说，那就是为玩家设置游戏目标——久经考验的探索。

一般的社交游戏都不会有太多的探索任务，普通的Facebook用户只会在午餐时间的空档玩游戏，他们希望快速完成任务。剩余的探索任务会吸引玩家频频返回游戏中。布瑞斯伟特对此表示，“你想去游戏中玩一会儿功夫，把任务完成，然后就会获得一种满足感和成就感。”

最后值得一提的是，玩家手中掌握的是更多高质量的内容，而多数Facebook社交游戏却并不具备这种优势，但《Ravenwood Fair》却做到了，而且在这一点上的表现相当出色。

更为惊人的是，罗梅洛及其团队仅用了2.5个月左右的时间，就完成了这款游戏的开发工作，要知道这个团队之前从来没有发行过游戏。游戏邦认为，这种短暂的开发周期，比起多名经验丰富的游戏老将4年推出一款硬核游戏的情形，真是天差地别。

从游戏开发刚起步时，你就得让设计理念通过实践不断向前扩展，在你快结束开发工作时，就得先经过一轮又一轮的润色和调整，才能发布游戏。布瑞斯伟特表示，“约翰继续推进游戏开发，我则负责添加还没成型的内容。我为游戏设计自己都还没见过的探索内容。”

经过以上所述的步骤和环节后，这款具备AAA级质量的社交游戏终于成功出炉了，虽然将其称为社交网站上的《使命召唤》杀手有点言过其实，但至少可以我们可以由此预测，Facebook这一平台还将涌现更多高端而精致的游戏作品，罗梅洛也将在这个新兴领域中再现荣光，为社交游戏用户推出经典之作。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

An unlikely marriage: why we should be happy about social games

The first SF Game Developer’s Workshop (SFGDW) of 2011 gave us a tremendous surprise as legend John Romero, designer of such highly regarded titles as Doom and Quake, took the podium to give a post mortem of his latest title Ravenwood Fair. Now, here’s the surprise: it’s a Facebook social game.

Several hundred people gathered in a hot room at the San Francisco Art Institute Tuesday to learn how Romero and Lolapps creative director Brenda Brathwaite created a game that has earned more than 10 million monthly average users (MAU) since its release in October. Ultimately, they came to learn how the game changes the way we view the social space, as it essentially marries AAA qualities with that of the viral.

The Game: in Ravenwood Fair, players find themselves on a floating rock, tasked with changing the landscape, chopping down trees and building attractions to create an epic fair. The challenge comes when monsters emerge from the spooky woods, threatening your progress and the people. This may sound similar to a Frontierville, yet it already eclipses your pet friends and farm towns for sure.

Romero and company steer the game further away from the pack as they focus on the essentials – video, audio and interaction.

The Video: “The engine they used was written [coded] by the guy who made Wizardry [dungeon crawler]. It was very well written and what it can do very well is put a lot of things on screen fast.” Romero noted that in games like Frontierville, the engine requires each object to be drawn separately, resulting in poor graphics because it’s being pulled in too many directions at once. The engine he trumpets renders everything in one shot, so wherever the player looks, the graphics are all there in real time.

This also gives players the ability to develop and develop until their world really looks like a bustling fair with tons of moving parts. What gamers can then expect, as they expect from all AAA titles, is a lack of pop-ups, no stuttering and a richer experience – already far beyond the majority of games found on the Facebook platform, as well as some found on traditional consoles.

The Audio: To get the best soundtrack, John worked closely with the composer from day one. “What most Facebook developers do is treat audio as something tacked on in the last minute. That’s just not how it is done.” That’s especially not how it’s done in today’s smack-you-in-the-face-awesome titles like Red Dead Redemption.

So, Romero took the time to go back and forth with the composer, digging through tracks until they found a sound that fit not only with the mood of the game, but also the lore they were trying to establish. True AAA fashion.

The Interaction: for this, the team hearkened to the design of the first few iterations of Sid Meier’s Civilization. “What they did well was they gave a carrot for gamers to let them know there was always something new on the horizon. The proverbial carrot, not a real carrot.” What Brathwaite is talking about is setting goals for the player – the tried and true quest.

It turns out, in the social gamespace, there is no such thing as too many quests. The average facebooker is playing during his/her lunch break and wants to accomplish something quickly. The plethora of quests goes a long way to provide that. “You want to get in, get shit done, and get out feeling like you’ve done something,” Brathwaite says.

In the end, players have much more quality on their hands than what they initially see on the surface; and quality isn’t something you typically associate with social games, especially those found on Facebook. Yet, Ravenwood Fair has it hammer strong.

What’s more impressive is that Romero and company only had 2 ½ months to pump the game out, with a team that never published a game in their life. This is an insane and impossible dash compared to the typical 4 years life cycle of hardcore productions with seasoned gaming vets. Brathwaite likened it to the shape of an egg.

Starting at the bottom, you expand as you move from concept to design. At the half way point, you start to close in, polishing and polishing until release. However, “John was down here [at the bottom] while I was working to polish things that haven’t even been made. I was designing quests for a game that I didn’t even see.” Not recommended for the faint of heart and those just starting out.

Now, when all is said and done, the production (minus the crazy 2 ½ months) sounds more like what happens at AAA studios. It is definitely far reaching to suggest that gamers will soon find a Call of Duty killer on the social network; but, it’s safe to say soon we’ll find more games that satisfy a more sophisticated gaming taste on Facebook. It’s also safe to say that Romero has found himself once again on the Avant Guard bringing quality to a new segment of the gaming population.（source:examiner）