就在独立开发商和主流开发商纷纷加入手机游戏行业的淘金热的情况下，游戏邦发现，伦敦开发商HandCircus却在推出其iOS游戏《Rolando》之后，将下款游戏瞄准传统的掌机平台。

《Okabu》是一款PSN平台的可下载游戏，将于今年夏天推出。游戏邦发现，该游戏为一款轻松的3D益智游戏，玩家通过控制一对化身人型的云朵，Kumulo和Nimbe，来拯救可爱的Yorubo部落免受工业化威胁。

《Okabu》和《Rolando》系列同出自芬兰插画家Mikko Walamies之手，因此二者的视觉艺术颇为相似，同时《Okabu》还散发出《风之杖》般的魅力。工作室已在iPhone平台取得全球性成功，为何选择转战新平台呢？Gamasutra日前就此采访了HandCircus创始人Simon Oliver，下文为游戏邦编译的采访内容。

你们为什么将下一款游戏瞄准掌机平台而非原来的iOS平台呢？

在完成了iOS游戏《Rolando 2》的制作后，我们开始反思这18个月忙碌的日子，考虑工作室未来的发展方向。我们面临很多机会，首先是因为Android和平板电脑等平台的涌现，其次是因为我们工作室成功推出了《Rolando》系列，因此得到很多机会。

《Rolando 2》推出后，我给自己休了几个星期的假，期间我去了趟日本，有幸参观了美妙的三鹰之森吉卜力美术馆（Ghibli Museum），令我印象深刻的是，吉卜力工作室对于其作品中的人物角色及其所诠释的世界极为珍视，并多年保持这种优良传统。

回到英国后，我对HandCircus的未来期许之一就是创造一个全新的世界，奠定我们的未来游戏开发的基础。我很欣赏创造新世界的构想：在这片世界中，我们可以不断成长，有各种生物和人物角色入住，拥有丰富的自然风光，同时我们还能以此为背景开发新游戏，开拓新的游戏类型。

Oddworld Inhabitants是我们主要的灵感来源之一，他们创造的轮廓分明的世界和准则，富有历史感，同时充满生物和大陆，他们开发的游戏颇有共通之处。作为一个独立工作室，我们应该也可以办到。

我们真的希望能够将第一款《Okabu》游戏，制作成一个大型而充满掌机风格的冒险类游戏。

在平台转换的过程中，你们面临的最大挑战是什么？

一切都被扩大化了！《Rolando》从模型出现到最终投放App Store只花了9个月的时间，而《Okabu》的整个制作发行过程将会长达22个月。首先我们得做很多基础性的工作，光是研究和创建开发引擎就花了相当长的时间，我们为《Rolando》创建了全新的引擎和工具箱。

着力打造纯3D环境，同时又转战PSN平台，使得我们的开放内容显著增加，包括增加的关卡、大量的细节处理以及资产数量等。

在维持现有团队规模的基础上兼顾所有的这些内容确实极具挑战性，但通过在内容选择上有所侧重，执行高效的工作流程，我们的项目进展变得有条不紊，同时成绩显著。我们的编辑器OkabuEdit能够实现高效的内容循环测试，这对开发游戏新功能和创造新关卡来说至关重要。

由于我们这次自己发行游戏，因此之前由ngmoco（《Rolando》发行商）承担的任务全都落到我们自己身上。在发行《Rolando》系列期间，我们配合很好，他们承担了许多的工作，包括质量控制、营销、文本翻译及授权等。接触这些开发工作之外东西的过程中，我们自身也获得成长，我在过去18个月学到了很多东西。

《Rolando》有什么经验可以供《Okabu》借鉴的吗？

我们在开发《Rolando》的过程中学到的重要一点是，让游戏同时满足大量用户的需求极为重要。《Rolando》是我们在新平台推出的非正统游戏，将全新的游戏机制带入众多用户的视野，这对我们来说是个值得学习的经验。

通过制作常规的模型，优化控制装置、设置渐近的发展模式以及发布消息，我们将《Rolando》推向了有利位置，玩家能够随意体验游戏，并快速融入其中。虽然PSN平台多为经验丰富的用户，控制手段更加成熟，但我们还是将上述过程运用到了《Okabu》中。

我们十分提倡预选制作模型和用户测试，这对我们测试功能和机制有很大帮助，让我们将潜在问题扼杀于摇篮之中，同时也帮助我们尽可能完善和简化控制设备。

《Rolando》使用的是由Erin Catto创建的Box2D物理引擎（游戏邦注：《愤怒的小鸟》在开发过程中也使用了该工具），此外还大量使用了开源软件。Ogre，Lua和Bullet Physics等项目对我们帮助也很大，让我们可以将卓越的技术融入引擎之中，将资源充分应用到游戏当中。

哪些东西你们需要从头学起？

虽然这是我们的第一款掌机游戏，但Matt，Luke和Shane之前都有开发过掌机游戏，所以我们很荣幸他们能够加入团队中。但我要学的很多，我几乎都是在学习！

这意味这你们的手机开发计划将告一段落吗？或者《Okabu》发行后，你们会重回手机领域？

手机领域是个很棒的平台，我们并不打算离开。但我们只是小型的工作室，目前的资源只够我们专注一个项目。iPad，3DS，和NGP的魅力实在令人难以抗拒。

我对平板电脑十分感兴趣，我觉得这个领域拥有无限的机会，有待进一步挖掘，大部分的平板电脑游戏都是iPhone游戏的扩大版本，但我觉得针对平板电脑开放游戏，充分利用其广阔的游戏体验区域也非常重要。

你可以预先透露游戏的相关内容吗？

《Okabu》是一款合作型益智探险游戏，故事有关两个巨大的云团Kumulo和 Nimbe。大量的污染云朵在大气中扩散，许多朋友和家庭都染上了可怕的疾病。于是他们决定探究污染的源头，他们发现大地是被Doza所破坏，这是个拥有大量机器和高度工业化的生物部落。它们放火烧山，污染河流，捕捉生物，铲平建筑。但仍有部分当地居民——Yorubo幸存了下来。

Yorubo追求与自然和谐共处，主动加入Kumulo和Nimbe的冒险活动。4名能够驾云飞翔的英雄加入了战争的前线，每个英雄都有自己的超能力。渔民Captain Monkfish拥有一支长柄鱼叉，可以用来捕捉自然界的所有东西。

Picolo是领导者，其魔力可让动物听命于他，采取行动。Roki是机械装置的行家，Kat是勇士公主。用户得掌握所有这些技能，才能解决合作战斗中的众多谜题，破解Doza设下的重重障碍和陷阱。我们希望创造一个有待探索、充满丰富体验的toybox世界。

为什么你觉得这种类型的游戏更适合掌机平台，而不是手机平台？

掌机游戏的优势在于其能够充分吸引玩家的注意力。手机平台的用户粘性变幻不定，有的只是在公交旅途随意体验几分钟，而有的会坐在沙发体验好几个小时，但游戏却得顾全所有的用户。

但掌机游戏的用户却会坐在电视机前体验游戏，他们愿意为游戏花大把时间，同时对游戏十分专注，所以掌机游戏的用户粘性很高。这也是我们对《Okabu》寄予的期望，我们更强调故事情节和探险，其中的益智游戏需要用户融入游戏中，因此相对手机平台来说，我们在掌机能够获得更高的用户粘性。

《Okabu》与索尼平台的合作情况如何？

索尼是个很棒的合作伙伴。索尼从一开始就很支持《Okabu》，而且对游戏也很感兴趣。我们最初的游戏模型是瞄准PC平台，后来选定PS3作为目标平台，移植工作起初有点受挫。但由于索尼拥有新进的技术，因此移植工作后来变得很顺利，这使得我们能够充分利用PS3的优势。

为什么《Okabu》只锁定索尼平台，你们为何不将其打造成多平台游戏？

我们去年开始和潜在的合作伙伴沟通，我们最看重的一点是合作对象是否对游戏投入，是否符合我们的发展方向。我们和索尼的沟通进展很顺利，他们对《Okabu》很感兴趣，觉得这是他们的最佳选择。

你们在开发过程中使用了哪些工具？

我们的主要工具是自己定制的编辑器OkabuEdit，它支持我们在试玩游戏和编辑界面之间快速切换。这使得游戏关卡开发变得更高效，方便试验，避免测试的延误。

不过它有点不稳定，所以在使用过程中一直得小心翼翼，以免程序崩溃，但它也十分有趣，可以用来拉伸、塑造以及装饰所处区域，制造谜题，绘制小路、树林，快速设定游戏的谜题和活动顺序。

从经济角度出发，我们的游戏还采用了Flash，3DS Max，Visual Studio，XCode和FMOD等工具。就像我之前提到过的，我们十分感谢开源项目Ogre，Bullet，Lua和索尼的PhyreEngine所给予的支持。对我们来说，这些稳定的游戏开发技术平台极具价值，让我们得以将资源集中到游戏开发中。

《Okabu》的开发团队共有多少人？

团队共有5个人，连我在内，其他分别是Mikko（负责概念艺术和插画）、Matt（负责3D艺术和插画）、Shane（负责关卡设计）和Luke（负责工程方面）。我们配合得很好，这就是在小团队工作的乐趣所在，沟通很顺畅，因此我们能够在短时间内取得如此多的成就。

你们的团队成员有的分散在别的地方，你是如何管理团队的？

我们有4个人在伦敦，而Mikko则在遥远的芬兰，但我们配合得非常好，他在为《Rolando》模型创造人物插画的时候，我们就配合得很好。

他是个很好的合作伙伴，每次探讨添加新人物，新生物、新交通工具或者新要素的时候，他总能创造出完美的设计，Mikko去年也在伦敦呆了1个礼拜，他能加入团队实在太棒了。

你预计游戏什么时候能够完成？

我们的目标是今天夏天。

在游戏试验的过程中，你学到了什么？

学到很多。我们让各类玩家都参与游戏的测试。控制设备和摄像头是最难攻克的方面，同时又是设计最为精细的地方，有些早期的控制方式很突兀，但过去18个月，我们新创建了强大、简单的控制方式。

此外，向用户传达游戏如何推动发展进程，并提供更有深度的游戏体验也是很有挑战性的。我们试图让游戏变得十分通俗易懂，但这就存在一个风险：玩家可能会认为这是一款简单的游戏，所以在游戏的初级阶段向用户传递游戏深度同样十分重要。

《Okabu》之后有什么计划？

现在讲有点太早了，但我们很希望能够继续拓展《Okabu》的游戏世界，在该游戏世界的基础上创造更多的游戏。《Okabu》是个非常有趣的项目，我们有很多新想法，这些想法只能通过以后的《Okabu》游戏表达出来。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Interview: Rolando Dev HandCircus On Moving From iOS Gold Rush To PSN

[Following the groundbreaking success of Rolando and its sequel on iPhone, London-based HandCircus is turning its back on mobile dev for its next release, Okabu. Gamasutra's Simon Parkin asks founder Simon Oliver what inspired the move.]

While many indie and mainstream developers continue to join in the mobile gaming gold rush, HandCircus, the London-based developer responsible for the Rolando iOS games is running into the arms of more traditional console development for its next project.

Okabu, a downloadable title for PSN slated for release this summer, is a breezy 3D puzzle game in which you control a pair of anthropomorphic clouds, Kumulo and Nimbe, as they seek to free the cute Yorubo tribe from the threat of industrialization.

Sharing an aesthetic with the Rolando titles thanks to the art direction of Finnish illustrator Mikko Walamies, Okabu certainly exudes Wind Waker-ish charm. But why take the concept to a new platform when the studio has enjoyed so much global success on iPhone? Gamasutra’s editor-at-large, Simon Parkin spoke to HandCircus founder Simon Oliver to unpick his thinking.

What made you decide to switch from iOS development to a console platform from your next game?

After wrapping up our second iOS title, Rolando 2, we started to take stock after what had been a whirlwind 18 months, to think about the future of the studio and where we’d like to be. A lot of opportunities were opening up, firstly in terms of emerging platforms such as Android and tablet devices, and secondly in terms of opportunities that were now available to us as a studio as a result of the success of the Rolando series. People were returning our calls now!

After Rolando 2 launched, I’d had a few weeks off, part of which included a trip to Japan. I had a chance to visit the wonderful Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, and it really struck me how much Ghibli cherish their characters and their worlds — they are so fleshed out with detail and treasured by the studio for many, many years.

Coming back to the UK, one of the objectives that I had for the future of HandCircus was for us to create a new world to act as a solid foundation for us to build upon over the coming years. I loved the idea of us creating a world that we could grow over time and populate with various creatures, characters, and environments, building up and adding to over multiple titles and multiple genres.

Oddworld Inhabitants has been a big inspiration here — the way that they were able to create this well defined world and canon, rich with history, creatures and continents, and create these wonderful titles that fit together so perfectly (Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath is one of my all-time favorite games). Maybe we can do this at the indie-studio level.

For our first Okabu game, we really wanted to launch with a larger-scale adventure title within this universe, and console felt like the perfect place for this.

What have the biggest challenges been in moving from one to the other?

Everything has scaled up! The first Rolando took nine months from first prototype to launch in the App Store, while Okabu will have taken around 22 months of development when it launches this year. A lot of groundwork had to be laid out first, and researching and building the engine took a fair amount of time — we’ve created a brand-new engine and toolset for Okabu (built upon some excellent open source and proprietary libraries).

Moving to a fully 3D environment, and creating a game for PSN, has led to a significant increase in the amount of content that we need to create: the scale of the levels, the amount of detail required and the number of assets have all increased hugely.

Managing that while still remaining a small team has presented its own challenges, but by being selective about the content that we focus on (no hour-long FMVs) and developing processes that allow us to work as efficiently as possible, we’ve managed to get into a really good rhythm on the project and make great progress. Our editor, OkabuEdit, allows a really fast create-test iteration loop which has been critical in prototyping new features and creating levels for the game.

As we are self-publishing this time, we’ve also had to take on a whole new set of responsibilities that were previously handled by [Rolando publisher] ngmoco. They were great partners for the Rolando series, handling QA, marketing, translation, licensing and much more. Taking on these additional aspects of the development process has stretched us a little — I’ve learned a lot over the past 18 months.

What lessons learned on the Rolando titles have you been able to carry across to Okabu?

One of the most important things that we learned during the development of Rolando was how vital it is to make a game accessible to a broad range of players. Launching on a brand new platform with an unorthodox input scheme, and trying to explain new game mechanics to a wide range of players was a real learning experience.

Through regular prototyping, refinement of the controls, progression curve, and messaging, we got Rolando to a really good place where most players could pick it up and get into it pretty quickly. While the audience of PSN is obviously going to be made up of more experienced players, and the control scheme is much more established, this process is something that we’ve been applying to Okabu.

We’re big advocates of prototyping and user testing and this has really helped us test out various features and mechanics and iron out problems before they become too significant. It has also helped us to refine and simplify the controls as much as possible.

With Rolando, the physics was powered by Erin Catto’s excellent Box2D engine [used in Rovio's Angry Birds], and open-source software has played a big part in the development of Okabu. We’re extremely grateful for the contributions of projects such as Ogre, Lua and Bullet Physics, that have allowed us to integrate great technology into our engine and focus our resources on the game itself.

And what have you had to learn from scratch?

While this is my first console title, Matt, Luke and Shane all come from console backgrounds, so its been great to have their battle-scars and considerable experience on the team. I’ve definitely had to learn a great deal though — I’m pretty much done with learning! Hopefully our next project will be for an abacus.

Does this title mark the end of your mobile development plans? Or are you planning on heading back there after this release?

The mobile space is such an exciting place to be, and we have no intention of leaving it. We are a small studio though, and at the moment we really only have the resources to focus on one project at a time. Its difficult when you have such alluring distractions as iPad, 3DS, and NGP.

I’m particularly interested in the tablet space, and it feels like there is an enormous opportunity there that’s not really being explored — the majority of tablet titles are up-scaled versions of iPhone games (understandable given the relative size of the audience) but the potential to develop new experiences designed to take advantage of that bigger play area seems very significant to me.

Can you explain the premise of the game a little?

Okabu is a co-op action-puzzle adventure, and the tale of two cloud-whales, Kumulo and Nimbe. Huge clouds of pollution have started to spread through the atmosphere, and have stricken many of their friends and family with a terrible illness. They are sent down to the investigate the source of the pollution and discover that the land has been ravaged by the Doza, a tribe of creatures obsessed with machinery and industrialization. Forests have been scorched, lakes polluted, creatures caged and buildings razed, but a few of the local people, the Yorubo, remain.

The Yorubo seek an existence in harmony with nature, and offer to join Kumulo and Nimbe on their adventure. Four cloud-flying heroes step up to join the frontline of the battle — each with their own unique ability. The fisherman, Captain Monkfish, has a plunger harpoon that can be used to harpoon all manner of objects in the environment (from pulling down drawbridges to operating cannons and catching fish).

Picolo is our Pied Piper that can charm animals into performing all manner of actions, Roki is an expert in machinery (controlling vehicles, robots and cranes) and Kat is a warrior princess. You have to master all of their skills, and use them together to solve the many puzzles throughout the co-op campaign, and defeat the many hazards and traps set by the Doza. We really want to create a toybox-like world that begs to be explored, packed with things to play with.

Why do you think this sort of game is better suited to a console than a mobile device?

With a console title, you can really take advantage of the fact that you have the player’s attention! Engagement on a mobile device varies, from a distracted couple of minutes on a bus journey to playing at home on a sofa for hours, but you have to really plan for all audiences.

With a console game, you can be pretty sure that they’re sitting down in front of a TV and are willing to invest a bit more time and focus on the experience, so you can really create a title that plays to that deeper engagement. That’s definitely something that we’re aiming for with Okabu — more emphasis on story and adventure, the puzzles are more involved and we can really draw people in more than we’d be able to on a mobile device.

How has it been to work with Sony on a downloadable title?

Sony have been amazing to work with. They’ve been very supportive of Okabu from the start and are really into the concept. We prototyped the game on PC initially, and when we settled on PS3 as our target platform, the porting work seemed a little daunting at first. Sony have some great tech that has really made that process a lot easier though (such as PhyreEngine that we’re using for Okabu), and that has really helped us take advantage of the power of PS3.

Why did you decide to go with Sony exclusively instead of making Okabu a multi-platform title?

We started speaking to potential partners last year, and one of the most important factors in that process was choosing someone that was really into the game and the direction we wanted to take it. Our discussions with Sony went very well — they were really into Okabu, and felt like the perfect choice.

What tools have you used for development?

Our primary tool is our custom editor, OkabuEdit, which wraps around the game engine and allows us to quickly toggle between play and editing. This has really helped make creation of the levels a lot more efficient and really encourages experimentation as there is no delay in testing.

It’s a bit wonky — and you have to be pretty gentle with it to it to stop it crashing, but its super fun to play with — you can pull, sculpt, paint the terrain, create puzzles, paint paths, trees foliage, and set up puzzles and action sequences really quickly. You can even paint flowers while you’re flying around.

On the commercial side, we use Flash, 3DS Max, Visual Studio, XCode, and FMOD for audio. As I mentioned before, we’ve also been really grateful to open source projects Ogre, Bullet and Lua, as well as Sony’s own PhyreEngine. These have been invaluable to us, providing a really solid technology platform to build upon and really allowing us to focus all our resources on development of the game.

How many are on the team?

There are five of us on the team — as well as myself we have Mikko (concept art and illustration), Matt (3D art and animation), Shane (Level design) and Luke (engineering). We really work well together — that’s the pleasure of working on such a small team, communication is really fluid and we can get such a lot done in a short amount of time.

How have you managed multiple team members working remotely?

While four of us are in London, Mikko is working remotely in Finland, surrounded by Reindeer and Saunas, but we’ve got a really good working relationship that goes all the way back to the character illustrations that he created for the very first Rolando prototype.

He’s been awesome to work with, whenever we’re discussing a new character, creature, vehicle or element for the environment he just seems to come back with the perfect design first time. Mikko also came over for a week last year, and it was great to have him in the studio and the team all together.

When do you anticipate the game being finished?

We’re aiming for this summer.

What have you learned through playtesting the game?

A lot. We’ve been playtesting the game with a pretty broad cross-section of players. The controls and camera have been the biggest obstacles and have seen the most refinement — some of the early control schemes were weird — multiple thumbsticks and eight buttons, but over the past 18 months we’ve really boiled it down to a strong, simple control scheme.

At the other end of the scale, communicating how the game builds up and provides a deeper experience provides its own challenges. By focusing on making the game very accessible, there is a risk with players assuming that it is quite a simple game, so refining to convey the game’s depth during the early stages of the game is equally important.

Where next after Okabu?

It’s obviously hard to look too far ahead, but we’d definitely like to continue to grow the world of Okabu and create more titles within that world. It’s been such a fun project to work with, and we’ve got a huge pile of ideas just waiting to be explored in future Okabu games.（Source：Gamasutra）