游戏邦注：本博文作者是Jonas Antonsson，他以游戏《Symbol6》为例阐述Gogogic工作室筛选创意和制作游戏的过程，以下是游戏邦编译的相关内容：

我询问Twitter粉丝和好友，是否有兴趣看到内容与我们公司想法和开发过程有所关联的博文，收到的基本上是“有兴趣，请发表此类博文吧！”之类的答复。很显然，这件事不能再拖延下去了。正如我所承诺的那样，在此我将以《Symbol6》为例简要介绍Gogogic的工作方法。

Symbol6（from gogogic.com）

项目源于想法

Gogogic设计、开发和发行投放于网页、iPhone以及iPod Touch等平台的游戏。从本质上来说，这意味着我们必须时刻萌生许多很棒的游戏设计想法。这可能就是Gogogic之类的公司与那些习惯于制作“传统”或“大型”游戏公司的区别所在。（游戏邦注：Gogogic未来也将开发某些可被定义为大型游戏的“休闲”内容）我们注重的是数量，其他公司注重的是游戏大小。当然，所有优秀的游戏开发商永远注重质量。

上述说法意味着想法对我们来说特别重要。我们希望以最初形成的想法为基础，深化游戏机制并在特色上予以创新，使得游戏能够完美融入目标平台。我们将大量时间花在构思想法上，每个人都可以参与这项工作，随时提出自己的想法。

开发过程

下图大体描述了整个开发过程，先将想法定型为概念，随后衍生成正式的提案，再辅之以动画稿以构成雏形。

流程图（from gogogic.com）

在任何时候，我们都备有大量十分简约的“游戏想法”，某些想法不过只有数行文字和一两张草图。所有这些想法都储存在内部wiki（游戏邦注：一种多人协作的工具，每个人都可以发表自己的意见，或者对共同的主题进行扩展或者探讨。）中，并通过阅读、审查、改写和更新这种有机化过程逐步发展。

每个人都能够以各种形式参与其中。当然，必须有某些人负责这些事，但任何人都可以提出自己的意见。游戏概念会拿到会议（包括正式和非正式会议）上进行讨论，让员工发表自己的看法。当然，图像设计也在同步进行。以下是《Symbol6》的首张草图：

草图（from gogogiccom）

某些概念在最初的想法阶段便被淘汰，但其他拟出草图的概念不断发展并最终“定稿”。当然，概念永远不会有最终的“定稿”，这里说的只是有个阶段让你必须停下来好好想想，决定开始重视某个概念。完整的定稿概念需要满足以下条件：描述游戏基本运行原理；含有主要的元素和机制；有个故事框架；对基本游戏玩法有所描述；对游戏的视觉效果、音效和大小提出概念性意见；包含用户互动相关内容。

当概念“完全发展”后，便成为“提案”集合的部分内容。通常“提案”集合由大量概念组成，这些概念都值得分析并分解成各种具体的必要条件。

提案

将《Symbol6》从提案集合中提取出来转为正式项目，原因如下：

1、这个概念表明游戏可能会很有趣

2、游戏具有普及大众用户的潜力，而且某些人（游戏邦注：这里指喜爱解谜游戏的用户）会对此特别感兴趣

3、游戏存在重玩性，尽管游戏简单且游戏机制单一

4、游戏很简单，我们可以迅速将其投放到新平台上，而且不会损害到图像、音效质量或游戏玩法

《Symbol6》概念转正后，就变成完整的游戏提案，基础游戏设计工作开始执行。提案的细节、目标和具体特色也会得到进一步的执行。

对于《Symbol6》之类较小的项目来说，游戏提案其实就是设计文件的初稿。因而当《Symbol6》游戏提案转正后，大部分的游戏设计也已基本完成。

动画稿

提案或游戏设计文件并非整个过程中最重要的环节，“雏形动画稿”才是。你可以在http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WenDXfzLY8Q看到《Symbol6》最初的动画稿。（游戏邦注：《Symbol6》的项目名称是Hexago）。

动画稿有且只有一个目的，就是设想概念玩家在某个具体场景中的体验。像《Symbol6》之类简单的游戏只需一个动画稿就能描述整个游戏，较大的游戏可能需要多个动画稿来模拟不同的“玩家故事”。

如果熟悉《Symbol6》，你会看到动画稿中的多数功能出现在游戏的最终版本中。动画稿为整个游戏设定了基调，比如游戏外观如何、如何运转以及玩家如何体验游戏。看到动画稿后，团队中所有人都会明白我们要做的是什么游戏。

动画稿带来的视觉体验也能让我们决定将在游戏中采用和舍弃哪些特色，而且让我们可以快速在特色、需求和关键元素方面分清主次。

在Gogogic，动画稿是重中之重。

制作和设计

最后，游戏开始进行制作以及音效和图像设计。当然，游戏在概念阶段已经设计出音效和图像，但此刻需要将所有设计定下并提交。

以下图片是《Symbol6》完整的符号定稿，图像部门将其提交给制作部门。

完整的符号定稿（from gogogic.com）

最后阶段

制作、测试和发行过程不是几行字就能说清楚的，我会另发博文解释这些内容。当然，本篇博文只涵盖“我们做什么”的基础内容，我尽量避免提及“我们怎么做”的具体细节。如果想将后者解释清楚，每个版块都需要一篇独立的博文方能实现。

但讨论“我们做什么”会产生“为何我们这么做”这个问题。答案很简单，我们尝试尽量让游戏变得特别有趣、富有创意、取悦用户、流畅、有特色、炫丽且拟真化。我们尝试营造特别的游戏体验，这也是为何我们小心翼翼地鉴别某个概念是否有效的原因。不断重复过程确保清楚无效的想法，于早期便设想我们想要取得的成就。

终稿（from gogogic.com）

希望我们能凭借《Symbol6》获得成功，因为有许多优越的概念正等着我们实施和发布。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Symbol6: How We Created an iPhone Game

Jonas Antonsson

Yesterday, I asked my Twitter (@gogogic) followers/friends if they would be interested in a blog post about our concept and development processes. The answer was an overwhelmingly repeated “yes, please!”. It was hopelessly clear that I would not be able procrastinate this here post… So, as promised, here is a rough look at how Gogogic operates, using Symbol6 as an example. Enjoy!

It all begins with an idea

Gogogic designs, develops and publishes games for the web, as well as the iPhone and the iPod Touch. This basically means that we have to come up with a lot of cool game concepts. Constantly. Which is what probably sets companies like Gogogic apart from companies that are more used to building “conventional” games – or “big” games (although, some of our future titles would certainly be considered big but “casual”). We work with volume while others work with size. And, of course, all good game developers constantly work with quality.

This means that ideas are very important to us. Polished game mechanics, innovative features and games that fit the intended platforms perfectly are all things that we look to incorporate in an initial idea. A lot of our time is spent on ideas. Everyone can participate and pitch their ideas. At any given time.

The process

The following image roughly describes the overall process, where an idea is molded into a concept which then becomes a formal proposal which is accompanied by an animatic that serves as an initial prototype.

At any given time we have a stock of very rough “game ideas” – some are little more than a few lines of text and a rough sketch or two. All of our “logged” ideas are stored on an internal wiki and they are developed gradually, through a very organic process of reading, reviewing, re-writing and updating.

Everyone can be involved, in one way or another. Some people have to participate, of course, but anyone can chip in. Concepts are discussed during meetings (both formal and informal), sent between staff members for comments, etc. And, of course, a lot of doodling and drawing goes on as well. The following image shows the very first paper draft for Symbol6:

Some concepts never make it past the “few lines and an image” stage (the initial idea stage), while others become drafts that are developed and “finalized” (of course concepts are never “finalized”, but there is a point where you have to stop and decide that you’ve reached the stage that separates concept from full blown design). A finalized concept feels complete when: It describes the basic workings of a game; It captures what would initially seem to be main elements and mechanics; It has an initial story; It has a flow to it – a basic game play description; It holds conceptual suggestions to look/feel/sound/size; It suggests user stories and interactions.

When a concept is “fully developed”, it becomes a part of a “proposal” pool – which basically consists of a number of concepts that we feel are all worthy of being analyzed and broken down into specific requirements.

The proposal

Symbol6 was formally picked from the proposal pool because

The concept indicated that the game could be a lot of fun

The game had the potential to reach a broad audience, even though it was especially interesting to a niche market (puzzle game lovers)

The game had replay value, although it was simple and relied on a single (but unique and polished) game mechanic

The game was simple enough for us to implement it fairly quickly on a new platform, without compromising kick-ass graphics, sound quality or game play implementation

After being picked for production, the Symbol6 concept was turned into a full blown game proposal, where basic game design took place. Proposals also hold further implementation details, goals, feature specifications, etc.

For smaller projects, like Symbol6, the game proposal actually acts as the first draft of a design document, so when the game proposal for Symbol6 was accepted, we already had finalized most of the game design, as well.

The animatic

But the proposal (or the game design document) is not the most important part in our process. The “prototype animatic” is, however. Below, you can see the initial animatic that was created for Symbol6 (Amusing fact: the working title for Symbol6 was Hexago).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WenDXfzLY8Q]

The animatic has one purpose, and one purpose only. It visualizes the experience of a conceptual player, given a specific scenario. Simple games, like Symbol6, only need a single animatic to describe the whole game, while bigger games need multiple animatics to portray different “player stories“.

As those of you who are familiar with Symbol6 can see, most of the features portrayed in the animatic were implemented in the final version of the game. The animatic instantly set the tone for the entire game, how it would look, how it would work and how a player would experience it. Everyone on the team knew what to do from the moment we reviewed the animatic.

It also allowed us to decide what features we would implement and what features we wanted to skip, based on a visual experience. Furthermore, it allowed us to quickly prioritize features, requirements and critical elements.

At Gogogic, the animatic is king.

Production and design

Finally, the game is ready for production, along with sound and graphic design. Concept images and sounds have, of course, been set up. But this is the point where everything is finalized and handed in.

The following image shows the complete symbol set for Symbol6, as the graphics department handed it over to production.

Finally

I’ll leave the production, testing and publishing processes to another post (or two) since they diserve more than a couple of lines at the end of what has become a pretty long post. Of course, this post only covers the fundamental parts of what we do, while I’ve tried to avoid specific details of “how we do it”. Each aspect would need a separate post, if the intent was to cover that as well.

But “what we do” leads to the question “why we do it”. The answer is simple. We’re trying to build games that are extremely fun, innovative, user friendly, slick, stylish, beautiful and immersive. We’re trying to create an experience and that is why we go to painstaking lengths to see if a concept works or not – by an iterative process that organically weeds out ideas that do not work and by visualizing what we’re trying to achieve, early on.

Hopefully we’ll be successful with Symbol6, because we have a lot of great concepts just waiting to be produced and released. I’m sure I’ll publish “sneek peak” images and examples here, on this blog, before long.

And remember to check out Symbol6 in the App Store, or the offical site, if you haven’t already. http://www.symbol6game.com (Source: Gogogic)