作者：Carl Layton

电子游戏行业正在发生改变。随着使用手机平台联络、工作和娱乐的人数日渐增多，电子游戏行业也不得不朝该方向转变。行业的变迁使得优秀电子游戏的核心要素也同样有所改变。那些大型游戏（游戏邦注：有数百万美元预算、价值500美元显卡方能处理的图形以及足以供好莱坞电影使用的旁白、音效和故事情节）正逐渐淡出我们的视线。在本篇博文中，我要探讨的是所有优秀手机平台电子游戏带有的5个要素，有情感、目标、游戏玩法、需要克服的障碍和成就感。我会详细分析每种要素，阐述为何它们如此重要。

iPhone games(from freemobilegamesdownload.org)

情感：游戏需要让玩家在娱乐时产生某种情感。“情感”在此背景下是种泛称，玩家可能忧伤、滑稽、轻松、紧张等。这些都是玩家在游戏过程中能体验到的传统情感。重点在于，确保游戏不会无意间让玩家产生消极情绪。比如，如果失意或愤怒不是你预想让玩家产生的情感，那么最好别让这些出现在游戏中。在手机游戏领域里，情感也能够测试玩家的反应能力、敏捷才思或解决问题的批判性思维。我认为情感在游戏中的定义是：游戏给玩家带来的感觉，当他们想再次玩游戏时，他们会想起那种情感然后对自己说道“我想再玩玩那个游戏”。多数情况下，手机游戏都是对游戏玩法关注甚于情感的休闲游戏，但即便此类游戏也深藏着轻松有趣的情感。尽管大部分人觉得手机游戏只是他们下班乘坐地铁时打发时间的玩物，但我想说的是游戏设计师确实对作品让玩家产生的感觉尤为关注，确保游戏能够描绘出那种情感。明智的设计师都会这么做。

目标：你想要在游戏中完成的事物。玩家需要一个玩游戏的理由。玩家在《愤怒的小鸟》中需要杀死所有的绿猪，《Bonsai Blast》让人们于不同环境中在不同颜色小球移动到道路尽头前将它们配对。每个游戏都有自己的目标。目标可以提升游戏整体趣味性，因为实现目标的过程，也就是游戏玩法恰是让游戏有趣的原因所在。

游戏玩法：游戏玩法指玩家实现目标和克服障碍的方法，可以是用弹弓发射小鸟来杀死猪，抑或是将相同方块配对成链。游戏玩法元素是游戏体验中最重要的部分，因为用户真正控制和互动的是该部分内容。这是为游戏带来乐趣的重点要素。手机游戏应该有简单却令人着迷的游戏玩法，而且让游戏本身对其加以解释。如果无法在游戏过程中展现游戏玩法，那么解释应只限于单屏篇幅。我们需要认清的事实是，没有人希望自己在手机屏幕上翻看数页操作指南来学习游戏玩法。最好让用户在玩游戏的过程中学会玩法。思索游戏玩法之时需要考虑到的三个关键点是：简单、有趣、令人着迷。

需要克服的障碍：障碍指那些阻挡玩家实现目标的事物，也就是传统上所说的“敌人”。多数传统游戏中有真正的敌方角色，玩家需要以某种方式将其消灭。比如，在经典游戏《超级马里奥兄弟》中，马里奥解救公主途中遇到的各种敌人就是障碍。但是，障碍并不一定是人类，《愤怒的小鸟》中的障碍就是保护猪的建筑物。你需要摧毁、绕开或操控建筑以达到杀死猪的目标。手机游戏使传统游戏奠定的障碍想法得以延伸。《愤怒的小鸟》表明手机游戏中的障碍并不一定要直截了当地出现在玩家面前。障碍可以是竞时，也可以是躲避掉落物品等。关键在于确保障碍独特且充满娱乐性。

成就感：由于多数手机游戏并没有可供用户体验的深层次故事情节或形象饱满的角色，所以用户需要通过游戏获得某种成就感。游戏需要让玩家在退出之时觉得自己完成了某些东西。成就感的形式多种多样，如游戏通关、获得新高分或在某个关卡中获得5星评分。但是，我认为游戏成就带来的成就感最大。包括手机和传统游戏在内的所有游戏都开始在游戏过程中设置某些供玩家获得的成就，对这种成就感想法善加利用。XBox Live和Steam这两个游戏平台为游戏成就提供支持并追踪玩家已获得的成就，用户可以向所有好友展示自己的成就。成就不仅让玩家产生成就感，而且还让游戏变得更加有趣，在游戏中为玩家提供更多挑战。成就是增加游戏深度和再玩性的绝佳方法。玩家还可以向玩相同游戏的好友炫耀自己获得的更多高级成就或全部成就。无论出于何种方式，成就都能让玩家在游戏中产生成就感，设计师应该将其考虑在内。

其他需要考虑的内容：除了上述5大关键要素之外，手机游戏设计还需要考虑到其他事物。首先，摒弃生命系统。对手机游戏来说，设置生命系统或“游戏结束”可能不是个好想法。有些手机游戏并不适合让玩家在游戏中的行为“失败”。回到《愤怒的小鸟》这个例子，玩家在每个关卡中都有无数次尝试的机会，他们的失败不会产生任何后果。所以，你无需让玩家毫无理由地备份所有完成的关卡。其次，自动保存对手机游戏极有好处。这样如果有些人忽然打断游戏进程，就不需要担心会失去当前游戏进度。毫无疑问，自动保存必须存在，这种让玩家回到中断点的能力非常重要。最后，有大量的关卡，可以设置100个或者更多关卡。如果条件允许，无限关卡也可以考虑。玩家需要数量众多的关卡，不希望看到他们最喜欢的游戏有结局。关卡数充足可以增加游戏深度和成就感，后者正是5大要素之一。

手机领域的游戏有所不同，低运算性能、小屏幕和触屏控制使玩游戏的方法发生改变，因而你的设计也需要改变。我们已无需再等待游戏蔓延至手机平台上，这已经成为现实而且会持续下去。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Featured : 5 Key Components in Mobile Game Design

Carl Layton

The video game industry is currently changing. As more and more people move to mobile platforms to stay connected, work, and play, the video game industry has to move in that direction as well. As the industry shifts, the core components that make up a great video game also shift. We are moving away from big blockbuster games with multi-million dollar budgets, cutting edge graphics that only a $500 video card can handle, and voiceovers, sound tracks, and story lines that would be fit for a Hollywood movie. For the first post on my new blog I want to talk about what I think are the 5 key components that make up any great video game on a mobile platform. These components are emotion, an objective, game play, an obstacle to overcome, and a sense of accomplishment. I will break down each of these elements and talk about why they are important.

Emotion: The game has to give the player an emotion while they play it. The word emotion is used loosely in this context. The emotion could be sad, funny, relaxing, tense, etc. These are traditional emotions that the player could experience while playing. It is important to make sure that unintentional negative emotions don’t come out during game play. For example, you don’t want the player to feel frustrated or angry while playing the game if that is not the intended emotion.  In the mobile games space emotion can also be a test of reflexes, or quick thinking, or critical thinking to solve puzzles. My definition of emotion in the context of games is: How does the player feel when they are playing the game so when they think about playing the game again they think about that emotion and say to themselves, “Oh yea, I want to play that,”. Most of the time mobile games are casual games that focus on game play more than emotion but even those games tend to have a relaxed, fun emotion that goes along with them. While most people think about mobile games as just a mindless time waster while they are riding the subway home from work, I can assure you that the designers of that game thought about how it would make the player feel and made sure that the game portrayed that emotion. At least that’s what the smart ones do.

Objective: What are you trying to accomplish in the game. The player needs a reason to play. Whether its angry birds and you need to kill those pigs, or its Bonsai Blast and the objective is to match up different colored spheres in different environments before they reach the end of the path. Every game has an objective. The objective could add to the overall fun factor of the game, or it could just be the end and how that objective is reached, the game play, is what makes the game fun.

Game Play: The game play is how the player achieves the objective and overcomes the obstacle. It could be launching birds from a slingshot to destroy the pigs, or it could be matching up identical blocks to form chains. The game play element is the most important part of the gaming experience because it’s the part that the user actually controls and interacts with. This is the most important thing in what makes the game fun. Mobile games should include simple and addictive game play. It should be self explanatory. If it isn’t self explanatory, the only required explanation should be able to fit on 1 mobile screen. Let’s face the facts, no one wants to be scrolling through pages of instructions on a tiny mobile phone screen to learn how to play your game. The user should be able to pick up how the game plays as they are playing. The 3 keys to keep in mind when thinking about game play are simple, fun, and addictive.

The Obstacle to Overcome: The obstacle to overcome is what stands in the way of the player achieving the objective. This is traditionally known as the “enemy”. Most traditional games have actual enemy characters that the player has to overcome in some fashion. For example, in the classic game Super Mario Bros. the obstacle is the unique baddies Mario faces on his journey to rescue the princess. However, the obstacle does not have to be a person. For example, in Angry Birds the obstacle is the structures built around the pigs. You have to destroy, work around, or manipulate the structures to get to the objective which is to kill the pigs. Mobile games have expanded the obstacle idea from what traditional games have made them. As Angry birds demonstrates the obstacle in a mobile game does not have to be so straight forward. It could be a race against time, it could be dodging falling objects, etc. The key is to make sure the obstacle is unique and entertaining.

Sense of Accomplishment: Since most mobile games will not have a deep story or fully developed characters that a user can grasp onto the user needs to gain a sense of accomplishment through the game. The player needs to walk away from the game knowing he accomplished something. The sense of accomplishment takes many forms beating the game, getting a new high score, or scoring a 5 star rating on a particular level. However, I believe the biggest sense of accomplishment comes through achievements. All games, mobile and traditional, are starting to take advantage of the accomplishment idea by having actual achievements the user can earn as they work through the game. XBox Live and Steam are two gaming platforms that support game achievements and keep track of achievements the player has earned so they can show them off to all their friends.  Achievements give the player a sense of accomplishment but also make the game more fun and give the player more challenges throughout the game. Achievements are a good way to add depth and replay-ability to a game. They also give the player bragging rights over their friends that play the same game for having earned the more advanced achievements or for having earned all of the achievements. Either way achievements add a lot to the sense of accomplishment and the game itself and should be included.

Other Things to Consider: In addition to the 5 key components outlined above there are some other things to consider when designing a mobile game. First, no life system. Depending on the game, a life system or a “game over” might not be a good idea. Some mobile games are not good for the player to “lose.” Going back to the Angry Birds example, a player can fail a level as many times as they want in Angry Birds with no consequences, you wouldn’t want to put the player back all those levels for really no reason at all. Secondly, auto save is big in mobile games. Usually when someone stops playing a game on their phone it is abrupt and they don’t want to worry about saving or losing their current progress. Auto save should just be there, it shouldn’t even be an option, the ability for the player to pick up right where they left off is very important. Finally, having lots of levels like 100 or more or infinite levels if your game can be designed to have that. Players want a variety of levels and don’t want their favorite game to end. Having lots of levels adds depth and adds to the sense of accomplishment, which is one of the 5 key components.

Games are different in the mobile space. With less computing power, smaller screens, and touch screen controls the way games are played has changed and your design needs to change as well. We are no longer waiting for the mobile platform to take over gaming, it already has, and it’s here to stay. (Source: Carl Layton: My Web)