游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

《Cavorite》开发者总结游戏制作过程得失

发布时间:2011-07-11 13:49:06 Tags:,,,

作者:Chris Jorgensen

简介

我此前已经得出过一个结论,每个独立游戏开发商此生都会制作出至少一款平台游戏。Twisted Pixel有《Splosion Man》,Jonathan Blow有《Braid》,Odd Gentelmen制作过《The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom》。还有无数的创意性flash游戏属于这种题材。去年,我第9次阅读HG Wells的《First Men in the Moon》时,发现了《Limbo》这款游戏。于是,我决定也要制作出一款属于自己的平台游戏。《Cavorite》就这样诞生了。

当然,游戏与我最初的设想并不相同。《Cavorite》不像《Limbo》那般阴暗恐怖。坦白说,Cascadia Games并不具有制作艺术性游戏的能力。因而在游戏原型制作完成后,整个游戏搁置了8个月的时间。我不知道如何利用现有的人员和时间来把游戏制作出来。幸运的是,在如此长期的等待之后,我又有了灵感。瑞典独立开发商AcnePlay发布了《Pizza Boy》,这款16位平台游戏似乎把我带回了1992年。看到这款游戏,我忽然明白了要如何将我的想法变成现实。

《Cavorite》是款更侧重益智元素的平台游戏。我通常把它当成是《超级马里奥2》和《Professor Fizzwizzle》的交集。这也是款16位游戏,最初的灵感来自于HG Wells。

正确的做法

Cavorite(from gamasutra)

Cavorite(from gamasutra)

外包美术设计

Retro美术是游戏的关键部分。像我这类30多岁的人喜欢那种16位游戏的风格,也愿意在此花上时间和精力。正因为如此,像素美工的市场很繁荣。事实证明,找到个可用且能够负担得起的美工甚为简单。事实上,我都不怎么愿意说我雇佣的是谁,因为我不想与他人共享这个绝佳的设计师。与Tom Filhol这个设计师合作真得很棒。

将像素美工外包之后,用户界面就应该由我自行完成,以前那些游戏的用户界面都是我自己制作的。但是,这次我得到了同事Matt Mitman的帮忙。他负责游戏的logo、用户界面和故事情节。而且他确实很专注于做这些工作。我想如果没有他的帮忙,游戏不会获得此等盛赞。

最后,Cascadia常任音效师Erhan Ergenekan再次负责游戏的视觉效果并制作出精致的声道和大部分音效内容,虽然我考虑这部分内容自行完成而不将其外包。Erhan的作品总是能让我满意,美妙的音乐为游戏奠定了良好的基调。

游戏设计

我的目标与以往相同:设计某些可以看到结局的内容。我知道设计60多个解谜关卡将会是个巨大的挑战,很早便明白最佳的简化方法便是将关卡大小设计成单屏。最早,我担心这种做法会妨碍我们在各个关卡呈现不同的游戏体验。事实上,并不存在这方面的问题。

我们养成的良好习惯是,用铅笔和画纸来设计每个关卡。这使得设计师(游戏邦注:这款游戏的设计师便是本文作者及其妻子Katie)能够迅速尝试想法、讨论设计并作出修改,无需动用电脑。每天晚上,我手头都堆积着大量需要制作出来的关卡设计图。自从我们鼓起勇气面对关卡设计这项复杂工作之后,就再也没有遇到什么重大的难题。

独立草拟关卡也证实是种将已知想法有机融入设计中的绝佳方法。通常情况下,我提及一种新元素,Katie随后便会说出这种元素的5种用法,这些都是我未曾想到过的。还出现过另一种情况,她提到了某种想法,我会抱怨将其实施出来是何等艰难。但最终添加之后发现,确实对游戏大有益处。我想说的是,1/3的关卡直接由Katie设计完成,而且她还提出了许多基本的游戏机制,比如将平台作为临时计时器。在设计关卡并逐渐修改的过程中,我们体验到了极大的乐趣。

测试

游戏开发始于11月,到3月份时就可以对《Cavorite》进行测试了。我让朋友、家人和其他开发者同伴帮我测试游戏。需要特别指出的是,我得到了Appy Entertainment的Paul O’Connor和开发者同伴Matt Mitman和Ronny Bangsund的帮助。他们都很能清楚地看到游戏的长处和不足之处,他们的反馈能够极大地改善游戏。

首轮测试过后,我在5月左右在某些关键站点发布游戏,包括TouchArcade论坛。自愿参加测试的人数让我大吃一惊。我此前并未计划过参与人数如此之多的公共测试,但当时决定这么做。最初,我认为测试可能需要1周时间。最终,测试持续时间超过了1个月,报告的漏洞和问题数逾百。Red1和Doomfan两位测试者提出了十分有价值的反馈。他们发现了我忘记或忽略的小问题。还有人提出了新想法(游戏邦注:如收集星星延长关卡时间),一经添加便发挥了很好的作用。这次测试真是个绝妙的体验,这使得游戏变得更棒更具吸引力。

错误的做法

Cavorite(from gamasutra)

Cavorite(from gamasutra)

营销

我承认自己的营销能力很差。我们此前的游戏也从未“轰动”过。在《Cavorite》之前,我们的应用只是将某些概念变成现实而已,充其量只是种实验。我对作品的期望值也很低。但我知道《Cavorite》是我们首款有趣、精致和独特的游戏,然而对于营销工作我仍然无从下手。

游戏发布之后,游戏的位置在iPhone应用商店游戏类别每周iPhone游戏推荐之下。我们在Appy的朋友、测试者、早期玩家和其他开发者也都对游戏有所推广。许多游戏新闻站点提及这款游戏,并对其有所褒奖。随后,我开始联系那些评论员。

当然,这种错误在App Store上经常发生。曝光度代表一切,而游戏的排名决定其曝光度。尽管我们不断在AppAdvice、Appolicious和148apps等主流评论站点上获得高分,但他们报道游戏的时间并不一致,推广的时间并不统一。《Cavorite》短期内排名在40到80之间徘徊,但随后开始下降。我们所有游戏排名的记录是294。

最后必须提及的是,游戏的社交功能很不足。你可以在游戏中重复玩各个关卡,但你也只能这么做。玩家无法连接TwitPic,因而也无法分享解决方案。这个弱点和低游戏评论使得《Cavorite》曝光度很低。不止一个用户抱怨找到游戏是个艰难的过程。

开发计划

《Cavorite》花了将近8个月时间才开发完成。其实时间可以减少1个月左右,因为最初我坚持用TorqueScript编写核心游戏逻辑。TorqueScript是个易于上手且灵活多变的语言,但其设计目的并非为了开发应用。结果,我不得不花数周的时间将功能移植至C++,这又产生了许多漏洞、计时问题和各种挑战。如果我最初的规划更好些,这些完全可以避免。

紧凑的时间导致某些功能被我们放弃,如社交共享、retina支持和iPad用户界面。我知道,自游戏发布之日起,玩家便希望能有这些功能。但需要做的工作非常多,根本没有时间顾及这方面的内容,而且我已是精疲力竭。在8个月的时间里,白天编写应用,下班回到家里还要编写应用,这确实是件很累人的事情。如果计划更为完善,可能会让我的精力更为充沛,开发也更有效率。

定价

有人警告我说,市场正开始逐渐盛行免费增值模式,但我未曾听从此等建议。《Cavorite》并未设计成带有应用内置购买的免费游戏。评论人员和客户都对1.99美元的售价颇有微词。但我认为这个价格与游戏和内容的质量相当。

不过回想下此前的经历,Cascadia Games并不是个用户熟知的品牌,他们不愿意花钱冒险。我本应该更细致考虑免费游戏这种做法。

发布时间

我们的游戏在6月29日发布,而Gameloft和EA等主流iOS游戏发行商将在7月4日开展夏日促销。我们的游戏被这些0.99美元和免费的游戏所淹没。如果我能有再次发布游戏的机会,肯定会选择在7月促销潮过后再发布。

Carvorite  (from gamasutra)

Carvorite (from gamasutra)

结论

所有玩过《Cavorite》的玩家都对其大加赞赏。Cascadia Games真正成为能够制作出某些特别东西的开发商。尽管这款应用的表现并不好,但我们从中获得了把事情做得更好的经验,将来可能获得更大的成功。这款游戏取得了前所未有的成功,我们为此感到高兴。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Postmortem – Cascadia Games’ Cavorite

Chris Jorgensen

Introduction

I’ve come to the conclusion that every independent game developer must create at least one puzzle platformer in their lifetime. Twisted Pixel has Splosion Man. Jonathan Blow has Braid. The Odd Gentelmen has The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom. And there are countless creative flash games in the sub-genre. Last year, I discovered Limbo while re-reading HG Wells’ First Men in the Moon for the Nth time. It was then that I decided I had to make my own platformer game. Cavorite was born.

Of course, nothing even close to my original vision happened. Cavorite is not grisly and dark like Limbo. To be frank, that type of artsy game is not within Cascadia Games’ abilities. So after an initial prototype, the game sat idle for 8 months. I simply couldn’t see how we could get the game done with the talent and time onboard. Fortunately, after the long wait, I was inspired again. Swedish indie developer AcnePlay had released Pizza Boy, a 16-bit platformer that felt like it had leapt straight from 1992 onto my iPhone. Suddenly, I knew how to bring my vision to life.

Cavorite is a puzzle platformer hybrid with extra emphasis on the puzzle. I often describe it as a cross between Super Mario 2 and Professor Fizzwizzle. It takes place in a 16-bit, steampunk universe inspired primarily by HG Wells.

What Went Right

Outsourcing the Art

‘Retro’ art is in the midst of a big comeback. Early thirty-somethings like me love the style and are willing to spend for the nostalgia. Because of this, there’s an excellent (dare I say, thriving) market for pixel artists. Finding a capable and affordable artist proved surprisingly easy. In fact, I almost don’t want to reveal who I hired, because I don’t want to share him. Tom Filhol was that fantastic to work with.

Even though I outsourced the pixel art, I still had the notion that I should handle the UI myself – as I had done for all our previous games. It’s a good thing that I felt dissatisfied enough with my efforts this time around because fellow indie Matt Mitman was available. He handled the game’s logo, UI, and story comics. And he really nailed it. I don’t think the game would have received as much high praise without his excellent contribution.

Finally, even though I consider it more in-house than outsourcing, frequent Cascadia musician Erhan Ergenekan once again took the visuals plus virtually zero guidance from me and made an awesome soundtrack as well as the majority of the sound FX. Erhan consistently blows me away. The music is beautiful and really sets the tone of the game.

Game Design

My goal is always the same: design something that can be finished. I knew that designing the 60+ puzzle levels would be a major challenge and decided early on that the best simplification would be to cap them all at single-screen size. I was initially concerned that this would hamper our ability to create a distinct experience per level. As it turned out, it was more liberating in how it forced creativity.

One of the best habits we formed was to design each level with pencil and graph paper. That allowed the designers (myself and my wife, Katie) to quickly try ideas, discuss them, and tweak them without involving the computer. Each evening I would have a stack of finished levels to implement. The only time we struggled with level design was when we tried to circumvent this path.

Sketching out our levels independently also proved a great way to let knew ideas organically sneak into the design. Typically, I would introduce a new element and Katie would come up with about 5 uses that I’d never envisioned. Or she would introduce an idea and I’d grumble about how hard it was to implement, then add it and be amazed at how much it would open up the game. I’ll just note that Katie is directly responsible for the design of about 1/3 of the levels (typically the more brutal ones) and pioneered many of the fundamental game mechanics, like using platforms as makeshift timers. We had a lot of fun designing boards and sprinkling in twists to keep the ideas fresh.

Beta Testing

Heavy development started in November and by March I had declared Cavorite in ‘beta’. From there I showed it to the usual suspects – friends, family, and fellow developers. In particular, I want to call out the help of Paul O’Connor from Appy Entertainment and my fellow Torque developers Matt Mitman and Ronny Bangsund. They all had great insights into the game’s strengths and weaknesses. I was able to take their feedback and improve the game greatly.

After this initial round of testing, I announced the game around May in a few key places, including the TouchArcade forums. I was taken aback by the number of volunteers for beta testing. I hadn’t planned on a big public beta test but decided on a whim to go for it. Originally, I assumed the testing would take about a week. It ended up taking over a month with easily over 100 bugs / issues reported. Especially helpful were ‘Red1’ and ‘Doomfan’ with their very thorough feedback. Small issues that I had forgotten or ignored were brought to the forefront. New ideas (such as collecting stars for level times) were offered up and worked well once added. It was a fantastic experience that made the game significantly better and more broadly appealing as a result.

What Went Wrong

Marketing

I admit it. I’m a terrible marketer. We’ve also never had a “big” game before. Prior to Cavorite, our previous apps have primarily been proof of concepts or experiments. My expectations were always low. With Cavorite, however, I knew we had our first fun, polished, and unique game. Still, I had no clue how to market it.

The day after launch, Apple prominently displayed the game’s logo just beneath the iPhone Game of the Week promo slot in the iPhone App Store’s Games section. We also got some nice promotion from our pals at Appy and mentions from the beta testers, early adopters, and other indies. Several game news sites picked up on the game and offered praise. I then started contacting reviewers.

Of course, this is the classic mistake with the App Store. Visibility is everything. And rank equals visibility. While we continue to get high scores from prominent review sites such as AppAdvice, Appolicious, and 148apps, they have all appeared at different times. We never got the additive push of all the reviews together. Cavorite hovered in the high 40s to low 80s for awhile before starting to slip. Our All Games rank peaked at 294. I wish I could have seen all of the review rank bumps added into one.

Finally, the game’s social aspects are far too weak. Yes, you can tweet your level times in-game. But that’s basically it. The ability to TwitPic was cut, as was the idea for solutions sharing. This combined with sporadic review visibility has left Cavorite largely unfound. More than one happy buyer has complained about how hard it was to find the game.

Development Planning

Cavorite took approximately 8 months to develop. About 1 month could have been trimmed had I not insisted on writing the core game logic in TorqueScript initially. TorqueScript is a handy, flexible language. But it wasn’t designed to do an app’s heavy lifting. As a result, I had to spend weeks porting functionality to C++, which reintroduced bugs, timing issues, and a variety of other challenges that could have been avoided had I planned things better.

The time crunch meant certain features were dropped: social sharing, retina support, an iPad UI option. I’m positive these features were desired by players at launch. But toward the end I started to run out of steam and didn’t have the energy to tack them on. When you write apps full time, then come home and write apps at a part-time pace for eight months, you expend a lot of energy. Better planning could have kept me going longer and made the development more efficient.

Price

I was warned that the winds of the market were blowing toward freemium. And I didn’t listen. Cavorite simply wasn’t designed to be a free game with in-app purchases. Reviewers and buyers alike complained that it cost $1.99. But I felt it was justified by the quality and quantity of content.

In retrospect, Cascadia Games isn’t a known brand that consumers are willing to risk their highly sought dollars on. I should have looked at free-to-play more seriously. Right now, the game is on track to profit, but it’s not what we had hoped for.

Launch Timing

We launched on June 29th – exactly one day before every major iOS publisher, from Gameloft to EA, started putting their apps on 4th of July Summer sales. Our game was buried by these $0.99 and free app deals. If I could launch the game again, I would have executed a more organized launch in July after the sales wave died down.

Conclusion

Everyone involved with Cavorite is proud of what we accomplished. Cascadia Games went from just another app-churner to the creators of something special. While we didn’t strike it big with this app, we now have the clout and experience to do things better and get wider exposure in the future. Whether that’s additions to the current game or a new project entirely, we haven’t explored yet. But we’re higher than we’ve ever been and are happy to be here. (Source: Gamasutra)


上一篇:

下一篇: