作者：Mike Birkhead

实际游戏开发需要的不仅仅是创造力，这里所谓的“实际”指的是真正的游戏开发，而不只是坐下来凭空构思想法。然而，后者却恰恰是设计师日复一日的生活。创造力确实是游戏设计的必需品，但并非衡量游戏设计师作为的主要度量。你可以把它当作支持结构，而不是基础。

我之前曾着重阐述过，为何想法毫无意义，执行才是关键。我强调了铸就游戏设计师成就的正是大量非创造性工作。然而，不可将我的说法误解为缺乏创造力并不重要。我曾经花一整天时间来打开《Chains of Olympus》中的每个关卡文件，找到每场遭遇战，记录敌人所使用的武器及其数量，煞费苦心地将这些信息抄写到excel表格中。诚实地说，这项工作确实很无趣，但也很有必要。尽管这项工作丝毫没有动用我自身的创造力，但此类做法确实能够给我的游戏带来好处。

这只是例子之一，同样的例子还有很多。比如，我花时间总结程序员所需的技能、告知动画师用户想看到的动画或者费时费力思索剧本的创作要点。你可以看到的是，并非所有的工作都富有创造性。有些任务确实极具魅力，比如将关卡制作出来。但有些工作很单调乏味，比如你必须在关卡半数内容被否定后花时间将其修补完整。如果所有这些乏味的工作都不含创造性，那么成就优秀设计师的因素究竟是什么呢？

设计师需要身具四个同等重要的素质：创造力、清晰表达、适应力和判断力。

创造力

Creativity(from geniussquared.com)

在本文的背景中，创造力指的不仅是创造有趣想法的能力，还包括回想起有趣想法的能力。真正的创意灵感既不可靠又难以控制，但是你可以控制自己识别有趣事物的能力。不仅要能够识别出有趣的事物，还要理解有趣的原因，并且以后能够回想起这些内容。

这方面的概念与喜剧有些类似。你或许会注意到，有人可以说出某些让你觉得好笑的事情，但有人说出同样的话却不那么有趣。喜剧时机不仅是让某些事物有趣的一个部分，也是其中至关重要的部分，就像两款有着相似机制的游戏会有着完全不同的体验一样。游戏与喜剧和相似性还有很多。这展示了我所定义的创造力的双重本质：创造有趣想法的能力和识别有趣想法的能力。

当我年轻的时候，人们时常会说我很滑稽，但我觉得这很可笑。90%的时间我只是在重复自己以前听过的笑话，感觉像是在抄袭别人的作品。我并不滑稽，最早说这些笑话的人才真正滑稽。直到我长大之后才意识到，之前的想法是多么的幼稚。词语只是个工具而已，而在恰当的时机使用这些工具才能称得上是喜剧。和任何工具一样，有些笑话或词语组合固然很有喜剧效果，但即便是最好的笑话，如果讲述时间不当也不会很有趣。

与任何滑稽的笑话一样，有趣和富有创意的游戏体验都是工具，在游戏的恰当时机中用上恰当的机制和脑中的创造力想法同等重要。

清晰表达

有良好的想法只是第一个步骤，如果你无法以某种用户能够接受的方式来清晰表达你的想法，那么游戏开发也无法获得成功。对于游戏设计师来说，清晰表达不仅指口头和笔头的交流能力，还包括对用户的理解。多数设计师都能以合乎礼仪的方式与他人交谈，有些良好的设计师具有编撰结构严谨的文件的能力，但是真正优秀的设计师能够着眼于读者来编写文件。

许多睿智的设计师都编写文章阐述过清晰编写文件的重要性，因此在文件编写方面我也无需再做过多陈述。但事实上，游戏设计师的职责不只是编写文件。如果你只是坐在桌旁专心编写文件，那我认为你的做法是错误的。假设我刚刚完成了一份非常重要的文件，细致阐述游戏中的新敌人。一段时间后，我收到了动画师的邮件，让我再详细澄清下文件内容。千万别点击“回复”，想都不要想。离开你的椅子和键盘，去向动画师展示你的内容。或许你已经注意到了，我说的不是“解释”或“描述”，而是“展示”，这正是你需要做的事情。以你的目标受众能够接受的方式来表达想法非常重要。

理解受众还包括不可向受众提供他们不需要的信息。如果存在唯一让我反感的游戏设计思想体系的话，我想是“设计宝典”。那种含有大量信息的高密度式文件，保证只有作者自己可以看得懂，我讨厌这种做法。必须澄清的是，我并不认为此类文件是不必要的，它们只是不太完整。设计师有时会发现他们编写的东西从未有人看过，每个设计师几乎都会遭遇这种时刻。

“这个敌人要如何移动？”“你没看过我编写的文件吗？”“等等，是哪个文件？”

有些设计师认为，文件信息过少是个人的失败之举，这种想法是完全错误的。其他人在打开文件时，很可能立即被其中的大量信息弄得头晕目眩，接下来他们所做的就是关闭文件开始设计。艺术师或其他人很不想看到大量的文字，这也是我为何讨厌设计宝典的原因所在。设计师可能会认为，只要他们把文件编写出来，他们的工作就结束了，有些人甚至还为文件的长度感到相当自豪。他们指着那篇所谓的“设计宝典”道：“这里有你需要的所有信息！别再问我了！”那么结果又如何呢？如果没有人愿意看这份文件，那些信息的价值又如何体现出来呢？如果你的灵感因此而不受人重视，我想你会感到相当失望。

正如我所说过的那样，“设计宝典”确实是必需品。其作用体现在项目初期，用文件从细节上阐述整个大概念。你需要理清那些小细节，编写文件会强迫你对其进行思考。然而，当这个目标实现之后，“设计宝典”的使命也就完成了。接下来，你需要将这些信息慢慢地解释给制作团队。设计宝典的另一个坏处在于，它使真正的开发循环灵活性降低。想法可能时常发生改变或重组，如果可以的话，你需要去适应这种状况。

适应力

下个优秀设计师需要具备的素质是在不断改变功能和场景的做法中维持游戏体验的驱动力和能力。注意，维持体验和维持愿景并不相同。后者是主观事物，只是设计师对最终作品的想法而已。前者是客观事物，关注的只是最终用户。

假设我们正在设计某个关卡，其中会引进怪物X。有一天我们发现游戏之前的关卡中缺少大型怪物，为改善游戏整体体验，我们将怪物X移动到其他关卡中。我不知道你的愿景中是否希望怪物X在那个关卡登场，但是你必须这么做。

你必须适应，而且希望能够找到维持游戏体验的方法。或许添加怪物Z也能充分发挥作用？谁知道呢，玩家也没法给出确切的答案。游戏不可能在发布时附上一纸说明，上书“我们很抱歉Ice关卡有些平淡。本来这个怪物要在关卡中登场，但我们把它移到别的地方了。对不起！”绝对不可能出现这种事。有适应能力的设计师甚至不会把脑细胞浪费在为关卡的改动感到愧疚上，因为他们正忙于解决由此带来的问题。他们可以妥善处理这种改变。

看看，强大的适应力要的不仅是能够快速思考，还要勇于承当改变。之前我已经说过，设计师不可过于害羞。你不仅必须勇敢面对改变，还必须勇于分享你的想法。

与一位极具才华的设计师合作有时是件很难的事情，但你不可随意改变她的想法。尽管有时候你的想法也很不错，但长年累月的经验足以让设计师明白想法的好坏。

判断力

你必须成为能够想起和认同优秀想法的人，你必须成为能够清楚表达那些想法的人，你必须成为能够适应改变的人，但如果你无法成为能够识别那些需要大量工作或导致核心体验过于复杂的人的话，以上那三点都毫无意义。既知道何时又知道何处提出否定意见的人很少见。要成为优秀的设计师，你必须成为梦想家，否则就别做这份工作。我们确实是正在探索某些令人敬畏的内容的探索者，但别忘记一句古话——物极必反。你可以添加内容并不代表你必须添加内容。睿智的设计师会将这个问题处理得很好。

别将判断力同智商混同起来，因为它们并不相同。智商是统称，而判断力是某个特别题材的素质。假设设计游戏是在学习说外语。假设我花了5年的时间在动作冒险游戏上，而你花了5年的时间在第一人称射击游戏上，这就像我学习说法语而你学习说意大利语。尽管有着长年累月的经验，但是假如我尝试制作第一人称射击游戏或者你尝试制作动作冒险游戏，我们都会遇到很大的问题。即便这两类游戏间存在共同点，就像法语和意大利语同属一个语系，但你会发现某些内容完全不同，比如遭遇战的基础架构。

理解专精题材的微妙之处并知道何时提出否定意见不只是让你成为睿智设计师的素质，而且还是种能看到大格局的能力，也就是超越自身任务理解改变对所有人产生的影响。你在设计关卡时是否把加载时间考虑在内呢？如果你正在制作的是固定镜头游戏，那么在设计关卡时是否考虑到镜头的位置？你可能有个很有趣且前所未见的想法，也可以努力将其实现，但如果三个月过后人们发现执行这个想法需要花费非常长的时间，那么你的做法就损害到了游戏。你不可能独自进行设计。睿智的设计师知道如何从团队中得到反馈意见，关注的不仅是想法是否有趣，还包括能否在规定的时间内完成。

获得素质的方法

为了这篇文章的结尾，我纠结了将近两周的时间。我想知道，究竟自己还能添加哪些内容？是否遗漏了某些东西？如果我遇见6年前的自己，还会说些什么，这些是我需要掌握的内容吗？如果当年的我读过这篇文章，会提出什么问题呢？如果我6年前看到这篇文章，我可能会提出的问题是：文章确实很棒，但是你阐述了需要具有的素质，却没有说要如何才能拥有这些素质。这确实是个值得思考的问题。

在没有预先规划的前提下，我也不断在探索如何提高创造力。除了成为一名创意专家之外，最快捷的方法是接触大量高质量想法，可以借鉴自书籍、电影和游戏等。你的每次体验就是储存供往后回忆的资源的机会。如果要让我给年轻的自己提些建议的话，我想最好能够放开眼界，多学学其他行业的做法。游戏设计想法可以来自于家具设计、肖像设计、概念艺术等众多其他领域。设计师就像是一块海绵，你必须吸收各种各样的东西，你必须从生活中吸取经验。每种体验都含有可供使用的元素。

清晰表达方面的学习较为简单。我希望此前有人能强迫我去阅读《Elements of Style》之类的书籍。或许我当时还未为此做好准备，但至少我有尝试的机会。直至你经历过必须踊跃交流的情境，在此之前抓取词句重点和清晰表达信息都是很难的事情。

适应力确实是个很麻烦的素质。正如我说过的那样，这不仅是种独自思考的能力，还是个处理想法在团队开发中改变的能力。我碰到此类问题的时候还是会觉得有些尴尬。如果我能遇见年轻的自己，我会告诉他并非每个想法都是完美的，因此别为与他人分享想法感到担心。你需要习惯于分享想法以及他人对想法做出的评论。我最终想到的解决方法就是所谓的“每周游戏”计划，就是每周设计一款游戏。无论游戏长度如何或质量好坏，新的一周开始时就要重新设计新游戏。这种做法强迫我在构思想法方面节省时间，并且更乐于与他人分享想法。最后，我可以迅速构思出大量游戏想法，不管别人喜不喜欢。

作者的每周游戏计划(from flarkminator.com)

培养判断力的方法也很简单，就是设计游戏。设计和玩你想要制作的那类游戏，所以如果你想要制作FPS游戏，就在业余时间设计FPS游戏。如果你想要制作动作冒险游戏，那么就将精力放在此类游戏上。阅读无法提升你的判断力。如果你没有能力制作游戏，那么你也可以找那些差劲的游戏来玩。为了知道哪些游戏设计方法不可取，你根本难以想象我玩过多少劣质游戏。因为虽然“感觉”到游戏不好玩很简单，游戏要理解其中的缘由却很难。但事实上，知道为何玩家享受不到乐趣是个无价的技能，它会让你迅速成为梦想中的睿智设计师。

游戏设计四大素质是优秀设计师必备的关键成分，但它们并不能让你成为最好的游戏开发者。以工作为自豪、与他人密切配合、理解编程语言等是成为功能团队的关键成员的重要素质。你必须渴望设计游戏。如果你不努力而且不理解代码，你如何能够提出合理的功能意见？如果你不努力且理解艺术，你如何能够提出合理的关卡设计意见？如果你不努力且理解概念设计，你如何能够为设置的怪物提出自己的意见？但所有这些素质，包括对知识的渴求和对合作成员的恭敬都不可一蹴而就，需循序渐进地发展。

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2011年2月6日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

What Makes A Good Designer

Mike Birkhead

Practical game development demands more than being creative, and when I say practical I mean real development – not just sitting around dreaming up ideas. I’m talking about the day to day life of a designer. Yes, creativity is required, but it is not the primary metric against which you will be measured; think of it as a support structure, not the foundation.

In a previous post I spoke adamantly, if not a little hyperbolically, about how ideas are meaningless and that execution is everything; emphasizing the amount of uncreative tasks that make up your day. Do not, however, confuse unimaginative with unimportant. The day I spent opening up every level file in Chains of Olympus, finding every fight encounter, writing down what enemies were used, how many were used, and then painstakingly transcribing this information back into excel was eye-gougingly, soul-suckingly boring – I would be lying if I said otherwise. But, it was necessary. Though this task failed to utilize a single creative bone in my body, I was skillfully executing for the game’s benefit.

That is only one example, and there are many more examples, such as the days I spent describing needed features to programmers, the days I spent acting out special case animations we needed to the animators, or the days I spent bashing my head against the monitor wondering why my scripts wouldn’t function. You see, not all of the work involves being creative, and yes, some of it is glamorous, like the day you first see your level come to life, and some of it is unglamorous, like the day you must salvage your level after half of it was cut. If all of this unimaginative, unglamorous work is not creative, then what exactly makes up a good designer?

A designer is comprised of four equally important pillars: Creativity, Clarity, Adaptability, and Wisdom.

Creativity

Creativity in this context refers not only to ones ability to create fun ideas, but also ones ability to recall fun ideas. True creative inspiration is neither reliable nor controllable, but what you can control is the identification of fun when you see it; not just that something IS fun, but what MAKES it fun, and then to recall those moments at a later date.

This concept, if you will permit the sidetrack, draws a lot of parallels to comedy. Notice how one person can say something to make you laugh, yet someone else can say the exact same words and nothing – no response. Comedic timing is not just a part of what makes something funny, it’s a critical part; just as two games with similar mechanics can be totally different experiences. There is even more to the comedy analogy. It showcases the double nature of creativity as I define it; both creating fun ideas and knowing fun ideas when you see them.

When I was younger people would tell me I was funny, but I always shrugged it off. Nine times out of ten I was just repeating something I had heard, and it felt like I was cheating – I wasn’t funny, the person who said it originally was funny. It was only when I was older that I realized this mentality was bullshit. The words were simply a tool, a device, and it was knowing when to use that tool that was comedy. Sure, some jokes or combinations of words, like any tool, are more effective, but even the best joke is not funny when told at the wrong time.

Fun and creative gameplay experiences, like any good joke, are tools, and recalling just the right mechanics to fit the timing of your game is just as important as having brilliant ideas off the top of your head.

Clarity

Having good ideas is the first step, but if you cannot cleanly and clearly explain your ideas, in a way that is relevant to your audience, then you’re dead in the water. Clarity for a designer is not only about aural and written communication, but also about understanding your audience. Most designers have a decent command of speaking to others, some good designers have the ability to write clean documents that are well formatted, but it is the really great designers that write their documents with an eye for who is going to be reading it.

There are lots of great articles, written by smart designers, expressing the importance of clear writing, so what I would say about writing has been said better, but designers don’t just write documents, in fact, if all you do is sit at your desk and write documents you are doing it wrong. Let’s say I have just finished a very important document, which details a new enemy for the game. A short while later I get an e-mail from an animator asking for clarification on a move. Don’t click reply — don’t even THINK about clicking reply. Get the fuck out of that chair, get away from that keyboard, and just go act it out for him. You’ll notice I did not say “explain” it to him, or “describe” it to him. No, I said “act it out”, because damn it that’s what you need to do. Expressing the idea in a way that is relevant to your intended audience is critical.

Understanding your audience also includes not overwhelming them with information they don’t want or need. If there is one thing, one single tenant of the game design ideology, that truly boils my blood it is the “design bible”. Monolithic tombs of such incompressible density that one can be assured that the only person who has ever read it is the person who wrote it. I hate them with the passion of a thousand burning suns. Let me be clear: I do not believe they are unnecessary, but that they are inadequate. Every designer has had that moment where they learned no one has read something they wrote.

“What moves does this enemy have?” — “Didn’t you read the doc I wrote?!” — “Yeah… wait which doc?”

Somewhere inside the head of the designer he associates the person’s failure to read his document with a lack of information — wrong! What’s more likely is that they opened it, were instantly overwhelmed with information, and then closed the document and moved on. If there is one thing that artists, or anyone really, never want to see it’s a giant wall of text, which is exactly why I hate design bible’s. People think that because they have written one that their job is done; some are even proud of how long they are. They point to the ‘bible’ and say, “There – there is your info! Stop asking me!” Yeah, so what? What is the point of information if no one wants to access it. If you have any aspirations of someone other than you reading a design bible, then you are going to be disappointed.

As I said, though, the ‘design bible’ IS necessary. Its use comes in the early stages of a project, when you move from the high concept into the minutia. You need to nail out those little details, and writing it all down will force you to do that; however, once those cracks are filled its job is done — DONE! Now you must take that information and disseminate it to the team in bite-sized chunks that speak directly to them. The additional crime of the design bible is that you will never be agile enough for the realities of a real dev cycle. Ideas change, morph, dissolve, and reform constantly, so you need to be able to adapt – if you can.

Adaptability

Shit gets cut. Deal with it. The next quality of good designers is the drive and ability to maintain the experience you want despite a constantly shifting feature-set. Note: maintaing an experience is not the same as maintaing a vision. The latter is a personal thing, where you have a picture of how it was supposed to look. The former is an impersonal thing, and its only concern is the end user.

Let’s say you are working on a level, and it was going to contain the introduction to Monster X. One day we discover that the previous few levels of the game are lacking in big monsters, and in order to enliven the experience as a whole, we move the Monster X intro to another level. I don’t give a flying shit if your “vision” for the level was to have a grand reveal of Monster X – deal with it.

You must adapt, and hopefully you will find a way to maintain the experience. Maybe Monster Z would work just as well? Who knows — certainly not the player. The game is not going to ship with an extra piece of paper: “We’re sorry that the Ice level is a little bland. It was supposed to have this monster intro, but it got moved. Sorry!” Not happening. The adaptable designer wouldn’t even waste the braincells it takes to feel sorry their level was altered, because they are already busy solving the problem. They can handle the change.

See, being adaptable is more than thinking quickly on your feet, it is about having thick skin. I’ve mentioned this before, but a designer must always avoid ugly baby syndrome. You must not only show no fear in the face of change, but also no fear in sharing your ideas, or you are never going to survive.

Working with a really talented designer is incredibly intimidating, but let me share a secret. While it seems as if every idea she lays on the table is a golden egg, don’t get the wrong impression. I know the feeling, that somehow your ideas must also be this way — always good and solid. What you fail to realize, however, is that you are not hearing the hundreds of ideas she has internally rejected. Through years of experience, she knows which are shit ideas without needing to vocalize them. Everyone has flawed ideas, but the difference is that they have the final and essential missing piece.

Wisdom

You must be the kind of person who invokes and appreciates good ideas, you must be the kind of person who clearly expresses those ideas, and you must be the kind of person who handles things changing at the drop of a hat, but all of that is moot if you are not the kind of person who recognizes an idea is either too much work or overcomplicates the core experience. It is rare to find people that not only know when but also where to say no. To be a game designer you must be a dreamer; you couldn’t do the job otherwise. We are explorers on a quest for awesome, but never forget that old saying, “too much of a good thing”. Just because you CAN add something doesn’t mean you SHOULD add something. The wise designer knows when to make this call.

Do not confuse wisdom with intelligence, because they are not the same thing. Intelligence is the common root between all genres, and wisdom is the specifics of your genre. Imagine designing games is like speaking a foreign language. If I spend 5 years working on action adventure games and you spend 5 years working on first person shooters, it is as if I have been studying French and you Italian. Despite our years of experience, if I tried to go make a first person shooter or you tried to go make an action adventure we’d face problems. Even though there are similarities between the two genre’s, much like French and Italian share a common linguistic root, when you get down to the specifics you find that some knowledge, such as the basic construction of combat encounters, is fundamentally different.

Understanding the nuances of your respective genre and knowing when to say no are not the only parts of what makes one a wise designer. It is also the ability to see the big picture; to see beyond your tasks, and understand how it impacts everyone around you. Do you keep loading constraints in mind when you design your levels? If you are making a fixed camera game, do you keep camera placement in mind when you design your levels? You can have a fun, brilliant, never before seen idea, and you can do an amazing job pitching it, but if three months into its construction everyone realizes it is going to take far too much time to implement you have done a disservice to the game. You cannot design in a vacuum. The wise designer knows to seek feedback from his team, and is always seeking to find not only if an idea is fun, but also if it’s feasible in the time allowed.

Is That All?

I have been struggling with a conclusion to this piece for almost two weeks. I wondered, what could I add? Is there anything missing? If I met myself 6 years ago, what else would I want to say, and would this tell me what I need to know? What would my younger self, having read this, ask me now? Knowing me, if this popped into my hands six years ago I would snarkingly comment, “This is all well and good, but you’ve gone and stated attributes to HAVE, but not how to get them.” True. Good point younger me.

Through no preplanning of my own I was always on the path of building creative stores to pull from. The quickest path, besides being a creative savant, is to inundate yourself with quality cool ideas to steal: books, movies, games… anything really. Every experience you have is a chance to store something for recall. If I had one bit of advice to my younger self it would be to open my mind to what you can learn from other industries. Great insight into game design can be seen in furniture design, iconographic design, concept art, and lots of other fields. A designer should be a sponge. You must absorb everything, you must absorb… life. Every experience contains some element that will be useful.

For Clarity the answer is simple. I wish all those years ago someone had forced me to read books like Elements of Style. Maybe I would not have been ready for the powerful message, but at least I would have tried. It’s hard to grasp the importance of words and conveying messages clearly until you are in a situation where you must actively communicate.

Adaptability is a tough one. As I stated, this is not only the ability to think on your feet, but also the ability to handle having ideas torn apart in a group setting. I struggled, still struggle, with ugly baby syndrome. If I could meet my younger self I would tell him that not every idea can be perfect, so stop being afraid to share them. You need to get used to ideas being shared and critiqued. My eventual solution was something I called my “game a week” plan. I designed one game every week. It did not matter how far along it was, or how good it was, new week meant a new game to design. It forced me to become less attached to the act of coming up with ideas, and to become more interested in sharing my ideas. Eventually, I had game ideas coming out of the bazoo! Who cared if someone didn’t like some of them, or all of them. Next week was a new game, and constantly designing games is has great secondary benefits.

The path to wisdom is simple: make games. Design and play the kind of games you want to make, so if you want to make FPS games, then design FPS mods in your spare time. If you want to make action adventure games work on those kinds of games. Wisdom does not come from reading a book. At best, if you cannot make them, the next best thing is to find horrible, shitty, travesties of games. You can not believe how many crappy games I have played in the holy quest for what “not to do”. Because while it can be easy to “feel” that you are not having fun, it can sometimes be hard to understand the “why”. Knowing what, exactly, is causing you to not have fun is an invaluable skill, and it will help you to quickly become the wise designer you want to be.

The four pillars of game design are key components in being the best designer you can be, but they don’t make you the best game developer you can be. Taking pride in your work, working well with others, understanding a programming language, or being able to draw anything other than stick figures are important, if not directly related, attributes of being a critical member in a functioning team. You must have a thirst for the process. If you do not try and understand code, then how can you expect to make reasonable requests for features? If you do not try and understand art, then how can you expect to make reasonable requests for levels? If you do not try an understand concept design, then how can you expect to make reasonable requests for monsters? Be all of these things, be hungry for knowledge, be respectful of your coworkers disciplines, and most of all…

Try not to be a douche. (Source: Flark Design)