作者：Danc

在某个凉爽的周末，一群经验丰富的游戏设计师聚集在一起交流着行业中的故事。随着社交游戏和手机游戏逐渐改变这个行业，盈利和设计支配开始出现大量冲突，这些设计师发生他们不再被重视甚至遭到侮辱。结果，他们所制作的产品受到了损害。现在正是那些陈旧想法受到质疑的时刻。也很少有机会看到能让我们在新平台、新题材和新游戏体验上游刃有余的普遍做法。

因而在这个时候，我们向自己提出某些很困难的问题。何时设计获得成功？设计师如何伤及自身的可靠性和有效性？这个群体已经制造出供上亿玩家享受的数百款游戏。在过去20年的时间里，我们看到了游戏业界的起与落，这一领域确实也存在各种样式和循环。所以，我们列举出许多个很棒的游戏设计环境和更多设计受到压制的情景。

为了给游戏设计师和从业人员的发展提供指导，我们写下了这个《游戏设计师独立宣言》。这份文件主要针对那些自己运营着公司的设计师或掌握整个创造性过程的创意总监。希望能对那些落魄并希望获得领导地位的设计师有所帮助。

以下便是优秀并有远见的设计师应该做出的行为。这些条款来源于数十年来现实世界的游戏设计积聚起来的大量经验。如果能够遵循这些做法，那么就可以缔造并维持游戏设计繁荣而且创新型游戏不断出现的情景。

The Declaration of Independence(from lostgarden)

游戏设计师独立宣言

1、没有游戏设计就没有一切

如果你去掉视觉效果、音乐、盈利或技术，我们仍然可以制作出优秀的游戏。

2、设计师必须驱动游戏梦想

我们是主要的驱动力量，而不是毫无用处的人。

3、我们将毕生的精力奉献给设计

浅尝辄止者无法在该行业内生存。

4、我们力求成为文艺复兴设计师

我们流利地说着游戏开发和运营的语言：

我们的语言便是创造性。所有的艺术的音乐最终都服务于游戏可玩性。

我们的语言是生产力。游戏设计决定了生产引导的范围和需求。

我们的语言是工程。技术是可供资深设计师选择的工具。

我们的语言是业务。现代盈利、留存率和销售直接由游戏系统驱动。

5、我们不会沉默

我们孜孜不倦地改善内在和外在的想法。

6、我们无畏地迎接新市场和趋势

随后我们将它们改造得更好。

7、我们需要失败的自由

设计通过实验才能够深化。

8、我们有选择

我们可以选择创造自己的想法，或是将自己的聪明才智当做廉价商品出售。

我的个人想法

以上所说的并非每件都很简单。要履行这个宣言，你很可能需要成为比现在更好的游戏设计师。而且，必须时刻记住，你不是个奴隶。你不是个仆人。你不是个无关紧要的雇员。你是股创造性力量。而且最为重要的是，你有选择如何花费自己时间的机会。你可以选择掌控自己的生活，并在此过程中让世界变得更好。

就我个人而言，我离开了能获得稳定收入的大公司，为的是能够掌控自己的创造性命运。现在，我已经有多个游戏设计趋近完成，我正在同有着自己想法的人合作，未来一片光明。这是我生命中最具创造力和最令我感到兴奋的时光。而这种情况发生的唯一原因是，我意识到个一个基本真理：只有居于领导地位而不是服务地位才能够将设计发挥到最好。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Declaration of Game Designer Independence

Danc

On a cool, clear Austin weekend, a group of experienced game designers gathered for their yearly retreat. At night they swapped stories of an industry in turmoil. As social games and mobile games rewrite the landscape, power struggles between business and design dominate and designers find themselves being sidelined or abused. And the products they work on suffer horribly as a result. It is a time when musty old assumptions are questioned. It is also a rare opportunity to identify universal best practices that can help us navigate new platforms, new genres and new gaming experiences.

So during the day, we asked ourselves some hard questions. When was design successful? How do designers hurt their own credibility and effectiveness? This is a group that has shipped hundreds of games serving well over 100 million players. Over the past two decades, we’ve personally seen game titans rise and fall. Surely there are patterns and cycles. So we listed dozens of examples of great design environments and dozens more of times where design remained shackled. And over and over again, the same themes came up.

To guide game designers and the profession forward we wrote down a Declaration of Game Designer Independence. This document is primarily for the designers who run their own companies or the creative directors who own the creative process. It is also for the designers in the trenches, who aspire to a leadership role.

The following is a code for how great, visionary designers should behave. It rises up from an immense well of hard fought experience accumulated over decades of real world design. When followed, these practices sustain an environment where design thrives and revolutionary games are regularly brought forth into the world.

The Declaration of Game Designer Independence

1. Without game design, there is nothing

You can get rid of visuals, music, business or technology and we will still make great games.

2. Designers must drive the vision of the game

We are prime movers, not replaceable cogs.

3. We dedicate ourselves to the lifelong mastery of design

Dilettantes need not apply.

4. We strive to be renaissance designers

We fluently speak the languages of game development and business:

We speak the language of creative. All art and music ultimately serves the game play.

We speak the language of production. Game design determines the scope and need for the content that production shepherds.

We speak the language of engineering. Technology is one tool that enable the experiences designers choose.

We speak the language of business. Modern monetization, retention and distribution are directly driven by game systems.

5. We will not be silenced

We tirelessly promote our vision both internally and to the public.

6. We fearlessly embrace new markets and trends

We then reinvent them to be better.

7. We demand the freedom to fail

Design advances through experimentation.

8. We have a choice:

Create with our own voices or sell our talents into servitude.

My personal thoughts

Not everything here is easy. To live up to this declaration, you likely need to be a better designer than you are right now. Still, always remember: You are not a slave. You are not a servant. You are not a cog-like employee. You are a creative force. And most importantly you have a choice for how you wish to spend your time on this earth. You can choose to take control of your life and change the world for the better in the process.

I personally left a large company with a steady paycheck in order to take control of my creative destiny. Now I’ve got multiple game designs speeding towards completion, I’m working with people with souls and the future looks amazing. This is easily the most productive and exciting time of my life. And the only reason it happened was because I realized a fundamental truth: Design works best when it leads, not when it serves. (Source: Lost Garden)