作者：Mike Jungbluth

在游戏开发过程中，每个开发者都会有自己的想法。你对游戏中的新功能、角色和你所负责的内容有个很棒的想法，很可能让游戏在Metacritic（游戏邦注：电影、电视节目和游戏评论网站）获得90的高分。但是当你将这个想法告知团队之其他人时，他们对此并没有产生兴趣。

为什么呢？

这是个非常重要的问题，不仅要察觉并提出这个问题，还需要进行解答。能够表述想法意味着你将大量精力投入到游戏项目中。从情感上来说，你将自己的努力视为游戏成功的一部分。上述被人忽视的情况可能让你的激情受挫，让你对开发感到冷淡甚至厌烦。这或许是你和团队所面临的最为严重的问题。

在下次你提出某些重要想法之前，应该先找到产生这种问题的“原因”。但是，对以往那些被人忽视的想法又该怎么办呢？以下是我对这个问题的某些看法：

listening(from mindspower)

你没有向正确的人表述想法

多数人提出自己的想法时，通常有三个步骤。首先通常是与坐在旁边的人探讨。如果你仅仅停留在这个步骤上，而且与你邻座的不是创意总监或主设计师，那么想法就有可能不会受到重视并销声匿迹。仅仅这么做是远远不够的，尽管这是个不错的开始。如果你看到同事对此并不是很感兴趣，那么你就会知道你的想法还存在某些不足之处。但是如果他们同意这是个不错的想法，甚至为这个想法再增添某些有价值的东西，那么你可能真的就可以得到某些很棒的内容。

多数人采用的第二个步骤是将想法以邮件的形式发送给整个团队的成员。这会让很多人看到你的想法，有可能引发众人的极大热情，但是对那些真正能够赞成你的想法的人而言，你的邮件就像沧海一粟。游戏项目领导和主管每天都会收到上百封邮件。他们会匆匆看一眼你的邮件，如果他们正忙着去参加某次会议的话，很可能就会将其遗忘。

尽管采用这种做法可能使想法得到很多人的支持，但是如果想法中有漏洞和错误，你会因为这个举措引起整个团队的公愤。但是，如果团队支持你的想法，而且领导或主管也同样认为想法很棒，那么你可以采取下个步骤。

拜访那个真正能够决定执行想法的人。亲自表述可以显示出你在这个项目中的投入程度，而且可以让负责人有机会直接对你的想法做出回应。就我个人而言，所提出的想法能够进入这个阶段的很少，但是这些想法能够被执行的原因我都很清楚。必须确保的是，在你面见主管表述自己的想法之前，必须先将整个想法考虑清楚。因为如果每次你都要领导屈尊去听你那些毫无计划的想法时，他们很快就不会再这么认真考虑你提出的想法了。

你的想法与设计不符

如果你提出的想法可能影响到游戏，那么你或许应该花时间考虑下你的想法会对游戏可玩性造成何种影响。这意味着你必须知道想法落在哪个设计核心上，它使用之前和之后的游戏状况，这样你就能知道它与设计的相符情况如何。

任何人都能够产生想法，所以从本质上来说想法是非常廉价的。花时间充实并执行想法，这样你才可以让它们体现出真正的价值。它迫使你以项目为整体来考虑这个想法，而这个过程也能够使你得到许多问题的答案。相比团队成员大体了解整个想法，能够在设计师尝试寻找想法漏洞时答疑或许更有价值。

你的想法能否被玩家领会？是否与游戏中的其他功能或目标相冲突？是否过于复杂？是否过于简单？是否显得含糊不清？如果玩家失败了会发生什么事情？目前所采用的引擎能否实现这个想法？是否需要教程？动作与游戏故事的角色或地点是否有冲突？你应该能够回答所有这些问题，如果你确实想将想法融入游戏中，或许还需要考虑更多的问题。

discussion(from lilibernard.com)

提出想法的时机不恰当

你的想法确实很棒，而且每个与你谈论过的人都觉得它很吸引人，但是却没有得到执行。有可能的原因是，你在开发过程中过迟或过早地提出想法。

游戏的R&D阶段是提出想法最多的阶段，领导和主管会积极向整个团队询问应该包含在游戏中的想法。从本质上来说，由于提出的想法过多，你的想法很可能很快地就丢失了。尤其当你提出的想法针对的是游戏中的小细节，因为在这个阶段团队关注的是确定游戏的大框架。这时你应该先保留这个想法，在游戏核心功能确定并执行之后再次提出。

另一个常见问题是，在游戏项目开展之后，你提出的想法需要对某些已经完成的东西进行根本性的改变。这些通常不是让游戏变得更好的想法，而是完全不同类型的想法。还有种情况，这些想法确实比游戏中所执行的想法要好，但是采纳你的想法后会影响到游戏中许多部分的内容。较好的想法是改变玩家的移动、战斗设计或为某个特别关卡添加新功能，比如潜行等等。

制作游戏是个学习的过程，而尽量避免返工总是做事情的较好方法。在项目开发启动之时也不要完全放弃自己的想法，但是在你与他人就最新想法展开激烈讨论时，最好先想想当前的开发工作进入了哪一阶段。不是所有的工作室都会只为尝试新颖想法而推迟发布时间。你可以保留自己的想法，将其运用到下款游戏中。

问题不是出在你身上

你的想法得到了周围所有人的支持，与核心设计也能够相符。提出的时机也很恰当，能够按照正常的工作流程添加到游戏中。但是想法仍然没有得到执行。这是为什么呢？

采取上述步骤并经过细心考量后，证实你的想法不仅很棒，而且也很正确。如果这样的想法仍然未被采纳，那么可能有以下两种原因。最好的情况是，决策者与团队其他成员间的交流不善。更为糟糕的情况是，决策者对团队成员提出的东西根本不感兴趣。无论是何种情况，你在这种创造性过程中都起不到丝毫作用，因为你的工作环境本身存在一定的问题。

上述情况的迹象可能是许多团队高级成员很孤僻或者对员工提出的想法不屑一顾。如果有以上迹象的只是单个人，那么这意味着他们可能没有以正确的态度来对待新想法。但是如果整个团队都出现这种状况，那么也就没必要为这种团队奉献自己的全部精力。

我并不认为你遵从上述所有做法就能够让想法得到采纳。但是，上述观点应该能够解释为何你的想法没有被添加到游戏中。有些想法自然会成为泡影，无论这些想法是多么的完美，但是如果想法被拒绝没有任何理由，也不是为了顾全整个开发大局，那么你就该好好考虑是否值得待在这里工作了。

对于某些人来说，在长期经历无法做决定的职业生涯之后，上级的设计决策独裁正是他们想要的东西。但是如果你的脑中充满了想法，而且有能够顾及整个开发过程来考虑这些想法，那么这种受约束的环境可能并不适合你。

如果你是决策者的话，确保能够重视别人提出的恰当想法。那些想法来自于像你一样的人，他们也像你一样在游戏中投入经历。所以，你当然不希望像其他工作室失去你那样失去他们。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Opinion: Why No One Listens To Your Ideas

Mike Jungbluth

For as long as games have been developed, there is a story every developer knows intimately. You had this amazing idea for a new feature, character, or moment in the game you were working on that would have absolutely made it crest the 90 Metacritic mark. But when you pitched the idea to someone on the team, each word dripping with unbridled excitement, it fell on deaf ears.

Why?

It is a pretty important question to not only ask but to have answered. Because pitching an idea means you are investing a lot of yourself into the game. You are emotionally attaching yourself to a portion of its success, and that is a sacred trust you are bestowing upon its development. To have that ignored crushes your enthusiasm and leaves you apathetic, bitter, and jaded about the process. And that is about the worst thing that can happen to both you and the team.

Figuring out the “why” going forward is the first thing you should do the next time you have that killer idea that doesn’t seem to get any traction. But what about those ideas of yore for which you can’t track down the specific “why”? Well, I’ve got a few ideas:

You Pitched It To The Wrong Person

There are three avenues most people go down when pitching an idea for the game. First step is usually saying something to the person sitting next to you. If you went no further than this, and you aren’t sitting next to the creative director or design lead, then look no further as to the “why”. This is NEVER enough, though it can be a good first step. If you see the eyes of the person with whom you work most closely gloss over, then you know your idea has some holes. But if they agree it sounds great, or even added something valuable to the mix, you might have something.

Next step most people take is sending out an email to the team with their idea. This gets a lot of eyes on it, and can get a lot of enthusiasm from different people, but for anyone that can actually approve your idea, your email is like spitting into an ocean. The leads and directors of games get HUNDREDS of emails a day. They will glance at your email, and most likely forget about it as they rush to another meeting.

And while you can get a wave of people behind your idea, if there is something wrong with the idea, you will also get a wave of apathy or anger about clogging up the email stream for the entire team. BUT, if the team is behind your email and a Lead or Director chimed in that it seemed cool, you’ve got to advance to level 1-3.

Knock on the door of a person that can actually make the decision to implement your idea. Pitching it in person shows how invested you are and gives them an honest chance to react to your idea. Very rarely have I taken an idea to this stage and not been given the “why” as to whether it would be doable or not. Just make sure before you go in you’ve thought through the idea, because if every time you get a random thought you feel the need to bend the ear of the director, very quickly they won’t take your ideas as seriously.

Your Idea Didn’t Match The Design

If you are going to pitch an idea that affects the game, you should probably take the time to really think about how your idea impacts the gameplay. That means know which of the core pillars of the design your idea falls under and what takes place in the game before, after, and around your idea, so that you can speak how it fits in overall.

An idea is something anyone can have, so inherently they are rather cheap. Taking the time to flesh that idea out and how to implement it is where you will find their real worth. It forces you to think it out as a whole, and gives you answers to many of the questions you will be asked. Just being able to answer a designer when they start trying to find the holes in your idea is going to give it a lot more weight than 95 percent of what gets tossed around from the rest of the team.

Can your idea be exploited by the player? Does it clash with another feature or goal in the game? Is it too complicated? Is it too simple? Is it too ambiguous? What happens if the player fails? Is it something the engine supports already or does it need significant engineering? Does it need a tutorial? Is the action out of character or out-of-place with the narrative? You should be able to answer all these questions and more if you are serious about getting your idea into the game.

You Pitched It At The Wrong Time

So your idea was actually a good one and everyone you talked to thought it would be awesome, but it didn’t happen. Chances are you pitched it too late or too early in the development process.

A game’s R&D phase is when the most ideas are being tossed about and when leads and directors actively ask the team for ideas on what should be in the game. This essentially turns into email threads and wikis full of ideas popping up, which means your idea can quickly be lost. Especially if the idea you had was for a small detail or moment in the game when the broad strokes are stilling being figured out. It’s a good idea to throw it out there so it gets logged in an email or wiki for future reference, but it’s up to you to hold onto that idea and pitch again when the core features of the game needed to make it work are functioning.

The other common problem is after a game starts full production, and you get an idea that would be a fundamental change to something that is already implemented. These are often the “not better, but different” types of ideas. Or they can be a better idea than what is being executed in game, but to really move forward on your idea would be like pulling a thread on a sweater because they define so many other parts of the game. Big ones are changes in player movement, combat design, or adding a new feature for a level that doesn’t exist anywhere else, ie stealth.

Making games is a learning process, and better ways to do something always present themselves throughout production. You shouldn’t turn off the part of your brain that has ideas once full production starts, but before you get into a passionate discussion about your latest brainchild, think about where the development cycle is at. Not many studios have the luxury of scrapping something and pushing back a deadline just to try out a new or different idea. You can always save it for your next game.

Your Aren’t The Problem

Your idea was embraced by everyone around you. You thought through the design ramifications and it all made sense. It was during that sweet spot in production when it could have been added to the game as part of the normal workflow. But it still got tossed aside. Why?

Well, since you went through most of the steps proving out your idea wasn’t just a good one, but a correct one, that doesn’t leave many options. At best, there was a serious lack of honest communication between the decision makers and the rest of the team. Or at worst, the decision makers aren’t really interested in what the team has to offer. In either case, you are being severely hamstrung in the creative process and there is something toxic in your work environment.

Another sign that this could be the case is if a lot of senior people on the team are withdrawn or scoff at the idea of pitching an idea. If it is just one person, it means that they probably didn’t follow through with their idea in the proper manner. But if it is an entire team, there is a good chance that investing your soul in the game is about as smart as handing over a newborn to a pack of wolves.

I’m not naive enough to think that if you follow everything laid out that your idea will make it into the game. But they should give you the answer as to why it didn’t make it into the game. Some ideas will naturally fall through the cracks, no matter how perfect they were, but if the common theme is that they are rejected with no answers to your why, other than the need of complete creative control by the captains of the ship, then it may be time for you to evaluate if that is the type of place you want to work

For some people, that type of design dictatorship is what they want after a long line of wishy-washy creatives that are unable to make any sort of decision. But if you are brimming with ideas and have the ability to think them through the entire development process, that type of controlled environment probably isn’t for you.

Unless of course you are in line towards being that iron clad ruler of decisions, in which case, best of luck when you get there. Just make sure to wrap that iron glove in velvet when a proper idea comes across your desk. Those are coming from people just like you, who care about the game as much as you do. And you wouldn’t want to lose them the same way other studios lost you. (Source: Gamasutra)