作者：Alistair Doulin

我曾参加了Freeplay Independent Game Festival（游戏邦注：于澳大利亚墨尔本举办的游戏盛会）。这真的是一个很棒的盛会，在这里我们能够参与一些鼓舞人心的交谈，并且还有机会与一些独立开发者交朋友。我注意到一个普遍的问题，我所交谈过的很多独立游戏开发者表示他们在开发第一款游戏时，都缺乏足够的时间。我将在本文中谈谈这个困扰独立游戏开发者的问题，并提出一些解决方法。

freeplay-independent-games-festival(from au.timeout.com)

你想通过开发游戏得到什么？

很多独立开发者并未明确定义他们开发游戏的目标，便耗费数个月（甚至是数年）的时间孤军奋战于游戏开发中。这就导致，当我问他们这个问题时，回答包括：

·借此表达我的创造力或者艺术能力（例如：我只有不停地制作游戏，才能阻止脑子里不断涌现出来的各种想法）

·从中赚到足够的钱，这样我就不用给大公司打工并完全投入独立游戏开发（甚至经常听到他们长篇大论地抱怨着他们现在的老板）

·独自建立一家大型游戏公司

·交到女朋友

如果你还没有一个明确的目标，那么请先停下手头上的工作，列出5个你想从现在开发的游戏中获得的目标。这个目标必须考虑到开发团队里的每名成员，以及整个开发团队本身。确保每一个团队成员都能接受这些目标，且保证目标的现实性。更重要的是，你应该审视下你所开发的游戏是否是帮助你实现这些目标的最好方法。

把这些目标列在一张白纸上，并将其贴于墙上。每当你（或者你的开发团队）遇到困难或者迷失方向时，就看看这些目标，想办法从中寻找解决方法。你必须清楚，你所做的每一步努力都将推动着你朝这些目标靠近（除非你无心获得成功）。如果你是个利用业余时间独立开发游戏的人，那么这点对你来说非常重要。时间越少，你就更应该学会如何从有限的资源中获取更多效益。

我们都在同一个队伍里：分享，学习并合作

与主流游戏开发不同，作为独立游戏开发者，我们并非处于相互竞争的局面。我们制作的是小型，低价的游戏，与那些大型游戏相比缺乏足够的竞争力。比起一款单价便高出很多的AAA级游戏，玩家在iPhone上经常会花很少的价钱买很多独立游戏。同做为独立游戏开发者，我们不应该区分你我，我们必须站在同一个战线上。如今有越来越多玩家喜欢独立开发者开发的游戏，也越来越热衷于购买这些游戏。

每一个人都有优势和劣势。小型开发团队也不例外。不像大型游戏开发者那样，我们并没有能力雇佣那些顶级的专业人士。然而在整个独立游戏开发圈里，也不乏一些拥有特殊技巧的人才。通过维持独立开发者之间的这种开放式关系，我们能够因此获得更多有力的资源，并帮助我们解决一些特殊难题。

完成游戏

走出任何困境，完成游戏。我接触过的很多游戏开发者都处在第一款游戏开发的中间阶段。一些开发者已经花费了数月，甚至数年的时间于游戏开发中，但却仍未将游戏推出市面。以下是造成这种境况的几点原因：

·停止还未完成的游戏而重新投入另一款更小的游戏中（经常是受野心驱使）

·厌烦了原先的构思而中途放弃

·整款游戏功能过于累赘，导致游戏不能顺利完成

·总是企图以现有团队规模和技术谋求更大利益

胃口不要太大，努力把小事情做大。Adam Atomic在Freeplay会上给了广大独立开发者一大提示，并与我们分享了他如何仅花了5天的时间便创造出《Canabalt》（游戏邦注：这是一款有趣的小游戏，游戏目的是尽可能躲开障碍物并在大楼间跳跃）。也许他是一个例外，但是他的案例却告诉我们，在很短的时间内也能创造出一款成功的小游戏。

对于你的首款游戏，我建议你给自己1个月的时间期限，并在这个月内尽自己最大的努力放开去做。以三周内完成游戏，并花一周时间去完善游戏为目标。最重要的是最后你一定要将游戏推出市面。就像在《Magic: The Gathering》游戏中创建棋牌一样，制作游戏的所有乐趣只有在你将游戏推出时，才能真正感受到。

这是一种很棒的学习方法。你可以尽可能地和其他开发者进行交流，参加各种会议或者阅读许多相关书籍。但是没有什么比发行游戏的体验更棒了。你可以从中更好地了解你自己，你的团队以及玩家。在一款游戏完成后，你一定要多花点时间和精力，努力把它推向市场上。因为这种体验也将为你的下一款游戏带来很大的帮助。

制作好游戏

我所接触过的第二大独立开发商群体们便是那些发行了小游戏，但是却未取得巨大成功的人们。他们的游戏多数都是直接复制现有的游戏。如果你想要制作出一款成功的游戏，那么你便需要思考如何做才能让你的游戏与众不同。设身处地从玩家的角度来思考这个问题。为何他们要买你的游戏？你的游戏为他们的游戏生活带来了什么？如果你都不知道这些问题的答案，那么我想你可以先停止手下的工作，重新评估你的主要开发目标了。

你是否正致力于自己的第一款独立游戏？你已经投入了多少时间？你是如何保持游戏开发的积极性？你为自己设定的5大目标是什么？

原文发表于2010年8月16日，所涉事件及数据以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Indie Condition

I went to Freeplay Independent Game Festival in Melbourne, Australia on the weekend.  It was a good conference with inspirational talks and a great opportunity to catch up on many of my friends in the indie scene.I noticed a trend among many indie developers I spoke to and wanted to raise some thoughts in this post.Many indie developers were developing their first game with a common complaint being that they didn’t have enough time to work on it.  Today’s post is talking about this common condition and some thoughts on alleviating it.

What do you want to get out of your game?

Many indie’s are soldiering along in a multi-month (or multi-year) project without having clearly defined goals for their project.  When asking developers the common responses included:

Express creativity or artistic ability (e.g. I just have to be making games all the time, to stop the voices in my head)

To make enough money so I can quit my day job and go indie full time (often accompanied by a long tirade of complaining about current boss)

Bootstrapping a larger game company

To get girls!

If you haven’t already, stop and list the top 5 goals you want to get out of your current game.  Do this for each individual team member, as well as the team as a whole.  Make sure each team member is compatible and make sure the goals are realistic.  More importantly, look at whether the game you are making is the best way of achieving your set of goals.

Write this list on a piece of paper and put it on the wall.  Every time you (or your team) have a question or are unsure of a direction to take, use this list to help with the difficult decision.  It’s crucial that everything you do is driving you towards these goals otherwise you will not reach them.  This is particularly important if you are making your independent game in your spare time (as most people I spoke to are).  The less time you have, the more productive your limited resources must be.

We’re all on the same team: share, learn and collaborate

Unlike mainstream game development, we are not competing with each other.  When making small, low priced games, there’s less competition than between the big developers.  Gamers can easily buy many awesome indie games released on the iPhone for less than the cost of a single full priced AAA title.  It’s not you OR another indie, it’s you AND another indie.  As people start to enjoy games from indie developers they are more likely to buy more indie games.

Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses.  This also goes for small teams.  Unlike large developers we can’t just hire in the top talent to do a specific area of development.  However within the indie community there will usually be someone with the specific skill you are after.  By maintaining an open relationship between indie developers we can tap into a larger pool of resources to help with specific problems.

Finish SOMETHING

Get out there and finish something.  Many indie developers I spoke to were in the middle of working on their first indie game.  Some developers had been doing this for months or even years and still hadn’t released their first game.  Common reasons for this included:

Stopping work on a project to start on a smaller game (which is often still too ambitious)

Getting bored with an idea and moving on

The entire game was one big feature creep where it would never be finished

Far too ambitious for the team size and skill

Pick something extremely small and make it.  Adam Atomic gave one of the keynotes at Freeplay and commented on how Canabalt took him five days to create.  While he may be an exception, it goes to show that small, successful games can be created in a short period of time.

For your first game, I recommend giving yourself one month and creating whatever you can in that time.  Aim to complete the game in three weeks with one week of polish.  It’s important that you release something.  Like building a deck in Magic: The Gathering, it’s a lot of fun making a game, however until you’ve released it, you haven’t fully experienced game development.

It’s the best way to learn.  You can talk to as many developers as you want, go to as many conferences or read as many books as you can find.  Nothing compares to the experience of releasing a game.  You’ll learn a lot about yourself, your team and your players.  This ranges from time taken for polish to headaches with distributing your game after it’s complete.  It will also make your next game better…

Finish something GOOD

The next largest group of indie developers I spoke to were those that had released a small game that had reached little success.  Many of these games were (almost) direct copies of existing games.  If you want to have a successful game, you need to make something that stands out.  Put yourself in the shoes of your player.  Why would they buy your game?  What value do you add to their gaming life?  If this isn’t an easy question to answer then you need to stop and re-assess your main goals.

Conclusion

Are you working on your first indie game?  How long have you been working on it, how do you keep motivation and what are your top five goals from the project? （source:doolwind）