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游戏开发之前应先调查研究同题材作品

发布时间:2011-10-11 12:28:13 Tags:,,

作者:Brice Morrison

游戏设计有时会让人觉得很不清楚。无论出于何种原因,几乎每个人都很喜欢讨论这个方面并发表观点。有些讨论确实很有用处,但是有些讨论只是在重走老路,其讨论的问题已经在其他类型的游戏中得到解决。

最糟糕的情况是,当你专注于某个游戏想法或概念时,考虑诸多选项,将其视为艰难的设计问题,花数天数夜的时间绞尽脑汁,最后发现另一款游戏已经提供了恰当的解决方案,只是你自己不知道而已。

那么,设计师如何才可以避开上述问题呢?如何才能够在设法解决问题之前对设计有更深刻的理解呢?

答案就是调查研究,也就是游戏设计研究。和其他的方法一样,在开始工作之前不先彻底研究已经采取的做法是很不理智的举动。了解整个领域的情况能够帮助你指定自己的战略。

research(from thegameprodigy)

research(from thegameprodigy)

应当注意的事项

职业游戏设计师会在设计系统之前先研究应当注意的事项。要理解自己能够前进的方向,你需要知道已经取得了何种成效。

什么是应当注意的事项呢?你应当研究游戏设计、类似的题材和功能。看看哪些方面已经实现,哪些方面依然缺乏,提升的空间在哪里。而要获悉这些信息,你就必须体验和研究与所设计游戏同题材的大量作品。

对许多人来说,将玩游戏的行为称为“研究”似乎显得有点愚蠢。但是请记住,我们玩游戏不只是为了娱乐而已,但是在工作中寻找乐趣也并不算什么过错!我们玩游戏的目标在于学习理解它们如何发挥作用和创造娱乐体验。许多游戏工作室都有着自己的游戏库和模拟器,这样设计师和开发者就可以进行游戏研究。

想想看,难道电影导演只观看他们自己拍摄的电影吗?难道畅销书作者只阅读他们自己编写的书籍吗?难道工程师和程序员只盯着他们自己编写的代码吗?这些问题的答案毫无疑问都是否定的!

模仿他人是最佳的初步学习方法。所有的艺术、科学和创新都出自那些能够站在行业巨人肩膀上的人。理解其他人的做法之后,那么你就可以自由使用你所掌握的东西,或者在未曾为他人触及的方面进行创新。但是如果你不了解行业现状,那么根本无法继续前行。

如果你想要向玩家传播某种体验,那么你可以寻找那些传播类似体验的游戏,看看它们怎么做。

范例研究:战斗题材游戏

进行游戏设计研究的首个步骤是,通过定义平台和核心体验来理解想要进行的是哪种类别的设计。你制作的是否是以钟爱怀旧游戏的玩家为目标的独立游戏?是以Xbox 360为平台的战斗游戏?还是手机平台的快速动作争取高分的游戏?无论你构思的是何种游戏,总会发现已经有其他设计师之前在这方面做过尝试,你可以从他们的作品中寻找灵感。

在以上所举的这些范例中,如果要了解更多题材中已经采用的做法,有大量的游戏可供研究。研究已经采用的做法、已经解决的问题和能够萌生新想法的空间,可让设计师更好地设计自己的项目。

假设我们想要制作的是战斗游戏。我们希望游戏创新、新颖而且有趣,但是首先我们需要理解已经采用的做法。

作为研究的开始,我们可能会玩玩《街头霸王》系列游戏,因为它是该题材游戏的王者。《街头霸王4》、《阿尔法侵袭》以及重新制作的Xbox 360平台游戏《超级街头霸王》都是不错的选择。我们可以学习这些游戏是如何架构其中的战斗,如何设置玩家的生命值数量以及如何架构连击。我们可以理解其中的轻重击、对抗和抛掷等设计。所有的这些功能都可以融入到我们自己的设计中。

随后,我们要研究的是《街头霸王》的竞争者,比如《剑魂》,将游戏进行对比。游戏间的相同和不同之处是什么?区别是否在于,一款游戏使用高、中和低,而另一款游戏只使用高和低?这些游戏是如何架构连击的?角色解锁、关卡构建、生命值和特殊移动条,游戏中这些元素的设计有何不同?一款游戏有更多的道具,而另一款游戏完全专注于由玩家做出的动作和移动?

我们还要确保能够研究其他类型的战斗游戏,避免思路陷入僵局。诸如《玩偶功夫》之类的游戏是PC平台上有着有趣想法且风格迥异的战斗游戏,使用鼠标控制而不是操纵杆。还可以研究下《终极格斗》,玩家在这款游戏中可以通过移动各自的节点来创造出自己的连击和移动。这些非同寻常的战斗游戏中是否含有某些可以激发设计灵感的成分呢?

玩过许多战斗游戏之后,你对该题材已经采取的做法和适宜你的游戏的设计方法就有了一定的认识。

成功研究的关键点

正如我们在这些范例中指出的那样,成功的游戏研究含有较为关键的成分。以下列举出一些内容:

1、写下所有同题材或者使用你所设计功能的游戏,看看能否对它们进行分组(游戏邦注:比如标准类、特殊类和奇怪类)。从每个分组中挑选出至少一款游戏。

2、写下游戏的功能、游戏玩法和机制以及它们如何发挥作用。

3、比较。这些游戏间有什么相同点和不同点?是否存在某些标准和传统?

4、围绕这些游戏进行思考:此类游戏的预算限制是什么?这是否会对设计造成影响?

5、你想要将这些游戏中的哪些方面运用到你的游戏中?需要放弃或者更改哪些设计?

6、个人建议:将所有的结论放置在同一个地方,比如相同的电子文档或者同一个笔记本上。这会帮助你将题材内的游戏联系起来,使不同游戏和功能的对比更加容易。

看看其他设计师已经采取的做法能够对你的设计有所启发。在着手研究之前不要急于编写代码,相信你会为在调查中发现的东西而感到惊奇的。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

How Smart Designers Prep With Game Research

Brice Morrison

Game design can often be very fuzzy. For one reason or another, it’s a discipline that almost everyone likes to talk about, has an opinion on, and has something to say. Some of this discussion is useful, but much of it is often reinventing the wheel — talking about issues that have already been solved in other games.

The worst is when you’ve been working on a game, on an idea or concept, fleshing out the options, tackling it like a hard design problem, spending nights pulling you hair out, only to discover later on that another game had already found the solution — you just didn’t know about it.

At the The Game Prodigy, we try to focus on designs that are applicable and can be immediately understood and applied (or it’s apparent that it doesn’t apply to the current situation). So how can designers avoid the above situation? How can you have a good understanding of a design even before you try tackling it?

The answer is research — game design research. As with any other discipline, it’s unwise to start working without first thoroughly researching what has already been done. Knowing the playing field can help you come up with your own strategy.

The Due Diligence

Professional game designers don’t just dive into designing a system without doing their due diligence. In order to understand where you’re going, you need to know where you’ve already been.

What is the due diligence? Researching the designs, similar titles, and similar features. Looking at what has already been done, where it’s lacking, and where there is room for improvement. And this can only be done by playing and studying a wide variety of games in the genre that you’re designing for.

To a lot of people, calling playing games “research” can seem a little silly. But remember, we’re not just playing them for entertainment (though there’s nothing wrong if you are enjoying your job!). We are playing to learn and understand how they work, how they create the experience that they do. Many game studios have their own game libraries and consoles on site so that designers and developers can do game research.

Do you think that movie directors only watch their own films? Do bestselling authors only read their own books? Do engineers and programmers only look at code that they themselves have written? The answer to all of these is of course: certainly not!

The best way to learn is to begin by imitating others. All art, science, and innovation is made by people who stand on the shoulders of giants. Then, after you understand what everyone else is doing, then you’re free to use parts of what you’ve learned or innovate in what you don’t see happening. But you won’t be going forward without an idea of what the space already looks like.

If you have a certain experience that you’re trying to deliver, then you can find games that are around that experience and see what they do.

Example Research: Fighting Game Genre

The first step in doing game design research is to understand what kinds of designs you’re attempting by defining your platform and your core experience. Are you making an indie title aimed at players who love retro-games? Are you making a fighting game for the Xbox 360? How about a mobile quick-action high score game? For whatever game you can think of, there are other designers out there who have tried it before and can be drawn from for inspiration.

In each of these examples, there are numerous games to look at in order to learn more about what has already been done in the genre. By seeing what has been done, what problems have already been solved, and where there is room for new ideas, designers will be better equipped to create designs for their project.

Let’s say that we’re working on a Fighting Game. We want it to be innovative, new, and interesting, but first we need to understand what’s already been done.

We’ll probably want to start by playing a few games in the Street Fighter series, the king of the genre. Street Fighter IV, Alpha Strike, and perhaps even classic Super Street Fighter remade for the 360 would be great places to start. We can learn about how the games structure their matches, how they set up the amount of life that players have, and how they construct their combos. We can understand their design of hard vs. weak hits, counters, throws, and so forth. All of these features can do in our design palette.

From there we’ll want to look at competitors to Street Fighter, such as Soul Caliber, and compare and contrast. What is different? What’s the same? Does one game only use high, medium, and low, while the other uses only high and low? How do the games structure their combos? How about character unlocks and the level structure, or the health or special move bars, how does that work? Does one game involve more items while another focuses entirely on player-generated moves?

We’ll also want to be sure we take a look at some alternative fighting games to get our minds out of a box. Games like Ragdoll Kung Fu provide interesting ideas for what a different style fighting game could be about on a PC, using the mouse instead of an arcade stick. Another title to look at would be Toribash, a game where players create their own combos and moves by moving individual joints. Do these off-the-wall fighting games have any components that you’d like to use as inspiration for your design?

By the time you’ve played a handful of fighting games, you’re going to have a great idea of what’s already been done, and where your game can fit in.

Key Components of Good Research

As we’ve covered in this example, there are a few key components to doing good game research. Here are just a few:

Write down all the games in your genre or the use your feature, and try to see if you notice groupings (the standards, the alternatives, the strange ones). Pick at least one from each group

Write down features, gameplay mechanics, and how they work

Compare and contrast. What’s different between these games? What is the same? Are there standards or conventions?

Try to think around the games: what were the budget constraints for the title? Did that seem to affect the design at all?

What aspects do you want to use in your title from these games? What designs to you want to disrupt or change instead?

Personal recommendation: Keep all your notes in one place; one doc file or one notebook. It will help you make connections inside the genre and make it easier to compare different games and features.

Taking a good look at the art that other designers have already created lays a perfect groundwork for you to begin your own title. Don’t write a single line of code without doing at least a little bit of research; you’ll be surprised at what you find and how much more prepared you’ll feel. (Source: The Game Prodigy)


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