作者：Brice Morrison

“在我面前出现了一个巨大且奇怪的球体。我不知道那是什么，我甚至不知道我是谁。当我靠近它时，突然响起了一种怪异的声音。我止住了脚步往后退，因为被这个声音惊吓到了，我愣了几秒。然后我鼓足了所有的勇气，带着满满的恐惧跳进了一个未知的世界。”

environment from thegameprodigy.com

这是Michael Crichton（游戏邦注：美国畅销书作家和影视导演、制片人）小说中的场景？不是，但是却与之类似。如此看来，陌生环境似乎是游戏和书籍中普遍存在着的一种场景。

《Activate the Three Artefacts and Then Leave》是一款简单的独立游戏，为玩家营造出一种极其不安的环境。在游戏中，玩家将游荡于由各种立方体和方块组建而成的迷宫般的世界里。当玩家在迷宫内摸索着，寻找人工产品并不时迷失方向的时候，耳边总是回荡着奇怪的声音。这款游戏中的环境和描述都能够创造出一种非真实的体验。

所以，要创造出如IndieGame.com网站中所描述的“在未知领域的神奇探险”，游戏应该具备什么条件？必须从美学、图像、感觉和音效等方面做出努力。让我们对其进行分析，以看看这种实验设计是否能够用于我们的游戏中。

游戏设计：奇特和未知美学

适用的平台：单人玩家

适用的玩家体验：让人不安或害怕的环境

这种不安的体验包含了三个主要方面，而这些都在《Activate》中起着一定作用。

缺乏解释。游戏中没有做任何解释。你不知道你是谁。是人类还是外星人？还是一个漂浮的眼球？或者你只是一台摄影机而游戏只是用你的视角在看待一切画面？你在游戏中得不到这些问题的答案，所以玩家对于他们即将在游戏中体验到什么一无所知。

除此之外，你对你将要探索的巨大空间也毫无头绪。在游戏的一开始你能从遥远的距离看到它。但是它到底是什么？为什么在那里？为何它是由立方体构成的？它是如何构造而成？它是否会吞噬了我？这些问题也都没有答案。

最后，缺乏解释是指游戏没有其他人的存在。在一开始你便独立完成游戏，但是随着游戏的继续你将开始怀疑，是否接下来的一步便会出现其他人的身影，或者是其它东西。

未知的图像。人们总是希望能了解自己在哪里，即能够熟知自己周边的环境。当你在玩一款游戏时，你发现自己握着枪支站在一栋由砖砌成的建筑里，并且能够听到枪击声，那么这时候你便能够猜到，枪手会突然出现在你面前。如果你沐浴着月光站在山顶处，并且发现你的游戏角色披着斗篷，并带有锐利的尖牙，那么你便可以猜到自己是一只吸血鬼，将对普通人发动攻击，咬破他们的咽喉。

“刺激”并不允许这种猜测，它所提供的图像是玩家在现实世界中不曾遇到过的。这种方块图让我想到了电影《Cube》，它同样也带给观众一种神秘且不安的体验。神奇的摄影机效果让远处的方块显得模糊，而让玩家不禁去好奇那到底是什么东西。所有的一切都让玩家疑惑连连，他们想知道自己到底在哪里，但是却找不到任何答案。

怪异的声音。对于游戏开发者Stephen Lavelle来说，能够创造出让人不安的游戏世界关键还是靠音频。那是一些不可认知的声音，不像地球上的钢铁发出的声音，也不像鸟儿的声音。当你靠近那个球体时，你将会听到一些怪异的声音，这是你之前从未听到过的。当你越接近那个球体时，就会发出像早期的56K猫进行拨号上网的声音。确实很奇怪！

但是那里并没有任何调制解调器，所以对于那些声音真的无从解释。而正是如此才引起了玩家的各种不安（游戏邦注：当这种声音随着不同的结构而变化时，玩家的那种紧张感会越来越强）。

脱离现实依据

人们总是害怕一些未知的东西，我们也不会喜欢那些意想不到的事物，因为它们很有可能是一些我们不喜欢的东西。而《Activate》正是利用人们的这种心理，让玩家在脱离现实依据的情况下去进行游戏。游戏中没有花，没有云，没有任何环境。所剩下的只有玩家的各种幻想，而这种幻想将把他们带到不可预知的地方。

这是个典型的游戏设计工具，适用于多种游戏类型。例如，如果你想营造出一种奇怪或不安的感觉，那么就不要提供给玩家任何解释。创造出一种难以定义的环境，或者让它充斥着各种怪异的声音。搅乱玩家平静的心便是一个很有效的游戏设计战术。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Creating Disturbing (!) Environments for Players

by Brice Morrison

“I saw a giant, strange orb in front of me.  I didn’t know what it is, or even who I was.  I moved towards it, and immediately a strange alien sound started to play.  I stopped and pulled back, a bit fightened by the sound, and paused for a moment.  Then mustering up all the courage I could, I plunged into an unknown world, my heart full of fear and dread at what I might find.”

Is this a narrative from a novel?  No, but it is almost indistinguishable.  It would seem that the indicators of an alien environment are universal across both games and books.

Activate the Three Artefacts and Then Leave is a simply titled indie game that created a surprisingly disturbing environment.  The game consists of the player floating around this strange world made of a labyrinth of cubes and blocks.  Strange sounds play as the player searches around through the maze, looking for th artifacts and continually getting lost.  The game’s environment and presentation is very effective at creating an unreal experience.

So what does the game do to make a “freaky voyage into the unknown,” as IndieGame.com wrote?  It’s all in the aesthetics, the look, feel, and sound of the game.  Let’s break it down and see how this experimental design could be applied to our own titles.

Game Design: Alien and Unknown Aesthetics

Applicable Platforms: Single-Player

Applicable Player Experiences: Disturbed, Afraid of Environment

There are three main aspects of the experience of being disturbed, each of which are done with the absolute minimum effective dose in “Activate”.

Lack of Explanation. The game does nothing to explain anything.  You don’t know who you are.  Are you a human?  An alien?  Some floating eyeball?  Or maybe you’re just a camera and the game is breaking the fourth wall?  No indicators are given to answer this question, so the player has no basis for understanding what they’re about to experience.

Additionally, you don’t know anything about the giant sphere that you explore.  You see it at the beginning of the game, floating in the distance.  But what is it?  Why is is there?  Why is is made up of a bunch of cubes?  Is there a pattern to how it’s built?  Is it going to eat me?  Again none of these questions are answered.

Finally, underscoring the lack of explanation is the lack of anyone else in the game.  In the beginning you are completely by yourself, and throughout the entire experience you wonder whether you are going to run into someone…or something.

Unknown Visuals. People like to understand where they are, to have a sense of their context.  If you’re playing a game and you’re in a brick building, hear gunshots, and are holding a gun, then you can prepare for the fact that gunmen may come in.  If you’re standing on top of a mountain in the moonlight and see that your character has a cap and fangs, then you can guess that you’re a vampire and you’re probably going to bite some people.

“Activate” doesn’t allow any of this; the visuals are like nothing in the real world.  The block structure reminds me a bit of the film Cube, which was similarly mysterious and disturbing.  The strange camera effect that makes the faraway blocks blurry brings into question the reality the player is in.  All of these work together to get the player to ask many questions about where they are, and none of them are answered.

Alien Sounds.  Probably the most effective tool that developer Stephen Lavelle used in creating a disturbing world was the audio.  There are no recognizable sounds, no creaking of steel of a earthly building, no birds, nothing.  As you approach the sphere, you begin to here some strange noise that sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard.  The closest it can be approximated to is a scrambled sound of a 56K Modem dialing.  It is definitely strange.

But there is no modem.  It’s just this unexplained noise.  And it causes a great sense of uneasiness.  As the sounds change throughout the structure, the tension grows and shrinks.

Nothing to Hold On To

Humans are afraid of the unknown; we don’t like the unexpected because it might turn out to not be something that we like.  ”Activate” takes advantage of this by not allowing anything for the player to hold on to in terms of reality.  No flowers, no clouds, no context at all.  What’s left is the player’s imagination gone wild, which usually goes to disturbing places.

This is a great example of a game design tool that could be used in a variety of games.  For example, if you need to make a certain scene appear strange or disturbing, then don’t give the player anything to latch on to.  Create an undefinable environment, or fill it with strange sounds.  Disturbing the peace of mind can be a useful design tactic.（Source：thegameprodigy）