作者：Brice Morrison

平台所决定的内容远比设计师想象得多。《梦幻史诗之战III》已问世许久，但我觉得游戏颇有分析价值，因为游戏通过特殊平台展示自己的经典RPG风格。通常在掌机或可下载游戏平台中，冗长RPG游戏倍受欢迎，但这些玩家通常不会偏好Flash内容。这款作品非常成功，覆盖300万用户，在Kongregate获得4.51/5的星级评价。

Epic Battle Fantasy from thegameprodigy.com

移植某平台的某题材对游戏设计而言是个潜在挑战。虽然你大可直接复制游戏内容，调整控制装置，但我们需要获悉平台情况，而非仅是输入和输出装置的运作方式，我们得把握平台本身如何改变用户基本体验行为。忽略这些方面的设计师常常最终会发现自己的作品存在某些问题，而这些问题，他们在开发过程中通常未予以考虑。

开发者就《梦幻史诗之战III》进行某些调整，使作品得以过渡至Flash平台。这些技巧可供其他开发商在进行Flash移植时参考。

高效的重置控制装置

Epic Battle Fantasy1 from thegameprodigy.com

《梦幻史诗之战》控制装置设计完美。我们能够轻松瞄准任一《最终幻想》型作品，持续采用Super Nintendo时代盛行的方向键控制装置，但Flash类型的需求大不相同。多数Flash游戏更多关注于运用鼠标，尽量避免按键。虽然这只是细微差别，但却存在用户是享受你的游戏内容，还是受阻于复杂按键控制，无法体验其中乐趣的差异。

《梦幻史诗之战》极少使用键盘。方向键控制用于四处走动，空格键一律代表“行动”。在战斗内容中（游戏邦注：这是菜单选择操作最密集的地方），玩家操作内容只能通过鼠标。通过点击出现的按键，而非上/下/输入键，玩家能够流畅操作，感觉非常自然。

Flash内容以鼠标操作为主，这点难以避免。因此制作Flash内容的开发商应记住，除非自己还有其他绝招，否则应让鼠标操作主导体验风格、UI和按键设计。

排除非目标玩家群体

我觉得《梦幻史诗之战》所获的高评分主要归功于作品的较长加载屏幕和故事信息。这是款经典RPG作品，旨在希望玩家能够体验几小时，而非几分钟（和其他Flash游戏不同），植入Kongregate 之类的网站能够挖掘愿意投入较长时间的用户。通常出现在Flash门户网站的热门作品都是向玩家提供几分钟体验。即便《快乐水族馆》或《Farmville》之类的大型社交游戏也主要呈现几分钟体验。

但《梦幻史诗之战》是延续几小时的较长故事，游戏融入保存节点。所以作品要如何回避那些期望获得短暂体验的用户？这些用户最终只会厌烦游戏的缓慢节奏，退出游戏。

其中一个答案是这些用户不会进入游戏中，因为游戏启动时间较长。由于画面复杂，这些内容需要花费较长时间加载。此外，“启动”时间会因游戏故事而延长（游戏邦注：故事内容也需要花费1-2分钟加载），这在多数Flash游戏中是个不变原则。

我不确定游戏开发者是否有意为之；这也许只是个幸运的巧合。但较长游戏登陆时间能够有效过滤不适合此类体验的用户，这些用户最终只会心生厌烦，留下差评，他们会在游戏结束前退出。有耐心等待登陆过程的用户也会以同样的耐心体验游戏，愿意给予好评。

对峙情境的选择

Flash（这个平台同样也适用于商业、电子邮件和网上冲浪活动）吸引的群体与传统游戏掌机大不相同。其中一点是，几乎所有操作都是刻意通常鼠标进行，也就是说，电脑用户知晓自己进入的是什么内容，自己在其中处于支配地位。PC应用通常不会指导用户进行何种体验。

出于这点，许多Flash游戏允许用户支配操作。因此传统RPG游戏的敌人设计工作在《梦幻史诗之战》中需要投入更多。原本敌人进攻玩家的操作不受玩家控制。这是多数传统RPG采取的方式。敌人或随机出现，游戏在没有预警的情况转变成战斗模式，或敌人在屏幕上追逐玩家。

但在《梦幻史诗之战III》中，设计师清楚这是款Flash游戏，许多设计师都不喜欢游戏向其传达发生情况，因为只要体验开始违背自己的预期，他们就会浏览其他页面，退出游戏。

因此《梦幻史诗之战III》的所有战斗内容在玩家的控制中。玩家在游戏世界中走动，敌人袖手旁观，等待对峙。要入战斗，玩家需走到敌人面前，点击空格键。只有这样才能发动战争。当然boss会阻挡道路，战斗不可避免，但这可以推迟到玩家准备待续。

这个简单的调整令玩家处于主导地位，而这对掌机游戏而言属于多余内容。但其在Flash游戏中起到重要作用，充分将平台特性考虑在内。

Epic Battle Fantasy 2 from thegameprodigy.com

总之，这款游戏是颇具制作价值的优秀作品，作品由1人完成，其全权负责美工、编程和故事设计。Flash游戏设计师若牢记此作品的制胜秘诀定将受益匪浅。（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）

Lost in Translation: How To Translate a Classic RPG to Flash

by Brice Morrison

The platform that a game is on dictates a lot more than many game designers realize.  Epic Battle Fantasy III has been out for a while, but I thought it was worth analyzing because of the unusual venue it chose to show off its classic-RPG styled game.  Usually reserved for consoles or at least a downloadable title, long-winded RPG’s have a large fanbase but usually aren’t the types to enjoy their main titles through Flash.  And the game is very successful, with over 3 million plays and an average 4.51/5 star rating on Kongregate alone.

Taking a genre from one platform is a latent challenge in game design for many titles.  While it would seem that you could just copy the game and adjust the controls, more thought is necessary to get to know the platform and understand not just how the inputs and outputs work, but how the platform itself changes basic play behaviors.  Designers who ignore this will often find that their game is tripped up on issues that they weren’t even thinking about during development.

There are a few things that Epic Battle Fantasy III does that allow it to make the transition to the Flash platform.  Other designers may find these tactics useful when attempting to make the transition of some of their favorite genres to Flash.

Effectively Reformatted Controls

The control design for Epic Battle Fantasy is superb.  It would have been easy to take a Final-Fantasy inspired title and try to stick to the D-Pad controls that flourished in Super Nintendo days, but the demands of the Flash genre are much different.  Most Flash games cater more towards using the mouse and as few keys as possible.  And while this may seem to be a subtle distinction, it can mean the difference between players who enjoy your title and others who would like to, but are tripped up by the complicated keys.

Epic Battle Fantasy is minimal in its keyboard use.  WASD keys are used for walking around, and the space bar is the all-purpose “Action” button.  Inside of battles, where the most menu-intensive sections of RPG’s typically lies, the mouse is used almost exclusively.  By clicking on buttons that appears instead of having to press up/down/enter, the play goes very smoothly and feels natural.

Flash is dominated by the mouse and there is really no getting around it.  Thus, designers who are developing Flash titles would be wise to remember that unless they have some other tricks up their sleeve, the mouse should dictate the play style, UI, and button designs.

Weeding Out Non-Players

Epic Battle Fantasy, I believe, strangely owes a lot of its high rating to its very long loading screen and story intro.  Because it is a classic RPG, made to be played over the course of a few hours instead of just a couple minutes (unlike most Flash titles), embedding it on a website like Kongregate is an unusual place to find players willing to invest that kind of time.  Normally popular games that show up on Flash portals are hyper click action titles, made to consume no more than a few minutes of time for most players.  Even massive social game titles like Happy Aquarium or Farmville focus the bulk of their gameplay in the first few minutes.

Epic Battle Fantasy III, however, is a long story spread out over hours, complete with save slots.  So how does it keep from dropping the bulk of players who came into the game expecting a short experience, only to get bored at the slower (but fun) gameplay and quit the game?

One answer is that those types of players never make it into the game because of the long setup.  Because of the intense graphics, it takes a while for the game to load.  Additionally, this “setup” period is exacerbated by the game’s story, which also takes a minute or two, which is an eternity in most Flash games.

I’m not sure that the game’s developer did this on purpose; it might have just been a happy accident.  But the long introduction serves to help the game by weeding out players who wouldn’t enjoy the experience early before they can get into the game, find themselves bored, and leave a poor rating.  Those players leave long before the story is over.  Players who are patient enough for the intro are likely also patient enough for the game itself and happy to give it a great review.

Opt-In Confrontation

Flash, being the same platform (keyboard and mouse) that is also used for business, email, and web surfing, brings with it different player patterns than a normal game console.  For one, almost every other action normally taken with the mouse is on purpose, that is, the computer user knows what they’re getting into and they are the ones dictating the events.  Programs on a PC don’t often dictate what they user is going to experience.

For this reason, many email titles allow the player to dictate the action.  So for this reason, the enemy design that is present in most traditional RPG’s needed some work in Epic Battle Fantasy III.  Namely, the design of enemies approaching the player and attacking without the player’s permission.  This is something that’s done in most old RPG’s.  Either the enemies appear randomly and the game is without warning transferred into battle mode, or the enemies chase the player on screen.

In Epic Battle Fantasy III, however, the designer understood that this is a Flash game, and many Flash players don’t enjoy what’s happening being dictated to them, since as soon as an experience starts going against what they’d like to be doing, they are likely to navigate away to another page and leave the game.

Thus, none of the battles in Epic Battle Fantasy III occur without the player’s permission.  The player walks around the world and enemies stand idle, waiting for a confrontation.  In order for a battle to occur, the player needs to walk up to an enemy and press the Space Bar.  Only then does a battle occur.  Of course bosses block the path and a fight is inevitable, but it can be delayed until the player is ready.

This simple change puts the player in the driver’s seat, something that would probably be unnecessary for console titles.  But on a Flash game it helps the experience greatly by taking into account the platform.

Overall the game is a very solid one with sky-high production values, considering it was almost entirely made by one person doing the artwork, programming, and story design.  But for Flash designers, it’s important not to overlook some of the more subtle choices that have contributed to the game’s success.（Source：thegameprodigy）