作者：Brice Morrison

不论你所制作的游戏是学生作业，还是独立开发者的初尝试亦或者只是一种个人兴趣爱好，所有在制作游戏的人都希望自己的作品能够取得成功。那么成功意味着什么呢？如果一款游戏很古板但是却是有利可图的，那么这算不算是一种成功？同样道理的，如果是创新游戏但是却不能赚钱，情况又是怎样？

这都取决于开发者以及他们的目标。许多开发者抱着制作一些东西的理念而开发游戏，到最后都会获得一定的结果。也许他们会在网上销售游戏，也许他们会在激烈的竞争中被埋没，也许他们甚至不会完成游戏便开始另外一款新游戏的制作。如此看来这些开发者都未曾为自己设立一个明确的目标以获得成功。

那些成功人士都能够为自己的游戏设立一个特定的目标。为了能够更合理地制作游戏，开发者需要明确自己的方向并努力去实现这些目标。

有很多学术研究也曾表明，在不同领域和学科中设定目标将能够帮助我们达到更好的结果。在游戏开发领域，对于不同开发者而言，目标的广泛性也大为不同，所以我们应该对此加以重视。

两种开发者，两种目标，两种成功

mark-pincus-zynga(from businessinsider.com)

让我们来看看两个完全不同的游戏开发者以及他们完全不同的目标。其中一位是Zynga首席执行官Mark Pincus，另外一位是独立开发者Jonathan Blow。

对于Pincus来说，其每款游戏的最主要目标便是赚钱获利，而正是这一目标影响着他的每一款游戏，包括质量，设计，发行日程安排表以及与其它游戏的相似之处等等。虽然Zynga的游戏可以很华丽，很有创新性，而且也具有各种新鲜感，但是如果不是以盈利为目的，这些游戏的最终下场只能是失败。因此，为了获得利益，很多Zynga游戏都是模仿其竞争者的产品，但是仍然能够获利，实现最初的目标。

Jonathan_Blow(from thegameprodigy)

而Blow的开发目标却截然不同。就像他在博客中所说的，Blow的目标与金钱无关。作为实验游戏玩法项目的创始人之一，Blow的主要游戏目标是尝试着创作出全新的游戏理念，推翻游戏原本的各种限制，让游戏成为一种真正的艺术品。对于他来说，金钱并不是一切。

重要的是：我认为这两种完全不同的观点都没有错。这两种开发者都决定了游戏目标，并且完全根据这些目标去开发游戏，所以最后都能够获得成功。虽然他们的其它目标也能够有所收获（游戏邦注：例如Blow的独立游戏《时空环境》赚到了很多钱，而Zynga的《Frontierville》也呈现了一些创新形式），但是对于游戏的创造者来说，这些次要的目标不再那么重要了。对于他们来说能够获得首要游戏目标才是关键。

各种游戏开发目标

正如你所看到的，当你在制作游戏时，如果你能够明确定义好游戏目标，那么对于游戏未来的发展以及你在未来所做的任何选择都会有很大的帮助。也就是说，定义你的目标就等于定义游戏的成败。所以，为了成为聪明的游戏开发者，我们需要挑选一些合适的目标，仔细衡量并最终做出判断。

以下是一些存在于游戏中的共同目标，挑选一些适合你的游戏目标（游戏邦注：有些看起来很重要，但是也许并不适合你的游戏），你将会获得意想不到的结果。

以获得乐趣为目标。很多年轻的学生都是出于兴趣而开始制作游戏。他们希望获得游戏的乐趣，学习如何制作游戏，并度过一段美好的时光。这个目标将推动他们执行任何有趣的事物，避免制作出让人厌烦的游戏。

以创新和艺术为目标。很多游戏开发者将创新为做目标，去尝试一些之前游戏从未尝试过的新内容。带着这样的目标，开发者将会尽可能地去尝试一些新观点，在游戏中加入一些新主题或者新故事，努力创造出一种不一样的新游戏。

以获得名声为目标。一些游戏是以成为有名的游戏而努力。有些作品能够在游戏开发者大会上脱颖而出，而有一些游戏则更能够吸引大众媒体的关注。这类型的游戏经常都带有一些吸引人的主题和观点，并且游戏中始终都能够体现开发者的名字。

以学习为目标。制作游戏也可以是一种学习过程。如果一名学生想要学习3D编程，那么最好的学习方法便是制作一款3D游戏。这个目标能够推动开发者想办法解决一些困难的问题，特别是他们之前从未遇到过的问题，从中有所收获并增强自己的技能。

以获得利润为目标。游戏是个非常有潜力的产业，所以很多大公司的目标都是希望能够从游戏开发中赚到钱。但是对于独立开发者还是学生开发者来说，这个目标都很难实现，除非有一天他们能够创立属于自己的游戏公司，并支持他们开发出有利可图的游戏。这个目标将能够推动开发者以赚钱为目的去开发游戏。

以职业发展为目标。很多学生都希望制作游戏能够对于他们未来的职业发展有所帮助，能够在履历上写道：“我制作了这款游戏。”带着这种目标前进的开发者们会凸显一些较酷的游戏功能或者会在游戏制作陷入瓶颈之后熬夜加班加点。

把开发游戏当成一种喜好并制定游戏目标

你必须确保所有的目标都是有根据的，而且都能够适用于你的游戏，并且能够让你在开发过程中做出不同决策，制作出不同类型的游戏。仔细选择你的游戏目标将能够助你获得成功，因为在这个过程中你能够明确意识到成功对你来说有何意义。当你知道自己想要做什么时，你便更有动力去好好完成游戏制作了。

更重要的是，你也将会知道哪些目标是你不会触及到的，所以你可以按照你的想法去完成游戏设计和开发决策。所以，赶紧落实行动吧，好好回答这个老掉牙的问题：要创造性还是要收益？哪个更重要？或者两个一样重要？自己做出判断，并根据你的判断行动吧！（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）

Which is Better: A Profitable or Innovative Game?

by Brice Morrison

Many readers here on The Game Prodigy have their own games that they are working on.  Be they student projects, indie experiments, or just a hobby, everyone wants their game to be successful.  But what does it mean to be successful?  Is a game a success if it’s profitable but completely stale?  How about if it’s innovative but makes no money?

Well, that’s depends on the developer and their goals.  Many developers just start building something, and then after a while they achieve some sort of result.  Maybe they sell their game online.  Maybe they end up in a game competition.  Or maybe they don’t finish the game at all, they just go on to start a new project.  They don’t have clearly defined goals for success.

The ones who are successful are the ones who are smart by setting their own personal goals for their games.  In order to tackle a game project in an intelligent way, developers need to be concrete about their goals and what they are trying to achieve.

Many different studies have shown that goal setting across all fields and disciplines is beneficial in getting results.  But in game development it is particularly useful because the goals for different developers can have such a wide range of dreams.

Two Developers, Two Goals, Two Successes

Let’s look at two very different developers with very different goals in their games.  On one hand is Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, and on the other is indie developer Jonathan Blow.

Pincus’ strong primary goal for each of this games is to make money and be profitable, and this has influenced how the games have been made, their quality and design, their release schedule, their similarity to other games, and everything else about them.  Games from Zynga can be beautiful, innovative, or new and fresh, but if they weren’t making massive amount of money, they were failures and were pulled and cancelled.  Thus, in order to achieve profitability, many of Zynga’s games were in fact modeled after competitor’s games, but still achieved profitability, the primary goal.

Blow’s game development goals are quite different.  Blow’s strong primary goals are far from money, as he has said in a blog post.  As one of the organizers of the experimental gameplay project, the primary goal of his games was to try new concepts that hadn’t been tried in gaming, to push the boundaries, and to make games that are considered works of  art.  Money is not a concern for him.

An important point here: I am of the opinion that there is nothing wrong with either of these goals.  Both developers decided what they wanted to do with their games and focused solely on that, and as a result both of them have been wildly successful.  Other goals may have been achieved (Braid making a fair amount of money, or Frontierville showing some forms of innovation), but to their creators, those secondary goals were not even really necessary.  What mattered was that they achieved their primary goals for their games.

The Many Goals of Game Development

As you can see, defining the goals for your game help a great deal in determining its future and the choices you will make as you are in production.  And by defining your goals, you define if your game was a success or a failure.  So in order to be smart about how we as developers go about making our games, we need to pick out our goals, think about them, and then be sure of them.

Let’s run through some of the common goals that a game can have.  Selecting which of these apply (and just as importantly, which ones don’t apply) will do wonders for your project.

The Goal of Having Fun. Many young students start working on a game just as a hobby.  They do it to have fun, to learn about making games, and generally have a good time.  This goal will drive decisions such as implementing what seems to be the most fun to implement, while avoiding making parts of the game that are hard or boring to make.

The Goal of Innovation and Art. Many indie developers set the goal of pushing the envelope, of doing something that games have never done before.  This goal will drive decisions such as trying out a new idea wherever possible, requiring theme or allegory be added to the game, and striving to be original and new.

The Goal of Fame. Some games are made simply to become famous or known within some crowd.  Some games are made that appeal to the GDC indie crowd, while other games are made to appeal to the mass media and get someone’s name out there.  Games with this goal will want to have attention grabbing themes or ideas and attach the developer’s name all over.

The Goal of Learning. Making a game can be very educational too.  If a student wants to learn 3D programming, then one great way to learn is to make a 3D game.  This goal will drive the developer to tackle hard problems, especially those that have not been attempted before, in order to learn and bolster one’s skills.

The Goal of Profit. Games are a billion dollar industry, and all large companies have the goal of making money from their games.  But indie and student developers can set a goal of making money off of their games if they want as well, perhaps hoping to one day start their own company or support themselves through their games.  This goal will drive design decisions around what would make the most money.

The Goal of Career Development. Many students will want to make games for career development, to be able to say on their resume, “I made this game”.  This goal will drive decisions such as foregoing a cool feature in order to get it finished completely, or working late into the night long after it’s gotten frustrating.

Do Your Game a Favor and Define Your Goals

All of these goals are valid, all of them are available to you, and all of them will cause different decisions to occur during the process of development, resulting in different looking games.  Carefully selecting which goals you have for your project can greatly increase the chances of success, because you’ll know exactly what success means for you.  You’ll be more motivated to work on your game because you’ll have a practical idea of what you are trying to accomplish.

And perhaps more importantly, you’ll know which goals you are not trying to achieve, so you can be free to make the design and development decisions that you want.  So go ahead and answer that age old question: innovation or profitability?  Is one more important?  Or are both important and there must be a balance?  Decide for yourself and go after it!（source:thegameprodigy）