作者：Brice Morrison

许多游戏设计师都在努力克服设计障碍，共中有些设计师因其极富创意的想法而备受赞誉，如《孢子》团队因创造了完整的虚拟世界系统而闻名，而暴雪团队则因无懈可击的关卡设计而备受推崇。这些设计师也都成了其他行业精英（或玩家）学习的典范。

但也有些设计师却无缘此列，他们掏空心思想出的创新设计却被人贬得一文不值。例如体育游戏、基于网球或足球等现实体育项目的游戏设计师的辛勤劳动却总是得不到认可。我认为《疯狂橄榄球》设计师正是游戏行业中许多未受肯定的设计师代表。

Madden NFL(from mobilegames.about)

我之前就听到许多人质疑这些设计师的能力，“他们不过是在年复一年地制作同一款游戏！撇开这一点不谈，这种游戏早就是现成的了——足球是现实生活 中的游戏，根本用不着他们重新设计！另外，这类游戏很容易吸引大量的球迷，设计这种游戏根本就不是什么难事。”但真实情况却是：

1.他们不可能每年都制作同款游戏

对于那些没玩过美式橄榄球或电子游戏的人来说，《疯狂橄榄球》团队每年做的工作好像确实没有新意可言。其他游戏的第一个产品如果是让你探索丛林，第二个产品就会让你升上太空，而足球游戏每年推出的续集看起来却不过是做了一些无关紧要的微调整。

但事实上，其他看似总会作出重大改变的游戏续集，实际上只是新瓶装旧酒，改变了游戏的美学布局，但并没有进行设计创新。它们的游戏玩法几乎没有变化，只是游戏背景、模式或者视觉元素有所不同，《马里奥银河》与《马里奥银河2》就属于这种典型。

而在《疯狂橄榄球》中，仅有美术调整根本不可行。虽然该游戏画面质量每年都有所提高，但已经玩过之前游戏的用户却并不满足于此，他们希望探索更有深度的玩法。

所以《疯狂橄榄球》团队每年都不得不针对这些热情的粉丝做出更多新调整，例如《疯狂橄榄球2004》中的Playmaker工具、2005版本中的Hit Stick和2008版本中的在线团队交易等功能。忠实粉丝们认为这些设计是围绕核心体验，并且提高了游戏质量的重要创新，它们使玩家产生亲临NFL赛事的现场感。

这种设计必须有新意，否则就难以招徕买主。这种设计不能是为增加种类而设计，而必须能够每年都带来新游戏体验。

2.他们的设计选择受到限制

在奇幻题材的游戏中，游戏设计师可以根据自己的判断添加或移除魔法咒语等元素；而第一人称射击游戏设计师也可以根据自己需要创造的游戏体验，添加火箭包，或者编辑跳跃、跑步等功能。

但对于一款基于现实体育项目的游戏来说，这种做法完全不可行。试想，假如你允许玩家于比赛开始之前在四分位中投掷两次，然后取其中最优一次记分；或者将入球得分从原来的3分改为4分，这样是不是会让游戏更有趣？不妨试试看。

不，设计师决不能做这种缺乏根据的调整。作为游戏设计师，他们要受到现实体育游戏规则的限制。因为玩家希望通过游戏模拟现实的足球运动，所以游戏设计不可偏离现实的足球运动规则。这就迫使设计师谨慎行事，忽略一些有可能增强游戏体验的玩法。

design possibility space(from thegameprodigy)

虽然《NFL Blitz》或《MegaMan Soccer》此类游戏也确实在尝试将现实活动与新游戏媒介结合在一起，但模拟现实的游戏却无法享受这种待遇。

3.他们得同时迎合资深和新手玩家

我们曾经提到，几乎所有游戏都难以回避一个问题：究竟是取悦铁杆玩家，还是迎合新手及菜鸟？

多数开发者都很清楚这其中的区别，并且可以做出选择。人人都知道，你不可能全面发展，否则就很可能沦为全面平庸。足球游戏，尤其是像《疯狂橄榄球》这种历史悠久的游戏品牌，在这一点上却无所选择。

《疯狂橄榄球》拥有十多年的骨灰级玩家，同时又需要与刚入门的新手玩家打交道，否则就很可能局限于原来的用户，将广大新玩家排除在外。那么究竟应如何取得两者的平衡？这可是个棘手的大难题。他们得同时应付两个极端，一方面骨灰级玩家想要更能展现其技能的深度玩法，而另一方面，新手却认为目前的控制操作方式已经够难了。

那么设计师把控制方式设置得更为容易一点，将这些系统简化为数个按钮怎么样？如果这样，之前已经玩遍10款游戏的玩家就会很恼火。那么在原来的基础上添加更多组合动作如何？同样不可行，因为更多玩家会对此感到陌生。所以说这是一个难以把握的平衡问题。

这些设计师每年都会发现自己的创新空间越来越小，但却仍然得有所作为。《疯狂橄榄球》团队就像是陷入进退两难的困境，但尽管面临巨大挑战，他们每年却仍会有所突破。该游戏最近针对Wii平台推出的“All Play”模式支持更简化的控制系统，要知道这同样是一个困难的创新设计。

4.体育游戏是一个真正的设计挑战

不只是《疯狂橄榄球》团队会遇到这种设计难题，所有体育游戏都不例外。作为一种需要被认可和接纳的媒介，游戏需要体现生活各方各面的核心体验，而不只是游戏开发者自己所喜欢的奇幻或者科幻游戏体验。

其他游戏设计师从这些挑战中可以获取什么经验？

“当你觉得已经用尽所有想法时，记住，事实并非如此”，所有开发者在面临创意困境时都应提醒自己牢记爱迪生的这句名言。天无绝人之路，我们总会找到许多新选择，想出更多新答案。即便是在游戏臻于完美时也要想法进行创新，要知道在Hit Stick功能出现之前，许多人都认为《疯狂橄榄球》已经是款“完工”的游戏。

从现实生活中的游戏寻找灵感。许多设计师总是受肘于与《疯狂橄榄球》团队相反的问题，他们并非受制于现实游戏规则，而是被束缚在一种陈旧的游戏类型中，例如奇幻题材的RPG。各类游戏的创新都没有止境，它们可以相互借鉴，或者从现实游戏中汲取灵感。例如网球就有一个与足球或多数RPG截然不同的积分系统，从他处借鉴设计的做法也许能带来意想不到的结果。（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）

The Most Under-Appreciated Job in Game Design

by Brice Morrison

(Full Disclosure: While I never worked in the EA Sports division, I did use to work for EA.  However, I’d like to believe that views are objective.)

A lot of Game Designers tackle Hard Design Problems.  Some of these designers in the industry are praised for their innovative thinking.  The Spore team for coming up with a system for creating an entire virtual universe.  Or the Blizzard team for their impeccable level design.  These are Designers who other industry professionals (and players) look up to and try to learn from.

However, there are other Designers who slip through the cracks, Designers who work long and hard to come up with innovative designs that are largely brushed off as rubbish.  Designers on sports games, real world sports like tennis or football, are often not recognized for their accomplishments.  I believe that the Designers on the Madden NFL team, as an example are some of the most under-appreciated Designers in the game industry.

I’ve heard many skeptics before.  “All they do is crank out the same game year after year!  Not only that, the game itself is already designed — football exists in real life!  They don’t even need to do anything!  And finally, they have people who are huge fans of football and will play the game no matter what.  This is NOT a tough design.”

Is it?  I strongly beg to differ.  Each of these points at first may seem to be a Designing an American Football game, or any sports game for that matter, is hard.  Here are the reasons:

They Can’t Crank Out The Same Game Each Year

To people who don’t play American Football or the video game surrounding it, it can certainly seem as through the Madden team releases the same game each year.  While other games have the first title taking you through the jungle and the second title send you into space, it can seem inconsequential to make seemingly small changes to the year’s new football title.

However, one important point here is that many of the changes to other games from title to title actually don’t reside in the design.  Instead, they reside in the Aesthetic layout.  While the gameplay itself remains almost the same, only the background, models, or artwork changes.  Mario Galaxy to Mario Galaxy 2 is a great example of this.

With Madden, however, aesthetic changes won’t cut it.  Sure, while the graphics do improve each year, its players, who have already grokked the previous year’s titles, are looking for something more.  They want improvement.  They want to go deeper into the gameplay.

And so each year the Madden team is forced to come up with improvements in the design to appear rabid fans, improvements like Madden 2004′s Playmaker tool, or the Hit Stick in 2005, or online team trading in 2008.  The fan base saw these as great design innovations that improved the quality of the games and built toward the Core Experience of feeling like you were actually in the NFL.

It has to be new, otherwise people won’t buy it again.  It’s not just for the new roster; the new Madden game each year is build on a new experience as well.

They Are Restricted in Their Design Options

In a fantasy title, Game Designers can decide to add or subtract magic spells if they do or don’t make sense.  In a first-person shooter, Designers can add a rocket pack, or they can edit the jump, the run, allow duel wielding, or whatever they want to create the experience they need.

For making a game based on a real-world sport, however, this isn’t allowed.  For example, let’s say that it turns out that the game is much more fun if you allow players to take two throws from the quarterback and pick the best before beginning the play.  Or if a field goal is 4 points instead of 3. Wouldn’t the game be better?  Let’s try it!

No, they can’t make these changes. As Game Designers, they are constrainted by the real world game.  Since players are purchasing the game expecting it to mimic football, it can’t deviate from the design of real-world football.  This puts the designers in a rather small box, where some answers to improving the experience are just going to need to be ignored and worked around.

Some other sports franchises, like NFL Blitz or MegaMan Soccer, do attempt to take real-world activities and bend them to take advantage of their new game medium.  But titles that seek to mimic perfectly do not have this luxury.

They Have to Appeal to Pros and Newcomers…Simultaneously

As we’ve discussed in a previous article, almost all game titles need to make a choice: do they want to appeal to the pro players, or to newcomers and amateurs?

Most developers are smart to make a clear distinction.  You can’t be everything to everyone, or you’ll end up being nothing to everyone.  However football titles, especially a franchise that has as much history as Madden, again here can take no liberties.

Madden has players who have been playing for ten years, since the very first.  At the same time, they need to reach out to new players, or they run the risk of their only audience outgrowing them and everyone else getting shut out.  How do you do this?  It’s really very hard.  They are being pulled in two opposite directions.  Experts, as we already discussed, want to go deeper into the game, with better and more fine tuned features to build on their skills.  On the other direction are newcomers who already feel like the current controls are too hard.

Can they make the controls easier, simplify them down to just a few buttons?  No, people who have been playing all 10 games would get upset.  Can they add combos along with the jukes and moves?  Not exactly, or more people will be alienated.  It’s a delicate balance.

With every passing year, they paint themselves into a smaller and smaller corner, and yet they need to innovate.  Granted, the Madden team has fallen a bit off the side of the horse of making it too complicated, but I am impressed they have made any progress at all considering the enormity of the challenge.  Recent innovations such as the “All Play” mode on the Wii has allowed for simplified control schemes.  But it is certainly a tough design nut to crack.

Making Sports Games Is A Real Design Challenge

All of these difficult design problems aren’t  just about Madden NFL; they are about all sports games.  And it is important for these questions to get answered.  For games as a medium to be able to be accepted, it needs to be able to represent Core Experiences from all walks of life, not just the typical fantasy and sci-fi titles that game developers themselves usually love.

So how can other Designers learn from these challenges?  In a few ways:

“When you’ve exhausted all possibilities, remember this — you haven’t” This quote from renowned inventor Thomas Edison must be followed by all developers who find themselves in tough spots.  There are always more options, always ways to come up with new answers.  Keep searching for a way to innovate on what already looks like a perfect game and you will find it eventually.  Madden could have been called “Done” long before the Hit Stick was thought of.

Borrowing from real life games can be useful. Many Designers constrain themselves in the opposite way from the Madden team.  Instead of being limited by a real world game, they limit themselves within a well-worn game genre, like fantasy RPG’s.  All genres can be innovated and new designs can be made, and sometimes borrowing from other genres, or real life games can be a great learning experience.  Tennis, for example, has a scoring system very different from Basketball or even most RPG’s.  Some borrowing may prove interesting.（source:thegameprodigy）