重要决策 1：工具提示和其他重要用户界面创新

首先先谈谈工具提示。

工具提示是指当你试图弄清某些图标的含义时，屏幕突然弹出的描述性漂浮窗口。这是个很棒的创新，在很多游戏中，我无法离开这些元素。我非常急功近利，所以若我挑选的装甲有45种，我不会一一试验，查看哪个更好。提示工具让玩家的体验变得更简单，让游戏内容变得更有趣。《火炬之光》在此表现突出，虽然它在此不是先驱。在《魔兽世界》中，游戏提供战利品工具提示，会自动就将此同玩家的装备进行比较，同时融入简单机制，判定所呈现数值同玩家当前装置相比是优还是劣。

其他杰出用户界面决策还有：

* 关键时刻出现，随后自动隐藏的秘诀/提示/目标（多数MMO游戏在此表现突出）

* 记住我上次在任务日志/角色表单/目录查看的内容

* 通过颜色或音效线索让我意识到自己濒临死亡（大多体现在FPS内容，还有《暗黑破坏神》）

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* 以颜色标记道具，这样玩家凭直觉就能知晓他们的用途

* 标有NPC和关卡目标的世界地图

* 显示交互性的变化光标，嵌有图标说明交互性的类型

* 包含移动道具的目录

* 完全没有界面（如《死亡空间》和《Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth》）

* 当然还有可视弹药/健康状态

* 战争/探险烟雾

* 能够定制的UI（《激战》）

重要决策 2：给予玩家成功奖励

这是存在争议的设计决策。显然这点玩家看不到，或至少不应看到。通常是游戏的软性措施促使玩家持续体验内容，但杰出游戏通常进行巧妙设置，让玩家未感觉到此内容的存在。

这是升级时的“叮”声响，关卡给予的奖励，敌人丢下的枪支，玩家当前能够进行的升级内容，下个关卡（游戏关卡或角色关卡）及现在能够使用的装甲。此外，还有之前所无法到达的领域，及现在能够持有无法战胜的boss的刀剑。这通常指吃掉幽灵所获的精神满足。

重要决策 3：迷你地图

几乎所有游戏都融入此要素。这此元素不是最先出现在《沙丘魔堡 2》，但这是我最初发现地图的地方。自那时起，迷你地图逐步完善，在游戏空间/NPC中嵌入缩放功能、导航和工具提示，有时玩家甚至还能够在其中添加备注。有些地图还可以移动和调整大小。在我看来，这是件好事。让玩家自主隐藏迷你地图是件好事（游戏邦注：这涉及选择权问题）。我是非常专心的玩家，我喜欢核对我的目标，所以能够轻松定位自己，找到自己的方向会让我更享受游戏。

重要决策 4：让玩家觉得自己像英雄

对很多人来说，没有什么东西比得上这种感觉，这也是他们体验游戏的主要原因所在。在现实生活中，你无法跨过建筑物，或让胸口承受14颗子弹，或在敌人周围的地面喷出火焰。游戏让玩家觉得自己能够操作所有这些内容——这点非常有意义。

* 《无尽的任务 II》——虽然我只是级别9的巫师，游戏让我觉得自己是十足的坏蛋。

* 《半条命 2》——在开场片段让我觉得世界紧跟我身后。

*  所有Gothic游戏——最终，游戏让我觉得自己能够操作任何内容。

* 《龙腾世纪》——游戏将玩家的决策过程变得非常困难，但让玩家觉得自己非常重要。

* 《英雄连》和《Medal of Honor Allied Assualt》——游戏让我觉得自己好像在袭击Omaha海滩。

* 《雷神之锤 I&II》——游戏让我觉得自己能够迅速撂倒任何人。

重要决策 5：有组织地引入游戏世界/角色/NPC/故事内容

这点通常表现不佳，主要由于其实现过程有难度。我刚完成的游戏《恐水症：预言》在此就表现突出。游戏没有迫使我在开始游戏前坐下来观看25分钟的过场动画。相反，游戏将我置于某空间，呈现相关元素。游戏让我进行探索，融入CG片段，让我获悉自己是谁，要做什么，我的生命中有谁。这是很棒的方式——它让玩家获悉自己选择的范围，把握其拯救世界的原因。不要告诉我拯救世界是因为我被选中，让我自己决定是否值得这么做。

重要决策 6：奇妙的过场动画

这涉及过场动画的两面性。是否还记得《暗黑破坏神》中的过场动画如何让你大吃一惊？是的，我非常吃惊。有些人觉得《魔兽争霸III》、《魔兽世界》及暴雪的各款游戏也很不错。是的，其他公司的表现也非常惊人。有些非常令人难忘，就如那些你常同好友提起的作品。就如《死亡岛》几个月前推出的内容。它依然处在我的Youtube收藏列表中。但若处理不当，即便是高投入的过场动画，也只会令玩家冷眼相向，虽然设计师竭尽全力让玩家沉浸其中。优质的过场动画能够让玩家同时进入游戏世界和角色，营造游戏氛围。

重要决策 7：鼓励探险和发现

就探索内容来说，Gothic游戏无疑非常有代表性。它们的世界纯手工制作，因此总是存在某些探险奖励，某些能够发现巧妙武器或卷轴的小空间。优质空间需要让玩家进行探索，所以不妨通过特别邂逅或优质战利品鼓励玩家这么做。即便只是供观赏的美好景观。

重要决策 8：令玩家忘记摄像头的存在

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从RTS到RPG，再到FPS，玩家在游戏中最不愿意做的事情就是持续调整摄像头，因为玩家无法准确获悉进展情况。《Alone in the Dark》（原生版本）非常有创意，但它的摄像头设置几乎让人抓狂。但话虽如此，摄像头能够有效增加被追逐、无法逃脱及被捕获时的紧张气氛。但多数现代游戏植入摄像头的方式都天衣无缝，非常含蓄和巧妙，令我完全忘记摄像头的存在。这让我觉得自己完全融入游戏世界中，变成其中的角色——摄像头变成我的窗口，我的眼睛。

重要决策 9：声音的一致性

这点并不常见。这当然就是指配音。无数游戏试图在此脱颖而出，但很多都惨遭失败。这也许是由于存在一致性——我知道这不是真的。这通常是由于配音紊乱，作品才没有市场。但如处理得当，这些时刻非常珍贵。

《龙腾世纪》成功让我相信团队所有成员都非常关心游戏世界。我的动作是关键，但我相信他们，所以我相信游戏世界。从《LA Noire》中我发现，有时我完全无法读懂他人的意思，虽然我觉得我可以。游戏提供某些线索让我觉得大家都在说谎，所以若我无法完全理清，就完全是我自己的错误。这款游戏好像让我回到了20世纪40年代的洛杉矶。《半条命 2》让我振作起来，进行战斗。

重要决策 10：创造有趣的互动开放世界

这显然是个人喜好。不是所有人都喜欢开放游戏世界。就糟糕情况来看，游戏无非就是在实际操作活动间隙提供广泛时间延伸。而表现突出的作品则会让玩家觉得自己融入游戏世界，有许多任务要完成，明天几乎没时间上班。你如何合理分配时间？毕竟，你有关卡要完成，得收获物品，要攀爬山峰。（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 top 10 great decisions game designers make

Great decision 1: tooltips and other great user interface innovations

This could be an article all on its own, no problem. You have to go pretty far back to be able to see just how far we’ve come with respect to games’ user interfaces. I’ll give some examples, but first, let’s talk about tooltips.

Tooltips are those floaty things that pop up a description when you’re trying to figure out what the heck some icon means. This is a fabulous innovation, and in many games, I can’t live without them. As stated in the previous article, I’m a bit of a loot whore. So if I have 45 different kinds of armor that I’ve picked up, I really don’t want to try each and every piece on to see which one is better. Tooltips make my life easier, and your game more fun. Torchlight did a great job on this, though they’re by no means the first – I’m just pointing the finger their way because they simply did it so well. In World of Warcraft (and probably every MMO since), they provide tooltips for the loot, then they auto-compared it to what you’ve got equipped, along with an easy system for determining which stats are better or worse than your currently-equipped gear. Smart. (green is better, red is worse) Do you know who did this first?

Other great user interface decisions (this list could go on and on)…

* tips/hints/objectives that display when important, then auto-hide (most MMOs do this really well)

* remembering what I was last viewing in my quest log/character sheet/inventory

* making me aware of impending death with color and/or sound cues (pretty much all FPSes, as well as Diablo)

* color-coding game items so that I instinctively know what they’re for

* world maps marked with NPCs, quest objectives (I’ll cover minimaps below)

* a changing cursor to indicate interactivity, with an icon that represents what type of interactivity

* inventories with movable items (this wasn’t always the case)
stackable items

* no interface at all (Dead Space, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth)

* and of course, visible ammo/health

* the fog of war/exploration

* completely customizable UI (Guild Wars, you rocked this)

Great decision 2: rewarding me for success

This is one that could be argued is a design decision at all. Clearly it’s one that is all but invisible to the player, or at least it should be. This is basically the carrot on the end of the stick that keeps you playing, but the best games will implement it so subtly that you don’t even know it’s there.

This is the ding when you level, the quest reward, the gun that enemy drops, the building upgrade that I can now build, the next level (game level or character level), the armor you can now afford. This is that area that was previously unreachable, the boss you couldn’t defeat whose sword you now carry. The proverbial princess, if you will. Heck, this is eating the ghosts, the euphoria you feel when you have succeeded. Thank you game designers’ for giving me this.

Great decision 3: minimaps!!

Ah, minimaps. I can barely remember not having one in a game. I’m pretty certain it didn’t start with Dune II, but that’s where I first remember seeing one. Since that time, they’ve gotten better (most of the time) and allow zooming, navigation, tooltips for areas/NPCs, sometimes even they let you add notes right to the minimap. Some are even movable and resizable. This is a good thing, in my mind. Letting a user hide the minimap if they don’t like it is great too – it’s all about choice. But I’m a focused gamer – I like to check off my objectives, so being able to orient myself easily and get my bearings makes me enjoy a game more.

Great decision 4: making me feel like a hero

Nothing much compares to this feeling – for many people, it’s the sole reason they play games. You can’t leap buildings (trust me, I’ve seen the FAIL videos) in regular life, or take 14 bullets to the chest, or erupt jets of flame from the ground around your enemies. Making me feel like I can do all these things – priceless.

* Everquest II – you made me feel like a badass even though I was only a level 9 sorcerer.

* Half Life 2 – you made me feel like the world was after me in that opening sequence.

* All of the Gothic games – eventually, you made me feel like I could take on anything.

* Dragon Age – you made my decisions so difficult, but no matter what, you made them feel significant.

* Company of Heroes and Medal of Honor Allied Assualt – you made me feel like I was storming Omaha beach.

* Quake I and II – you made me feel like I could pwn anyone.

Great decision 5: introducing the world/character/NPCs/story organically

This isn’t always done so well, probably because it’s so freaking hard to do. A game I just started, Hydrophobia: Prophecy does this really well. It doesn’t force me to sit and watch 25 minutes of cutscenes before playing (see below). Instead, it just puts me in a room, with my stuff in it. It lets me explore a bit, with some short CG sequences to let me get a feel of who I am, what I do, and who’s in my life. This is a great way to do it – it lets me, the player, learn to the extent I choose, why I need to save the world. Don’t just tell me I need to save the world because I’m the chosen one.. let me decide for myself that it’s worth saving.

Great decision 6: those fantastic cutscenes

Oh, the double-edged sword of cutscenes. Remember the ones from Diablo and how blown away you were? Yeah, me too. Same goes for Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, ummm, every Blizzard game ever. Yep, other companies do it fabulously as well. Some are so memorable, it’s like you are there, the ones you tell your friends about. Like the one a few months back for Dead Island. It’s still in my Youtube favourites list. But done wrong, an expensive cutscene can make gamers laugh at the game the designers are trying so hard to immerse you in. The best ones suck you into the world, immerse you in the characters and set the stage for the game, all at the same time.

What are your favourite cutscenes and why?

Great decision 7: encouraging exploration and discovery

The Gothic games have to be targeted for being the series to follow, as far as exploration is concerned. Since their worlds were hand-crafted, there was always some reward for exploration. Some little area to find, a fantastic weapon or scroll. Great worlds demand to be explored, so encourage me to do so with special encounters or awesome loot. Or even just a stunning vista to look at.

Great decision 8: allowing me to forget about the camera

From RTSs to RPGs to FPSs, the last thing you ever want to do in the middle of a game is to be constantly tweaking your camera because you can’t properly see what’s going on. Alone in the Dark (the originals), you were innovative, but MAN did your camera drive me crazy. However, that being said, the way the camera worked, even in that – much like in the Resident Evil games, pre RE4 – added to the tension of being chased, being unable to get away, being hunted. So for that, I thank you as well. But in most modern games, having a camera that is so seamless, so unobtrusive and smart, that I forget there is one. This makes me feel not just that I’m in your world, but that I AM the character – the camera is my viewport, my eyes.

Great decision 9: tell me, don’t show me

Wow, this is one you don’t see done well very often. That is, of course, voice acting. Countless games have tried to do this well, countless games fail. Maybe it’s the disconnect – the fact that I know it’s not real. Often it’s the simple fact that the lipsyncing is completely out of whack so I’m not sold. But when it’s done well… those times are special, indeed.

Dragon Age was immensely successful in making me believe that the people in my group, those that I met, pretty much everyone in the world cared about that world. That my actions mattered. I believed them, so I believed in the world. LA Noire, you showed me that sometimes I can’t read people at all, even though I think I can. You gave me the clues and made me think the people were lying, so it’s really my own fault when I couldn’t figure it out. Because of you, I’ve been to 1940s LA. Half Life 2, you let me wake up and smell the ashes.

Great decision 10: creating interesting, interactive open worlds

This one is a personal preference, clearly. Not everyone likes open world games. If they’re done poorly, they offer little more than gigantic stretches of time between actually doing anything. Done well, and they make you feel like you’re inhabiting the world with so much to do it’s hard to believe you’ll have time to actually go to work tomorrow. How will you fit it all in? After all, I’ve got this quest to finish, some harvesting to do, I need to climb that mountain over there, then there’s all these people to shoot… yeesh. Thanks designers, for giving me a world to play in that’s sometimes more interesting than the one I really live in.（Source：thegeeklynews）