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阐述迭代设计过程的定义及其重要性

发布时间:2011-11-28 11:33:19 Tags:,,,,

作者:Brandon Van Slyke

“迭代”是当今电子游戏产业广为人知的一个词语,迭代过程、迭代程序也同样如此。总之,其作用不容忽视,当代游戏开发者都应该了解这个术语在工作室的设计和执行过程中的重要性。

什么是迭代设计?

与网页、用户界面等领域的设计师一样,鲜有电子游戏设计师可以让产品首次出炉就成为毫无瑕疵的完美作品。只有经过严格的测试和对核心理念的调整,设计师才会发现当前设计的不足或者可取之处。

这种循环性的反复试验过程就是迭代设计的基本原则。在设计的每个阶段,设计师要根据准确的反馈信息执行可用性测试和持续优化。正是这种基于测试的调整让迭代设计成为开发电子游戏的一个有效方法,它允许游戏开发者快速鉴别出问题所在,通过反馈信息逐步优化整体游戏体验。

这种基于反馈和观察的测试、调整设计方法看似人人皆知的常识,但真正理解迭代设计的定义及其使用原因,有助于我们鉴别游戏是否“有趣”。

为何要使用迭代方法?

设计游戏所涉及的一个重要层面就是找到与玩家交流信息的方法,有效传递积极和消极反馈,是创造富有粘性的交互体验首要考虑的事项。

因为人们理解集信号和符号的方式各有不同,玩法测试可以快速反映出一种现象:要向想法千差万别的群体传递一个游戏图标的意思,或者让缺乏基本符号认知能力的玩家摁压某个按钮后执行预期的后续操作,真是一个棘手的问题。设计师最好不要想当然地认为玩家会无师自通,而要了解他们的行动方向是什么。

迭代设计过程可以让设计师通过多次设计,判断出玩家的操作特点。掌握这种能力可以让设计师找到自己要探索的设计方法,同时还可以积累自己的知识和经验。

迭代过程的三个步骤
迭代设计过程总要经历三个独特步骤的不断循环:规划、测试、评估。这三个核心元素构成了游戏设计的基本过程。剩下的基本上就是重复了。

iterative design(from naviscent.com)

iterative design(from naviscent.com)

规划。这是你在迭代开始前的必经阶段。只有进入可玩状态的新游戏机制才能算是具有一定价值。你可以先创造一个游戏原型,令其助你快速落实脑中的想法,成为他人可先试玩的东西。

你有多种原型设计选择。例如Flash和Game Maker等许多一站式开发工具,它们允许设计师在最低限度编程知识的情况下,快速生成游戏原型的可玩性和可测试版本。

还有一些低技术要求的方法支持设计师快速创建原型和游戏机制,例如不少设计师屡试不爽的纸质原型设计法,它只需要纸和笔就能呈现游戏设计的必备元素。使用纸张测试游戏创意无疑是一种更快捷和实惠的方法,它还能为设计师节省更多周转时间,尤其是在反馈分析和功能落实这两个方面。

创建好原型之后,你就可以开始测试,或者规划好自己想测试原型的那个环节。你每次仅锁定游戏中的一个环节,可以让迭代过程更加顺利。

测试。迭代设计过程的第二个阶段就是测试原型。从理想化的角度来说,测试团队最好是由未介入该游戏开发的人员组成。因为开发团队长年累月与游戏打交道,他们早就吃透了游戏的各个细节,所以很难再提供什么有价值的批评性建议。如果要收集真正有价值的反馈信息,最好是让其他人来执行测试。

测试人员可以反映出游戏设计所存在的正面与负面情况,为了最大化测试过程的价值,并从中收集更多有用的反馈信息,可以考虑设计一份简单的调查问卷,其中内容需与你希望改进的方向有关。让测试人员在测试结束后记录下自己的反馈结果,但需要注意的是,这些问题的设计不可存在误导性,不能让这些问题左右测试人员的想法。

评估。迭代设计的第三个步骤就是评估你从测试人员那里得到的反馈结果。开发团队可以由此收集到与当前游戏设计相关的数据,并通过对其分析,判断哪些环节需要改进。

在这个阶段要做好一个心理准备,有些测试人员可能会纠结于开发者原来认为非常简单且直接的游戏环节,如果你看到这种情况反复出现,事后不要去纠正他们。这只能说明你的设计有问题,但幸好你还有些时间可以隔离这种问题,找到新的解决方案。

重复。在你重复迭代过程的时候,你会规划出可能只有一两个地方经过调整的新游戏设计版本,这时候再找些新玩家来测试游戏,收集并分析新数据,判断你的调整是否生效。要对每个测试结果进行评估,并针对下一个迭代过程改造游戏。

与团队成员迭代游戏

我也建议你和开发团队成员进行沟通,让大家都清楚何为迭代设计,并向其说明引进这一过程会对开发工作产生的影响。许多新手可能会惊讶地发现,多次的调整会造成大量的返工,尤其是在团队成员仍在继续探索哪些新元素可行或行不通的情况下。

最好是在开发初始阶段就制定好调整游戏的日程安排。在游戏开发日程安排中添加额外的项目调整时间,可以减少团队成员的无用功(游戏邦注:如果你也是初次使用迭代过程,可以先预估自己所需要的调整时间,然后在日程表中把它翻倍)。

但调整到什么程度才算合格?在理想情况下,你当然可以设计,测试然后一直无休无止地调整到自己彻底满意为止。但在现实生活中,时间就是金钱。但幸好我们还有一些方法可以避免这种调整工作陷入没完没了的境地。

你可以先找出游戏设计需投入最多精力的重点环节,你是要测试战斗控制方式还是优化前端的用户界面?分辨出游戏设计的核心环节,然后尽最大努力进行测试,并尽早并时常调整这些内容。

下一步就是为团队设定目标,控制相关游戏机制的迭代次数。告诉团队成员,“要把这个机制加入游戏中,在第5次迭代时就要完工”。这样会让团队的工作更有重心,最大化每次修改内容的工作效能。

在每次迭代中成长

现在你可能已经清楚迭代过程对设计新游戏的作用,需要指出的是,这种方法对挖掘全新的想法和创意来说也十分管用。这种原则可以让你进一步了解游戏设计,并以新角度看待核心用户体验。

记住迭代过程的关键在于快速。不要在任何一个游戏创意上纠结太多时间。重点是调整、测试,调整、测试。让测试者告诉你哪些内容可行,哪些东西多此一举,直到他们的反馈结果以及你创造性解决问题的能力使你更上一层楼为止。

游戏邦注:原文发表于2008年7月22日,所涉事件及数据为当时为准。(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

Iterative Design

- Brandon Van Slyke

One word you’ll hear tossed around all the time in the game industry is “iterative.”

It’s a seemingly innocuous little word — so are its other forms: iterate, iteration, and in code, iterator. Nevertheless, it’s become increasingly necessary for modern game developers to understand the importance of the iterative process and to realize how this catchall term denotes the general progression of design and implementation in a major game studio.

What is Iterative Design?

Like many other design professions, such as web design and user interface design, video game designers rarely deliver a flawless product their first time out of the gate. It’s only through rigorous testing and refinement of the core idea that designers are able to home in on what is (and more importantly, what isn’t) working within the constraints of a current design.

This cyclical trial-and-error process is the foundation of the iterative design philosophy.

At each stage of a design, usability testing occurs and continuous improvements are implemented based on information gathered through accurate observable feedback. It’s this system of refinement through play testing that makes iterative design such an effective method when developing video games. It allows game developers to quickly identify problem areas while providing them with the information needed to help them gradually improve the overall play experience.

This method of testing and improving a design based on feedback and observations may seem like it’s a simple matter of common sense. But understanding exactly what iterative design is and why it’s used can teach us a lot about how we identifying and discern what is “fun” and what is not.

Why Use Iterative Design?

As you might imagine, a large portion of actually designing a game is figuring out how you’re going to communicate important information to the player. Effectively conveying both positive

and negative feedback should be a top priority and is essential when attempting to create engaging interactive experiences.

Because people have a tendency to interpret signs and symbols differently, play testing will quickly reveal that it can be pretty difficult to communicate the intended meaning of an in-game icon or invoke the desired sequence of button presses from a player without some basic understanding of semiotics. It’s never a good idea to just assume that players will get it. You want to know that they do.

The iterative design process gives you the ability to evaluate player affordance across multiple versions of a design. The insights gained here will help you determine which avenues you want to explore while also adding to the pile of knowledge you’ve already acquired.

Iteration in Three Steps

The iterative design process occurs in a continuous cycle involving three unique stages: formulate, test, evaluate. These core elements make up the basic progression in which the development of a game will follow. The rest is simply rinse and repeat.

Formulate. The first thing you’re going to need when starting out is something actually tangible to iterate. An idea for a new game mechanic is unproven and not worth much until it’s been implemented somewhere in a playable state. You can get the ball rolling by creating a prototype. A prototype provides you a vehicle to get the idea out of your head and into someone else’s hands.

In fact, there are a variety of different ways you can choose to prototype your designs. Popular all-in-one development tools like Flash and Game Maker provide the ability to get functional and testable versions of your designs up and running quickly and with minimal scripting knowledge.

Other more low-tech methods for quickly sampling new ideas and game mechanics include the tried and true paper prototyping technique, which involves representing the necessary elements of the game’s design with nothing more than paper and pen. Using paper to test out original ideas is a much quicker and far cheaper way to swiftly validate new design decisions. It also allows for a significantly faster turnaround time, especially in regard to feedback analysis and feature implementation.

Once you have created a prototype, you can begin testing; or you can formulate which characteristics of the prototype you want to test. The iterative process will likely proceed much smoother if you focus on only one aspect of the game at a time.

Test. The next step in the iterative design process is to test the prototype. Ideally, the testing team should be composed of people who haven’t had a hand in creating the game. Members of the development team are often too familiar with the intricacies of the title to provide the type of criticism desired. To get truly objective feedback, you’re better off going with a fresh pair of eyes.

Play testers are a phenomenal resource to tap when endeavoring to home in on what does and doesn’t work within a given version of a design. To make the most out of your play testing sessions, as well as obtain stronger and more useful feedback, consider designing a short questionnaire pertaining to aspects of the game you’re looking to improve. Have testers record their feedback when they’ve completed their session, but remember to stay mindful of how you word particular questions because you don’t want to influence their answers or opinions.

For a more thorough explanation of play testing and how game developers carry it out, see “Pro Game Dev Tips: Play Testing.”

Evaluate. The third step in designing iteratively is to evaluate the feedback you’ve received from the play testing sessions. Here, the development team collects together all the available data concerning the current state of the game design and analyzes it to determine which areas are in need of improvement.

Be prepared for your players to have struggled with something you thought was extremely straightforward about the game — and if you see repeated feedback of this nature, don’t second-guess the testers. Something is wrong with your design. Luckily, you’ve scheduled time to isolate the problem and try out a few solutions.

Repeat. As you repeat the iterative process, you will formulate a new version of your game with just one or two things changed; have new players test it; and collect and analyze new data to assess whether your changes were effective. The results of each test session should be evaluated and reworked into the next iteration.

Iterating a Game with a Team

It’s also recommended that you connect with your team and make sure everyone understands what iterative design is and what to expect by incorporating the process into the production pipeline. It might come as a surprise to the uninitiated when they realize that multiple revisions can easily turn into substantial rework, especially as the team continues to explore which elements work and which don’t.

Try to schedule time for refinement early in the planning stages of development. By including additional time for iteration into your game’s production schedule, the team will be able to minimize the amount of throwaway work that is produced. If you’ve never used an iterative process before, estimate how much time you think you’ll need and then double it.

But when is enough actually enough? It’s true that in a perfect world, you’d be able to design, test, and refine until the cows come home. However, in the real world time is money. The good news is that there are some things you can do to help curb the inclination to constantly keep improving.

For starters, you can prioritize which elements of the design you’d like to focus your energy on. Do you want to start testing combat controls or look into ways in which you can improve the front-end user interface? Identify the core pieces of the design that drive the experience and do your best to make sure that you begin testing and tuning them early and often.

Next you should set goals for the team by limiting the number of iterations permitted on any given game mechanic. Say to the team, “We’re going to try to have this mechanic integrated and polished by the fifth iteration.” This will keep the team focused and on track while effectively maximizing the effort put forth in every revision.

Improve Yourself One Iteration at a Time

By now you’ve probably gleaned that iterative design can be useful when crafting new game designs, but it’s important to underscore that it can also be tremendously helpful when exploring completely original and innovative ideas that no one has really seen before. As a philosophy, it will help you understand game design better by giving you new insight into the core user experience.

Remember that iterations should be quick. Don’t spend too long on any one idea. The whole point is to tweak and test, tweak and test. Let your play testers tell you what works and what doesn’t, until their feedback, coupled with your creative problem-solving abilities, is what finally leads you to your next eureka moment.(source:gamecareerguide


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