作者：Matt Christian

对于玩家来说，最糟糕的游戏体验之一是遇到“不可能的任务（自动保存）”，即玩家遇到了一个极端困难的挑战，或者因为游戏的自动保存设置的问题而不可能完成某些任务。

玩家是这种情况的受害者，但这并不是他们的错，一切都归咎于游戏设计。以下是我最近在游戏中遇到的一些问题，以及游戏开发专业人士的相关解决方法。

简单模式

我并未亲自接触过这种体验，但它或许可为今后的游戏所借鉴。有人认为Capcom的《恶魔猎人3》是一款非常困难的游戏，Capcom自己也意识到了这一点，因而玩家在游戏的“一般模式”中失败3次后，游戏系统就会弹出信息，“祝贺”他们解琐了“简单模式”！

Capcom的解决方案是让玩家在碰壁后自主选择是否继续游戏。也许这不是最佳解决方法，但却是近几年来游戏设计中最管用的策略之一。

自动保存

与之前的《光晕》游戏系列一样，Bungie的《光环: 致远星》在游戏中的某些场景中也使用了自动保存系统。有时候，游戏系统在玩家通过某些关卡，完成一些特定任务（游戏邦注：例如杀死某个空间中的所有敌人）进行自动保存，或者在玩家长期逗留在某个地点时显示出保存的图标。

halo-reach(from guardian.co.uk)

当我在玩《致远星》时，有一个场景是我驾驶着Warthog行走在路上，旁边跟着我的团队。毫无预兆地，前方突然出现了一个弯道，我们一行人便瞬间掉进一个可怕的悬崖中，全军覆没。

没想到的是，这款游戏在发生转折点的前1，2秒进行了自动保存。但是不管游戏如何反复让我和团队复生，我们最终都会掉到悬崖中去。因为Warthog的设计以及一些物理系统，我们根本不可能“急刹车”或者快速阻止这种情况的发生。

这种问题就真的是一种设计“漏洞”了。其核心游戏设计与保存系统本身都很稳定，但是当两者结合在一起时便很容易出现一些问题，需要融入其他设计才能解决。

我认为Bungie开发者非常完美地解决了这个问题，并且这可能是我遇到的最棒的解决方法。当我在游戏中失败了5至10次后，我将会重新回到1分钟前的关卡中。如此让我在面对“不可能的任务”时不用回到最初场景重新开始一切挑战。

增加生命值

我最近接触了Visceral Games工作室的游戏《但丁地狱》。因为自信自己的游戏水平没问题，我便选择从困难模式开始玩这款游戏。在一开始的一些关卡中一切都进展得很顺利，直到我遇到板机的部分，在这里我必须拉动控制杆以延伸桥的长度，在这里我会遇到6个敌人。但是这时我的生命值还很低，这意味着我很快就会被杀死。幸运的是，我能够再次复苏在拉动控制杆之前的生命，虽然仍然只是拥有较少的生命值。

我反复因这些怪兽而生生死死，最后游戏弹出一个类似于“如果你不喜欢这个机制，可以在暂停菜单中更改它的难度”的提示信息。直到我又再次“死亡”时，我才发现游戏中的一些变化，即当我再次复苏时，我的生命值提高了。而后来的每次复苏都能让我拥有更多的生命值，直到最后生命条完全满格。

这种方法很适合解决游戏的自动保存漏洞问题。虽然Bungie的方法也挺管用，但是如果不能拥有更多生命值，我在接下来的关卡中只能继续反复丧命了。

但是，也许是我的玩家自尊在作祟，我并不喜欢这种解决方法，因为游戏在复苏过程中实在给予了太多“帮助”。在后来的游戏关卡中，我发现我之所以能够完成一些关卡是因为游戏给予我足够的生命值，并以此帮助我提高技能而最终完成任务。事实上，有些地方甚至让我觉得自己好像是为提升了生命值，而并非要攻克这个难关，所以有意采用了这种“作弊”方法。

结语

每一款游戏都有自己解决难度的问题以及自动保存机制的方法。开发者必须根据游戏及用户特点有针对性地选择解决问题的设计方案。针对于这种漏洞作出的调整很多时候可助你吸引到更多玩家，让游戏变得更具普适性和易用性。应该多留意其他公司是如何解决这些问题，并有针对性地调整他们的方法，将其合理运用于自己的游戏。虽然你也可以无视这个问题，任游戏变得越来越困难，但是你要想清楚，当玩家在游戏中只会反复死亡时，还会有多少人愿意继续玩你的游戏？

游戏邦注：原文发表于2011年8月3日，所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。（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）

Fixing the “Impossible (Auto Save) Scenario”

by Matt Christian on 08/03/11

One of the most aggravating things a player can experience is the “impossible (auto save) scenario”, a situation where the player finds themselves in a portion of the game where they’re presented with a challenge that is either extremely difficult or actually impossible due to the game auto saving in an unfortunate spot.

Sadly for the gamer, this isn’t their fault and is completely an issue with game design.  Here are some experiences I’ve had in recent games and the solutions presented by game development professionals.

Precursor

This is the one item I haven’t experienced first hand, but is definitely a precursor to the ideas presented in the next sections.  A major point of interest reviewers had for Devil May Cry 3 by Capcom was the fact that the game was very difficult.  Capcom knew this and after dying three times in Normal mode the gamer was given a congratulatory pat on the back and told they’ve unlocked Easy mode!

Capcom’s solution provided the player with the option to continue the game after hitting a difficulty wall.  It may not have been the most elegant solution (we’ll see some great ones coming up) but it definitely was one of the most publicized inclusions of this design a game has had in recent years.

Cliff Diving

Bungie’s Halo: Reach implements an auto save system that fires in the game at certain points, similar to the previous Halo games.  Sometimes the save seems possibly triggered by the player progressing through a level, a certain event completed (such as killing all enemies in a room), or even time-based as you can run around a single spot for a long time and sometimes are granted with the saving icon.

At one point in Reach I found myself cruising along a road in my trusty Warthog with my dedicated team beside me.  Without warning, a hairpin turn appears and we all go hurtling off the cliff in the most horrifying of space-marine related auto deaths known to man (or SPARTAN).

Little did I know, the game had recently autosaved… about 1-2 seconds before the turn.  Over and over the game would respawn my band of crash test dummies only to shoot us off the cliff.  Due to the design behind the Warthog and the included physics system, it was physically impossible to turn that sharp or stop fast enough to prevent this situation.

This issue is really a ‘loophole’ (or logic hole) in the design.  The design of the core game is rather solid and the save system is solid, but the way the two work together just creates problems that need to be solved through additional design.

In my opinion, the developers at Bungie solved this extremely elegantly and is one of the best design decisions I’ve noticed in a game.  After dying between 5 and 10 times, the game seemed to revert to a previous checkpoint which happened to be only a minute or so before the turn.  This solved my impossible scenario without feeling like I was overly set back in the game.

The Devil is in the Details

A recent game rental provided me with a copy of Visceral Games’ “retelling” of Dante’s Inferno.  Feeling confident in my gaming abilities I started a new game on hard mode (note, there is one higher difficulty but is locked the first play through).  Everything was going well for a few ‘levels’ until I hit a trigger section, a spot where I was supposed to pull a lever which would extend a bridge and, to no surprise, spawned 6 enemies.  I only had a sliver of health at this point so I was quickly killed.  Thankfully the game spawned me just before the lever pull but still with that sliver of life.

Over and over these demonesque beasts would take me out until finally after respawning several times the game popped up a little tooltip: “You know, if you suck this bad, you can change the difficulty in the pause menu” (loosely translated).  It wasn’t until dying again that I noticed the game had done something else, it actually had filled my life bar a bit when respawning me.  Every subsequent respawn would provide me with more and more health until eventually my life bar would be completely full.

In the context of this style of game it was a good solution to a problem with the auto save loophole.  The Bungie solution would possibly have worked but without that extra life I might just be stuck in a longer area and dying over and over.

But, maybe it’s my gamer ego talking, this solution irritated me because the game was giving me more than just a little helping touch on respawn.  Later in the game I knew I could complete a section but by the time my skill was there I was already being handed free life gain.  In reality, in some areas it felt like I was somehow cheating by taking a boost in life when I didn’t feel I needed it only to beat the system.

Take Away

In the end, every game has a different way of dealing with difficulty and with implications with auto save.  The design choice for solving this issue should be appropriate for the game and the audience.  In most cases this kind of loophole fix will probably even expand your audience as you’re trying to make the game more accessible to more ability levels.  Keep in mind how other companies have provided solutions for these issues and even try to leverage them with some added changes.  Sure you can just ignore it and make your game hard, but how many players are going to give your game a fourth and fifth chance after dying in the same manner over and over and over and….（source:gamasutra）