作者：Jeremie Dupuis

老实说，当我第一次听说《Triple Town》的游戏理念时，我报以怀疑的态度。的确，乍看之下，这就是“另一种形式的组合消除类游戏（Match-3 game）”，所以不可能具有多大的乐趣。但是不管怎样，除了因为它是Facebook上的游戏并且是免费的，推动我安装这款游戏主要还是因为一封来自游戏设计师阐述关于该游戏测试时间（10月3日）的tweet。并且在尝试后我发现这款游戏并未让我失望！

Triple Town（from fbsocialapps.com）

“《Triple Town》是另一款《宝石迷阵闪电战》？！”

在《Triple Town》中并未设置计时器，你需要使用剩余的空间去“匹配三个或更多游戏组件：组合三片草地创造一束花，组合后三束花创造一个灌木，组合三个灌木创造一颗树，等等。直到你能够完全将整个board填满房屋，教堂以及城堡为止。”（摘自：http://www.tripletown.com）

如此看来《Triple Town》与《宝石迷阵闪电战》这种组合消除类游戏有所不同，因为在这款游戏中你不需要与时间做斗争，反倒是需要面对空间不足的情况。而且我也可以向你保证，当你需要花费更长时间去寻找问题的解决方法时，你便会感受到更强大的压迫感（所以你也会因为预感到结局的到来而难过）。

制作一款优秀游戏所需要的秘密元素

我并不打算将本篇文章作为一份完整的游戏综述，反而我将侧重于分析创造一款简单但却有深意的游戏所需要的一些秘密元素，并且这些秘密元素已经在整个Facebook平台上迅速传播开来。

秘密元素1：在游戏玩法中添加运气成份

如果使用得当，运气将成为一种非常有帮助的元素；《Tripe Town》便是一个成功的例子

1）等待下一个组件的出现

祈祷下一个组件是个有利的类型！

就像在《俄罗斯方块》中，你需要努力祈祷下一个出现的组件能够匹配你的组合。这种随机参数创造了各种各样的场景，我想如果霍默·辛普森（游戏邦注：美国电视动画《辛普森一家》中的一名角色）在玩这款游戏肯定会发出“Wooooohhhhooo!”以及“D’oh！”（辛普森的口头禅，通常在其走霉运或受伤时不由自主地说出来）等语气词。但是在此值得肯定的是，这些组件的配置并不是基于运气，而是开发者在经过无数次的优化和测试后才创造出的多种组件分配。

triple town shop(from fbsocialapps.com)

2）初始组件定位

当你开始游戏时，你的board并不是空的，这就意味着你需要努力去清除多余内容并好好利用初始定位。有些位置会比其它位置更有利，但是你却决定不了这种选择。

秘密元素2：通过解决问题而产生自豪感

解决问题对于益智游戏玩家来说是最佳激励手段。

组合大教堂是我最喜欢的游戏时刻

作为一名益智游戏的忠实玩家，我敢保证你肯定不会对此感到失望。在每一款游戏中你都将做出无数个决定，而你的每一个决定也将影响着游戏接下来的发展。

当你组合了3个大教堂并获得财富时，你便会记起自己在游戏中所使用的策略以及如何控制熊的位置，如此你的自豪感也会油然而生，并且你会对游戏设计师能够给予你分数以及货币等奖励充满感激。

秘密元素3：将盈利添加到游戏玩法中

商店——你最佳帮手

当你开始游戏时你只能使用一些初始货币，并购买一些组件安置在你的board中。如果你希望获得更高分数，你就需要使用这些货币去购买那些你需要等待10个回合才能获得的组件（因为有时候你可能等不了那么长的回合发展过程）。

在游戏中，你只能在组合3座教堂后才能获得货币；但是很明确这一过程需要耗费较长时间，并且如果你的board几乎被填满时你便更难达到这一目标。所以有时候当你需要购买更多组件时你会面临缺少货币和时间的可能性。

而将货币和商店机制整合到游戏玩法中便是一种非常明智的游戏设计决策，将有效地推动游戏中的盈利。

这种模式的唯一局限在于玩家与好友间的竞争不足以推动玩家购买这些组件，特别是当他们能够在游戏中获得这些组件时。但是比赛，挑战，任务或者成就等功能则能够快速提高玩家对于这些组件的需求。

秘密元素4：不要限制你的分数系统

每周排行中的各种分数

1）金字塔式的分数

组合教堂比组合房屋的分数高，组合房屋比组合树木的分数高，而组合树木比组合灌木的分数高，如此类推。这种分数等级将影响着玩家在游戏中所做出的各种决定，从而导致不同玩家的游戏进程的不同。

2）无限的游戏玩法

与《宝石迷阵闪电战》（只能够持续几分钟）不同，《Triple Town》甚至能够持续一周的时间（如果你是一名资深的游戏玩家的话）。玩家可以一直清除自己的board，并且在一些钻石的帮助下躲避各种不同的情境。玩家的游戏分数甚至可以从几千波动到上百万。

Weekly leaderboard(from fbsocialapps.com)

“Spryfox的长寿游戏！”

通过巧妙地结合了运气，耐心和经验，你便能够创造出一款长寿的游戏。特别是对于玩家来说，看到一款充满创造性与沉浸式体验的游戏来说更是喜悦不已。《Triple Town》还处于测试阶段，所以我们能够期待更多优秀的游戏元素被添加到这款优秀的游戏中！更让人兴奋的是，这款游戏也即将推出iPad版本！

原文发表于2011年10月10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）

4 Ingredients from Triple Town to Make your Facebook Game Better

Posted on 10 October 2011 by Jeremie Dupuis

Honestly, when I first heard about the concept of Triple Town,  I was a bit skeptical. Indeed, at first glance another “Match-3 game brought to another level” doesn’t sound very exciting.  But anyway, except that it’s on Facebook and free, the detail that made me install the game was a tweet by @danctheduck announcing the opening of the Beta On Oct 3rd. Following him on Twitter for a while, I knew he was not a random game designer, so obviously it had to be  interesting. And I wasn’t disappointed!

” Triple Town: yet another Bejeweled Blitz?! “

In Triple Town: no clock, you need to use the remaining empty spaces to “match three or more game-pieces: combine three grasses to make a flower, three flowers to make a bush, three bushes to make a tree… until you’ve filled the board with houses, cathedrals and castles.” (Source: http://www.tripletown.com)

So no, Triple Town is not another Match-3 game like Bejeweled Blitz as the thing you fight against is not time, it is the lack of space. And I can assure you it can be much more oppressing as the sensation of really needing to find a solution to get you out of a bad situation lasts longer (so is the pain when you see the end coming).

Secret ingredients used to make the game better

In this article, I will not do a complete game review, but I will mainly focus on some of the many ingredients that have been used to create a very simple but deep game, that is currently spreading like wildfire on Facebook.

Ingredient #1: Integrate luck into the gameplay

Luck is a powerful ingredient when used wisely and that is the case in Triple Town

a- Next piece coming

Praying for the next piece to be the good one!

Like in Tetris, you need to pray very hard so that the next piece that will come is the right one to complete you combination. This random parameter really creates an incredible variety of scenario and if Homer Simpson was playing the game, you could expect a dozen of “Wooooohhhhooo!” and “D’oh!” per game. One thing is sure: the way it is configured is not due to luck, it has been polished and tested thousands of time to create that variation of emotions.

b- Initial pieces positioning

When you start a game, the board is not empty, meaning you will have to work hard to clean it up and take advantage of the initial positioning. Some of them will be more favorable than another, and you have no control over it.

Ingredient #2: Create Pride through problem solving

Solving problems is the main motivation of players who are fans of Puzzle games.

Matching Big Churches – My Favorite Moment

And as a fan of Puzzle games, I can assure you won’t be disappointed on that side. You take hundreds of decisions per game, each of them having an impact on the following of the game.

When you combine 3 Big Churches and get the treasure, you then remember the hundreds of strategic turns and the dozen of bears you had to RIP  wisely for that, so yes you feel pride (sorry PETA for the bears  ) and you kindely thank the game designer decision to give you points AND coins for that.

Ingredient #3: Put Monetization at the center of your gameplay

The Shop – Your best friend

When you play a game, you start with an initial set of coins that you can use to purchase pieces to put on the board. If you want to beat your highscore, you will NEED to use these coins to purchase THE piece that you don’t want to be waiting for 10 turns (cause you can’t afford to wait that amount of turns sometimes).

During a game, you can only earn coins when combining 3 churchs, which is feasible but pretty long and hard to do when the board is almost full. So at some point, you gonna be in lack of coins, time where you’ll be asked if you want to purchase more.

Integrating the coins and the shop at the center of the gameplay is one of THE most clever game design decision that they took cause it will have a very good impact on monetization.

The only limit in that version is that competition amongst friends might not be enough to push many players to pay for these pieces, especially because you can earn them during the game, but features like Tournaments, Challenges, Missions or Achievements should come soon and increase the need for these pieces.

Ingredient #4: Don’t set limits to your Scoring System

Weekly Leaderboard with various scores

a- A pyramid of points

Combining churches is better than combining houses, that is better than combining trees, that is better than combining bushes… This hierarchy of points has an impact on the hundreds of decisions that you take at each game, making each game different.

b- Unlimited gameplay

Contrary to Bejeweled Blitz that only lasts a few minutes, a game of Triple Town can last a week if you’re a very advanced player. Indeed, you can always clean up your board and with the help of a few diamonds, you can get out of various situations. I let you imagine how the scores can vary from a few thousands points to millions of points.

“Long life to Spryfox!”

This is how you create, through the clever combination of luck, patience and experience, a game with infinite lifetime. This is very refreshing to see games that create innovative and addictive experience. When you think Triple Town is still in beta, you can expect more and more great ingredients to be added in the recipe of this great game! An iPad version should be added soon, just for the pleasure!(source:Facebook Social Apps Blog)