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Paul Woodbridge分享社交游戏设计4大秘诀

发布时间:2012-06-09 09:21:26 Tags:,,,,

作者:Paul Woodbridge

密斯·凡德罗(游戏邦注:二十世纪中期世界上最著名的四位现代建筑大师之一)被广泛引用的“少就是多”哲理并不适合用于游戏产业中。从传统意义上来看,游戏必须拥有尽可能多的关卡,图像,武器,按钮等。所以在这里,“越多才是越好”。

对于了解游戏的玩家来说这也许是最合适的原理,但是如此我们便很难促使更多大众市场用户选择我们的游戏。所以当我们在2005年发行了第一款游戏《Buzz!》时,我们便尽可能地保持游戏内容的简单性(不管是游戏控制还是益智问答模式)。我们尽可能地排除了一切多余内容——但是游戏设计师的本能却是塞进更多额外的功能。

最终《Buzz!》吸引了无数玩家并获得了上百万的销量,而我们也意识到了推动这款游戏获得成功的主要原因,以及这些成功元素该如何运用于社交游戏中。我们也将这些经验应用于《蓝蛤蟆谋杀档案》等多款游戏的开发中。

但是如果我们不是在制作另一款《Buzz!》,有些经验便没有多大价值。就像当我们在纠结游戏时间设置时,我们发现每一轮最好设置8个问题而每个问题压缩在3分钟之内,也就是说总体游戏时长不应该超过30分钟。但是也存在一些对其它游戏非常有帮助的元素。

ps3_buzz(from psxextreme.com)

ps3_buzz(from psxextreme.com)

所以以下我将列出社交游戏设计的4大秘诀:

秘诀1:保持游戏的简单性

如果你不能用一个句子解释清楚玩家该做些什么,那就说明你的游戏太过复杂了。就像我们一开始便明确了保持所有设计决策(包括游戏机制,界面以及鸣峰器)的简单。虽然这听起来很容易,但是实践起来却非常困难,需要经过多次试验。

《Buzz!》的设计总监Paul Woodbridge说道:“我不认为其他开发者也认可我们所推崇的‘简单性’。在最初的《Buzz!》中我们拥有一个叫做‘三思而后行’的回合。即让玩家在选择正确答案相对应的按钮颜色前按压鸣峰器,而正是这个两步过程引起了问题。这让我们悟出了保持‘简单’其实很简单。”

在PlayStation 3版本的《Buzz!》中我们删除了以前每个游戏回合前的规则屏幕。因为我们发现几乎没有玩家会去阅读这些内容,而如果我们的设置合理的话玩家便也不会混淆这些规则。

规则2:确保游戏有趣

Paul表示:“因为我们是致力于一些简单的游戏,所以我们无需纠结自己所做的是对还是错。要么有趣,要么无趣。而发现无趣的内容我们也只需要将其丢弃便可。我们总是能够在开始工作的1周内做出判断。”

不管我们是在为一些新理念创造故事板还是在Flash上建造任务原型,我们都始终坚持简单与乐趣的理念,也就意味着当我们获得某些想法时总是能够快速明确它是否适合《Buzz!》。而对我们来说最大的挑战便是想出一个既有趣又简单的想法。

“听起来好像我们自揭短处似的,但是这的确是我们在游戏创造过程中所坚持的设计哲学,”Paul说道,同时他也认可了任天堂和动视这两家公司对于这一理念的坚持。

他继续说道:“我并不认为玩家喜欢层层叠叠的菜单或者无限的定制内容。在我最近玩过的一款游戏中,我不得不耗费半个小时去打开(似乎有)20几个菜单才能将弹药安进枪支中!这款游戏的设计师到底是怎么想的?这就是他们口中所谓的好游戏?它只是以种种垃圾内容影响我的游戏体验罢了!”

规则3:促进屏幕外的互动

《Buzz!》以及其它社交游戏的真正乐趣都在于屏幕之外。我们希望在玩家间创造出令人愉快的紧张感和竞争状态,因为这便是带给他们乐趣的所在。我们不希望看到玩家只是简单地开始游戏而一点都不关心好友在做什么。

我们既希望让玩家能够热衷于玩我们的游戏并感到愉快,同时也希望扮演好促进者的角色。让玩家能够根据自己的意愿轻松地玩《Buzz!》,并推动他们与好友之间进行更多的互动与竞争。

规则4:了解玩家!

作为设计师我们所面临的最大挑战便是根据玩家的需求创造并完善《Buzz!》。

Paul说道:“最近我们致力进行游戏测试,让玩家列出他们心中最有趣的《Buzz!》回合。但是让人郁闷的是,玩家所喜欢的都是一些较简单的回合。”

所以我们便需要尝试着去寻找一些有趣的新方法去呈现问题并寻找答案,同时也需要学会放下自我。虽然作为游戏设计师我们也喜欢像《精神世界》这样的创新游戏,但是我们需要始终牢记的是,我们所面对的是《Buzz!》这款达到百万销量的游戏!

“在我们的测试中有人表示他喜欢《Buzz!》是因为自己能够边喝酒边玩游戏,而在《FIFA》这类型游戏中,如果你中途喝口酒的话可能就会错失一颗球。”

他继续说道:“《FIFA》开发团队是否考虑过把游戏变成是第一人称游戏?这是不可能的事。他们有自己的准则,他们也知道当前的模式最适合这款游戏。当然开发者也可能问‘嘿,我们是否能够改变这款游戏?”,但是事实上这种改变却不一定符合市场的需求。”

Paul总结道:“这是一个细分市场,但是《Buzz!》绝对是我唯一愿意推荐给我妈的游戏!它对我来说具有非常深刻的意义。”

游戏邦注:原文发表于2009年11月9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

The four secrets of social games design

Paul Woodbridge

Mies van der Rohe’s much-quoted maxim ‘Less is more’ is not the games industry’s mantra. Games must traditionally have more levels, more graphics, more weapons, and more buttons. ‘More is more’ would be closer.

That’s fine for gamers already in the know, but it’s hardly going to encourage the mass-market. Since our first Buzz!? game in 2005, we’ve instead kept things simple, from the Buzz! controller to the quiz show format. We’ve taken things out where a game designer’s instinct might be to put extra ‘features’ in.

Half-a-dozen follow-ups and millions of sales later, we now know a lot about what makes Buzz! tick, and a little bit about applying those findings to social games in general. We’ve taken what we’ve learned from Buzz! and applied it to Blue Toad Murder Files? and also other titles we’re working on.

Some of our learning won’t be relevant unless you’re making the next Buzz! In our obsession with pacing, for example, we’ve discovered rounds work best if eight questions long and three minutes in length, and a game shouldn’t be more than 30 minutes in total. But other discoveries are more broad-brush strokes that we think others might appreciate.

Here then are four secrets of social game design:

Rule 1: Keep it simple

If you can’t explain in one sentence what the player has to do, it’s too complicated. All our design decisions – from the gameplay mechanics to the interface to the buzzer – put simplicity first. Sounds easy, but in fact it’s enormously difficult and involves plenty of trial-and-error.

“I don’t think most developers would appreciate how ‘simple’ we mean,” says Paul Woodbridge, the Design Director who’s worked on Buzz! since day one. “In the first Buzz! we had a round called ‘Look before you leap’. It involved pushing the buzzer before selecting the correct answer with the coloured buttons, and just that two-stage process caused problems. It surprises even us how simple ‘simple’ means.”

For the PlayStation 3 version of Buzz!, we’ve ditched the rule screens that previously preceded the rounds. Nobody ever reads them, and if we’ve done our job right they won’t miss them.

Rule 2: Make it fun

“Because we’re making simple games, there’s no difficult questions about whether we’re doing the right thing or not,” says Paul. “Either it’s fun, or it’s not fun – and if it’s not fun we throw it away. We can find that out in a week.”

While we do storyboard new ideas and sometimes commission prototypes in Flash, this focus on simplicity and fun – plus our experience – means we usually know whether something will work in Buzz! as soon as we hear the idea. The hard part is coming up with fun concepts that are also simple.

“It sounds like we’re selling ourselves short here, but it’s a game design philosophy that works for the kind of games we make,” says Paul, who name checks Nintendo and Blizzard as two companies who get it right.

“I don’t think many people crave layers and layers of menus or infinite customisation,” he continues. “Recently I played a game – which I won’t name – and half an hour in I had to open up what felt like 20 menus to install ammo into my gun! What were these designers doing? They’ve got a genuinely damn good game, which they’ve – not ruined, but hindered – by putting in this extra rubbish.”

Rule 3: Promote off-screen interaction

The real fun in Buzz! and other social games happens off-screen. We want to create entertaining tensions, rivalries and arguments between players, because that’s when they’re having fun. We don’t want players staring at the game and not really caring what their friends are doing.

We want to keep people engaged and entertained, but really we’re almost a facilitator. People can play Buzz! studiously if they want, but it’s more about me stealing points from the person already in last place, and us then having a fight on the couch.

Rule 4: Know your audience!

One of our biggest challenges as designers is to keep making the Buzz! our players want.

“We did a focus test recently, where we asked players to rate what they thought were the most fun rounds in Buzz!,” reveals Paul. “Almost depressingly, the rounds they liked best were the most simple.”

Our task then is to try and find new and interesting ways to present questions and answers, while keeping our own egos out of the picture. As games designers we love innovative darlings of the specialist press like Psychonauts, but we’ve got to remember it’s Buzz! that sells millions.

“In the focus tests someone said they liked Buzz! because you can have a drink while you’re playing,” says Paul. “But you can’t have a sip of your beer in FIFA without losing a goal.”

“Do the FIFA team ever consider making their game first-person?” he continues. “Of course not – they’ve got a formula, and they know it works for the right reasons. It’s very tempting as developers to ask ‘Hey, what can we do with this to really change the game?’, but it’s not usually what the market wants.”

“It’s a cliché, but Buzz! is absolutely the only game I’ve ever been able to put my mum in front of,” concludes Paul. “I do think that speaks volumes.”(source:relentless software)


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