作者：Iwan Gabovitch

Data Realms（游戏邦注：《表层指挥》开发商）与公众分享了他们的备忘录列表。这也让我们重新理解了公开游戏开发过程的这一方法以及如何将此作为游戏的市场营销手段。

open development graph(from gamasutra)

（开放性开发图表：公开游戏的开发过程，包括制造舆论，创建社区，结识新友，彼此间进行潜在的互动。）

1.向预购玩家“剧透”早期内容

当你的早期游戏版本拥有重玩价值时，让玩家们能够开始预购你的游戏，并让他们尝试游戏的预先版本。

Wolfire's overgrowth alpha leaks(from gamaustra)

图：Wolfire的《Overgrowth》便在预定论坛上“剧透”预先版本的内容，并且只有那些预购了这款游戏的玩家才能看到这些内容。

2.公开剩下的任务和漏洞

玩家总是很重视进度条的存在。如果游戏能够让玩家访问内部漏洞追踪系统，也便能以此吸引游戏的超级粉丝始终支持游戏的发展。

natural selection 2's roadmap(from gamasutra)

图：Unknown Worlds便将《物竞天择2》的进度条直接发布在游戏主页上。

3.分享引导游戏设计的内容

如果一款游戏主要是依赖于情节而发展，那么通常在整个项目真正完成之前，文案和设计师很难让玩家真正了解游戏故事。当然了设计师也有一些能够共享的剧情内容：比起让玩家体验还未成熟的游戏情节（即在游戏发行之前），我们可以向他们呈现如何构造剧情的转折，并以现有游戏为例进行说明。

frictional games share thoughts(from gamasutra)

图：Frictional Games在文章《Narrative not a game mechanic?》中分享了他们关于游戏和故事设计的想法。

（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）

3 Examples of Open Development Marketing in Action

by Iwan Gabovitch

Image: Open development graph: being open about your developments makes noise, grows the community and lets you meet new people which has potential to interact which each other.

Today, Data Realms (Cortex Command) started sharing their backlog (aka ToDo-list) with the public. This made me want to re-capture some methods of being open about your game development and using this for marketing.

1. “Leak” alphas to pre-orderers

When your early version already has re-play value, allowing people to pre-order your games and to play your alpha versions is one of the best things you can do.

Image: Wolfire’s Overgrowth alpha “leaks” get distributed via their preorder forum, which you can only see if you preordered the game.

2. Show off remaining tasks and bugs

Progress bars are beauty in players’ eyes. Simply giving players read (and ideally write) access to your internal bug tracker allows super-fans to stalk you with no additional efforts on your side.

Image: Natural Selection 2′s roadmap progress is being shared by Unknown Worlds live, directly on the game’s homepage.

3. Share the knowledge that powers your design

When a game strongly depends on its plot, it often becomes hard for the writers and designers to let players read or play the story before the project is finished. Even in these cases there is still a lot available in the designers’ heads that can be shared spoiler-free: Instead of letting the player experience an in-game plot-twist prematurely (before the game is released), you can teach them about how plot twists are constructed and examine examples of plot twists in existing games.

Image: Frictional Games shares thoughts about game and story design in their “Narrative not a game mechanic?” article.

Afterword

This short article is based on some old slides I used at a talk at HTW Berlin years ago. This compact version shows how some of these practices are actually visible on the websites of the projects.

I myself work at Joyride Labs on a Linux/OSX/Windows game. Our engine code is open source, our bug tracker is completely public, our pre-release versions (that exclude the story mode) are available for download for free.

Are there any other noteworthy examples you would like to share? Please do so in the comments.(source:GAMASUTRA)