作者：Daniel Moeller

游戏越来越受欢迎，这一点日益凸显便捷游戏开发工具的重要性。值得一提的是，智能手机和平板电脑的日趋普遍促使日均游戏用户持续增多。各年龄层的用户都在外出走动时通过他们的智能手机或平板电脑玩《愤怒的小鸟》、《无尽之剑》或《水果忍者》。很多应用让你能够便捷设计自己的智能手机或平板电脑游戏，无需学习复杂编程语言。但这些应用没有涉及如何将你的游戏变成优秀作品，如下是5点供你参考的建议。

game design from tekgoblin.com

1. 用户粘性

你多半会同意，游戏应该从始至终都富有趣味，但随着玩家技能的日益提高，之前觉得有趣的游戏机制也会变得乏味。插入沉浸理论——心理学家Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi提出的著名理论，描述挑战和技能间平衡关系如何吸引用户。就其最简单的应用来说，这意味着，游戏各关卡都要比之前的关卡更难一些。其他方式包括添加感官信息（游戏邦注：如更细节的画面或混淆声音），或者挑战玩家游戏控制权限的游戏功能。

2. 积极性和意图

沉浸情况只有在游戏本身是个目标，不是完成某目标的工具时才会存在。在游戏中，积极性源自于玩家能够实现的系列目标，以及把握什么行动会带来成功的欲望。这包括高层次目标，如战胜最终boss，或在高分排行榜中位置获得提升，以及低层次目标，超越你目前的敌人，或是战略性放置防塔。系列目标促使玩家沉浸于游戏中，正确操作路线的微妙提示促使玩家持续尝试和探索，不会感到厌倦或困惑。

3. 行动和后果

所有行动都有相应后果，游戏通过提供包含益处和风险的冲突选择创造紧张感。玩家自主做出这些能够帮助他们实现目标的决策，但游戏需提供相关信息，支持他们的决策。关于行动的即时反馈能够帮助玩家把握游戏，通过教会他们如何在下次机会中表现更好赋予他们控制权感觉。

4. 奖励

良好决策之后就是奖励时间。多数游戏奖励都提供社会关注，以高分、徽章及社区评级的形式，或新游戏技能（游戏邦注：例如通过解锁新武器和关卡）。奖励机制取决于它们带给其他玩家的优势，玩家在获取奖励过程中所付出的努力，以及伴随其中的社会承认。

5. 故事

所有这些目标、行动和奖励若没有伴随其中的故事叙述就都毫无意义。你可以通过向玩家提供工具，让玩家构建自己的故事，或者你也可以操控他们的决策，促使他们创建你心中的故事内容。若所有这些都行不通，你可以借用闪光物体，毛绒生物，或是外来机器人僵尸等元素。（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）

5 Tips for Designing Your Own Game

by Daniel Moeller

The increasing popularity of gaming has surged the demand and supply for accessible game development tools. In particular, the widespread use of smartphones and tablets has really increased the number of people playing games on a daily basis. People of all ages play games like Angry Birds, Infinity Blade, or Fruit Ninja on their smartphone or tablet while they’re out and about. Many apps make it easy to design your own smartphone or tablet games without having to learn complicated programming languages. What these apps don’t cover, however, is how to make your game a good game, so here are five points of attention.

1. Engagement

Most likely, you’ll agree that games should be fun from start to finish, but as players increase their skills, the previously exciting game mechanics become dull. Enter Flow theory – the famous theory by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi that describes how the balance between challenge and abilities can help to engage users. In its most simple application, this means that every level of the game has to be a little bit harder than the previous one. Other ways include the addition of sensory information, e.g. more detailed graphics or confusing sounds, or game features that challenge the amount of control the player has over the game.

2. Motivation and intention

Flow can only exist if the game is a goal in itself, and not a tool to accomplish something else. Within the game, motivation originates from series of goals the player can reach, and the desire to understand which actions will result in success. This includes high-level goals, like beating the end boss or rising in the high score charts, and low-level goals, like getting past the enemy in front of you or strategically placing a defence tower. A series of goals gets the people involved in the game, and subtle hints about the correct course of action encourage the player to try and explore without getting bored or confused.

3. Actions and consequences

All actions have their consequences, and games create tension by offering conflicting options with their own benefits and risks. It’s up to the players to make the decisions that will help them reach their goals, but the game has to provide them with the information to support their decisions. Immediate feedback on their actions helps players understand the game, and gives them a sense of control by teaching them how they can do better next time.

4. Rewards

After a good decision, it’s time for a reward. Most game rewards provide either social attention, in the form of high scores, badges, and community ratings, or new abilities in the game, for example by unlocking new weapons and levels. The value of rewards depends on the advantage they give over other players, the effort the player put into acquiring the reward, and the amount of social acknowledgement that comes with it.

5. Story

All these goals, actions, and rewards make no sense without a narrative to tie them together. You can give players the tools to form their own story, or you can manipulate their decisions to create the story you have in mind. And if all else fails, you can always fall back on shiny objects, furry creatures, or alien android zombies.（Source：tekgoblin）