作者：Nathan Fouts

世上最棒的玩家会怎样体验你的游戏？或者说他们“将”如何玩你的游戏（假设游戏仍处于开发过程）？我认为从“顶级玩家”的角度来观察也许能够为你的设计提供帮助。

仔细思考Jason Rohrer在《Diamond Trust of London》所提出的问题“我越来越有兴趣知道《Diamond Trust》真正出色的玩家应该是什么样子”，并看过一名《Super Hexagon》世界级玩家所写的游戏攻略之后，我开始想知道我自己游戏的最佳玩家应该是什么表现。

我们正致力于完成自己的首款XBLA游戏《Serious Sam Double D XXL》，它现在还没有面世，所以我还不知道世界上最棒的玩家会如何攀向积分排行榜的高峰。但我有一个很好的玩家替身，也就是我自己。如果你也和我一样正制作一款即将发布的游戏，那么你的团队就是这款游戏的最棒玩家。

SSDDXXL_bee_shotgun_armor(from gamasutra)

你成天都在制作并测试这款游戏，你可能会使用一些与设计完美匹配的技巧和技能，或者在无意中绕过一些游戏玩法。那么你的玩家也会这样做吗？

以下是我针对这一点所提出的几个问题：

*你该如何向他们传达信息，以便他们跟你玩得一样好？

*尝试在游戏发行前写下一份小小的游戏攻略。那么你应该怎样帮助玩家通关？

*你是否应该向他们透露这些信息？你将如何解释那些最好在游戏中进行解释的信息（游戏邦注：最好是通过设计来体现，而非明确的文本内容）？

*你玩游戏的方式是否会破坏游戏设计？你是有意如此吗？

*你能否揭开一些漏洞将玩家引向游戏中有意设定的环节？

*最佳玩家总会很好地理解游戏关卡及机制。但他们是怎么知道的？每个机制都有一个合适的引入方式吗？

*你认为最佳玩家是怎么发掘游戏最深处的技巧？这些技巧是公平并且可被发现的吗？他们是偶然发现这些技巧吗？

最佳技巧

例如，在《Serious Sam Double D XXL》中有一些战役关卡（含有故事）和挑战关卡。战役关卡设有最快完成关卡的排行榜。根据我的玩法可知，这意味着玩家需升级Air Buffer枪支，这样他们才能长时间地射击和周旋。我还知道这可以让玩家跳过大量的敌人设置。但这种设置对吗？它还会有趣吗？

SSDDXXL_air_buffer(from gamasutra)

对我来说，知道玩家（以及我自己）如何中跳过敌人设置，有助于产生一个新想法。我们可以创造一个可随时降低任何敌人击中时间的散弹枪升级功能，再加上周旋能力，玩家可以更迅速通关。

从这款游戏最初在PC发布的情况来看，我发现有些玩家过快地跳过了一些设置。虽然游戏现在允许玩家加快进程，但我还是希望为玩家提供一些更具实质战斗内容的场景，并引进那些全副武装的敌人。

漏洞利用

战役的另一个方面就是搜集钱币以便武器升级。这和《马里奥》游戏中搜集无限的1UP一样，我知道游戏中有些地方可以让玩家不断刷出钱币。如果你的游戏中也有这些可利用的漏洞，最好确保你清楚其所在位置，以便进行适当管理。

搜集钱币有助于对应更简单的设置。在早期更简单的关卡中，玩家仍会与小型敌人交战，因为后者死亡会掉落钱币。游戏原先的设计并没有这种系统，并且玩家习惯关卡设置之后，就不会再有与最弱敌人交战的动机。

攻略

想象一下高手玩家为你的游戏所写的攻略。他们会如何根据自己的失败经验告知他们在游戏中通关的好方法？

玩家刚进入《Serious Sam Double D XXL》时，就会看到有30多项升级要求，其中多数与武器有关，并有一些特别陌生的内容。这里有许多新玩法需要介绍，我该如确保玩家了解这些情况？这真是一个棘手的问题，因为作为开者，你对所有枪支（或玩法）的情况了如指掌，因此无从知晓如何入手。

虽然这是再明白不过的事情了，但你可以从枪支描述（或者任何先进玩法）作为起点。如果游戏中有一些你经常运用的高级技巧，并且希望玩家知道这一点，那就要进行解释。例如，这款游戏有一个“Cybernetic Bee”升级功能，它可以让散弹枪射出蜜蜂并叮咬敌人。这听起来很酷！但它也可以用来对付身着盔甲敌人。虽然普通的子弹奈何不了敌人的盔甲，但这些蜜蜂却可以飞到盔甲底下攻击他们。使用文本内容可以解释这一玩法。我现在就采用这种做法，但原先的Cybernetic Bees描述内容只提到它们的概念，并未提及它们可以对付身着盔甲的敌人。

SSDDXXL_bee_shotgun(from gamasutra)

有一个更好的方法就是让玩家自己发现相关功能。例如，在游戏中的Gunstacker系统支持玩家叠放枪支，允许他们同时使用多把枪开火。此时玩家无需试用蜜蜂枪支去查看其可行性——它反正都叠放在所有枪支中，从它能够攻击装甲敌人的效果就可以看出其功能。

尽管我认为玩家可能会自己发现蜜蜂枪的用途，因为这是一个必须机制（而非秘密），但最好还是向玩家解释清楚为妙。

我现在仍在查看《Serious Sam Double D XXL》这款游戏中的问题，在游戏开发过程中，我通过想象高手玩家可能采用的技巧，从而发现哪些设计可能被利用，需要加强防范，或者进行合理解释，希望你的游戏设计也能从这种方法中受益。（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）

World’s Best Players

by Nathan Fouts

How do the best players in the world, play your game? Or how *will* they play your game (if it’s still in development)? I think coming at your design from the ‘best players in the world’ angle can shed light on some possible gaps.

After mulling over an inspired question by Jason Rohrer of his own Diamond Trust of London, “I’m interested to see over time what a really good player of Diamond Trust is”, and reading a Super Hexagon tip list by a world-class player, I wondered how the best players of my own games would play them.

We’re working to finish our first XBLA game, Serious Sam Double D XXL. It’s not out yet, so I don’t know yet how the world’s best players will climb its leaderboards. But I have a good substitute–myself. If you’re a indie dev like me and you’re working on a game still to be released, chances are your team includes your game’s best players.

You play the game day-in and day-out working on and testing it. You may be using techniques and abilities that are perfectly in-line with your designs, or you may be side-stepping intended gameplay without knowing it. Will your players do this as well?

Here are some questions I’ve been using and you put to your game:

•What would you tell others to allow them play as well as you do?

•Practice writing a small walkthrough for your game before it’s finished. What are you telling players to help them through?

•Should you have to tell them these things? What are you explaining that should be better explained within the game itself (hopefully through design, rather than explicit text).

•Are you subverting the game design in the way you’re playing? Is this intended?

•Can you uncover exploits to hopefully redirect players into the intended portion of the game?

•Best players know the levels and mechanics well. How? Is there a proper introduction of each mechanic?

•How do you think the best players will discover the deepest tricks of your game? Are they fair and discoverable? Is it fun to suss them out, or will they find them only by accident?

Best Tricks

For instance, In Serious Sam Double D XXL there are campaign levels (with a story) and challenge levels. The campaign levels have leaderboards for quickest level completion time. Based on how I play, I know this means they need to get the Air Buffer gun upgrade, which lets them hover some as long as they shoot. I also know its possible for players to skip a lot of enemy setups. Is this okay? Is this still fun?

Air Buffer in action, encouraged through Speed Run attempts

For me knowing how players (and myself) try to skip enemy setups, can help foster new ideas. This led to creating a shotgun upgrade with pellets that slow down time momentarily for any enemies hit.

This combined with the hover ability can get you through fast.

Thinking about this from the original PC release of the game, I realized some setups players were skipping too quickly in any case. Even though the game now registers speed runs, I wanted some spots to give them something more substantial to fight sometimes which led to the introduction of armored enemies.

Exploits

Another aspect of the campaign is collecting currency to spend on new gun upgrades. Similar to getting infinite 1UPs in a Mario game, I know there are a few spots in the game where a player can grind to gain currency. If you have exploits like this, make sure you know about all of them, to properly manage them.

Collecting currency actually helps the simpler setups now as well. In the earlier, easier levels, players will still engage the smaller enemies because they drop currency on death. The original designs of the game had no such system, and no incentive to engage the smallest enemies once players became accustomed to the level setups.

Walkthroughs

Imagine that best player wrote a walkthrough about your game. What are they telling others in order  to perform well that’s missing from within the game itself?

New to SSDD XXL, There are over 30 upgrades which let you heavily modify your weapons, some of which are pretty strange. That’s a lot of new gameplay to introduce; how do I know players are getting it? This is especially tricky to consider because as the creator you inherently know all the abilities of your guns (or various gameplay).

Bee shotgun in combination with the turret gun It may sound obvious, but a good place to start explaining things is a description of your guns (or whatever advanced gameplay you have). If there’s some advanced technique you regularly employ and expect the player to know, explain it somewhere. For instance, XXL has a ‘Cybernetic Bee’ upgrade for the shotgun which shoots bees which can lift enemies into the air, stinging them. Cool! But it can also be used against armored enemies. While normal bullets bounce off the armor, the bees can go under their armor. One way to explain this is with text. I do this now, but originally the Cybernetic Bees description only mentioned what they were, not their ability against armored enemies.

A better way is organically letting the player discover abilities. For instance, in the game, the Gunstacker system lets player stack up their guns, allowing players to have multiple guns firing at once. Here players don’t have to exclusively try out the bee gun to see it working–it will likely be in a stack anyway, and the results against armored enemies speak for themselves.

Bee shotgun against the new armored soldiers

While I assumed players would be able to figure out that the bee gun can be used on armored enemies, since this is a quasi-required mechanic (not just a secret), it’s best to go ahead and explain it wherever possible.

I’m still learning about gaps and looking for issues in Serious Sam Double D XXL, but it’s getting much better.  With my game still in development, imagining what tricks the world’s best player would employ, I can see what areas of the design are being exploited, require shoring up, or better explanations, and hopefully you can do the same for your designs.（source:gamasutra）