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Ichiro Lambe谈独立游戏工作室的9大普遍误区

发布时间:2012-11-23 11:42:10 Tags:,,,,

作者:Simon Carless

Ichiro Lambe在创立Dejobaan这家独立工作室时吸取了大量经验教训。

在本周GDC China独立游戏峰会上,Lambe简单概括了大部分独立工作室可能面临的9个普遍误区。

mistakes(from diymusician.cdbaby.com)

mistakes(from diymusician.cdbaby.com)

1.好高骛远

Lambe坦言,自己在制作独立游戏时也陷入同样误区:“不少人看到《魔兽世界》或《使命召唤:现代战争》这类游戏后,认为自己也可以在9个月内制作一款MMO游戏。”拥有过大的野心是独立领域的典型误区。因此,为何我们不选择制作小型游戏呢?

2.急于求成

Lambe建议,当你拥有一个游戏创意时,你应付诸行动,有时,由于你并未正确审视这个创意,你所采用的技术与理念可能不适合该创意。

他提议:“你应回到初始阶段,考虑自己可能制作的游戏。”——你不一定要在首次制作中大获全胜。

3.以销售为目的

Lambe警告,他在成功推出一款Palm Pilot游戏后,制作了大量具有简单模式的休闲游戏,他相信,缺乏工作激情无法制作出色的作品。只有当你在制作过程中投入大量精力时,你才会发现自己的开发目的。

4.战术性vs策略性地思考问题

许多开发者会以单个角度战术性地思考问题——以非常单一的视角分别考虑游戏设计、PR与客服问题。但如果你从工作室的整体品牌角度出发,你可能会以战略性的思维处理各个任务——也许会利用视频回复《Rock Paper Shotgun》文章中的评论,如Dejobaan的做法。

5.毫无计划

独立开发者极易采取各种低效方式开发游戏。但当你决定提高效率时——如同Dejobaan对即将发行的《Drunken Robot Pornography》寄予的期望,他们会提前告诉Steam,而后在道具制作上获得Steam Workshop的极大帮助——借此,你可以避免许多麻烦。

6.闭门造车

虽然你可以独立操作各种事项,但却没人评价你的创意。即使是小型工作室,但如果你没有同其它小型独立工作室进行交流,“你就会被他们忽视。”

事实证明,其它独立开发者其实不会对你构成威胁,他们极其乐意为你提出劝告、辅助与建议。

7.自我设限

Lambe开玩笑道,许多开发者认为:“这是他们制作游戏的方法。”

“但让我们来研究一些不同方面。游戏领域确实没有约束,你也无需担心自己提出的古怪理念,”因为Dejobaan常常会发行一些拥有古怪名称的游戏。

8.忽视PR

许多开发者表示“我是为了制作游戏而创造游戏”。他们并不关心与记者接触,或是PR的事情,结果,事情进展不大顺利。

Lambe总结道,你可以拥有自己的独特个性,但你至少应稍微考虑下游戏领域之外之人的兴趣所在。

9.自我迷恋

最终这条法则相当简单:“不要过于迷恋自己的作品,从而忽视其中的某些错误。”

Lambe以一则游戏预告片为例,在该片前10秒,内容均涉及3D动画logo,而不是游戏玩法。你可以认为该片的制作人喜爱这种效果,但也许他们缺少了一些远见。你应咨询同行,向大众展示游戏的开发过程。(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 9 common mistakes every indie game studio should avoid

by Simon Carless

Ichiro Lambe has learned a lot of hard lessons since he founded independent studio Dejobaan (AaaAAAAAaaaaA: A Reckless Disregard For Gravity) over twelve years ago.

At a talk at the Indie Game Summit this week at GDC China, Lambe whittled these down to the nine common pitfalls that most indie studios are in danger of facing.

1. Starting too large

Lambe notes, dryly, admitting that he’s fallen into some of the same traps with his indie titles: “People see games like World Of Warcraft or Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare… and [believe] they can create an MMO in 9 months.” Being overambitious with scoping is a classic indie failing. So why not pick a smaller game?

2. Creating that one perfect game

Lambe suggests that when you have a game in your heart that you simply must make, you can sometimes over-reach technically or conceptually, because the idea isn’t scoped correctly.

His advice: “Step back and consider all the other games you might create” – but don’t necessarily go for a grand slam first.

3. Manufacturing your game just to sell

Lambe cautioned that after he had success with a Palm Pilot title, he ended up making a large amount of other simple casual titles, and he believes his lack of passion rubbed off and ended up with lackluster results. It’s only when you inject a certain amount of passion into the process that you may find a middle ground.

4. Thinking tactically vs. strategically

A lot of developers think of things tactically and individually – switching between game design, PR, and customer service in a very monolithic fashion. But if you think of your overall developer brand, you might want to do each task in a strategic brand-specific way – maybe by using videos to reply to text-based comments on a Rock Paper Shotgun article, as Dejobaan joyously did.

5. Failing to plan

It’s easy, as an indie, to muddle along in a variety of inefficient ways. But when you get it together — as Dejobaan hopes they have with its upcoming Drunken Robot Pornography, where they talked to Steam early and got extensive Steam Workshop integration for item construction into the title — you’ll save yourself a lot of headache down the road.

6. Going it solo

Although you certainly can go at it alone, you’ll have nobody to bounce ideas off of. Even as a small studio, if you don’t speak to other small independent game studios, Lambe cautioned: “You’re missing out.”

It turns out that your fellow indies do actually care about you, and they aren’t competitive – they are happy to counsel and help and suggest.

7. Imaginary constraints

Lambe joked that many developers think, “‘This is how we’re supposed to make a game.’

“But let’s do something different. There really are no constraints in the game industry, and you shouldn’t be afraid of wacky concepts,” something Dejobaan often shows with its odd game titles.

8. Ignoring relevant focus areas

A lot of developers simply say “I am creating a game to create a game”. They don’t worry about interfacing with journalists, they don’t worry about PR, and as a result, things don’t go well.

You can be creative on your own, but do have to think – at least a little bit – about what the outside world will be interested in, Lambe concludes.

9. Falling in love with your work

An important final rule is relatively simple: “Don’t fall in love with it so deeply that you are ignorant about its faults.”

Lambe gives the example of a game trailer that might have a 10 second animated 3D logo at the beginning, rather than actual gameplay. You can tell the person who made it was delighted by it, but they are, perhaps, lacking perspective. You need to ask your peers, and you need to show the game to the public through development, Lambe concludes. Only through this will you love your work, but not fall in love with it. (source:gamasutra)


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