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Jayenkai分享每周开发一款游戏的理念

发布时间:2012-12-13 15:17:02 Tags:,,

作者:Konstantinos Dimopoulos

作为拥有上百款多种游戏类型的开发者,Jayenkai可谓是独立领域的多产者。而且,他是我见过的集才华与创意于一身的设计师。但他是如何做到这一点?他是谁?为何他会创造出如此数目众多的可爱游戏,重要的是,为何他要每周推出一款游戏?

以下为采访内容。

能否先自我介绍下?

大家好,我是James “Jayenkai” Gamble,如果我没有坐在电脑前,那我可能在睡觉。

基本上,你每周都会开发出一款游戏。这种做法已持续多久?为什么要这样做?

已经有好长一段时间了。

我总有办法快速整合游戏的各个成分,在CodersWorkshop的那段日子里,我开始挑战每周开发一款游戏。每周三,我们会随机制定一个不同主题,而后基于此在一周时间内完成游戏开发。CodersWorkshop倒闭后,我创办了Wednesday Workshop,并在Socoder.net上运营了几年时间。

不久之后,伙伴们似乎放弃了这种每周挑战理念。Wednesday Workshop也慢慢地走向尽头,然而,此时我已经习惯这种模式,并决定将其转变到今天的AGameAWeek.com网站。

总之,从首家Wednesday Workshop工作室算起,我已在这种做法上坚持了7个年头,只要可以,我会尽力每周推出一款游戏。

到目前为止,你已制作了多少游戏?

目前,我的档案显示是超过275款游戏。其中有些属于精品,有些则是垃圾,但所有这些游戏均在当前系统上运行(虽然某些老式作品已经消失)。

然而,这并非一份完整档案。它只列举了我从2002年至今总共制作的游戏,其实,我还制作了大量Amiga磁盘。总有一天,也许我会抽空完善整个档案。

我并不确定自己是否有打算针对Amstrad CPC制作游戏,它们多半是怪异的ASCII垃圾!

你最爱哪些作品?你有打算精细制作游戏吗?

我独爱那些真正精良的游戏,比如《NeonPlat》是我目前的钟爱款。其实,《Bubble Bobble》这类具有不断变化场景的游戏,最先是由PixelProspector的Authentic Kaizen制作,事实证明,这是一款带有街机风格的有趣作品。

neonplat(from indiegames)

neonplat(from indiegames)

现在,我已经扩展了这款游戏,创造出包含整洁日历系统的《NeonPlat Adventure》,但我认为它不会获得过多关注。坦白讲,其原先单一场景已十分出色!

我还喜爱《Microbes》、《RetroRaider》、《Alien Deathmatch》,当然还有《JNKPlat》这些游戏!

你是否有打算向大型游戏发展?

其实,我的头脑中有一些想法,但是,每当我决定开发大型游戏时,我发现自己会在极短时间内整合游戏的基本成分,接着,我不会继续投入时间创建有趣关卡,绘制外表精美的精灵!通常,我会随意堆砌关卡,其中可能会杂糅某些劣质图片,而后以此告终。

为什么你通常会制作PC版本的免费游戏,针对iOS平台推出付费应用呢?

老实讲,我认为用户并不乐意为我的PC游戏付费!我可以强烈感受到这一点,尤其当我开始AGameAWeek项目时,而且我们只是大量炮制古怪模糊的精灵!

对于iOS游戏,至少我会给予一些重视与关注。我知道它并不出众,其整体美术风格也十分糟糕,但我总试图呈现出整洁的菜单,尽量保证控制装置运行正常,而且尽力赋予其出色玩法。我想,由于开发者在此投入额外精力,我们应给它们标上一定价格。然而,由于这些作品均出自我的手中,因此其价格会偏低!

你是如何想出游戏与游戏机制的创意?你似乎每小时会产生3个左右的游戏创意……

很久以前,我已经耗尽所有游戏创意!现在,这些新出品游戏均十分随意。通常,我会坐在空白板前,在Paintshop Pro软件里涂鸦,或输入BlitzMax语言。几分钟后,某些元素会引起我的注意,接着,我会利用这种随机创意构造大型游戏项目。有时它会取得成功,有时不会,但你只有在尝试过后才知道真正结果,而且,从事某些疯狂事项,你可以在AGameAWeek中挖掘到答案。

你认为,当前独立领域的形势如何?

现在,我尤为喜爱独立领域。当你细想目前开发者吸引用户采取的方法时,你会发现,这是个不错领域。我们可以利用Xbox Indies接触电视用户,苹果与谷歌也为用户引荐独立领域,此时,我们仍可以利用电脑接触用户。遗憾的是,微软与苹果为了“保护”自己的操作系统,禁止独立开发者使用它们的软件,但我猜想这是当前发展局势。即要么与大型开发商分享免费游戏创下的可观收益,要么自给自足!

你期望独立领域向哪些方向发展?

在我看来,最重要的是,我希望任天堂能与其它主机制造商那样,支持独立领域。我知道这种想法不大现实,但一直以来,我尤为偏爱任天堂的主机游戏与控制器!多年来,我在任天堂DS上利用适当的按钮与触屏功能,体验了大量游戏,并获得出色玩法。如果能在他们的电子商店推出一至两款游戏,那将会取得不错的效果。

是什么理念让你坚持每周开发一款游戏?

我也不是很清楚!如果让我长期从事同个项目,我很快就会感到厌倦,同比致力于长时开发游戏,不断转换游戏种类更加适合我。我想,也许这种不断转换游戏创意制作让我忘却了工作的乏味感。你总要尝试某些新方面,而且体验疯狂的游戏机制充满了趣味性。

对于未来你有哪些特别打算?是否考虑过以独立开发者自居?

现在,我并不清楚以后会发生什么。在脱离数个月的开发历程后,目前我的计划是再次回归游戏制作。一旦我再次进入这个领域,我可能不会制定任何计划,我将会继续随意推出游戏,期待它成为最佳作品。

至于独立开发方面,我无法确定自己是否会往这个方向发展。通常,我致力于通过App Store获取可观收入,当然你不仅需要制作一款出色游戏,同时还需大量营销活动来推广游戏!营销并非我的强项,这无疑是我过去遭遇失败的原因。我不大确定自己是否可以在这种小规模销售情形下,独立开发游戏。

能否对刚刚跨入独立领域的开发者提供一些建议?

我无法肯定自己的计划模式是否适合他们,但至少,我会提醒他们,游戏开发十分枯燥。在启动项目之初,构造游戏十分有趣,然而,当你开始创建游戏关卡、菜单界面以及其它细节方面时,你可能会有放弃的想法。千万不要放弃!继续坚持下去,尽自己所能做到最好,最终,事情会如你预想般顺利。(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

Developing a Game a Week: the Jayenkai interview

by Konstantinos Dimopoulos

With hundreds of games on an impressive variety of formats under his belt, Jayenkai is one prolific indie developer. Also, he’s incredibly talented and one of the most imaginative designers of game mechanics I have ever met. But how does he do it? Who is he? Why does he create all those lovely digital contraptions and, above all, why a game a week?

Read on…

Care to introduce yourself?

Hello!

I’m James “Jayenkai” Gamble, and when I’m not sat in front of a computer screen, it’s probably because I’m sleeping.

You more or less develop one game a week. How long have you been doing this now? Also, well, why?

It’s been a long time since I started doing weekly games.

I’ve always had a knack for being able to scramble games together quickly, but during the days of CodersWorkshop, I started up a weekly game making challenge. A different random theme would be given each Wednesday, and folk were given a week to develop a game based on that theme. After CodersWorkshop closed its doors, I kept Wednesday Workshop going at Socoder.net for a few years.

After a while, though, folk seemed to have given up with the idea of a weekly challenge. Wednesday Workshop slowly died off, but I’d gotten into a routine by this point, and decided to morph it into what it is now, AGameAWeek.com

All in all, it’s been a good 7 years since the first Wednesday Workshop (June 2005), and I’ve more or less been doing one game a week since then, whenever I can!

How many games have you created?

Over on my Archive, I currently have over 275 games listed. Some are fairly decent, others are pure garbage, but all are still mostly playable on current systems. (Although some of the really older ones might freak out a bit!)

Worryingly, that’s not even a complete archive, yet. The archive only lists games that I’ve created since 2002, and I have a big bunch of Amiga disks to sift through, to try and bulk it up even further. One day, I’ll maybe get around to doing that.

I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to digging out my Amstrad CPC creations, but they’re mostly odd ASCII based garbage, anyway!

You favourites? Something you would like to evolve into something more elaborate perhaps?

Favourites are usually those which turned out really nice, with NeonPlat being a current fave. Essentially a Bubble Bobble type game, with a constantly shifting landscape, the game was originally suggested by PixelProspector’s Authentic Kaizen, and has turned out to be a wonderfully fun little arcade-like game.

I have already expanded on the game, creating NeonPlat Adventures with a neat little calendar system built into it, but I don’t think it went down too well. To be honest, the original’s single-scene gameplay was good enough!

Other favourites include Microbes, RetroRaider, Alien Deathmatch, and of course, JNKPlat!

Any plans for bigger games?

I have a few ideas in mind, but worryingly, whenever I settle down to start one, I find I can bundle the basics of the game together within a ludicrously short space of time, and then I can never be bothered to carry on with the dull time consuming work of building fancy levels, and drawing half-decent looking sprites! I usually end up throwing a few random levels together, popping in some rubbish art, and calling it a day.

Why do you generally choose to develop freeware games for the PC and paid apps for iOS?

In all honesty, I don’t think people would be too happy paying a price for most of my PC games! I’ve felt fairly strongly about this, especially since I’ve been doing AGameAWeek, and the oddball mushy sprites have been churned out as rubbishly as they have been!

With my iOS games, I do at least sit down and give them a little care and attention. I know it doesn’t always look it, and you really can’t help my overall terrible art style, but I try to make the menus swoosh in and out neatly, I spend time getting the controls “just right”, and I try to make the games play as well as I can. I think, with all the extra bits of developer love, they warrant a teensy price tag. But they’re still made by me, so the price isn’t too high!

Oh, and where do you come up with all those ideas for games and game mechanics? You do seem to have approximately three innovative game ideas per hour you know…

I ran out of ideas a long long time ago! Nowadays, new games are purely random. I’ll sit at a blank screen, and either start doodling in Paintshop Pro, or typing in BlitzMax. After a few minutes, something will catch my eye, and I’ll start building that random idea into a larger game project. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t, but you never truly know unless you try it and see, and doing something as crazy as AGameAWeek gives you plenty of opportunities to find out.

What are your thoughts on the current state of the indie scene?

I’m absolutely loving the indie scene, right now. If you consider all the methods that developers now have to reach their audience, we’re at a wonderful place, right now. We’ve got Xbox Indies reaching folks TV sets, Apple and Google bringing indies to people’s hands, and for the moment, we can still reach folk with computers. It seems a shame that Microsoft and Apple are both closing the doors on indies, by “securing” their OS’s, but I guess that’s the way things are, nowadays. Either you’re giving the big guys a share of your freeware’s enormous profits, or you’re outta there!

What would you like to see more of?

I think, more than anything, I’d like to see Nintendo embrace the indie scene as well as the other console makers have tried to. I know it’s a pipe dream, but I’ve always loved Nintendo’s consoles, and their controllers have always had decent dpads! I’ve made a batch of Nintendo DS homebrew games over the years, and they’ve always played nicely, with proper buttons and touchscreen functionality. It would be great to be able to pop a game or two onto their e-shop.

What keeps you going?

I’m not entirely sure! I tend to get bored if I keep working on the same project for too long, so jumping from game to game is better for me, than working on lengthier games. I think it’s probably the constantly changing gameplay ideas that stops me from getting too bored. There’s always something new to be tried, and it’s fun to play with such crazy gameplay mechanics.

Any particular plans for the future? Ever considered trying to solely survive as a game developer?

I currently have absolutely no idea what’s coming next. Having spent a few months away from development, my current plan is simply to get back into the swing of things again. Once I get going again, there’ll probably still not be a plan, and I’ll continue to randomly throw things together, hoping for the best.

As for going it alone, I’m not entirely sure. The way things are, to make a decent amount from AppStore sales, you need a really great game, but also a whole lot of marketing! Marketing isn’t exactly my strong point, and has definitely let me down in the past. I’m not entirely sure I could go it alone, with such minimal sales.

Care to share some tips for beginning indie devs?

I’m not sure that my plan is the best to follow, but I will at least warn of game-boredom. At the start of a project, a game can be fun to build, but once you’re stuck working on level building, menu interfaces and other niceties, you’ll probably want to give up. Don’t give up! Keep at it, do the best you can, and things will eventually come together.(source:indiegames)


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