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《Hundreds》开发者分享游戏设计理念

发布时间:2013-01-08 10:20:19 Tags:,,,,

作者:Mike Rose

有时候,只要提及创造者的名字便能够推动游戏的销售。就像上周刚发行的全新iOS益智游戏《Hundreds》便因为Adam Saltsman(《屋顶狂奔》的创造者)和Greg Wohlwend(《Puzzlejuice》的创造者)的参与而备受关注。

除了这两位iOS游戏开发巨头,还有开发者Eric Johnson以及音乐人Scott Morgan共同组成了这支出色的《Hundreds》开发团队。

《Hundreds》有点像是经典游戏《Jezzball》的更新,但是做出了一些改变,如让玩家能够想办法让球膨胀起来去填满空间,而非将其阻塞在里面。如果在膨胀过程中,球碰触到另一颗球或其它障碍,玩家便会被淘汰。

因为游戏理念非常简单,只需要简短的语句便能够解释清楚,所以Semi Secret团队便能够确保游戏网站和资产的整洁与简单。

几周前当我开始研究这款游戏时,因为过于简单的游戏理念,我还以为是Semi Secret故意隐瞒了游戏的创造,但是最终发现原来是自己想错了。

Wohlwend告诉我:“我们投入了大量时间去思考如何向人们传达《Hundreds》。我并不确定我们这么做是否正确。我们努力进行展现而非讲述,并希望让对方感受到我们的诚实与自信而非神秘与古怪。”

他继续说道:“我们一直在寻找一种最合适的方法去告诉玩家,有关游戏的易用性:2岁的孩童能够玩这款游戏,我84岁的祖母(连《Spelltower》的教程都搞不清楚)也能够单独玩至16关,直到需要去做饭;有关最简朴的游戏方式;及其游戏的神秘性——充斥着各种代码和奇异性,只有少数选择能够揭示这些神秘的内容。”

难道游戏的背后制作人士对于它的营销没有任何影响?你们不觉得玩家在听到Salesman或Wohlwend便会对游戏兴趣倍增?

Saltsman笑着说道:“我并不这么觉得。我们并不能只依赖于开发者的名气。在游戏发行时我们还同步推出预告片,并在其中呈现了各种游戏玩法,我们也积极地与许多媒体维系在一起,希望能够同步获得游戏评论和宣传。”

“过去4个月里我们一直在琢磨如何避开自己的名气/过去的作品,而有效地将我们对游戏的投入全部呈献给玩家。不过目前为止我们还是不确定这么做是否成功。”

hundreds(from gamasutra)

hundreds(from gamasutra)

Wohlwend补充道:“我从来不去幻想玩家会关心我参与哪款游戏制作。”

如果是iOS游戏行家,便有可能在看到《Hundreds》时立刻说出这是Wohlwend的作品。因为这款游戏的视觉效果非常符合该设计师过去作品的风格。

他强调道:“我认为优质的工作非常重要,也就是热爱自己所从事的工作。而《Hundreds》便是我倾入自己的一切所完成的游戏。游戏中的RGB(红绿蓝三原色)比例变为222,0,0。”

他继续说道:“老实说,之前的我并未真正意识到这一点,但是当我仔细思考后,我发现《Hundreds》中的许多元素都是源于自己早前的设计经历。就像一开始我使用了大量的红色/黑色/白色,因为那时的我更关注形式和布局,而非颜色的混合。我还不能够大胆地使用颜色。”

的确,Wohlwend一开始在设计中的抽象构图无非就是红色,黑色和白色,因为他想通过简单的形状重塑视觉元素和模块的构造。

他说道:“《Hundreds》的游戏风格非常明确,并伴随着最佳的设计原则。”Wohlwend希望《Hundreds》拥有最简单的游戏原型,从而让他在创建真正的游戏时,可以更有效且更完整地扩展基本类型和规则。

hundreds(from gamasutra)

hundreds(from gamasutra)

他补充道:“从很多方面来看,视觉设计和游戏设计其实是相互联系在一起的。”

Saltsman笑着说道:“有关游戏的视觉类型,我们可以说做出了各种尝试。就像我们便受到了《Sword & Sworcery》的启发——但不是基于Craig的风格,而是游戏的突出之处。”

随着《Hundreds》在App Store中大放异彩,这对合作伙伴已经能够预见整个2013年的大好局势。如今,Wohlwend手上有4款iOS游戏正在开发中(游戏邦注:其中便包括《Ridiculous Fishing》,而另外三款游戏还未公开)。当完成了这些游戏后,他便会计划回到Mikengreg工作室,并致力于自己多年来一直想做的事。

而Saltsman则计划往《Hundreds》中添加一些新功能,并将其推向Android平台。他同时也致力于《屋顶狂奔》于iOS平台上的更新,同时将于3月份休个陪产假。

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

Betting on style with Saltsman and Wohlwend’s Hundreds

By Mike Rose

Sometimes a game can be sold on the mere mention of its creators alone. Hundreds, a new iOS puzzler released earlier this week, has Adam Saltsman (Canabalt) and Greg Wohlwend (Puzzlejuice) behind it.

Alongside these iOS behemoths are developer Eric Johnson and musician Scott Morgan, completing the impressive Hundreds team.

The game plays like a sort of updated take on the classic Jezzball, with the twist that you’re looking to expand the balls to fill the space, rather than blocking them in. If a ball touches another ball or any other obstacle while you’re expanding it, you’re out.

It’s a simple concept, and one that can be fully explained in not many words, allowing the Semi Secret team to keep the website and assets for the game relatively cleancut and uncomplicated.

In fact, when I began researching the game a couple of weeks back, it felt as though Semi Secret was purposely being secretive and teaser-ish in the build up to launch, thanks to this simplistic approach. As it turns out, I was reading the signs wrong.

“We have spent an incredible amount of time thinking about and working on how to tell people about Hundreds,” Wohlwend tells me. “I’m not sure we got it right. We do a lot of showing rather than telling and I hope that comes through as honest and confident rather than overly mysterious and weird.”

“We went all over the map in search of a way to tell people about Hundreds,” he continues, “[about] how it’s extremely accessible: two-year-olds can play it, and my grandma of 84 who got stuck in the Spelltower tutorial, played 16 levels unassisted before she had to go check on the cookies; how it’s very minimal and austere in a peaceful kind of way; how it’s mysterious–riddled with codes and strangeness that are only for the select few that wish to unravel things.”

So there wasn’t an element of at least partially marketing the game on the names of the people behind it? Do they not think people will hear the names Saltsman and Wohlwend and come running?

“I for one do not!” laughs Saltsman. “And I don’t think we’re relying on that alone, either – there is a launch trailer coming out alongside the game that shows a lot of gameplay, and we’ve been very actively working with a lot of press to synchronize reviews and stuff.”

“Most of the last 4 months has been dedicated to figuring out how to communicate what we love about this game to our audience without having to rely solely on our names/past work. Not sure if it’s succeeding yet or not!”

Adds Wohlwend, “In no way do I have any illusions that people will give a hoot that I worked on this game. Adam on the other hand… now he’s a stone fox.”

iOS connoisseurs will most likely be able to look at Hundreds and immediately say “That’s a Wohlwend game.” It has a striking visual style that fits among the designer’s stylish past titles swimmingly.

“I think it’s important to do good work, and for me it means loving the work I’m doing,” he notes. “I hope that comes through with Hundreds, it’s definitely the game I’ve imbued the most of my self into. Even the red RGB build is 222,0,0.”

“Honestly, I don’t really think I was cognizant of this before but now after thinking over it for a while, a lot of Hundreds is based off my first year in design school,” he continues. “I used so much red/black/white in that first year because I was much more concerned with form and layout than messing with color. I didn’t know enough yet to venture out into color.”

Indeed, Wohlwend’s very first abstract composition at design school was a red, black and white deconstruction of a John Heartfield poster, as he attempted to recreate the visual elements and composition of the piece using simple shapes.

“The style of Hundreds sits right there with all those perfectly crisp design principles,” he says. Wohlwend was ruthless with how simple he wanted the Hundreds prototype to look, such that when it came to building the real thing, he could then potentially expand on the base style and rules a bit more fully.

“In a lot of ways the visual design and the game design are almost genetically linked,” he adds.

Laughs Saltsman, “We’re kind of betting everything on that [the visual style]. That’s our whole thing, basically. We’re very inspired by Sword & Sworcery – not Craig [Adams of Superbrothers]‘s style, specifically, but the way it stood out.”

With Hundreds out on the App Store, the pair can now look forward to what the rest of 2013 has to hold for them. Wohlwend currently has four iOS games on the go — one of which includes Ridiculous Fishing, while the other three are secret projects. Once those are all done and dusted, he then plans to jump back over to his Mikengreg studio, and work on “A Dedicated Thing that we’ve been wanting to do for years.”

As for Mr. Adam “Atomic” Saltsman, he plans to inject some added features into Hundreds, and fire it out onto Android. He’s also working on a “big Canabalt iOS update,” before getting ready for some well-earned paternity leave in March. (source:gamasutra)


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