作者：Russ Cogman

当我开始参与制作《Agent Dash》时，我刚刚结束《Flick Nations Rugby》的制作工作，它是运动游戏《Flick》系列的最新作品。

自从我开始从事iOS和手机开发，我就几乎一直在做运动题材的游戏，所以《Agent Dash》对我来说是一个不错的转变，让我有机会释放自己的突发奇想。

设计师和美工（2D和3D）对这款游戏的方向很早就确定了，即以一位卡通间谍为主角。我们根据这个想法，从数之不尽的游戏和电影中汲取这种流行文化的灵感。

我们的基本思路是将卡通间谍、现代CG动画和复古风场景相结合。

早期开发进展很快，只用了几周时间就制作出带敌人片段的原型和《Agent Dash》的初期角色。

这时的主角已经有些商业范了。

agent dash(from pocketgamer)

我的角色设计和概念设计工作充满乐趣。

agent dash(from pocketgamer)

角色设计

至于角色设计，我们要做的就是决定玩家会中意的原型。

穿无尾礼服、油嘴滑舌的男性间谍和一个性感、身手了得的女性间谍显然会受欢迎。我们还想增加一些同伴类型，相关的概念非常多。

agent dash(from pocketgamer)

但是有一些想法和角色没有通过。

例如，我们最初希望在游戏中加入一个儿童角色，并且提出了相当多的概念。

agent dash(from pocketgamer)

随着游戏进展，我们确定并执行了间谍的一些故事，但越来越意识到有些结局对于这么一位年轻的人类角色来说，实在是太严重了。

agent dash的2D概念设计(from pocketgamer)

这是2D概念设计的优势之一——不必浪费太多制作时间和精力，就能快速尝试其他想法。

如果你发现方向似乎不对，你不必抛弃太多原来做好的工作。

角色制作

作为概念设计师，我还要关注角色的3D制作情况。

我曾经和我们的首席3D美工Matt一起制作DS版的《Harry Potter》游戏。通常，我只需要画出单色概念图，Matt就能准确地制作出角色的3D模型。他简直能看穿我的思想。

这确实不容易，毕竟当你制作一个二维角色设计时，你的艺术想法是非常奔放的。

agent dash的3D效果(from pocketgamer)

然后由游戏的动画师Julek接手剩下的工作，他的动画给角色注入了生命，真是不可思议。第一次播放动画时，看到角色的傻样，我们大笑连连。

UI设计

在2D UI开发的启动阶段，我想利用图形设计师Saul Bass的出色作品，同时又看到了原版电影《粉红豹》的风格。

因此，那时我们觉得有许多设计方向似乎都不错，但实践起来有困难。

最终，当制作排行榜和小工具列表时，出自那些方向的不规则形状、调色板和古怪但时尚的字体都不可行，所以我们必须另谋出路。

agent dash加载页面的字体(from pocketgamer)

当整个团队对UI设计都拿不定主意时，总是必须花大量时间回顾游戏，以确保UI合适，最重要的是清楚地向玩家展示功能。

基本上，如果你没有太注意UI，那么美工的任务就完成了。

未完成

一旦游戏完工，紧接着就是营销资产。对于最近几年的手机游戏开发，营销资产变得越来越多。

从最重要的游戏图标到应用的专题插画和所有介于二者之间的东西，项目的后期对2D部门来说总是很繁忙的一段时间。

agent dash在Google Play网页应用商店的条幅广告(from pocketgamer)

因为成功的手机游戏开发离不开持续更新，所以我肯定我还要继续画Dash和他的同伴们。

这是一个好消息，因为制作《Agent Dash》是一件有趣的工作，并且与天才的创意团队合作很愉快。（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 Art of Agent Dash: How 2D concept art brought 3D play to life

by Russ Cogman

When I began work on Agent Dash, I was just coming from finishing off Flick Nations Rugby, the latest in our collection of Flick sports games.

At that point, I had been working on sports titles almost exclusively since I began iOS/mobile development so it was a nice change of gear to be doing something that had the potential for a bit more whimsy.

It was established very early on what direction the designer and artists (2D and 3D) wanted to take the game, and having a cartoon secret agent gave us the scope to draw on so much popular culture from video games and cinema that we felt spoilt for choice.

Full Fat’s Russ Cogman

Essentially, we wanted to make a cocktail of secret agents and modern CG animation with a retro vibe.

Early development was rapid and within just a couple of weeks there was already a prototype featuring sections of the enemy base and an early Agent Dash character.

It was already starting to look the business.

It certainly made my job of character design and concepts a pleasure.

The cast

For the character designs we decided on what archetypes we thought people would want to play.

The tuxedo-clad smarmy male agent and the sexy confident and athletic female agent were clear favourites. We also wanted some fun henchmen types in there and concepting those was a blast.

There were quite a few ideas and characters that didn’t make it past the drawing board stage, though.

For instance, we had originally wanted to get a kid character into the game, and quite a few different directions were concepted.

As the game progressed and some of the fates that can befall your Agent were decided on and implemented, it became clear that some the ends were a bit too grisly for such a young human character.

This is one of the benefits of concepting designs in 2D – you can quickly try ideas out without investing too much in production.

If a direction doesn’t seem right you don’t have to throw away too much work.

Fleshing out

As concept artist I also got to oversee the characters beautifully realised in 3D.

I had worked on the last Harry Potter games for the DS with our lead 3D artist Matt and generally I only had to do one colour concept and he’d get that accurately character modelled in 3D. It was like he could read my mind.

That’s no mean feat, considering there can be quite a lot of artistic license taken when you create a single two-dimensional character design.

The 3D Agent Dash, as seen in the final game

Then when the game’s animator, Julek, got his hands on the characters, watching life being breathed into them was fantastic. There were quite a few laugh-out-loud moments when watching the character’s idle and run animations for the first time.

U and I

In the initial stages of 2D user interface development I wanted to draw on the amazing work of the graphic designer, Saul Bass, with a sideways glance at the original Pink Panther movie credits.

Because of this, there were quite a few design directions that felt right at the time, but proved problematic in practice.

Ultimately, the irregular shapes, colour palettes and quirky but stylish fonts from these sources were not quick to scan when trying to create a leaderboard or a list of gadgets, so a new direction had to found.

A loading screen from the finished version of Agent Dash, showing some of the fonts and logos used

When a UI design isn’t immediately clear to the whole team, it always needs to be revisited and a lot of time is spent on all our games to make sure that the user interface has the right feel and most importantly clearly communicates function to the player.

Essentially, if you don’t really notice the user interface, the artist has done their job.

This isn’t over…

Once the game was complete, work then had to rapidly start on marketing assets, which for mobile development over the last couple of years has steadily become a vast array of assets.

From the all-important game icon through to app feature artwork and everything in-between, the end of the project is always a busy time in the 2D department.

Agent Dash banner from the Google Play web store

And because successful mobile development is reliant on updates, I’m sure I haven’t seen the last of Dash and his cohorts on my drawing board, either.

That’s good news, since Agent Dash has been a joy to work on, and I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with a talented and creative team.(source:pocketgamer)