作者：Bruno Patatas

2012年期间，《Legend of Grimrock》的问世大力推动了地牢爬行者题材的发展。它是我今年钟爱的一款佳作，从其售量可知，人们仍渴望获得高品质的地牢爬行者游戏。

对作为游戏设计师的我而言，制作这类题材要面对极大挑战。当然，你也可以简单将其描述为消灭生物，升级角色，收集战利品。然而，地牢爬行者游戏的设计（游戏邦注：无论是纸上模式，平板电脑，还是电子游戏形式）总有自己一套绝密法宝，支撑其成就出色品质。

本文我将剖析地牢爬行者题材，分析造就其出色的核心要点。

dungeon crawl classics(from gamasutra)

1.精准确定目标

游戏一开始，玩家便得清楚探索原由。当然，他们将会面对大量怪兽与战利品，然而，总得有个主要目标支持他们完成整个进程。一般而言，玩家探索这类游戏是基于三个“R”：即复仇（Revenge），复活（Retrieval），营救（Rescue）。回想下过去体验过的所有地牢爬行者游戏，你会发现其中有某些模型与形式会坚持采用3R原则。

2.主题

为了不破坏玩家的沉浸感，所有关卡贯穿的环境设置应保持一致。如果你正在制作中世纪/幻想游戏，你应避免混淆各时代的文化元素。比如，不要将中世纪与文艺复兴或维多利亚时期混为一谈。保持统一主题才能说服玩家，毕竟破坏一致性可能会摧毁玩家体验。

3.首要目标

在创建游戏场景时，最好保证有条主线贯穿所有敌人，方便玩家找寻。比如来自同个地区，或是同个霸主的手下。重点是敌人应具有共同特征，且融入游戏世界中。

4.大量陷阱与谜团

如果你无法在地下爬行者游戏的各个角落找到陷阱与谜团，那它便无法归为此类题材。陷阱与谜团不仅可以增加紧张氛围与挑战难度，而且同属奖励机制。当玩家花时间思考如何避免碰到生物时，他们可能会成功回避……这是个胜利时刻。玩家会觉得自己无比聪明，而且同比直接面对生物，他们更喜欢这种模式。

5.节奏

在设计地下爬行者游戏时，你应保证玩家没有一刻放松时间。他们必须不断面对全新挑战（穿过空荡荡的迷宫，无事可做相当无趣，对吧？）。无论是遭遇敌人，陷阱，抑或谜题，都应保持内容快速流动。因此，当玩家完成一个问题后，他几乎会立马碰到另一个新情境。我们应保证玩家时刻紧张。（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 Dungeon Crawler Recipe

by Bruno Patatas

The following blog was, unless otherwise noted, independently written by a member of Gamasutra’s game development community. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Gamasutra or its parent company.

During 2012, the dungeon crawler genre got a great boost with “Legend of Grimrock”. LOG was one of my favourite games of the year, and based on sales number, the appetite for high-quality dungeon crawlers is alive.

As a game designer, dungeons crawlers are for me one of the most challenging game genres. Of course you can portray the genre as simply being slaying creatures, levelling up your character and collecting loot. But, design of dungeon crawlers, whether they are pen-and-paper, tabletop or in video game form, always have their own secret formula, the pillars of what makes a dungeon crawler great.

This is my dissection of the game genre and what in my point of view are the pillars of what makes a dungeon crawler a great dungeon crawler.

1. Well Defined Goal

Since the beginning that the player needs to know the reason of his quest. Of course there will be numerous loot and monsters to slay, but there needs to be a main purpose that will drive the player during the entire game. Generally, the reason for the quest is one of the three “R’s”: Revenge, Retrieval and Rescue. Look back to all the dungeon crawlers you played in the past, and you will see that in some sort of shape and form they adhere to the three “R’s” rule.

2. Theme

The environment needs to be consistent across all levels, in order to not break player immersion. If you are creating a medieval/fantasy game, do not throw to the mix cultural references from other ages. Do not mix medieval with Renaissance or Victorian and vice-versa. Keep a unifying theme that is believable for the player, because if you break that consistency you may well be ruining the players play experience.

3. Over-Arching Goal

In order to establish the setting for the game, it’s extremely important that there is a common link across all the enemies that the player will find in the game. They may all come from the same region in the world, or they may all be minions of the same master villain. What is important is that there is a common, unifying theme for the enemies, which blends with the world lore.

4. Traps & Puzzles Galore

A dungeon crawler is not a dungeon crawler if you don’t find traps and puzzles everywhere. Besides adding tension and challenge for players, they are also great reward mechanisms. When the player spends time trying to figure out how to avoid an encounter with a creature, and then he is able to successfully circumvent that encounter… That is a great moment. The player will feel he is incredibly smart, and the adrenalin boost will provide him with more excitement than if he had confronted the creature directly.

5. Pacing

When designing a dungeon crawler, you can never leave space for the players to breath. They must be constantly faced with new challenges (walking through empty labyrinths without nothing to do is not that exciting, don’t you agree?). Whether they are enemy encounters, traps or puzzles, keep the flow of content quick. Design it so that when the player finishes one problem, he is almost instantly introduced to a new one. Keep the players on the edge of their seat.(source:gamasutra)