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游戏应用开发:迷你游戏的设计

发布时间:2013-05-02 17:50:34 Tags:,,

在我现在正在设计的游戏中,有若干迷你游戏,玩家在那些迷你游戏中完成任务后可获得奖励。我不想让成功随机产生,而是要让玩家直接决定结果,从而使玩家产生更多控制感,使他们有可能提高技术水平。为此,一个迷你游戏应该按照以下3条标准来设计:

1、有时限,完成用时不超过10秒。
2、难度等级应该容易控制,以便区别不同的难度技术水平。
3、相同游戏具有多个变量,以便游戏包含大约10-15个不同的益智题。这可以降低游戏的重复性,增加预测难度。

本着这3条标准,我开始设计迷你游戏;我的第一个想法类似于《恶魔城:苍月十字架》中的图像描绘机制。

Mini Game(from IGN)

Mini Game(from IGN)

对于从来没有玩过那款游戏的人,我就简单地介绍一下这个机制:玩家要迅速找到显示在屏幕上的固定路径的线路,按正确的顺序,在固定的时间内施展法术。这个想法似乎相当符合所有标准:通过增加更多线路和角落或使用更复杂的形状,可以轻松地调整难度,且增加了变化。然而,图像的特殊性使玩家很容易记忆;只要玩家看过一个图像几次,他就容易在头脑中重现图像,最终打败迷你游戏。(毫无疑问,这就是《恶魔城》的机制的目的,玩家最终掌握图像,能够在1-2秒内完成任何变体。)

我的第二个设计是,将拼图游戏“Fifteen”和“Connextion”相结合。

玩家要调整15个拼图的方向,那些拼图上有一个可以将面板左上方与右下方相连接的管道。一开始,这个想法吸引我是因为它的复杂度,然而,它并不符合上述任何一条标准。它太复杂了,玩家不可能在10秒内完成;且玩家也不乐意花上数分钟的时间。尽管容易控制难度(可以通过增大或缩小游戏面板的尺寸,如从4×4变成3×3),但很难确定面板布置的确切难度;这意味着制作面板的多个变体是一个费时的过程。

所以我产生了第三个迷你游戏的创意,也就是最终设计。它是上述两个想法的结合体。不过我还没想好名称:

我用PS绘制了草图,但愿足够解释我的想法。基本的玩法就是,通过旋转迷宫,将外部的点与内部的点连接起来。

游戏开始时,迷宫分离的方向是随机的。

各个蓝色截面都是可以围绕中心旋转的圆盘。

各个同心圆之间共有15条线将彼此连接起来。

所有连接线之间都是等距的,所以各个圆盘都有5种可能的位置。

5个不同的圆盘有至少3125种组合方式,使游戏足够复杂,但这个迷宫有不少于1种解决方案。

为了控制这个迷宫的难度,我可以简单地减少旋转圆盘的数量,把5层换成4层或3层,这样就简单多了。

制作迷宫的多个版本也相当简单,只需要一个模板就够了:

制作各个迷宫,然后变成一个简单的“删除所有不是正确路径的线条”任务。我仍然必须稍微改进一下这个想法,才能决定它能不能变成一个迷你游戏。我打算这么做:当轻击圆盘的右边时,使圆盘会顺时针旋转,而左边就逆时针旋转,玩家要把它旋转到线能连接的方向。

好吧,样本有点笨拙,但我觉得不可能有用了。从一个多月前我写这第一篇关于小游戏设计的文章起,我就从来没料到自己得再次考虑这个创意。在那时,我认为我的想法是完美的,但是,游戏设计中当然不存在完美的想法。事实上,我承认我之前的想法很糟糕……至少在我必须使用它的情况下。

以免读者忘记,我再次强调迷你游戏必须满足以下标准:

1、有时限,完成用时不超过10秒。
2、难度等级应该容易控制,以便区别不同的难度技术水平。
3、相同游戏具有多个变量,以便游戏包含大约10-15个不同的益智题。这可以降低游戏的重复性,增加预测难度。

在本文前半部分,我确定的设计是:通过旋转迷宫,将外部点与内部点连接起来。

现在,我可以开始解答为什么这个想法其实很糟糕,以及我的新方案是什么。

为什么这个想法很糟糕?

以下是原因:

对于一个小游戏,这个机制太复杂了,需要一定的时间才能解释清楚。

任务看起来很困难,超出玩家的能力范围。

任务看起来很困难,事实上需要耗费的时间超过我所设想的时间(10秒)。

经常玩这种游戏容易让人生气(太费脑力)。

难度实际上并不容易控制。因为益智题的本质,制作一类“有一个解决方案”的益智题极其困难。大多数这类益智题有不止一个解决方案,随着圆盘数量增加,设计难度也提高了。

另外,我认为我之前列出的3条标准并不全面,我应该增加最后一条标准,即“刺激的玩法”,这个更适合这个类型的迷你游戏。然而,以上益智题设计绝对不符合最后一条标准。

尽管这个益智题设计有可能成为最复杂的益智游戏,却无法运用于我的迷你游戏。

新方案

所以,如果之前的益智题机制不管用,还有什么更好的方案吗?我徒劳地发了一阵呆后,一个想法冒出来了(灵光一现的时刻就是这样)。

这第四个想法完全符合标准,它是《最终幻想X》的超速传送系统的修改版,或者更准确地说,是Tidus(游戏邦注:《最终幻想X》的男主角)的超速传送系统。

如果你玩过那款游戏,你应该不会感到陌生。玩家的目标是在给定的时间内停止在狭窄的白色传送带上的移动的指针。任务失败的话,会减少攻击伤害。玩家有一次机会按下按钮,如果按错,那就玩完了。

这是一个了不起的系统:

容易理解。

快速执行。

容易调整难度:减少给定的时间、使指针移动加快、缩小传送带的宽度、添加额外的传送槽、或将以上方式结合!

刺激的玩法。

代码非常非常容易写。

这个系统简直神了。比如,如果我再添加两条传送槽,玩家就必须按键3次才能停止3个指针,并且所有指针停止了才算完成任务。根据玩家在白色传送带上停止指针的数量,来决定玩家在迷你游戏中的得分,这可以用作其他任何东西的调节器。所以,这个系统毫无疑问比之前的设计更好(我想,也许一开始我本应该更认真地考虑现成的迷你游戏,而不是自己发明一个)。这是最好的吗?可能吧。除非我想到另一个更好的设计,否则我就继续研究这一个了。

(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)

Game App Development: In-Game Mini-Game Design

Within the game that is currently being designed, there will be multiple scenarios where the player will be asked to complete a task before receiving a reward. I do not want to have the success rate determined randomly, but rather it should allow the player to directly manipulate the outcome which gives them a better feeling of control and a possible improvement in their skill. For this reason, a mini-game has to be designed with a few criterias in mind:

The game has to be time-bound, taking no more than 10 seconds to solve.
The difficulty level should be easily manipulated so different skill levels can be distinguished.
Multiple variations of the same game can be made so that the game contains around 10-15 different puzzles. This ensures that it does not become repetitive and easily predicted.
With those three main rules I set out to work to start designing the mini-game; the first iteration is something similar to the gylph drawing mechanic from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow:

For those who never played the game, this mechanic asks the player to quickly trace a line along a fixed path that is shown in the screen, in the correct order, and within a fixed amount of time in order to perform a spell. This idea seems to meet all criterions quite well: the difficulty can be adjusted simply by adding more lines and corners or using more complex shapes, which also means more variations. However, the distinctiveness of the glyphs make them prone to memorization; once a player has seen a pattern a few times, it becomes easy to deftly redraw the pattern and ultimately defeating the purpose of the mini-game. (Doubtless that was the purpose of the mechanic in Castlevania, players eventually learn the glyph well enough to perform any variation within 1-2 seconds.)

The next design that I played around with is something of a combination of the tile-based game “Fifteen” and “Connextion”:

Here the player is asked to re-orient a set of 15 tiles containing pipes to connect the top left side of the board with the bottom right. The idea appealed to me initially due to its complexity, however it does not comply with any of the requirements outlined above. It was way too complex to solve within 10 seconds, players will be frustrated having to take a few minutes solving these just to move the actual game forward. Although it was easy to manage the difficulty (you can always increase or decrease the size of the playing board, from 4×4 to 3×3) it was very hard to determine the exact difficulty of a board arrangement; this means making multiple variations of the board will be a time-consuming process.

So I move on to my third and, hopefully, the final design of the mini-game. It is something of a combination of the first idea and the second. I don’t think I have a name for it yet:

This was roughly created with photoshop but I hope it serves the purpose for this explanation. The basic idea is to connect the outter dot to the center dot by rotating the maze.

It will start out randomly oriented which the maze disconnected.

Each of the colored blue sections are disks which can be rotated about the center.

There are exactly 5 lines connecting each concentric circles to each other.

All the connecting lines are equally spaced from each other so there are 5 possible positions for each disk.

With 5 different disks that’s at least 3125 combinations making the game sufficiently complex but there are more than 1 solution for the maze.

To manipulate the difficulty level of the maze, I can simply reduce the number of rotating disks, instead of 5 layers, I can easily make a 4 or 3 layered version which is much simpler to solve.
Creating multiple versions of the maze is also quite simple as each can be created from a template:

Creating each maze then becomes a simple “delete away all the lines that isn’t the correct path” task. I still have to refine this idea a bit to really determine whether this is a usable design for a mini-game. I am planning to make it such that a tap on the right side of a disk will rotate the disk clockwise and on the left side counter clockwise and snap it to the position that makes sure the lines are connected. Here’s a sample video of what this looks like when the disks are rotated:

Let me know what you think about this or any additonal ideas you may have in the comments! I’d love to get some new insights :)

Well… this is awkward, but I guess it can’t be helped. I never thought I’d have to get back to this topic again since my first post on the mini-game design that I wrote more than a month ago. At the time I thought I had the perfect answer, but of course there’s no such thing in game design and in fact I believe that my previous idea is actually a terrible idea… At least in the context that I need to use it.

To refresh your memory, I needed an in-game mini-game that satisfies a few criteria:

The game has to be time-bound, taking no more than 10 seconds to solve.
Multiple variations of the same game can be made so that the game contains around 10-15 different puzzles. This ensures that it does not become repetitive and easily predicted.
The difficulty level should be easily manipulated so different skill levels can be distinguished.
In the conclusion of the previous post settled on something like this:

The goal is to connect the outer dot to the center dot by rotating the maze.

Now, this brings us to the topic of this post… Why that was actually a terrible idea and what is my new solution.

Why It’s Terrible

Below are a few reasons why it’s terrible:

The mechanic is too complex for a mini-game and takes some time to explain.

The task LOOKS daunting and beyond the skills of some players.

Since the task looks daunting, it actually takes much more time to solve than I’d like (more than 10 seconds.)

Having to solve something like this often will most likely piss you off. (Takes too much brain power.)

The difficulty is actually not that easy to control. Due to the nature of the puzzle, creating a “one solution” puzzle of this type is extremely difficult. Most of these puzzles have many more than 1 solutions and gets much harder to design well as the number of disks increase.

Plus… I believe my previous list of 3 criteria wasn’t complete, the last criterion I should add to that list is “twitch game-play” which is more suitable for a mini-game of this type… However, the above puzzle design definitely does not fit that last criterion.

Although this puzzle design has the potential to become a very complex puzzle game in its own right, it cannot be used for my mini-game.

A New Solution

So, if that previous puzzle mechanic does not work then what is better? After some useless staring into space an idea popped into my head (as how most eureka moments happen.)

What I find best suited to my, now 4, criteria is a modified version of Final Fantasy X’s Overdrive System. More specifically Tidus’ Overdrive System.

If you’ve played it, this screen should be very familiar to you. The player’s goal is to stop the moving cursor inside the narrow white band within the alloted amount of time. Failing to do so will reduce the damage that the attack deals. The player has one chance to press the button, if he times his press wrong, it’s over.

This is a brilliant system:

It’s easy to understand

It’s fast to execute

The difficulty can be adjusted as simply as allowing less time, move the cursor faster, shrink the center white band, add additional bars, or do any combinations of the above!

It’s simply twitch game-play.

It’s also very very easy to implement in code.

This system is simply genius. If I add more than one bar where, for example, the player has to press a button 3 times to stop 3 cursors instead of 1 and all of them have to stop in the white band to be successful I can have finer grain control over how I handle the outcome. Depending on the number of cursors he successfuly stops within the hit area (the white band) it will determine the score he receives at the end of the mini-game, which I can use as a modifier for anything I want. So this system is no doubt much better than the previous design (arguably I should have looked harder at the tried and true mini-games from the start instead of inventing my own, I guess.) Is it the best? Maybe. But until I stumble upon a better design, I will go ahead with this one.(source:jamornh)

 


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