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Jason Tagmire分享游戏设计的相关经验教训

发布时间:2013-05-07 11:18:30 Tags:,,,,

Jason Tagmire是《Pixel Lincoln》的设计师。

Bellwether Games:你的游戏《Pixel Lincoln》已经完成了在Kickstarter上的集资!现在能否跟我们介绍下这款游戏,以及你们在发行过程中的下一步是什么?

Jason Tagmire:《Pixel Lincoln》是一款横向卷轴冒险纸牌游戏,突出了16位体的美国总统形象。有点像《超级玛丽兄弟》或《洛克人》,但是用纸牌替代了控制器。

Game Salute和Island Officials负责游戏发行,并且现在正处于等待阶段。我已经递交了所有内容并等待着下一阶段的消息。希望能够尽快明确具体的发行日期。

pixel-lincoln-art-2(from bellwethergames)

pixel-lincoln-art-2(from bellwethergames)

BG:能否描述下与Game Salute的合作经历?你是否会向其他想发行自己游戏的设计师推荐这一方法?

JT:对我来说与Game Salute进行合作是一次特别的经历。在过去我习惯自己完成一切工作。而在与Game Salute的合作过程中,当需要执行某些任务时,我只需要发送一封电子邮件,团队成员便能够去落实行动。他们拥有一个坚实的团队,成员们具有各种专长与满满的责任感,这一点真的很棒!一开始我与Dan进行合作,他真的拥有非常出色的想法,所以才能推动着我们的Kickstarter项目超越了最初的目标。从那时起我开始与来自Clever Mojo Games的David合作,而David拥有许多出色游戏的相关记录。

当你在整个过程中继续与之合作时会发现,他们与许多发行商并不同。而在《Pixel Lincoln》中,这一点对我来说非常重要,因为这并不只是一款简单的纸牌游戏,它同时也是一款电子游戏。对于未来我们拥有理念和计划,所以在核心地带做出正确的决定真的非常重要。

BG:你认为从设计到发行过程中出现过最困难的元素是什么?

JT:对于我个人而言,这涉及了大量的工作。在《Pixel Lincoln》项目中,我所参与的工作不只是设计,所以在几个月的深夜里我都在落实着图像和布局等工作,并巩固相关规则,可以说Kickstarter就像是一只通过有趣,具有教育性,同时也带有压力的方法而攻占你生活的小怪物!

lincoln-jetpack(from bellwethergames)

lincoln-jetpack(from bellwethergames)

BG:听起来有点吓人!你能否给予那些计划着自己的Kickstarter桌面游戏项目的人一些建议?

JT:我会反复重申计划的重要性。你真的必须在成本范围内尽可能频繁地进行研究,否则你最终只会亏损。即使进行募资,你也仍会赔钱。你需要从制作方那里接过游戏,并将其交给赞助者,可以说这是一个非常耗钱的过程。而当你收到来自海外的40美元的包裹时,你需要花费多于40美元的钱将其运送回去。如果你想要进行募资的话,就必须进行长远计划。许多创造者卷入了这些势头中,并提供了一些未能真正触及所有内容的延伸目标,并最终花费了比预期还多的钱。所以说完善的计划真的很重要。

对于第二点建议,我会让你在项目开始前或执行过程中将自己拥有的一切投入其中。你必须在游戏真正发行前便将其带到人们的手上并直击他们心里。将游戏发行日当成与电影发行日一样重要。就像在一部电影发行时我们总能看到预告片,并在电影出现前3个月便能了解到它。这么做能够保证游戏发行当天的好成绩。我也会在Kickstarter项目中采取相同的做法。当游戏发行时,你必须将其当成全职工作一样认真对待。每一天都需要面向每个销售点提供及时的图像和信息。你自己的Twitter和Facebook的功效也只能倒持为止,现在的你需要采取更广泛的渠道。例如Podcasts,BoardGameGeek,当地媒体,YouTube,评论网站,桌面游戏博客,游戏群组等等。而这也只是开始。

我的第三点建议可能会听起来有点疯狂,即拥有一个失败的Kickstarter项目并从中吸取经验教训。我并不是在建议失败,但是我真的从自己的错误中学到了许多。首先,我知道赞助人希望看到扎实的设计。缺少了这一点,他们便不可能去点击你的项目。除此之外我也了解到赞助人希望看到有效的奖励。如果你的奖励关卡只包含1份游戏,2份游戏或者3份游戏,这便没有任何乐趣。最后我发现自己不可能吸引300名赞助者(游戏邦注:如此才能做到收支相抵)的注意。所以你需要投入更多时间去开发后续内容而吸引更多投资者。虽然也有些未进行任何推广或带有糟糕设计的项目取得了成功,但是你却不能只是着眼于这些特别的项目。你应该关注于那些到达预期目标的项目并研究他们是如何做到这一点。如果你从未失败过,那就将目标转向那些失败过的项目,并观察它们是为何失败的。这么做能够帮助你正视自己的方法。

BG:好建议!我敢保证肯定有许多设计师正在计划Kickstarter项目,而你的建议也一定能够带给他们不少帮助。现在让我们再次回到游戏设计中:你是否拥有指导性的游戏设计原则?能否跟我们描述下?

JT:我每天都在设计。也就是每一天我都会花几分钟时间去挑战自己,围绕着一个单词进行设计。可能是一种主题,一种机制或者完全随机的内容。设计并不能只是关于游戏,它还必须是一束创造性火花,能够衍生出更大的内容。我会在必要罐头反复提及这一点,因为这一火花每次都会在最后再次发挥功效。

exploding-pigeons(from bellwethergames)

exploding-pigeons(from bellwethergames)

BG:你认为一款优秀游戏所具备的3个最重要元素是什么?

JT:主题——我玩过许多缺乏主题的游戏,但是我想要真正沉浸到桌面游戏中。我的意思并不是指RPG发生的背景,而是能够保持游戏内容足够有趣的元素。

长度——基于主题,氛围和游戏玩法,一款游戏不能太长也不能过短。只要感觉对的话,游戏可以只持续5分钟也可以长达5小时。

乐趣——这同样也兼作机制,但是“乐趣”的范围更广,并且真的很重要!

BG:你玩过的游戏中哪些是最有趣的?为什么你会觉得它们有趣?

JT:我喜欢《Cosmic Encounter》,它的核心游戏玩法非常简单(获得更高的分数便能赢得战斗),但是还存在许多变量能够改变核心理念。游戏中还有许多我从未尝试过的外星人角色,我真的很喜欢。这真的是一款每次玩都会获得不同体验的游戏。我也喜欢它的社交性。联合其他玩家并获得团体胜利真的很有满足感,即使你是失败的玩家。

而最近我玩过的一款让人欲罢不能的游戏便是《Escape: The Curse of the Temple》(Ostby,2012)。我喜欢游戏的快速设置,经过10分钟的混乱后便结束了。我们总是会连续玩两款游戏,并最终感到非常疲倦而想转身离开。但是这款游戏却与之不同,它具有合作性,每个人在此都是平等的。并不存在领导者或发号施令的玩家,每个人都必须通过合作而赢取胜利。

BG:你是否设置了“转向”游戏机制?具体是怎样的?或者你最喜欢的机制是怎样的?

JT:我喜欢很多机制,并通常都会先添加那些感觉良好的机制,或者根据情况做决定。对于《Pixel Lincoln》,我设置了桥牌建造机制,因为1)这让玩家能在电子游戏中收集道具,2)新机制的话便会与复古氛围相矛盾。

我同样也尝试着以新方法去使用骰子,但却发现这真的很难。

BG:你认为游戏设计师需要掌握的最重要技能是什么?

JT:游戏设计师必须是杂而不精的人。他们需要具有足够的创造性,富有逻辑能力,并且在大多数情况下也必须精通数学。他们也必须懂得图像设计工作。此外在建模过程中任何手工技能也将派上用场。然后便需要开始营销游戏了,所以你便需要扮演作者,博主,编辑,校对者以及推广者等角色。如果你正在向发行商推广游戏,你就必须成为销售员。如果你将参与某些大会,你便需要成为优秀的老师会演讲者。可以说设计师需要掌握各种各样的技能。现在你可以只是设计并销售游戏,但是在过几年后你便有可能真正掌握这些技能。

BG:在设计过程中是否有人启发了你,或者带给你一定的帮助?如果没有的话,你的游戏设计动机又是什么?

JT:可以说整个设计圈都是我的灵感来源。如果非要说哪个人持续带给我正面能量的话,那便是John Moller。John的Unpub事件推动着我将设计带向了下一个层次,即专注于与其他设计师和玩家共同进行游戏测试。

BG:游戏设计过程中的合作对你们来说是否重要?

JT:非常重要。这种合作程度是基于项目而言。如果从一开始这便是一种合作设计,那么合作关系便需要贯穿整个过程。结合不同设计师的不同优势便是一个很棒的开始。即使你是独自设计游戏,但是当你开始测试或准备发行时,合作关系也会发挥作用。过去我总是会固执己见,认为自己的想法便是最终结果,但是当我遇见其他富有创造性的人才,并指出我的想法缺陷以及需要改进之处时,我的理念便完全改变了。如果想要创造一款非常优秀的游戏,那么合作便至关重要。

BG:能否详细列举出什么情况下游戏测试者的反馈让你甘愿抛弃之前的想法?你是如何知道该反馈是正确的?

JT:在Origins,我们的《Pixel Lincoln》拥有一些较高层次的测试,测试者想要在此看到横向卷轴机制,如此才能更好地模拟电子游戏中的横向卷轴。那时候,每个游戏回合都会揭露新纸牌去模拟移动,但是测试者想要看到的是真正的移动。我会早晨6点就起床(虽然玩游戏到凌晨3点)开始独自进行测试,然后我们几个又再次聚在一起进行讨论。这是推出审阅副本前的最后一次修改,并很大程度地影响了整体的游戏。

pixel-lincoln-art(from bellwethergames)

pixel-lincoln-art(from bellwethergames)

我之所以知道这一反馈是正确的是因为这是我一直都想做的事,但却因为在每次回合移动符号或纸牌都需要各种繁琐的工作而选择避开它。但事实却是相反的。每当玩家到达关卡的最后时刻便能重置纸牌,但是这种情况并不会出现在每个回合中。再加上角色的移动是完全模拟横向卷轴,而这也正是我所追求的。只不过那时候的我一心觉得这些工作太过繁琐了,所以需要有人来敲醒我。

BG:你还想在项目中强调什么吗?你有想要分享的链接或图片吗?

JT:Buttonshy.com是我常驻的一个网站,我经常会在此刊登一些游戏新闻和信息,以及事件回顾等等。现在我正处于项目模式的“中间阶段”,并徘徊在Button Shy或twitter中传播游戏更新。

BG:现在的在线社区能够通过哪些方法去帮助你们?

JT:转发这次的访问便可!不过说实话,在过去1年里带给我们满满支持的各位如果能在2013年继续支持我们的话就再好不过了。虽然我不喜欢主动要求别人的帮助,但是我相信他们都很乐意提供这种帮助。

原文发表于2012年12月31日,所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。

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

Jason Tagmire Interview

Jason Tagmire, designer of Pixel Lincoln

Bellwether Games: So, your game Pixel Lincoln (Tagmire, 2012) has finished fundraising on Kickstarter! Could you tell us a little bit about the game, and what is the next step in the publishing process?

Jason Tagmire: Pixel Lincoln is a side-scrolling adventure card game, featuring the 16-bit President of the United States. It looks and feels like Super Mario Brothers or Mega Man, but played with cards instead of a controller.

Game Salute and Island Officials are publishing the game, and it’s currently in the waiting stage. I’ve handed everything off and just waiting for the next batch of information. Hope to have some solid release dates soon enough.

Mock card artwork from Pixel Lincoln

BG: Could you describe your experience working with Game Salute? Is this an avenue that you would recommend to other designers to publish their games?

JT: Working with Game Salute is a completely different experience for me. I’m used to doing everything by myself. When something needs to be done, an email is shot out and the team gets to work. They have a solid team with varying specialties and responsibilities, and that has been great. I worked with Dan in the beginning and he has such awesome, grand ideas, which pushed our Kickstarter project beyond all original intentions. And from there I started working with David from Clever Mojo Games. David has a track record with wonderful, beautifully produced games, and having that experience working on your game is unreal.

They also vary from a lot of publishers because you, as the design house or independent designer, continue to work with them throughout the process. For Pixel Lincoln, this was very important to me because it isn’t just a card game, it’s also a video game. We have ideas and plans for the future and it was really important to be right in the middle of all of it.

I would definitely suggest them to other designers. We had originally planned to “Kickstart” Pixel Lincoln: The Deckbuilding Game ourselves, and we wouldn’t have had the budget to print up a few dozen review copies, or the convention support to promote the game throughout the rest of the year. Those are the hidden costs that can be forgotten, and can cripple a solo designer or small design group.

Card artwork from Pixel Lincoln

BG: What has been the most difficult aspect of the design to publication process so far?

JT: For me personally it has been the amount of work involved. On Pixel Lincoln, I was involved in much more than the design, so it’s been a few months of late nights handling final art and layout and tightening up the rules, and Kickstarter itself was a beast—a beast that takes the life out of you in the most exciting, educational and stressful way possible.

BG: Sounds a bit scary! What are three pieces of advice you would give to someone who is planning a board game Kickstarter project?

JT: I would say plan, plan and plan just to reiterate the importance of being prepared, but I’ll keep plan as the first piece of advice. You really need to do as much research as possible on your costs because chances are, you will lose money. Even if you overfund, you still may lose money. Shipping is killer. You will need to ship from the manufacturer to you, then from you to the backers. And then when some of the $40 overseas packages come back to you (for many reasons), you need to pay $40 more dollars to ship it back out. You’ll need to plan stretch goals if you overfund. Many creators get caught up in the momentum and offer stretch goals that weren’t researched as well as everything else, and they wind up costing more money than intended. There is so much to plan.

For a second piece of advice, I would say that you need to put everything you have into it, before and during the project. You need to get your game into people’s hands and also into their minds before you launch. Treat the launch day like a movie release. When a movie is released, we’ve already seen trailers and heard all about it for 3 months before hand. That is to insure a successful day one release. I would apply the same to a Kickstarter project. Then when it launches, you need to work it like a day job. Every single day you should be putting out images and information to every outlet that you have. Your own Twitter and Facebook feeds only go so far, so you need to go beyond that. Podcasts, BoardGameGeek, local media, YouTube, reviewers, board game blogs, gaming groups… That is just the start of it.

And for the third, as crazy as it sounds, having a failed Kickstarter project is one of the best ways to learn. I wouldn’t suggest failing, but I’ve done it and learned so much from my own mistakes. I learned that backers want solid art, first and foremost. Without it, they may not even click on your project. I also learned that backers want good rewards. Having your reward levels consist of 1 copy of the game, 2 copies of the game, 3 copies of the game, etc… is not exciting at all. And finally, I learned that I didn’t have the reach to get the 300 backers I would need to break even. So you may need to put in a little time, developing a following to hit that number. Obviously some projects break the mold and succeed with no promotion, or bad art, but you can’t only look at the breakout projects. Look at the ones that just hit their number and see what they did right. And if you haven’t failed yourself, look at the projects that did fail, and see what they did wrong. It’ll really stand out and make you think about your approach.

Card artwork from Pixel Lincoln

BG: Great advice! I’m sure there are many designers out there who are considering Kickstarter and your advice may come in very useful! Now back to game design: Do you have a guiding game design principle? What is it?

JT: I design every day. I’ll take a few minutes out of the day and challenge myself to design something around a single word. It could be a theme, mechanic or just something completely random. The design doesn’t always end up being a game, but it’s the creative spark that leads to bigger things. I refer back to these notes all the time when I’m in a pinch, and the spark comes right back each time.

BG: In your opinion what are the three most important elements of a great game?

JT: Theme – I play plenty of theme-less games, but I want to get sucked into a board game. Not to the point where I’m playing an RPG, but enough to keep things exciting.

Length – A game shouldn’t be too long or too short, in relation to it’s theme, mood and gameplay. A game could be 5 minutes or 5 hours, as long as it feels right.

Fun – This could almost double as mechanics, but the bigger picture is how much “fun” it is. Very important!

BG: What are one or two games that you have the most fun playing? What makes these games fun to you?

JT: I love Cosmic Encounter (Eberle et al., 1977). The gameplay at its core is very simple (higher numbers win battles), but there are so many variables that twist the core ideas around. There are so many alien roles that I will probably never even be able to try half of them, and I love that. The game is a different experience every time I play. I also love the social side of it. Ganging up on one player and having a team victory is so satisfying, even if you are the one player that lost.

A newer game that I can’t stop playing is Escape: The Curse of the Temple (Ostby, 2012). I like that it’s a quick setup, 10 minutes of chaos, and then it’s over. We’ll always play two games in a row and be completely tired and beat up at the end of those games that we need to put the game away and move on to something else. What I love about this is that it’s cooperative and everybody is basically equal. There is no leader, or dictating player, yet everyone must work together to succeed.

BG: Do you have a “go-to” game mechanic? What is it? Or what are some of your favorite mechanics?

JT: I’m kind of all over the place, and I usually start with whatever feels right, or whatever the situation calls for. For Pixel Lincoln, I went with deck-building because 1) it fit in with the gathering of items in video games, and 2) a new mechanic was a great contrast to a retro throwback.

I also constantly try to use dice in a new and clever way, and it’s really tough. I’m constantly pulling out dice, and then putting them back away just as quickly.

BG: In your opinion, what is the most important skill for a game designer to have?

JT: Game designers need to be jacks of all trades. They need to be super creative, logical and in most cases, mathematic. Then they need to be an artist and graphic designer. With prototyping there is a big hands-on stage where any carpentry or assembly skills come into play. And then it’s time to market your game, so you need to be a writer, blogger, editor, proofreader, and promoter. And if you are pitching your game to publishers, you need to be a salesman. If you go to conventions, you need to be a good teacher and speaker. It’s a lot to take on. Now, you could just design and sell your games and not have to do all of the rest, but I think it’ll take a few years of all of it before you even get to that point.

BG: Is there anyone who has been a big inspiration or help to you in your game design endeavors? If not, why do you like to design games?

JT: The design community in general is extremely inspiring. If I had to pick one person who inspires me on a constant basis, it would be John Moller. John’s Unpub events are an inspiration to take your design to the next level, to focused playtests with other designers and gamers.

BG: How important to you is collaboration in the game design process?

JT: Very important. The level of collaboration depends on the project. If it’s a collaborative design from the start, it’s felt the entire way through. Bouncing things off of another designer with different strengths is a great start. But even if you design a game alone, collaboration comes into play once you start playtesting or get closer to publication. I used to be very closed-minded and thought that my ideas were final, but once I met other creative people who point out weaknesses and suggest improvements, that method was thrown right out the door. It’s eye-opening, and very important when making the best game possible.

BG: Could you describe a time in one of your games when a playtester’s feedback convinced you to “throw a method out of the door?” How did you arrive at the conclusion that this feedback was correct?

JT: We had a few high level playtests of Pixel Lincoln at Origins and the playtesters wanted the side-scrolling mechanic to better emulate the side-scrolling in a video game. At the time, new cards were revealed each turn to simulate movement, but they wanted to see actual movement. I woke up at 6am the next day (after playing games until 3AM) to start testing it on my own, and then a few of us got back together for another session. The difference really made the game click. It was the final modification before review copies went out, and made a big difference in the overall feel of the game.

Mock card artwork for Pixel Lincoln

I knew the feedback was correct because it was something that I wanted to do the whole time, and I resisted. I thought that moving tokens or cards around each turn would be a little fiddly and for that reason I kept avoiding it. But it really turned out to be the opposite. Whichever player reaches the end of the level resets the cards, and it doesn’t happen every turn. Plus the movement of the character exactly emulates a side-scroller, and that is what I was going for. I just got lost in the thoughts of fiddlyness, and needed somebody to snap me out of it.

BG: Anything else you would like to highlight about your projects? Any links/pictures you would like to share?

JT: Buttonshy.com is my cardboard home away from home. I’m posting news and info about my games there as well as convention and event recaps. I’m kind of in a rare “in-between” project mode right now, so hover around Button Shy or twitter (@JTagmire) for all of the updates.

BG: Are there any ways that that the online community can assist you right now?

JT: Retweet this interview! Seriously, everyone has been very supportive over the past year, and just to continue that into 2013 would be amazing. I don’t like to ask anybody for help, but they sure like to give it.

BG: Thanks again to Jason Tagmire for speaking with us and sharing some great advice! Good luck with Pixel Lincoln sales and on whatever your next project may be! You can get the pre-order of Pixel Lincoln from Game Salute’s website.(source:bellwethergames)


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