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分享设计《传送门2》关卡的经验和方法

发布时间:2013-05-27 12:17:45 Tags:,,,,

作者:David Silverman

在之前的文章中,我讨论了如何制作强大的《传送门2》关卡,以及身为关卡设计师需考虑的事项。在本文,我将通过创建一个关卡,以更多亲身实践的方法帮你理解这些概念,以及如何运用我之前所提到的想法。

前言

我在上文中花了大量篇幅讨论《传送门》试验室。但是,从我个人制作《传送门》关卡的经历来看,创造一个关卡的挑战性远甚于了解并运用这些理念。所以我将在本文更详细地解释如何创建一个关卡,并举例以便你了解整个创建过程中将遇到的问题以及解决方法。

你可能会记得上篇文章中我所展示的一些关卡概念艺术,如下图:

Portal_2_Level_Design_Concept(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Concept(from gamedev)

但我觉得这个理念还是比我原先想象的更为复杂。所以我觉得在本文最好还是专注于更简单的理念。

发展想法和概念

我决定创造一个玩家需要携带一个立方体直到谜题结束,这样他们才能打开出口大门的关卡。我还决定要与采用牵引光束,因为它们是我最喜欢的谜题机制之一。以此作为起点,我开始考虑自己要如何在这些限制条件下制作谜题。

Portal_2_Tractor_Beam(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Tractor_Beam(from gamedev)

玩家需要处于一种想拿到某种道具但却够不着的情况,或者想去某地但却无法仅靠传送门到达。我决定让玩空使用牵引光束在关卡中四处移动,并以它作为获得立方体的手段。这一信息让我决定将牵引光束置于地面,因为玩家需要进入牵引光束,并在关卡中引进大量的水,令玩家难以在关卡中穿行。

现在我要先从简单的概念入手:将房间用两条水线分割成四个单元,如下图:

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-1(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-1(from gamedev)

玩家从A单元进入房间,并从D单元离开。

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-2(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-2(from gamedev)

要离开房间,玩家必须使用一个靠近出口的按钮,而要使用这一按钮,他们又必须用到始于B平台的一个箱子。

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-3(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-3(from gamedev)

房间中有一堵墙阻碍玩家从B进入D,并迫使他们从B走到A再到C、D。要在这四个单元中移动,玩家将使用到牵引光束。

此时我需要确定牵引光束的走向。我知道牵引光束可能会在A或B,并确定它应该在B,因为我希望玩家使用牵引光速获得立方体。

如果我将牵引光束放在A,那么我可能就需要让它面向B,因为我希望玩家在到达C之前去B瞅瞅,将牵引光束面向B意味着玩家有可能意外获得立方体(游戏邦注:假如他们在思考发生什么情况之前进入光束)。我不喜欢这种选项,因为这意味着他们可能会意外地完成第一个步骤,所以我将牵引光束放在B。

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-4(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-4(from gamedev)

因为牵引光束位于B,所以这里要有一个围绕着A的移动墙体,允许玩家使用牵引光束从A走到B,并从B走向C。

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-5(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-5(from gamedev)

在C中也要有一个可移动墙体,以便玩家使用牵引光束从C走到D。

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-6(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-6(from gamedev)

查看我的谜题时,我发现玩家如果正确摆放传送门,就有可能在不停下来的情况下,借助牵引力直接从C平台走到D。为避免这种情况,我决定在空荡荡的D边缘安放一个蒸发光膜,将能够使光膜失效的按钮放在C。这可迫使玩家摆脱牵引光束,决定在从C到达D时如何关掉蒸发光膜。

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-7(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_PSConcept-7(from gamedev)

我选择了那种必须执行一些操作以便光膜持续失效的按钮。这意味着玩家需要在关掉光膜时通过牵引光束带走立方体,以免立方体被光膜损坏。而后,当立方体到达另一边时,玩家就可以借助牵引光束走到D,拾取立方体并打开门。

此时,我就知道虽然我的谜题并不是特别有挑战性,但已经足够将其导入编辑器并进行测试,所以我就开始动手了。

分析首个初稿

这是地图在编辑器中的图像。

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-1-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-1-Updated(from gamedev)

这个关卡的问题在于它几乎没有什么真正的挑战,因为每一个步骤都很明显,基本上无需玩家事先进行一番思考。

这在《传送门》地图的关卡设计过程中并不是什么罕见的问题。为了解决这一问题,我将列出玩家完成我的关卡所需要采取的操作,然后找到一些可以设置更多挑战的地方。

这些是玩家完成谜题所需采取的步骤:

1.使用牵引光束从A走到B

2.拾取立方体

3.借助牵引光束将立方体从B带到A

4.使用牵引光束或传送门从A走到C

5.站在C中的按钮上关掉蒸发光膜

6.设置从C到D的牵引光束

7.在蒸发光膜光闭时,将立方体放到牵引光束中,使其免于破损,从C转移到D

8.立方体穿过蒸发光膜时,走下按钮并进入牵引光束,使自己从C转移到D

9.到达D之后,使用立方体打开出口大门

10.退出房间

我列出这些操作之后发现的问题是,玩家获得立方体,以及拿着立方体从A走到C真是太容易了。这两个动作对于解决谜题来说极为重要,但同时这两者都可以归结于一个单独的动作。而玩家带着立方体从C到D则占据了以上所列动作的一半,这也正是它是个简单谜题的原因。很显然,这正是谜题需要变得更复杂的地方。

创造挑战

获得立体方是玩家的首个挑战。为了让这部分谜题更复杂,我需要找到一个让玩家使用牵引光束获得立方体的方法。这可能会更早引进作为复杂谜题元素的牵引光束,让获得立方体的动作更为有趣。

我发现在这个阶段引进牵引光束的最简便方法就将立方体分配器移到地图中央。这样可以让立方体持续刷出并掉入水中,直到玩家采取一些避免这种情况的行动为止。这迫使玩家使用牵引光束拿到并移动立方体,之后才将立方体拣起来,这种做法可有效促使玩家积极参与获取立方体的任务。

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-3-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-3-Updated(from gamedev)

(我从这一点开始直接在编辑中植入理念,而没有事先勾画草图。我尝试先在纸上或者在Photoshop中开始,以便考虑玩家目标,以及他们如何完成目标的普遍想法等主要谜题层面。但是,我一进入编辑器,其迭代过程就会过快,这样就不值得反复进行调整,除非是发生了添加一个新房间或重新设计一个大型单元等重大变化。)

在移动分配器之后,我还发现玩家要拿到立方体,还需要一些更具移动性的墙体,所以我在这些位置中添加了墙体。

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-3-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-3-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-4-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-4-Updated(from gamedev)

现在我所执行的操作已经让测试略为困难,因为玩家需要决定如何获取立方体,并需要更多步骤才能解开谜题,但这并不会对整体难度带来太大影响,因为谜题的大部分层面(将立方体从A移到C)仍然非常简单。

此时我要找到向谜题添加一个元素的方法,以便让玩家真正思考自己该如何采取行动。通常而言,当我到达到这一点时(我会有一些关于如何复杂化谜题的想法,但并不想添加任何主要的新元素)我会发现好方法就是让谜题变得难得捉摸,然后找到一个让玩家解开谜题的有趣方法。

我的意思是,我将在谜题中添加一个元素,令其当前状态变成不可完成关卡,之后再找到方法修改该元素对谜题的影响,这会给玩家带来新挑战,并让谜题再次变得具有可行性。在这个场景中,我将添加一个如下图所示的蒸发光膜,以便让玩家难以在不损坏立方体的情况下将其从A转移到C。

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-5-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-5-Updated(from gamedev)

现在谜题已经变成无解——这主要是因为蒸发光膜一开始也阻止玩家获得立方体。

为了改变这一情况,我将在C平台的角落布置一个柱子,用于隔开蒸发光膜所能影响的区域,让玩家再次进入用于获取立方体的白墙。

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-6-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-6-Updated(from gamedev)

我还将这个柱子做成两个空间那么长,因为在测试地图之后,我发现玩家不可能到达面向D单元的B单元边缘,并在速度够快的情况下将传送门引入C单元。将柱子做成两个正方形那么宽可避免返功现象。

为了给谜题找到新解决方案,我在编辑器和关卡中花了一些时间,以便发现自己如果是玩家可能采取的行动。我明确了如果在B添加白色移动墙体,可能让玩家从C到B设置一个传送门(当玩家站在C边缘而面向D时)。这可以有效创造一个让玩家绕过蒸发光膜的方法,拿回他们的立方体并完成谜题。

我植入了这一理念,并返回关卡,尝试使用这一解决方案:

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-7-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-7-Updated(from gamedev)

我真的非常喜欢这个解决方案,因为它很简单但并不过份简单,另外它还通过减少对牵引光束的依赖而颠覆了玩家的预期。

在进行一些测试之后,我还发现许多好友认为这一最后步骤确实极具挑战性。如果我要创建一个大规模的谜题,我可能会继续发展和找到牵引光束的另一种用法,或者整合新谜题元素的其他地方,但由于这只是一个相对快速的谜题,所以我认为这已经是一个优秀的解决方法。

结束谜题并找到漏洞

虽然这个谜题看似已经完成,但实际上并非如此。此时我们仍然需要进行一些测试并看看这个谜题还有哪些地方可能发生漏洞利用的情况。为了找到漏洞,你得尽量以多种方式玩玩自己的关卡,并让其他人也来试玩。在我的测试中,我还让朋友也来测试关卡,发现两个自己并不喜欢的解决方案,以及一个我考虑更改的地方。

第一个漏洞在于玩家可以将牵引光束置于直接挨近C平台开放边缘的白墙圆柱中,然后从牵引光束跳到平台C。这回避了我之前为谜题设想的解决方案,并要求玩家掐准时机,准确完成任务,而无需同思考或了解关卡的场景。

我消除了这个解决方案,将墙体的白色圆柱空间置于墙体之后,让玩家无法从此传送:

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-8-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-8-Updated(from gamedev)

第二个解决方法在于玩家可以从介于C和D之间的白色区域角落进行传送,然后跳到C,这也回避了我之前所制定的解决方法。于是我延展了关卡,让一切来自白墙并且面向某一空间的东西都远离C平台。这样C与各个单元之间的空隙更大,令玩家无法直接跳过,从而消除了这个漏洞利用现象。

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-9-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-9-Updated(from gamedev)

如果我用更多人进行测试,可能还会找到更多自己不喜欢的解决方法,但这个阶段你一定要谨慎,只能消除那些与谜题目的有冲突的解决方法,不要排斥任何非你所预料的解决方法。要记住,你要让玩家去找到你所期望的解决方法,但要允许他们自由找到解决途径。

我发现的另一问题是,如果玩家在未获得箱子时进入D,他们可能就无法返回C,因为蒸发光膜定位于D边缘。为进行调整,我在D的蒸发光膜前面添加了一列额外的站立区域,以便玩家能够返回谜题的重要区域而不会受困。

我还得确保此时CD面的白墙(允许玩家返回关卡的其他区域)不会允许玩家在未使用牵引光束的情况下(除了偶然毁坏立方体,其他什么情况都不会发生)将立方体搁置在D平台。我认为这样就可以了,因为这会引导玩家向我所希望的方向前行。

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-10-Updated(from gamedev)

Portal_2_Level_Design_Editor-Image-10-Updated(from gamedev)

我又做了更多测试,找不到其他重大问题之后,就决定结束谜题。正如我之前所言,如果进行更多测试,可能就会再深入挖掘谜题,但你得知道什么时候该停下来。如果日后收到关于这个谜题需要改进的反馈建议,我可能就会重新访问这个关卡,但现在我得继续推进工作。

总结

希望本文有助于你了解从头到尾创建关卡的过程。虽然你可能会一丝不苟地制定好一些计划,但计划总赶不上变化,会有其他意外情况发生。你只需要顺其自然,考虑自己的行为以及其他新解决方法将如何影响玩家行动。重要的是了解你希望玩家如何行动,以便考虑每一个变化对玩家完成关卡目标的影响。(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

Portal 2 Level Design: From Initial Idea to Finished Level

David Silverman

In a previous article I discussed what goes into making a strong level in Portal 2 and what you need to consider as a level designer. In this article I am going to take a more hands-on approach to help you understand those concepts by building a level, to show you the process I go through and how to apply the ideas I discussed earlier.

Before We Begin

In the last article I spent a lot of time discussing the elements of a Portal Test Chamber. However, I know from personal experience working on Portal levels that creating a level can be much more challenging than just understanding the ideas and applying them. So in this article I’ll explain in more detail how to develop a level, with a concrete example you can follow from start to finish to help you understand what problems you are going to encounter and how to handle them.

You may remember from the previous article that I also showed some concept art of the level idea I was working on for this article. It looked like this:

I’ve been working on this concept more since the last article was posted and, although it has potential, I found the idea to be much more complex than I originally envisioned. With that in mind I thought it was best to focus on a simpler idea in this article .

My goal here is to give clear examples of what I’ve already discussed in the previous article, and; although there are good examples in the level above, it would be beyond the scope of this article to go through every problem I would face while developing it and you would end up losing out on the chance to see the whole development process.

Developing an Idea and Concept

I’ve decided to go with a level where the player has to get a cube and bring it to the end of the puzzle so they can open the exit door. I also decided that I was going to work with tractor beams
because they are one of my favorite puzzle mechanics. From this starting point, I began considering what sort of puzzle I could make with these constraints.

A tractor beam in Portal 2.With tractor beams the player needs to be in a situation where they are trying to get an item which is out of reach, or trying to go somewhere they cannot go with portals alone. I decided I wanted the player to use the tractor beam to move around the level and to use it as a means to attain the cube. This information helped me decide to put the tractor beam on the ground since the player needs to get into it, and to put a lot of water within the level to make walking around difficult for the player.

From here I decided I had enough to start coming up with simple concepts. I threw around a couple different ideas but the one I went with was fairly simple: the room is divided into four sections by two lines of water which cross in the middle of the room, like so:

The player enters the room in section A and leaves in section D.

To leave the room the player needs to use a button, which is next to the exit, and to use that button they will have to use a box which starts on platform B.

There will be a wall which prevents them from getting from B to D and forces them to go from B to A to C to D. To get between sections the player will use a tractor beam.

At this point I needed to determine where the tractor beam would go. I knew the Tractor beam would probably be at either A or B and decided it should be at B because I wanted the player to use the Tractor beam to get the cube.

If I put the tractor beam at A then I would need to make it face B since I want the player to look at B before C, and having the tractor beam facing B means that its possible for the player to accidentally get to the cube if they step into the beam before processing what is going on. I didn’t like this option because it meant they could complete the first step accidentally, so I put the tractor beam at B.

Since the tractor beam is located at B there also needs to be portalable walls around A that allow the player to use the Tractor beam to go from A to B and B to C.

There also need to be portalable walls at C which allow the player to use the tractor beam to move from C to D.

While looking over my puzzle I realized that it was possible for the player to go past the C platform without stopping and just continue using the tractor beam to go across to D if they placed the portals correctly. To prevent this I decided there should be a fizzler on the empty edge of D and put the button which disables the fizzler on C. This forces the player to get out of the tractor
beam, and determine how to turn the fizzler off before proceeding from C to D.

I chose to use a button that has to have something on it to keep the fizzler disabled. This means that the player has to put the cube through the Tractor beam while they keep the fizzler off so
that the cube doesn’t get destroyed by the fizzler. Then, once the cube is on the other side the player can go to D with the tractor beam, pick up the cube, and open the door.

At this point I knew that even though my puzzle wasn’t particularly challenging it was complete enough that I could take it into the editor and test it, so that’s what I did.

Analyzing Your First Draft

Here is an image of what the map looked like in the editor:

This video shows me playing through the puzzle, and narrating a few of my thoughts on it:

In case you can’t view the video, it shouldn’t surprise you that I found the level to be incredibly simple. The problem is that there is no real challenge to completing this level since every step is obvious and requires little forethought on the part of the player.

This is not an uncommon problem to encounter early in the level design process for a Portal map. To solve it I like to list the actions the player has to take to complete my puzzle and then find places I can make things more difficult for them.

These are the current steps the player must take to complete the puzzle:

1.Use portals with tractor beam to go from A to B.

2.Pick up cube

3.Take cube from B to A with tractor beam.

4.Use tractor beam or portals to go from A to C.

5.Turn off fizzler by standing on Button at C.

6.Set up tractor beam so it goes from C to D.

7.Put cube in tractor beam while fizzler is off to move it from C to D without destroying it.

8.Once cube is past fizzler, step off Button and into tractor beam to move yourself from C to D.

9.Once on D, use cube to open exit door.

10.Exit room.

The problem I noticed after listing the actions the player takes was how easy it is to get the cube, and then how easy it is to get the cube from A to C. Those two actions are very important to solving the puzzle and yet they can both be boiled down to a single statement action. Contrast this with how the player gets from C to D with the cube, which is half the listed actions alone, and you can see why this is such a simple puzzle. Clearly, this is where the puzzle needs to be more complex.

Creating Challenge

Getting the cube should be the first challenge for the player. To effectively make this part of the puzzle more complex, I needed to find a way for the player to use the tractor beam to get the cube. This would introduce the tractor beam as a complex puzzle element earlier, and make the act of getting the cube more interesting.

The easiest way I found to introduce the tractor beam at this stage of the puzzle was to move the cube dispenser into the middle of the map. Doing this made it so that the cube will continue to spawn and fall into the water until the player does something to prevent it. This forces the player to catch and move the cube with the tractor beam before they can pick the cube up, and effectively makes the task of getting the cube involve active participation on the part of the player.

(From this point on, I start implementing ideas directly in the editor without sketching them out first. I try to start on paper or in Photoshop so that I can think through the major aspects of the puzzle such as the player’s goals and a general idea of how they may accomplish them. However, once I move into the editor, the iterative process is so fast that it’s not worth going back and forth unless I’m making a huge change like adding a new room or re-designing a large section.)

After moving the dispenser I also realized that to catch the cube the Player will need a few more portalable walls so I added them in these locations.

This video shows me solving the puzzle after the newest changes:

Now, what I’ve just done has made the test slightly more difficult since the player has to determine how to retrieve the cube and it did add more steps to the puzzle as a whole, but it hasn’t had
a huge impact on the overall difficulty since a larger portion of the puzzle – getting the cube from A to C – is still very simple.

At this point I need to find a way to add an element to the puzzle which the player will truly have to ponder before they can take action. Generally when I get to a point like this, where I have
very few ideas about how to complicate my puzzle but don’t want to add any major new elements, I find a good method is to make the puzzle impossible and then find an interesting way for the player to solve the puzzle.

What I mean is, I am going to add an element to the puzzle which in its current state will make it impossible to complete and I’m then going to find a way to modify that element’s impact on the puzzle which introduces a new challenge to the player and makes the puzzle possible to complete once again. In this scenario I am going to add a fizzler as shown in the image below so that it is
impossible for the player to actually move the box from A to C without destroying it.

As you can see my puzzle is now impossible — primarily because the fizzler is also preventing the player from getting the cube in the first place.

To change this I am going to put a pillar in the corner of the C platform which will end the area the fizzler affects and give player access to the white wall they use to catch the cube again.

As you can see I also made the pillar two spaces long rather than just one. I did this because after testing my map I found that it’s possible for the player to go to the edge of the B section that faces the D section and put a portal into the C section if they are fast enough. Making the pillar two squares wide prevents this workaround.

To find a new solution for the puzzle I spent some time in the editor and in the level trying to figure out what I might be inclined to do as the player. I determined that if I added white portalable walls to B it would allow the player to place a portal at B from C when you are standing on the edge of C that faces D. This would effectively create a way for the player to get around
the fizzler and get their cube back so they could complete the puzzle.

I implemented this idea and then went back into the level to try and use the solution:

I actually really like this solution as it is simple but not overly so, and because it subverts the players expectations by relying less on the tractor beam than previous parts of the puzzle.

After some testing I also found that many of my friends did find this final step sufficiently challenging. If I were building a larger-scale puzzle I would probably continue developing and find another use for the tractor beam, or a place to integrate a new puzzle element, but since this is supposed to be a relatively quick puzzle I think this is a good solution to continue with.

Finishing the Puzzle and Finding Exploits

While the puzzle looks like it’s complete, it’s actually not. At this point we still need to do some testing and see where the puzzle can be exploited. To find the exploits, you should play your level as much as you can in as many ways as you can and get lots of others to play it too. In my testing, and in having my friends test the level, I found two solutions that I didn’t like and one
area I wanted to consider changing.

This is a video demonstration of how the player could exploit the level in its current state and the two solutions my friends came up with that I felt went against the intended solution too much:

The first exploit was that they could place the tractor beam in the column of white walls directly next to the open edge of platform C and then simply jump from the tractor beam onto platform C.

This avoided my intended solution for the puzzle and required timing and accuracy to accomplish, not thought or understanding of the environment. I eliminated this solution by making that column of white spaces on the wall black so that the player could not portal there:

The second solution was that a player portaled to the top corner of the white area between C and D and then jumped down on to C and again avoided the solution I had intended in a very similar way.

I accounted this by stretching the level, pushing everything from the white wall onwards one space farther from the C platform. This makes the gap too far to jump and eliminates the exploit.

If I continued testing with more people I would probably find some other solutions I didn’t like, but you have to be careful during this step that you are only eliminating solutions which go against the intent of the puzzle and are not eliminating every solution that isn’t yours. Remember, you want the player to have the restrictions to find the solution you intended, but the freedom to do it in their own way.

The other thing I found was that if the player got to D without the box, they would be unable to return to C because of the positioning of the fizzler on the edge of D. To adjust for this I added an extra row of standing area in front of the fizzler on D so the player would be able to make their way back to the important areas of the puzzle and wouldn’t get stuck.

I also had to make sure at this point that the white walls on the CD side which allow the player to get back to the other areas of the level were not going to allow the player to drop the cube on the D platform without using the tractor beam, but found nothing except that they could accidentally destroy the cube. I thought this would be okay to leave because it would lead the player in the direction I wanted.

I did some more testing and couldn’t find any other major issues so at this point I decided to consider the puzzle finished. Like I said, I am sure if I wanted to I could do more testing and explore the puzzle even more deeply, but you have to know when to stop and at least take some time away from the puzzle. I may revisit it at a later date if I get feedback saying it can be improved, but for now I decided to move on.

Calling It a Day

I hope this article helped you understand the process of developing a level from start to finish. While some things you do will be meticulously planned and thought out, others come up without you realizing it while you were focused on something else. Really, you just need to go with the flow and consider how your actions and any new solutions will impact what the player can and cannot do.

It’s also important to know what you want the player to do so that every change can be considered in how it affects the player’s ability or inability to accomplish the goals you want.

Also, take a lesson from this article and how I tried starting with something much more complex than it needed to be. An idea doesn’t have to start huge and ambitious to become good, you just have to put in the time and energy to make all the elements work.(source:gamedev


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