作者：Paul “Reynard Frost” Walker

达到完美不是当没有东西可以添加时，而是没有东西可以删减时。——Antoine de Saint-Exupery（法国作家）

如果你是RPG Maker社区的一员，那么你可能想做游戏。甚至更可能的是，你玩游戏。你的头脑中有许多灵感、创意、角色，你迫不及待地想把它们与别人分享！你构思的120个游戏角色的花名册和你的游戏百科全书足以压跨所有（质量不好的）书架了。你做啊做啊做啊，努力把整个系列的特征放时同一款游戏里。

结果，你的游戏太臃肿了。你必须简化你的游戏。为什么要简化？那样你才有可能完成它！在此，我将与大家分享一下我的游戏设计过程。

一、在纸上策划游戏

疯了吧？怎么可能在一张小小的8.5 x 11英寸的纸上创作宏大的故事和惊奇的玩法？事实上，相当容易：

核心想法：用一句话概括你的游戏。这是你为自己设立的指导方针，你要遵循它，以确保你的游戏不会越来越脱节。例如，我给《Ruins of Rydos》写的概述是：“一队冒险者一边探索古老的高塔，一边与怪物战斗。”

简单，就是你只能说这么多。

特征：用一个表罗列游戏中包含的一系列特征。尽量不超过10个。可以简单地写成下面的样子：

1、可以购买和出售道具

2、打败敌人可以获得金钱和经验

3、谜题

……

这是你最容易做过头的部分，因为你可能会忍不住把所有想法都写下来。那没关系，只要你还记得把非必要的东西划掉。

游戏流程：这是有趣的部分，也是最占空间的部分。用图表、目录等任何让你觉得舒服的东西来表现你的游戏如何从开头进展到结尾。这不包含剧情元素如“Rose和Jack讨论他们的关系”。核心玩法如“玩家到达营地，目标1、目标2、……”则应该出现在这部分中。

我们以经典游戏《最终幻想1》为例：

玩家创建小队–>玩家与国王对话并接受任务–>玩家到达混沌神殿并与Garland展开大战–>玩家把公主送回王国；桥梁修复–>玩家前往港口小镇，与海盗战斗以获得船只–>玩家乘船到达精灵城，发现精灵王病了–>……

覆盖游戏的核心环节，突出玩法，这样你才知道要计划什么、以什么顺序通关。当你完成从头到尾的玩法，你就可以进入下一步了。

角色：不是角色传记！这是对角色名字的简单罗列以及对角色的相关玩法的简要介绍。当然，我说的角色是指玩家可以操作的角色。例子如下：

英雄–剑士：攻击力强，使用物理类技能。

治疗–医师：使用治愈技能，可以用小刀作战。

远攻–射手：使用弓箭/弩等，可以远距离攻击敌人。

减益–术士：使用毒药和幻影来伤害敌人。

这个列表强调角色的玩法。至于他们与剧情的关系，可以等到你完成玩法后再设计。

剧情：用一段话概括游戏的情节。为什么是一段话？节省空间，突出关键信息，以免你在充实剧情的时候与原来的设想脱节。

一定要写成两段也没关系。只要能够以通俗易懂的方式概述游戏剧情、突出关键事件而不是玩家自己可以推测出来的宏大历史就行了。

写好剧情后，可以考虑一下游戏特征怎么运作（不只是使用脚本！还要想想这些游戏特征如何运作）以及需要克服的难点。首先专注于玩法元素，把剧情部分先放一边，等到你确实有灵感时再想，以免你用脑过度。务必以玩法为重点！你应该注意到我在这个列表中没有提到地图布局或道具。这些都是细节，等到我们真正开始做游戏时再考虑吧。如果你已经想出玩法和特征的运作方式以及流程，那么就可以进入下一个步了。

二、计划时间轴

对此，我建议使用白板或日程表或我个人最喜欢的：备忘录！也可以用具有这些功能的软件。为什么？帮助安排游戏开发的进度。以下是安排进度的几个简单步骤：

1、写一个必须完成的清单：想到什么就写下来，例如“设计英雄形象”或“确定物品价格”。只要把你头脑中冒出来的想法写下来就好，不要担心覆盖不全面。当你确实开始执行这些特征时，你就会突然想起其他必要的东西，你就可以把它们添加到列表中了。但在此之前……

2、把你的列表归类：把你的列表分成图像、玩法、测试，等等。如果你是团队协作，那么这样做有助于分配工作量。如果你是单干，这么做有助于你思考先处理哪一部分（提示：玩法第一！）

3、估计每一环节所需时间：随着项目进展，这是需要经常修改的部分，你会越来越熟悉你的技能（这些技能水平也必然会提高）。一开始，只要在各个步骤旁边写下你认为完成它需要的时间。你不必准确到小时和分钟，大概估计一下就好。例如：“英雄形象——1天”。即使它只花了你一个小时，你也要给自己一天时间，以防中间发生什么意外，让你那一天都专注于做那一件事。不要把时间卡得太紧，要为可能发生的错误腾出时间。

4、按月分配工作：一旦你知道每一步需要花多少时间，你就可以把这些步骤按月来组织，这样你就能大概知道你的游戏需要多长时间才能完成。我喜欢给每个月的工作加一个标题，这样我就能更清楚这个月要完成哪些部分。

例如：“三月——图像”。在三月的工作目录下，我罗列了如制作战士、战斗动画等步骤。而对于“二月——地下城1”，我将完成地下城的谜题、地图布局、敌人数值、道具分布等。你也可以按其他方法划分每个月的工作。

在你做这个时间轴时，你会意识到制作游戏的某些特征或部分所需的时间更长。那就划掉一些任务或把它们放到每个月的次要工作目录中，例如“额外工作：如果时间允许”。另外要记住，应该把游戏的基础部分放在头几个月去完成，其他可以凭空想象的部分放到后几个月。比如说，如果你在三月就做完贴图，而地图设计却等到四月才开始，有可能导致之前做好的贴图报废或重制。

三、应对突发情况

现在你的游戏蓝图已经完成了，你可以按时间轴展开你的工作了。当你完成当天的任务量，你就好好休息一下，为明天的工作养精蓄锐。这种工作方式的优势在于，你不必时不时地花12个小时在项目上，让自己精疲力尽，而是每天花4个小时完成一个步骤，然后把它从列表上划掉，另外8个小时就可以放松了！在你工作的过程中，你可能会遇到一些小麻烦，接下来我就要给你提几个建议。

1、我真的很想做X，不过做它的时间还没到。现在就想做？我要提醒你，也许X还需要你先完成其他东西，才能保证它最终能派上用场。不过，如果你真那么迫切地话，那就试试吧！

2、我所有步骤都没有按时完成！没关系，只要把这些没完成的步骤排到下个月去（或者分配到其他月份）。或者，也许你得选择放弃它们。当然，你也可以多给自己一个月的时间完成项目。但考虑到你的目标是完成游戏，我还是建议你按时完成所有步骤。

3、完成这一步我需要别人的帮助！这一步对游戏是必要的吗？如果是，那就先放着等救兵到来。如果不是，那就从列表上划掉。

4、完成X需要更多步骤，占用的时间比我想的要多！没什么问题，只要把其他步骤分配到其他月份就好了（当然，必要时就删掉一些东西吧）。

5、我提早完成了！太好了！如果你还没累趴下，那就先着手下个月的工作吧，这样你就能提前完成项目，给自己更多休息的时间了。

随着你完成列表上的任务，你会对自己的能力（或你的团队）更加有信心，你可能发现你的4个月的计划其实是18个月的计划，一点也不急躁！这是一个节省时间的好办法！

四、削减

杀死你的宝贵儿！这是写作圈里常见的一句话，也同样适用于游戏开发领域。你必须削减某些特征。你想把120个角色全都留下，但没有时间平衡每个角色的属性或装备？那么你必须砍掉一半的角色，甚至只留下其中7个！那么酷的太空飞船中剧情不搭？那你大概得把它留给其他游戏或问问主管的意思了。在削减项目的过程中，你要问自己以下问题：

1、我的游戏真的需要这特征么？回顾一下你的游戏设计文件。看看你写在最前面的那个句子。这个特征是否与那句话相符？前者是否支持后者？或者这个特征是否脱节、是否与你的游戏关系不大？如果是，那就砍掉它吧。如果你实在是没有时间完成它，那也砍掉吧。一个乍一看非常给力的特征可能最后会变成恶梦，所以无论它有多强悍，都必须砍掉它。注意，我说的砍掉不是指删除。永远不要删除你设想的东西。你只是把它从主游戏中移除，并不意味着你永远不用它，也许之后还是能派上用场的。

2、你做的一切都不是浪费时间。即使你完成的东西最后没有出现在游戏中，它仍然帮助你学习了。你可以把它留给下一款游戏。一款完成的、具有少量扎实而有趣的特征的游戏，比一款具有大量很棒的特征、但永远见不着天日的游戏更有价值。

五、行动起来吧！

无论你是采纳我的流程还是自创一套方法，我都希望我写的东西能帮助你完成你自己的好游戏。所以，无论你是刚开始在纸上计划游戏，还是进展到中期突然发现项目乱成一团了，我都建议你花些时间好好计划和优化步骤！

你庆幸自己花了这个时间的。（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 Design: Keep it Simple Stupid

By Paul “Reynard Frost” Walker

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery French writer (1900 – 1944)

If you’re a member of the RPG Maker community, it’s a good bet that you’re here to make games. It’s also even more likely that you also play games. So many games out there to draw inspiration from, so many good features to implement and so many characters running around in your mind that you just simply have to share them with the world! Except your roster of 120 characters and your encyclopedia of YourGameTannica are large enough to break all but the most sturdy of bookshelves. You end up creating and creating and creating trying to include as much content in one game that most would find in an entire series.

What you have is an over-saturation, and a need to simplify your game. Why simplify it? So you can finish it! Today I’ll share with you some tips on how to do just that.

I. Plan Your Game on one Piece of Paper.

What madness is this? How can we create an epic story and amazing gameplay if all we have is a paltry 8.5 x 11 inches to work with? Quite easily, actually:

Core Idea: This is a single sentence that sums up your game. It’s the guideline you will set for yourself and follow to make sure your game doesn’t get too off track. As an example, here is the one I wrote for Ruins of Rydos: “A group of explorers travel through an ancient tower fighting monsters.”

Simple, yet can say so much.

Features: This is a list of features that will be included in your game that you write in a back of the box fashion. Try to keep this list under 10 features. They could be something as simple as:

Able to purchase and sell items.

Fight enemies to earn money and experience.

Puzzles.

This is the most difficult area of your chart to NOT go overboard as you’ll end up writing all of these cool ideas, and that’s OK! Just be prepared to cross out a lot of them. More on this later.

Game Flow: This is the fun part, and the one that takes up the most space. Make a chart, a list, anything you’re comfortable with that covers how the game will be played from start to finish. This doesn’t include story elements like “Rose and Jack discuss their relationship.” this covers CORE game sections, such as “Player arrives at camp, objective 1, objective 2, etc.”

A good example of this would be to look at the ever classic Final Fantasy 1:

Player creates party -> Player speaks to King to receive mission -> Player goes to Chaos Shrine to fight Garland -> Player returns Princess to Kingdom and bridge is fixed -> Player travels to Port Town and fights Pirates to get ship -> Player takes ship to Elftown to find out King is sick -> and so on and so forth.

The idea is to cover the CORE sections of your game that focus more on gameplay so that you know what to plan, and in what order to play them through. Once you’ve planned out your gameplay from beginning to end, you can move on to…

Characters: Not biographies yet, this is a simple list of names (or better yet, roles) and how these characters are relevant to gameplay. This is reserved for playable characters. An example of this list would be:

Hero – Swordsman: focuses on offensive attacks and uses physical skills.

Healer – Doctor: uses recovery skills and can fight with knives.

Ranged – Archer: uses bows/crossbows/etc. and can attack enemies at a distance.

Debuffs – Trickster: Uses poisons and illusions to hinder enemies.

The point of this list is to focus on what role those characters will play in your gameplay. What relevance they have to the story can be planned after you’ve got your gameplay figured out.

Speaking of story…

Story: A single paragraph that sums up the plot of your game. Why a single paragraph? It saves room and can be tied in with your core message to help flesh out your game without it running away from you. (Example)

This stretches it into two paragraphs, and that’s alright! It sums up the story of their game in a non-convoluted way that focuses on key events and not some grand history that people can speculate on later.

With your page of game ideas written, take the time to write out how your game features will work (beyond USE X SCRIPT! actually think of how these game features work. It helps.) until you understand what type of work load you have to work with. Focus on gameplay elements first, and save the story parts for when you get burned out or get really inspired. Just make sure to keep the focus on gameplay! You’ll notice that I haven’t included map layouts or item lists in this list. These are details that we’ll focus on later when we’re actually making the game. Once you have a good idea of how your gameplay features will work and what type of game flow you have, we move on now to our next step.

II. Plan a Timeline.

For this, I recommend using either a whiteboard, a calendar, or my favorite: a checklist! Software equivalents are also welcome. Why? To help plan out a time frame for you to finish your game. Here are a few simple steps to get this daunting task out of the way:

Write a list of what needs to be done: Write out whatever pops into your head. These can be things such as: “Draw Hero charset” or “Create Item Prices”. Just write down whatever pops into your head now, don’t worry about covering everything. When you actually get to work on some of these features, what more needs to be done will suddenly come to you and you can add them to this list.

But before that…

Organize your list into categories: Split your list up into Graphics, Gameplay, Testing, etc. If you have a team to work with, this can help spread out the work load. If you’re working solo, this can help you figure out which areas to tackle first. (Hint: It’s Gameplay!)

Estimate how long each step will take: This will also be edited frequently as the project goes on and you grow more comfortable with your skills (and those skills inevitably improve). To start, just write next to each step how long you think it will take to complete it. You don’t need to get this down to exact hours and minutes, a rough estimate is perfectly fine. Example: “Draw Hero charset – 1 Day”. Even if it only takes you an hour to make it, you give yourself a day just in case something happens or that’s the only thing you work on that day. Be generous with your estimates, so you’re fully prepared in case something goes wrong.

Organize your list into Months: Once you know how long each step will take, split those steps up into month long chunks so that you get a feel for how long this game will actually take to make! I like to add titles to each Month so that I have a better idea of what steps to throw in there. Example: “March – Graphics”. Under March I’d list all kinds of steps such as making those charsets, battlers, battle animations, etc. while “February – Dungeon 1″ I would work on puzzles, map layouts, enemy stats for enemies in that dungeon, item placements, etc. You can also spread out your graphical work load by assigning the tilesets and battlers for each gameplay section to the month you plan on focusing on that area of the game!

As you make this timeline, you’ll realize that some features or sections of the game will take up too much time to implement. Feel free to cross out these tasks or put them in a second category for each month, such as “BONUS: Complete if time.” Also keep in mind to organize your list so that the foundation of your game is tackled early on in the first few months while the fancier parts of your game are handled later on. Creating tilesets in March will end up being scrapped or having to be redrawn if you don’t plan on designing your map designs until April!

With this complete, we move on to the guts of our project!

III. Simple Iteration.

Now that you have a blueprint to work off of, start from the top of your timeline and work your way down. Once you’ve finished a certain amount of tasks in a day, as long as you finish on time, feel free to take a break and work on the other steps the next day. The great part about this approach is that you don’t have to burn yourself out throwing 12 hours at a project when instead you can just spend 4 hours finishing steps and crossing them off the list with those other 8 hours for relaxation or life! Next, I’ll cover some tips to help with some complications you may encounter:

I really want to work on Step X near the end of my timeline! Do you now? Well keep in mind that feature may need something earlier on to be finished to make sure it’s something you actually need.

However, if it’s just itching to come out and you’re having fun making it, go nuts!

I didn’t finish all of my steps in time! That’s perfectly fine! Just take those unfinished steps and carry them over to the next month (or spread them out to other months). Or, you may just have to scratch them off the list (or scratch off steps in later months) to make time for it. Of course, you can just add an extra month to your project. This isn’t recommended as the goal is to finish your game!

I need help from someone to finish this step! Is this step really necessary to finish the game? If so, save it for later until help arrives. If not, cut it.

Feature X needs Y more steps in order to finish, this is going to take more time than I thought! That’s perfectly fine, just spread out some of your other steps to other months (or of course, cut some features!).

I’ve finished early! Excellent! If you’re not burned out on working on your game start working on next month’s steps so that you can either finish your project early or give yourself some breathing room later on.

As you go through your list you’ll get a better feel for your abilities (or your team’s) and you may find out your 4 month plan is actually an 18 month plan, never fret! There is a way to save time that even the pro’s use!

IV. Cutting Room.

Kill your darlings. It’s a common phrase in writing circles, and it applies to game development just as much. Some features you’re just going to have to cut. Wanted that huge roster of 120 characters, but don’t have time to balance each of their stats or their equipment? Might need to cut that roster down to 60, 20, or 7! That really cool spaceship dungeon that doesn’t really tie into the story much? Might need to save that for another game or release it later in a director’s cut. The main question you have to ask yourself throughout this process is this:

Do I really need this in my game? Look back at your game design document paper you made. Look at the top, that single solitary sentence you wrote. Does this feature tie into that statement?

Does it enhance it? Or is it kind of off the rails and not really related to your game in any meaningful way? If it’s the latter, cut it. If it’s the former and you simply don’t have time, cut it anyway. A feature that sounds really cool early on may end up being a nightmare later on, and no matter how awesome it is, you just have to remove it. Take note that I say remove and not delete.

Never delete anything you make. Remove it from the main game, save it for later, learn from it.

Nothing you make is ever a waste of time. Even if what you worked on doesn’t make it into the final game, you still learned from it, and you still made something awesome! You just need to save it for a better time to share it with the world. A finished game with a few solid, and most importantly, fun features is more impressive than a game in development with a ton of cool features that never see the light of day.

V. Get Started!

Whether you follow these steps to the letter or come up with your own process, I hope this information helps you make and complete an awesome game that you’re proud of.  So even if you’re
reaching for that first piece of paper, or you’re in the middle of a project that’s suddenly all over the place, take the time to plan and prioritize! You won’t regret it.(source:rpgmakerweb)