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迪士尼高管谈硬核游戏与休闲游戏间的界限

发布时间:2013-09-05 09:59:56 Tags:,,,,

作者:Sebastian Haley

最近,Disney Interactive邀请GameBeat参加其全新电子游戏《飞行总动员》的发布会以及紧接着的招待会。而这也是接近迪士尼产品开发部门副总监Bill Roper并与之进行交谈的有利机会。

Roper以前曾在暴雪娱乐工作过,即在Flagship Studios中他发行了一款充满野心但却命运多舛的大型多人在线游戏《暗黑之门:伦敦》,同时他也在Cryptic Studios担任过《Champions Online》的设计总监。以下的访问包含《迪士尼无限》为什么具有如此广泛的吸引力,《Epic Mickey》失败的影响以及他们可能回到赛车游戏《争分夺秒》中等内容。

GameBeat:是什么原因推动着你们面向任天堂创造《飞行总动员》?

Disney Planes(from youtube)

Disney Planes(from youtube)

Bill Roper:对于我们来说,这是关于将知识产权与我们想要创造的游戏类型和合适的合作伙伴维系在一起。任天堂一直是我们的长期合作伙伴。他们拥有强大的孩童和家庭用户基础。而《飞行总动员》是改编自同名电影,所以玩家都很清楚游戏中会发生些什么。游戏机制都是围绕着电影进行编写。所以这将会是一款非常棒的飞行游戏。

为了推动游戏的发展,我们便开始思考合适的放置平台。而与任天堂长久以来的友好关系便成就了这一结果。他们便是最佳选择。

GamesBeat:对于Disney Interactive来说,休闲性并不是什么新内容,而这也是一部面向孩子和家庭的休闲电影。但在过去几年,你们似乎相继关闭了一些硬核游戏工作室而更加专注于创造这些休闲游戏。是否在之后玩家还能看到你们带来的硬核IP?

Ropper:我想会的。我想我们的一切行动都是取决于内部团队的工作。我们正在寻找合适的合作伙伴去创造IP。我想这也是游戏产业中所有人都会遇到的挑战,即该在哪里释放自己的才能。我们总是会努力留住优秀的人才。尽管对于我们来说创造硬核游戏还是种较为新鲜的尝试,就像Lucas的优秀团队所创造的《星球大战》便是我们现在非常关心的对象。即我们将与艺电共同打造《星球大战》系列游戏。

GamesBeat:《前线》吗?(在E3上公开了预告片)

Roper是的,就是《前线》。接下来还会出现更多内容,不过我当然不会在这里公开了,我想人们一定会点着头说“哇,这真酷。”这同样也是专注于玩家将会喜欢的内容—-即关于最适当的角色,故事,IP以及平台。

如今许多孩子都来到了手机领域,这也是我们更加重视手机平台的主要原因。让我再举个例子来说,即在E3上问世的《王国之心3》。我认为这款游戏便倾向于硬核玩家。Square Enix也是我们多年来的合作伙伴。说实话,尽管我们因为《无限》的广受欢迎而兴奋不已,但是真正的鼓励还是来自所有妈妈型和爸爸型玩家。即他们说道“好棒,这是我可以与孩子一起玩的游戏。”特别是存在建造元素和玩具盒。我认为这在某种程度上是适当的属性与适当的平台的结合。

不管是《无限》还是《怪物大学》,虽然它们看起来都像是小孩子才会玩的游戏,但是当你真正进入游戏中并开始挑战,你便会变成一个成熟的玩家,并能看到游戏机制是源自哪里。“哇,这就像是《镇压》一般的游戏,但却是面向小孩。”这也是我们在E3上公开的《供您决定》预告片中想要传达的一点。我认为这将冲击着孩子们的想法,因为这可能是他们之前重未接触过的游戏机制。

GamesBeat:因为家长们不允许他们去接触这样的内容。

Roper:没错。但是现在他们可以这么做了。对于你我这样的玩家,我们会直接说“是的,这真的很棒!这就像是……”说实话,《独行侠》与《荒野大镖客》没什么区别。玩家一样可以骑马冒险,能够打开全新区域。它们都拥有一个开放的世界。我们创造的是家庭友好型开放世界游戏。我之所以会这么想并不是因为我致力于游戏创造中。我也会玩游戏。我的许多30多岁的伙伴也会跟我说“我们能否一起来玩玩具盒?”

我们便看过许多人使用各种逻辑玩具和内容去创造横向卷轴和自上而下的赛车游戏。这是非常有趣的元素,我们在此接触到了那些硬核游戏机制并创造一些硬核玩家将会喜欢的内容。但显然我们并不想将这些游戏当成硬核游戏出售。我想你们应该看到许多与我们的第一款《Epic Mickey》很像的游戏。硬核游戏玩家会说:“嘿,这看起来真的很酷。”所以我们希望能够以此创造出真正热门的游戏。

GamesBeat:回到《Epic Mickey》该系列游戏的失败是否对Disney Interactive冒险去尝试其它游戏类型带来了蝴蝶效应?

Roper:我不知道是否如此。不过我也从未这么想过。是Warren带我来到迪士尼。最初他在Facebook给我发了一条信息说道“嘿,Alex Seropian正在寻找一个能够领导Marvel的人。你是否对此感兴趣?”我的回答是,“我喜欢Marvel。所以我愿意接受面试。”于是我便开始在那工作啦。所以我真的非常尊敬Warren。

但是我认为我们所面对的一切都是在《Mickey 2》问世之后,那时的我们一直在思考该将关注点转向哪里。我们拥有一个巨大的平台在运行Avalanche所开发的《无限》,而这款游戏便耗尽了我们对于主机和内部开发的主要精力。所以我认为这并不是一种蝴蝶效应。《Epic Mickey》只是完成了自己的使命。伴随着《Epic Mickey 2》的结束这款游戏也走向了结束。

现在人们是朝着不同的方向前进。这听起来可能有点空想主义。显然,现在很多关注点都在于我们在手机领域和数字发行领域的行动—-创建我们自己的网络,在手机领域发行更多游戏,专注于创造更多性能从而能够与其它优秀的开发商展开合作等等。《无限》便一直都是由Avalanche(游戏邦注:来自瑞典的开发商Avalanche Studios,即《Just Cause》和即将发行的《Mad Max》的幕后开发团队)的成员负责。所以是“公司的发展方向”推动着该决策。

GamesBeat:你是否认为《Skylanders》或《迪士尼无限》玩具是减慢产业向全数字化转变的罪魁祸首?

Roper:我不清楚事实是否如此。不过我们发现这些物质元素存在一种内在价值。你可以将其呈现给好友。拿起或放下某件东西并能够与别人进行交换是件很棒的事。我们很喜欢做的一件事便是使用功率磁盘。“我正在将其放进去!这就是我的玩具!”这就像结合了波格游戏与在院子里和GI Joes和变形金刚游戏一样,都是一些经典的事物。而物质元素便能够帮助我们做到这些。

过去我常常玩《Statis Pro Baseball》,这是一款基于纸牌的棒球模拟游戏。我身处一个联盟中,并作为一名超级棒球高手。那时候,有人说过“保持记录太困难了。我们应该创造一个更便捷的数字版本。”这是一款完全不同的游戏,而你不得不将所有数据整合进去。我尝试了这款游戏,但是很快就输了。因为我更喜欢玩牌时的触觉感,亲手写下分数并里里外外移动玩家,这能让我真正去动手。我认为这便是我们现在所致力于创造的魔法。

我喜欢全数字的内容。很长一段时间以来我都致力于MMO和数字产品中。所以我绝对不是排斥全数字内容。它们真的很酷。这也是我认为扩展《无限》的一种有效方法。所以我们也可以从数字角度出发进行创造。

不过说实话,我认为这对于许多公司来说是个很大的挑战,即孩子们并不像大人拥有宽裕的资金。所以通常情况下可下载内容并不能在孩子们身上起到有效作用。但是如果你能提供一个有趣的玩具,那么当他们获得该玩具时便会想要尝试所有与之相关的内容。

GamesBeat:你是否认为《迪士尼无限》与《Skylanders》获得同样的成功,迪士尼是否会继续尝试其它物理/数字结合体验?

Roper:我认为这么做很有趣。现在如果你着眼于《无限》,当你购买了更多角色或玩具组合时,你的游戏体验也将进一步扩展。你将能够打开更多游戏内容。你可以想想它变成了一种超级工具,即会说“这是我所拥有的,因为我是基于数字化,所以这一有形的内容便会发生改变和更新。”我认为基于这样的内容你可以选择各种方向。对于我来说能够在这么一家公司工作真的是件很棒的事,即他们“幻想一些较酷的内容,并琢磨着如何去实现它们。”

GamesBeat:虽然我很喜欢《王国之心》并期待着《迪士尼无限》,但是我最喜欢的迪士尼游戏还是《争分夺秒》。

Roper:这的确是一款很棒的游戏。

GamesBeat:所以当你们决定关闭这款游戏时我真的都快心碎了。虽然早已是尘埃落定的事了,但是我真的想再问下,你们是否有可能再次开启《争分夺秒》这款游戏?

Roper:这是一个很好的问题。这款游戏的创造者都是我的前辈,不过我也很喜欢玩这款游戏,也会有“哇,这真的是款很棒的游戏。太有趣了”的想法。

GamesBeat:我认为它就像是由Michael Bay(游戏邦注:一名美国电影导演与电影监制)导演的《Burnout》。

Roper:没错!它尝试了其它可行的方法。我们也从中看到了平台选择的变化。而关于一款优秀游戏非常有趣的一点便是,它既可以朝着一个全新的方向发展,也能够以一种不同的方式去表现再熟悉不过的内容。

着眼于《唐老鸭梦冒险》和《Castle of Illusion》等游戏,其实从本质上看来它们并没有区别,但却从中衍生出了新的生命。我们便正与一些非常出色的公司一起赋予游戏和其它内容全新的外表。《唐老鸭梦冒险》便非常厉害。当我们在YouTube上放出带有歌曲的预告片后,它便获得了极高的点击率。人们记得这款游戏—-会有“我喜欢它”的感受。也许这也将推动着我们再次尝试《争分夺秒》这款游戏,因为我是真心很喜欢它。

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

Disney Interactive executive discusses the fine line between hardcore and family-friendly (interview)

By Sebastian Haley

Disney Interactive recently invited GamesBeat to a screening of Disney Planes followed by a reception with hands-on time for the video game adaptation. However, this was more an opportunity to poke the game division’s vice president of product development, Bill Roper, with a stick and see what came out.

Roper previously held positions at Blizzard Entertainment, Flagship Studios where he launched ambitious-but-ill-fated massively multiplayer online game Hellgate: London, and Cryptic Studios as design director for Champions Online. The following interview touches upon everything from the broad appeal of Disney Infinity, the resounding effects of Epic Mickey’s failure, and the possible return of racing game franchise Split/Second,

GamesBeat: What was behind the decision to make the Planes games exclusive to Nintendo platforms?

Bill Roper: For us it’s really matching up the intellectual properties (IPs) with what we want to make as games and with the right partners to do that with. Nintendo’s been a great lifelong partner with us. They have very traditionally owned that sweet spot with kids and families. With Planes, as we looked at the product in association with the film and what was happening with that, it was obvious. It had the game mechanics written all over it. This was going to be an awesome flying game.

As the ideas for the game evolved, we looked at where would be the right place to put this. Everything formed around what a great partnership we could have with Nintendo to put this out. They were the right place to do it.

GamesBeat: The casual focus is not really anything new for Disney Interactive, and this is a casual, kids-and-family-targeted movie. But even over the past few years, you’ve shuttered some of the more core studios and products and focused more on those casual games. Do you think we could ever see more core Disney IPs come back to Interactive?

Roper: I think we will. I think what we’ve moved away from is relying exclusively on internal teams to do that. We’re finding the right partners to work with the IPs. It’s the challenge I think everyone faces in the gaming industry in terms of where you put your talent. We always try to keep great people inside the company. But a great example of that, although it’s still a little fresh to us a little weird to think of, is that Star Wars is now a property that we look after with the amazing team up at Lucas. We’re going to be back in the core demographic with Star Wars and EA.

GamesBeat: With Battlefront? (E3 reveal trailer)

Roper: Yeah, with Battlefront. That’s awesome. And I think there’s going to be some stuff coming down the pipe — that we’re obviously not talking about yet – that’s going to have people nodding their heads and saying, “Yeah, that’s cool.” It’s also just the focus on where we see players going to line up with—Again, in my mind, it’s always the right characters and stories, the right IPs, on the right platforms.

We’re seeing a lot of younger kids moving to mobile, which is why there’s been such an emphasis on mobile inside the company. As another great example, Kingdom Hearts 3 got announced at E3. That, I think, is something that’s always skewed a little more towards the core gamer. Square Enix has been an amazing partner with us for a lot of years. That’ll be on all the big ones. And to be honest, I think that even though we see a huge excitement around Infinity with kids and everything, the thing I feel encouraged by is all the gamer moms and dads I know. “Awesome, a game I can play with my kid.” Especially the building elements and the toybox. I think there will always be, to some degree, a mixture of the right properties and the right platforms.

But I do feel like – I’ll use Infinity as an example — when you go into it, even though you may be going through Monsters University – okay, it’s Monsters, it skews a little young – but when you actually go through and play it and you’re a more mature gamer, you see where the gameplay mechanics come from. “Wow, this feels kind of like Crackdown. But for kids.” Right? That’s one of the things we tried to make a nod to with the E3 “For Your Consideration” trailer we put out. We’ve got a lot of stuff in there that’s going to—I just think it’s going to blow kids’ minds. They haven’t played those kinds of game mechanics before.

GamesBeat: Because they weren’t allowed to.

Roper: Right, they weren’t allowed to. But now they can. For gamers like you and me, we’re like, “Yeah, this is great! This is just like—“ To be honest, The Lone Ranger is kind of like Red Dead Redemption. I’ve got horses and I’m riding around on adventures. I’m opening new areas. It’s an open world. We’ve built these family-friendly open world games. But at the same time—This isn’t just because I’m working on it. I play the heck out of it. I have a couple of buddies of mine that are in their 30s, and they’re like, “Hey, can we come over and screw around in the toybox?”

We see guys making side-scrollers and top-down racing games with all the logic toys and everything. That’s the interesting element to it, where we’re touching those core game mechanics and making stuff that core gamers will actually like. Not that we’re trying to sell it as a core game, obviously. But I think you saw that a lot with games like the first Epic Mickey. Core gamers were saying, “Hey, this is actually pretty cool.” So hopefully we’re going to hit the right notes with that.

GamesBeat: Going back Epic Mickey, did the failure of the series have a kind of butterfly effect on Disney Interactive’s feelings about venturing out and doing those types of games?

Roper: I don’t know if it did. That’s an interesting way of putting it. I hadn’t thought of it that way, the butterfly effect. I think, really, in that perspective—Warren was the guy who got me into Disney. Warren initially actually sent me a message on Facebook and said, “Hey, Alex Seropian” – who was the head over core at the time – “is looking for someone to come in and shepherd the Marvel stuff that we’re doing here. Would you be interested?” I said, “Well, I love Marvel. Yeah, I’d love to come in and interview.” And I started working there. So I have nothing but absolute respect for Warren.

But I think where we got to is, after Mickey 2 came out, we were looking out there and thinking about where we’re shifting the focus of the division. We have a massive platform that’s being done out of Avalanche with Infinity, which is probably going to eat up the vast majority of our focus on console as far as internal development. So it was just that—I think it was less of a butterfly effect in that way. It was more like that had finished. It had come to its conclusion at the end of Epic Mickey 2.

Now people were going in different directions. It almost sounds a little—I don’t know, I might be sounding a little romantic. There’s a much heavier focus now, obviously, on what we’re doing in the mobile space and what we’re doing with digital distribution – building our network, being able to have a lot of titles coming out in the mobile area, having a focus on taking some of the properties that make sense to work with other developers on and doing that. Infinity has always been in the hands of the guys at Avalanche in Salt Lake [Note: Not to be confused with Swedish developer Avalanche Studios, the team behind Just Cause and the upcoming Mad Max]. So that was just more of a, “Where is the company going moving forward?” that drove that decision.

GamesBeat: Do you feel like these Skylanders or Disney Infinity toys are a way to slow the industry’s transition to all-digital?

Roper: I don’t know if it’s to keep them from going all digital. I think that one of the things we’ve found is that there is an intrinsic value, if you will, to that physical element. You can show it off to your friends. It’s cool to pick up stuff and put it down, swapping this thing out. One of the things that we love doing, and that we found actually resonated super well when we started testing it, was the power discs, for example. “I’m putting this in! Here’s my toy!” Just like that—It’s some weird combination of pogs and playing in the yard with your GI Joes and your Transformers, all those classic things. There’s something to clapping stuff down and doing things with it, that physical element.

For me – I literally just thought of this – I used to play this game called Statis Pro Baseball, which was a card-based baseball simulation game. I was in a league. I was a super baseball geek. At one point, the guys were like, “Oh, the record-keeping is so difficult. We should do a better digital version.” It was a different game, but you got to put all your stats in and the whole thing. I played one game of it and I was like, “Yeah, I’m out.” Because for me, there was something about the tactile nature of flipping cards and writing down the score and moving my players in and out, there was some element that I could put my hands on. I think that’s kind of part of the magic to what we’re doing.

I love the all-digital stuff. I have a pretty long history in the industry working on MMOs and digitally delivered products. I definitely don’t come from a standpoint where I don’t like the all-digital stuff. It’s very cool. That’s one of the things that I think is a great place for people to expand into with Infinity. How do take that and make it so I can play on the go? I can always have a touch point into it from a digital standpoint. I think there is something to the physicality of it.

And to be honest, I think it’s a challenge for a lot of companies to find—Kids don’t have the same access to wallets that parents do, right? Or that adults do. So DLC traditionally has not done very well for kids. But if there’s a cool toy you can play with, a character, I’ve got it, I put it down and everything, and the discs to go with it, that resonates more.

GamesBeat: Do you think that if Disney Infinity is as successful as Skylanders, Disney would then pursue other physical/digital hybrid experiences?

Roper: I think that would be great. I think that’s the interesting thing. Right now, if you look at Infinity, you keep expanding your experience when you buy more of the characters or buy the playsets. You unlock more and more of the game that you’re playing. You could definitely imagine it being super cool to be able to say, “Here’s something I have, this physical thing, that changes and updates and grows because of something I do digitally.” I think there’s a lot of directions you could go with that kind of stuff. It’s exciting for me to be in a company where they have a long history of, “Hey, let’s dream up something cool and figure out how to make it happen.”

GamesBeat: As much as I enjoy Kingdom Hearts and am looking forward to Disney Infinity, my favorite Disney Interactive game of all time is actually Split/Second.

Roper: That is an awesome game.

GamesBeat: So I was pretty crushed when the developer got closed down. Now that the dust has settled, is there even the slightest possibility that Split/Second could eventually live on somehow?

Roper: It’s a great question. Those guys were before my time with the company, but I played Split/Second, and I thought, “Wow, this is such an awesome game. It’s so fun.”

GamesBeat: I describe it as if Michael Bay directed a Burnout game.

Roper: Yeah, yeah, it is. I always look at that idea, and – not to try to be coy – anything’s possible. It’s just trying to see if there’s a way that it makes sense that we do that. We’re also seeing a lot of changes in platforms and where that goes. The fun thing about a great game is that it can do one of two things. It can either evolve and live on in a new direction, or you find different ways to bring it back.

Looking at what we’ve been doing with DuckTales and Castle of Illusion and those things, that’s the same game under the hood, but it has new life breathed into it. We’re working with these great companies to give a completely new look to the game and everything. DuckTales was crazy. We just put out that trailer with the song, and it got an incredible number of hits on YouTube. People remember that game – “Oh, I loved that.” There definitely could be some fun stuff for us to try to figure out with Split Second, because I loved that game too.(source:venturebeat)


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