作者：Scott Rogers

许多游戏设计师和玩家最近都向我反映，他们已经受够了游戏中的僵尸元素。我能够理解他们的体会，因为确有太多游戏采用了僵尸元素（我最近一次统计，这类游戏将近250款）。但不可否认的是，僵尸是一种流行题材，它们如此盛行（至少对我们电子游戏设计师来说是如此）的原因如下：

僵尸是完美的电子游戏敌人

对此我总结了10个原因：

1）僵尸总是令人毛骨悚然。但作为前电子游戏设计师，我可以告诉你，画僵尸是很有趣的事情。不信你去画一个看看。

gahanwilson_zombie(from mrbossdesign)

无论它们看起来有多粗糙，腐烂、骨瘦如柴、肿胀、怪异、像人类一样，它们看起来确实很酷。它们令人心生恐惧，会引发玩家的恐惧感和战斗欲。就是因为它们看起来很可怕，所以更容易让玩家产生逃命或者击比毙它们的念头。

2）看到僵尸爆炸起来的感觉很妙！可以展现游戏的特效以及粒子系统，让玩家达到兴奋点。

3）僵尸适用于多种类型的游戏：它们可以出现在恐怖游戏中，也可以现身科幻游戏，动作游戏，奇幻游戏，射击游戏，平台游戏，战斗游戏，冒险游戏，格斗游戏等……甚至是益智游戏！看到下图的僵尸了吗？它就是来自一款音乐/僵尸游戏中的“丧尸摇滚”环节。所以说僵尸几乎可以兼容任何类型的游戏。

rock_of_the_dead(from mrbossdesign)

4）僵尸很可怕，也可以很有趣！在《丧尸围城》中的僵尸头上安置一个搞笑的小熊头，是不是很有喜感？《植物大战僵尸》中的僵尸头上所戴的锥形交通路标亦是如此诙谐。

pvz（from mrbossdesign)

5）僵尸会死灰复燃。僵尸被击中之后会趴倒在地。但如果他又复活了，没有人会说这是游戏的失误。因为玩家早料到这种结果了（如果僵尸没有复活，有些玩家甚至还会有点失望）。在游戏设计师看来，任何能够提供“双重使命”的敌人都很值得添加到游戏中。

15zombie_span(from mrbossdesign)

6）《马里奥》游戏中就有僵尸（僵尸龟）。正如我所说的，如果这种元素可以为宫本茂所用，那也应该适用于我。

skelturtle(from mrbossdesign)

7）僵尸总是成群出没。最佳的基本敌人就是那种能够大批复制的类型。这意味着忍者、蒙面恐怖分子和僵尸都是比较好用的敌人类型，海盗则不然。

你只需要运用技术切换僵尸的部分肢体和装饰，就可以在屏幕上创造出100多个不同的僵尸！

dead rising(from mrbossdesign)

8）僵尸会吃掉玩家！如果你问问人们在游戏中最糟糕的出路是什么，我相信“被吃掉”可能是出现频率最高的回答。这种结果也非常可怕（游戏邦注：查看第1 点）。不幸的是，因为僵尸得离你够近才能吃掉你，这就为玩家提供了足够的时间击毙僵尸，或者用大刀砍掉它们的头，或者直接逃之夭夭。这就是游戏玩法。

Dead_rising_zombie_heather（from mrbossdesign)

9）僵尸可以产生有趣的玩法——当然，让僵尸爆头总是很有趣，但创造路障阻挡僵尸，保护无助的NPC，在塔防游戏中逐个射击大批进击的僵尸，也是很棒的玩法。

10）任何东西都可以变成僵尸。下图就是一只僵尸熊。（游戏邦注：实际上在2011年的《Maximo》中就已经出现了僵尸鳄鱼）

zombear(from mrbossdesign)

因此，僵尸模式才会在游戏世界中如此盛行。几乎每款主流游戏都有一个僵尸模式，以下是其中典型例子：

《荒野大镖客：亡灵梦魇》——牛仔？僵尸？六发式左轮手枪、鲍伊猎刀和套索等低端武器并不像火焰喷射枪等高端装备那么管用，因此对玩家来说，僵尸就成了一个更大的威胁。

red-dead-zombie-family(from mrbossdesign)

《使命召唤：战争世界》的僵尸模式——简而言之，就是纳粹僵尸。为它们添加“喷射背包”就变成了完美的电子游戏敌人。该游戏中的僵尸非常之酷，因为它们有炽热的双眼。《使命召唤》系列中的僵尸模式并不鲜见，但我认为最喜欢的还是在《黑色行动》中以肯尼迪总统的身份同僵尸作战。

call-of-duty-world-at-war-nazi-zombie(from mrbossdesign)

《歪小子斯科特对抗全世界》——在游戏的字幕上输入上下左右，上下左右，就可以击打僵尸。这看起来除了添加一些敌人的图像之外，没有什么特别之处，但这款游戏确实很棒。

spzombies(from mrbossdesign)

也许下次你就会在自己最爱的游戏中看到僵尸……此时请千万要认同游戏设计师的决定，并将僵尸一网打尽！（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）

In full Zombie Mode

Scott Rogers

A lot of game designers and players have been telling me lately they are suffering from zombie burn-out. I can understand this feeling as zombies are in A LOT of games (close to 250 by my last count!) however, there’s no denying that zombies are popular and there’s a reason why they are so popular (at least to us video game designers):

Zombies are the perfect video game enemy.

Why don’t you ruminate, while I illuminate with these ten reasons:

1) Zombies are creepy! Well, duh, but as a former video game artist, I can tell you that zombies are fun to draw. Go ahead. Draw one. RIGHT NOW!

Hey, that turned out pretty good! Are you sure you haven’t done this before?

The truth is no matter how gross they are, rotting, skeletal, bloated, grotesque, humanoids just look cool. They are horrifying and they evoke a response of fear and revolution from a player. Which is good, ’cause they’re suppose to be scary and that’s plenty of motivation to get a player to run or blast ‘em!

2) Zombies ‘plode real good! They show off effects and gibbing particle systems and make the players go “ooooh!”

3) Zombies work in a variety of genres: They work in horror, they work in sci-fi, they work in action, they work in fantasy. They work in shooters, platformers, brawlers, action games, adventure games, fighting games… even puzzle games! See that image above? It’s from “Rock of the Dead” a music/zombie game. THEY WORK IN EVERY-THING.

4) Zombies can be scary… and funny! Put a funny bear head on a zombie in Dead Rising? Hil-larious. The ones in Plants vs. Zombies with the traffic cones on their heads? Comedy gold.

5) Zombies come back. A zombie is shot and falls to the floor. But if it gets back up, no player is going to yell “CHEAP!” The player expects it. (Heck, I’m a little disappointed if it doesn’t) And as a game designer, any enemy that can provide “double-duty” is one worth having in a game.

6) Zombies (turtle) are in Mario games. As I always say, if they’re good enough for Miyamoto, they’re good enough for me.

7) Zombies travel in packs. The best basic enemy is one that can be replicated when it makes sense. This means ninjas, masked terrorists and zombies. Pirates? Not so much.

And with new technology that allows you to swap parts and decorations, you can push 100′s of them on the screen with no two looking exactly alike!

8) Zombies eat players. If you were to ask anyone what the worst way to go is, I’m sure “being eaten by something else” would rate pretty high up on the list. And that’s just creepy (see point #1)

Fortunately, because zombies have to get up close to eat you, this allows the player some time to blast them with a shotgun or chop their heads off with a katana or simply run away. That’s gameplay, folks.

9) Zombies inspire interesting gameplay – sure, shooting zombies in the head is always fun, but creating barricades to keep the zombies out, protecting helpless (hapless) NPCs, the constantly advancing waves of undead work great for shooters to brawlers to tower defense type games.

10) Anything can be zombified. OMG is that a ZOMBIE BEAR?!!! (I just want to go on the record as saying we had zombie crocodiles in Maximo back in 2001)

As a result, Zombie Mode” has become all of the rage in gaming. Every major game has one. Here are some of the better ones…

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare – Cowboys? Zombies? Count me in. Low-tech weapons like reloadable six-shooters, bowie knives and lassos are not as effective as a chain-gun or flamethrower and therefore zombies become a much greater threat to the player.

Call of Duty: World at War Zombie Mode – two words. Nazi Zombie. Add the word “jetpack” onto that and you have the perfect video game enemy. The CoD zombies are particularly cool as they have glowing eyes. I don’t know what it is about glowing eyes, but they’re almost as cool as jetpack. Zombie mode is nothing new to the CoD franchise, but my personal favorite is in Black Ops where you battle zombies as President John F. Kennedy.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – To play this you need the zombie code. On the game’s title screen, simply input down, up, right, down, up, right, down, up, right, right, right — that’s “DUR DUR DURRR”, presumably the sound a zombie makes. It doesn’t add too much to the game other than some enemy graphics, but c’mon Scott Pilgrim vs. Zombies!

So maybe the next time you see a zombie in your favorite game… be a little more sympathetic to the game designer and then blow those zombies away!! （source：mrbossdesign）