作者：Bratie Fanut

我认为，许多游戏如果能够遵循以下提到的理念，它们将会更加出色。对于大多数建议，你除了时间和精力并不需要投入其它内容。它们这真的是非常宝贵的建议。

以下是我的一些想法：

步骤1：为你的粉丝培养一个社区

这里的关键词在于培养。因为你已经创造了一个博客或论坛，你也拥有了自己的twitter帐号，但这并不代表你正在培养一个社区。为了创建社区并让它持续发展，你必须融入其中。这便意味着你需要听取，回应，甚至是执行社区对于游戏的任何建议。如果你已经吸引了人们到你的网站上，但是他们却懒得那为游戏刊登文章，发表tweet或做出评论，很有可能他们拥有一些非常棒的理念。虽然并不是所有的这些人都拥有很棒的理念，但是不时地会出现一些很棒的想法能够帮助你真正去完善游戏。你应该大胆地去尝试这些理念——而社区将推动着你更加关注这些想法。

大公司通常都拥有超过这些基础的预算——他们为社区创造了图像包或音乐，并以此去创建他们自己的粉丝网站。基本上看来这等于是让社区帮助你去进行市场营销宣传。让他们这么做—-给予他们图像，截图，枪支，mp3等内容。如今，每一年都会出现数千款游戏，而你需要做的便是想尽办法突显自己的游戏。所以让社区帮助你做到这点。

步骤2：不要担心图像，多关注艺术风格

Revenge of the Titans(from pcgamer)

许多独立游戏在这方面都做得不错（游戏邦注：如《时空幻境》，《泰拉瑞亚》，《泰坦的复仇》，《城堡毁灭者》，《凝神》以及《爷爷的灯光》等）。有许多非常优秀的游戏忽视了高预算的图像，而选择了8位体或清楚的风格化外观。这么做的原因在于—-这能让你的游戏更加好辨认，同时也能避免游戏太过硬核。

但是如果你的外观设计太过孩子气的话也是不妥当的。大胆，颜色鲜艳的图像是不错，但你却会因此阻隔了那些更喜欢“成人游戏”外观的玩家。不管多少人认为你的游戏拥有最佳外观，你都需要确保自己的游戏看起来是与众不同的，并保证它能够突显于众多竞争者间，这才能让它有机会留在目标用户的印象中。

步骤3：mod

这将有效地帮助你的游戏延长寿命。我已经玩了游戏好几个小时了，只是为了尝试一些新的mod。拥有非常优秀的mod场景的游戏代表是《半条命2》（2006），《潜行者：切尔诺贝利的阴影》（2007），《遗落战境》（2006）以及《火炬之光》（2009）。甚至是《晨风》（2002）也带有一个强大的mod社区。还有许多这样的例子，但是这里的关键在于长寿。虽然《遗落战境》和《晨风》是大型且昂贵的游戏，但在最近的Steam Sale中，它们的价格分别下降了6美元和5美元。在过去它们也曾出现过更低的价格，但之所以长期维持着较高的价格是因为它们有能力这么做。它们拥有强大的支持，它们运行在几乎所有的硬件上，并拥有许多可行的mod。你可以长达好几年去玩这些游戏。到现在，只有《半条命2》的mod社区足以与之相抗衡。

步骤4：让我们先玩玩看——消失的演示版本

有些开发商在这方面都做得非常好——我立马就想到了Spiderweb Software和Soldak Entertainment。他们不仅会为自己创造的每一款游戏提供综合演示版本，Soldak还会利用许多补丁去更新演示版本，所以当你下载他们的一个演示版本时，你便会知道这是代表你所购买的内容。

演示版本是10+吉比特游戏时期所使用的一种方法。这并不奇怪，但是如果你是一名独立游戏开发者，这便是帮助你突显游戏的机会。也许这不一定会引起促销，但如果真的这么做了，那不仅你能够收到回报，潜在的一人营销团队也能获得利益。如果玩家喜欢游戏，他们便会告诉好友，并活跃于你的社区中。所以这是非常有价值的方法。

步骤5：专注于你那简单且独特的理念，并有效地执行它

这是很难敲定的一件事。你正在开发一款游戏，所以很明显你在做这件事。我认为你必须听取来自社区的建议并执行它们。我的意思是：保证不管你的游戏核心是什么，你都应该真正做好一件事。就像在《时空幻境》中，开发者便有效地在铂重整装置上操控时间。如果太过复杂，这可能会坍塌，但是他们仍坚持去完善这一基本要素，直到它变得更加完美。这是让你的游戏区别于其他游戏的一种方法，所以确保你能够做到这点。

步骤6：让你的网站看起来足够专业从而才能让用户愿意为其掏钱

这点很容易被忽视。这也不是什么必须遵守的规则。但是，如果我将给你10美元，20美元或更多，我便希望你能更长久地存在着。我不希望看到你或网站很快地消失了。这与创造并支持一个社区是同样道理。如果你将致力于自己的游戏并希望它变得足够出色，这便是件非常容易做到的事。如果网站并不是你的，你只是个程序员，那可以让一些试探者帮助你到社区去观察是否应该进行某些优化。

步骤7：继续致力于游戏完善并添加各种补丁

与上述内容一样，这也将带给你的用户和潜在消费者更多信心。他们想要看到你始终致力于完善游戏。如果你未定时添加一些补丁，特别是在必要的时候，你便会因此错失去多收益。没有什么比一款漏洞百出的游戏更能抹杀消费者的热情。这也将导致人们会谈论并刊登出有关游戏的负面评价。所以你需要定期致力于补丁的创造，即使不够完美，人们也会开始讨论它们。去年《星际统治者》便做到了这点。因为各种理由，这款游戏还存在许多漏洞和未完成的内容。开发者也承认那是因为他们用光了资金。不过开发者始终都致力于游戏的完善，所以人们开始谈论这款游戏，并购买这款游戏。在大约一年后，因为游戏得到了很大的改善，他们也因此卖出了许多游戏。

步骤8：为上网本或其它较低端的硬件设计游戏

对于大多数独立开发者来说，因为他们开发的是低预算且非硬件类游戏，所以这是他们可以考虑的一种做法。通常情况下他们开发的多是休闲游戏。但这也意味着他们开发的部分游戏不是休闲游戏。伴随着上网本以及如今掌上设备（游戏邦注：如智能手机和平板电脑）的发展，我知道不能再始终面对着同一个平台。如果你能够将游戏带向更多平台，它便能够吸引更多玩家的注意。

步骤9：利用其他人的作品

在2000年代之前，致力于游戏产业一直都很有趣。那时的我们想出了一些新的渲染技术，明确地如何解决物理元素以及碰撞问题等等。而在2000年初，所有的这些内容都变成了已解决的问题了。再次解决它们的确没有什么价值（回到第一点）。你可能对物理模拟如何运行很感兴趣，但是你真正需要做的是决定自己是否想要使用物理引擎或赋予一款游戏声明。这里存在许多中间件，如果它为你解决了问题，你就尽管使用它，而不要浪费时间再重新创造了。

步骤10：让它具有瘾性

这并不是随时都能做到的。当然了，许多设计师想要做到这点。也就是让玩家沉迷于一个简单但却让人上瘾的游戏元素。谁会想到一个独角兽吉祥物能像日间电视节目那样帮助一款游戏变得大受欢迎？如果听到这样的话我可能不会愿意把钱投入其中，但是如果你玩过《幻幻球》，你便会开始理解原因。这就像是往你的咖啡中加入海洛因一样让人上瘾。说实话，我已经投入了无数的时间于祖玛类游戏中了。

说实话，尽管我已经很认真地玩《镇压》这款游戏了，但是真正让我沉浸于其中无数个小时的元素还是那些该死的魔法球。我总是想要收集到更多更多。

它们太让我上瘾了！

（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）

10 Ways To Improve Your Indie Game Development

By Bratie Fanut

I realize that most, if not all, of the stuff in here is somewhat obvious – it’s not like I’m the first to have these ideas. However, I believe that a lot of good games could be great ones if some of the following ideas were acted on. Most of these suggestions are either free to implement or require nothing more than an investment of time and energy. This, in itself, is often at a premium, which is why I’ve started the list by discussing community.

Here are my thoughts…

Step 1: Foster a community developed for – and by – your fans

The most important word here is foster. Just because you’ve thrown up a blog or a forum and you’ve got a twitter account, doesn’t really mean you’re fostering a community. To build the community and have it last, you’ve got to be involved with it. This means listening to, responding to, and even implementing the community’s suggestions for the game. If you’ve drawn people to your site that are bothering to post, tweet or comment on your game, chances are they’ve got some good ideas. Clearly not all of them are, but every now and then there’s a gem that’ll actually improve the game. Don’t be scared of trying a few of these ideas – the community will appreciate the fact that you’re paying attention.

Big companies generally have the budgets to go beyond these basics – they create art packs and/or music for their community to build their own fansites. This is huge – you’re basically giving your community the opportunity to do your marketing FOR YOU. Let them do it – give them the art, screenshots, wallpapers, mp3s. Whatever it takes to get your game out there – after all, there’s thousands of games coming out a year, yours needs to stand out. So let your community work for you.

Step 2: Don’t worry about graphics, but DO pay attention to art style

Many indie games do this right (Braid, Terraria, Revenge of the Titans, Castle Crashers, Frozen Synapse, Lume, etc etc). There’s a ton of great examples where in lieu of big-budget graphics, they’ve opted for 8-bit looks or just a clean, stylized look. This is great for several reasons – it makes your game more recognizable and also makes your game far less hardware-dependent.

Where this might be a negative is if your look strays too far into a design that some might consider childlike or ‘kid-friendly’. Bold, colorful graphics are great, but you might turn off some people who just prefer a more “adult game” look. Regardless of how many people think your game is the best-looking one they’ve ever seen, by making sure your game looks unique, you’re going to guarantee that it will at least stand out, which gives it a far better chance of being remembered by your target audience

Step 3: Mods, mods, MODS

This is going to give your game longevity out the wazoo. Heck, I’ve replayed games for hours and hours just to try out new mods. Notable games that have a great mod scene are Half Life 2 (2006), Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007), Oblivion (2006), Torchlight (2009). Heck, even Morrowind (2002) has a dedicated mod community that’s as strong as ever. There’s many more than just these few examples, but the key here is longevity. Granted, Oblivion and Morrowind are huge games, expensive games, but even in the most recent super-ridiculous Steam Sale, they only dropped in price by $6 and $5, respectively. They’ve been lower in the past, but they maintain a reasonably high price for old games, mostly due to the fact that they can get it. They’re well supported, they (by now) run on almost all hardware, and staggeringly enormous amounts of mods are available for them. You can quite literally play these games for years. Only Half Life 2 has a mod community that rivals them.

Step 4: Let me play it first – the disappearing demo

This is something some devs do really, really well – Spiderweb Software and Soldak Entertainment come to mind here. Not only do they both provide comprehensive demos for every game they make, Soldak goes the extra mile and updates the demo with pretty much every patch they apply to the full game, so when you download one of their demos, you know it’s going to be representative of what you’re buying. Kudos to you for that, Soldak.

Demos are going the way of the dodo in the era of 10+ gigabyte games. That’s not surprising, but if you’re an indie developer, this is your chance to get your game out there into people’s hands. This may not always result in a sale, but if it does, that’s not only cash in your pocket, but also a potential one-person marketing team. If they like it, they’re probably going to tell their friends about it or possibly even join and become active in your community. This is worth its weight in gold.

Step 5: Stay focused on your simple, unique idea and implement it well

This is a tricky thing to nail down. You’re developing the game, so clearly you’re doing this. And in some ways, it flies in the face of my suggestion to take your community’s suggestions and implement them. I guess what I mean is this: make sure that whatever the core of your game is, do that one thing really well. In Braid, it was time-manipulation in a platformer. This could have bombed, if they’d over-complicated it, but they stuck to the basics and polished it until perfect. That’s what is going to make your game different from all the others, so make sure it works.

Step 6: Make your website look professional enough for people to give you money

This is something that can be overlooked quite easily. It’s also something that isn’t necessarily a hard-and-fast rule. But the way I see it, if I’m going to give you $10 or $20 of my money – or more – I want to feel like you are going to be around for a little while. I don’t want you and/or the site to disappear. This goes hand-in-hand with creating and supporting a community. If you’re working on your game a bunch and want it to be awesome, this is really a no-brainer. If web’s not really your thing, you’re more of a programmer, put some feelers out to the community and see if you can get some volunteers to add a level of polish.

Step 7: Keep working on it and keep those patches coming

This, like above, is going to give your audience and potential customers a lot of confidence. They want to feel like you’re working to make this the best game ever. If you don’t patch it regularly, and especially when it’s necessary, kiss a lot of possible purchases goodbye. Nothing kills enthusiasm more than a buggy game that’s not getting the love it needs. People will talk, negative reviews will get posted. Start working on patches regularly, even if it’s not perfect, people will start talking about that. This exact thing happened to Star Ruler last year. By most accounts, buggy and unfinished out of the gate. This was admitted by the developers, as they simply ran out of cash. People took them on their word that they’d keep working on the game and bought it. Since that time, they’ve sold enough to be around a year later with reports of the games’ current state being a massive improvement.

Step 8:Design your game for netbooks and other really low end hardware

This is sort of a given for most Indie developers simply due to the fact that the majority of them are developing low-poly count, reasonably non-hardware-hungry type games. Generally they’re slightly more casual. That being said, some of them aren’t. However, with the explosion of netbooks and now handheld devices, be they smartphone or tablet, I have a ‘gaming platform’ with me at all times, pretty much. The more platforms you can get your game on, the more it will sell.

Step 9: Leverage other people’s work

It was very interesting to work in the game industry until about the early 2000’s. We were figuring out new rendering technology, how to solve physics, collision etc. At some point in early 2000 or so these all sort of became solved problems. There really isn’t any value in solving them again (back to point one). You might be really interested in how physics simulations work, but you need to decide if you want to play with a physics engine or make games for a living. There are tons of middleware out there – if it solves a problem for you, use it, instead of wasting your time reinventing the wheel. This is a great lead-in to our next topic.

Step 10: Make it addictive

This is one that can’t always be implemented. And of course, all designers probably want this. Get ‘em hooked on a simple but addictive gameplay element and you’ve pretty much guaranteed yourself a bundle o’ dough. Hell, who woulda thunk a game with a unicorn mascot based around a game that became popular with a daytime TV show (Pachinko) would help get their company sold for over a billion dollars? I probably wouldn’t have put money on it if someone had said it that way… but if you play Peggle… then you start to understand why. That crap is addictive like heroin added to your morning cup of coffee. Heck, I’ve put more hours into Zuma-alikes than I’d care to admit.

And frankly, although I seriously dug Crackdown, the thing that kept me playing for hours and hours on end were those goddamn orbs. I just.. needed…. to… get… one… more…

Addict me, I’m begging you.(source:gamedev)