作者：Trent Polack

在未编写并独立创造游戏的时候，我也一直在努力玩各种能够获得的游戏。组成这一列表的游戏有：《极度恐慌3》，《暗影诅咒》，《生化奇兵2》，《塞尔达传说：时之笛3D》，《尘埃3》，《命运之轮》，《战壕》，《Outlands》，《噬神者》以及《僵尸围城2》。我也正在将《辐射：新维加斯》添加到这一列表中。还有《星际雄鹰》，但因为我玩过这款游戏所以这次暂时将其忽略。除了预示着我玩了太多游戏外，这些游戏并没有多少共同点。有一款游戏特别能够启发有关这系列游戏的想法，它就是《极度恐慌3》。

F.3.A.R.(from destructoid)

《极度恐慌3》的分析

《极度恐慌3》是一款奇怪的游戏。如果能以一种公正的眼观去看待《极度恐慌3》，我不知道人们是否能发现这其实就是一款再平常不过的第一人称射击游戏。我发现当在玩《极度恐慌3》的时候，这款游戏并没有足够的预算，也不像之前的游戏那样带有AAA级优化，但尽管如此，整个游戏过程还是给我带来了巨大的乐趣。从表明上看，游戏并没有什么特别之处，除了故事是围绕着一个怀着《极度恐慌2》中玩家角色的孩子的通灵女孩展开外。而《极度恐慌3》之所以如此有趣是因为它致力于确保所有游戏内容都是基于机制上，并在这方面做得很好。《极度恐慌3》的目标是成为一款带有有趣合作模式以及更有趣的多人游戏模式的射击游戏，它也在这些方面上都做得很好。而它的成功主要应该归功于低级别系统的设计与执行的奖励性与乐趣；让玩家不管是移动还是射击都觉得很有趣。

第一人称射击游戏中的移动和射击带有乐趣可不是什么让人惊讶的事。这也是为什么这类型游戏会存在，以及为什么《使命召唤》能在此赚到巨大利益的主要原因。《极度恐慌3》的出色之处在于它带有许多典型的第一人称射击游戏所不具有的元素：故事还不错，没有很多复杂的脚本化序列或场景，没有开放世界，关卡间没有真正的连续性，关卡设计本身是遵循着90年代末的射击游戏设计风格，即基于精巧的环境与线性进程/遮盖物的设置。

《极度恐慌3》是一款有关围绕着所遭遇的空间移动的射击游戏，伴随着弹药与AI军事演习，平且所有角色都带有基于当前产业标准的两款武器与再生生命。鉴于我每年玩过的多款游戏，这的确是一款值得尝试的有趣游戏。可能在大多数媒体中不是如此，但是有关电子游戏的独特性应该通过与人类玩家的互动呈现出来。从这款游戏中我们可以看到，它通过在屏幕上解释玩家的行动而让玩家深深地沉浸于其中，并忽视了游戏的特殊环境以及周边元素。专注通常是最有帮助的工具。所以为了做到专注，《极度恐慌3》便尝试着分解低级别的互动（即关于“侦察兵”，这个传统的射击角色）。在这些核心系统与较高关卡系统间会出现一些互动与重叠，但却不需要过度研究特定系统或机制的粒度级别：

移动

混战

射击

遮盖

库存管理

投掷炸弹

重新加载

避免死亡

慢动作

所有的这些互动在游戏的任何特定遭遇中都很常出现。这么说吧：除了慢动作，这些互动都是第一人称和第三人称射击游戏中司空见惯的行为。这是所有的这些系统间的特殊执行以及可行的重叠，能够提供给每款游戏分分秒秒的独特性。

低级别的系统设计

回到我在讨论我所谓的“表达的系统完整性”的时候，我好像太早讨论了各种游戏系统的较高级别的重要性，即当从讨论低级别系统为开始具有许多价值的时候。第一人称射击游戏总是能够吸引我的一大元素是人们开始内在化所有的低级别机制和系统的程度。不管何时我获得一款新游戏，我总是拥有一个小时去完成这些不熟悉的内容，同时我的手，眼睛和大脑也要不断适应系统间的一些变化，并利用我在玩上款游戏时所获得的反应。然后，当学习曲线超过时，我会下意识地移动到设计功能的下一层去进行真正的理解。

当我在思考是什么构成设计中的低级别系统时，我从玩家的角度中想到了一种互动（或者说是功能）。所以，当许多不同的代码功能或内容能够构成一些像武器发射等内容，具有射击行为的武器便是所谓的系统。系统是由许多个体图像资产和代码组件所构成，但正是这些不同的元素的组合构成了系统。在任何现代第一人称射击游戏中发射AK-47将由来自不同游戏的各种相同组件所组成——音效，图像效果，灯光效果，摄相机抖动，控制器震动，子弹攻击以及反冲等等，但这也是对于这些组件的特别的协调，组合与执行，并因此让一种武器能在不同游戏中呈现出不同的效果。

这些低级别组件并不是休闲设计谈话中的话题，但它们却是游戏独特“感”的来源。GDC2 2010与GDC 2011的两个最出色的演讲都是由前Bungie设计师Jaime Griesemer所发表的，这两次演讲的题目分别是“Design in Detail: Changing the Time Between Shots for the Sniper Rifle from 0.5 to 0.7 Seconds for Halo 3”和“Tuning the Muzzle Velocity of the Plasma Rifle Bolt on Legendary Difficulty Across the Halo Franchise”。在短短的一个小时的设计演讲中，我们很难传达出更加详尽的游戏细节内容，但在这两年间，Griesemere不仅做到了这点，而且还做得非常出色。游戏开发和设计是由一系列这些看起来很重要的决策所串成的——不管你所面对的是怎样的游戏。

如果一种系统被定义为是对于组件的一致操作，那么它遵循着优秀的系统设计便是关于将问题分解成一些较小的组块并明确何时以及该协调哪些内容。这并不是特别有用的建议；特别是当优秀的低级别系统设计能够定义一个问题并考虑到能够解决该问题的众多方法之一。除此之外，被识别出来的问题需要被放在一个适当的粒度级别中，从而衍生出积极且多产的讨论。这不足以说“游戏太难了”，设计师需要更多地了解游戏才能说“敌人A具有难以置信的侵略性”或“敌人B不可能是对的”或更基本的“玩家的生命太长了以至于很难再次充电。”说“游戏太难了”便明确了一种感受，这是讨论的一个好的开始，但对于平衡游戏来说却是无意义的声明。

基本上来看，在思考与讨论中，在协调哪些内容需要进行局部修正以及覆盖更刺眼的问题前，我们需要花时间去找出真正的问题。此外，系统设计通常都是在学习粒度，即关于什么元素会破坏系统以及哪些内容最好进行调整。

《极度恐慌3》中的射击

当与《极度恐慌》和《极度恐慌2：起源计划》进行比较时，《极度恐慌3》的武器显得较为保守与平淡。这里没有能够瞬间将敌人蒸发掉的粒子炮，只有激光枪和射钉枪。游戏中只有一些常规标准的武器，但这不仅为设计比较提高了一个较好的基线，同时它们也是游戏中的主要武器。

为了进行比较，我将着眼于最初的冲锋枪（出现在最初的游戏）及其它的“升级”，突击步枪。首先这里有一些你所期待的常见的游戏元素：

弹药：最大的弹夹大小和弹药总数

发射速度：武器发射的每一弹的速度

换子弹时间：玩家重新往枪里装子弹所花费的时间

破坏力：每个射弹所造成的破坏力。这会根据射弹的目标进行调整，对于躯干的基本破坏力是，手臂/腿为0.75x，头部是2x

反冲：每次射击时击中玩家的目标向量值（未瞄准与瞄准所产生的值也是不同的）

传播：发射一枚子弹时的x/y速度方差——当使用瞄具时这一功能会出现轻微的差别，就像当未瞄准目标时反冲也将考虑到传播元素

枪口速度：射弹从武器中发射出去的速度（游戏邦注：这决定着发射与射弹撞击到目标间的延迟）

这绝不是《极度恐慌3》中武器的游戏行为的所有价值综合列表，但却是一份适当的运行列表。为了获得两种武器类型的游戏玩法差异，我们只需要协调这些数值便能够为每种武器找到合适的定位了。

冲锋枪：“快速”，可靠，低功率的武器。带有适度的弹夹大小/弹药箱，适度的发射速度，快速的换子弹时间，较低的破坏力，较低的反冲，以及适度的传播。

突击步枪：是一种“首选”武器，较为强大，精准，但需要比冲锋枪更长的换子弹时间并具有更强的反冲。带有较小的弹夹，适度的弹药箱，适度的发射速度，适度的换子弹时间，适度的破坏力，适度的反冲以及较低的传播。

这是两种带有类似特征的武器，但从数值水平上看也具有一些差别，实际上在我玩《极度恐慌3》的过程中就能“感受到”它们的区别，而这也是我在游戏中最常选择的两种武器。

明确武器间的数值差异还不够。在熟悉游戏的玩家与不熟悉游戏的玩家手中，这两款游戏的感觉也会有所不同。这时候就需要其它表象元素上场了。武器模式和音频显然是不同的，但游戏还能通过其它内容进一步区分它们在低级别系统中的行为：控制器震动和摄像机抖动。玩家能够与《季度恐慌3》互动的唯一工具便是游戏控制器以及游戏如何回应他的输入。控制器震动在模拟发射武器的感觉时扮演着非常重要的角色，而游戏摄像机也需要带有与维持玩家感知到的模拟同样反应。通过为突击步枪呈现出更强大的震动，摄像机就需要同样表现出更有力的抖动，如此武器间的差异便能够伴随着玩家对于游戏的感知更明显地表现出来。

这还不够。

在每一款《战地》游戏以及《战地：叛逆连队》中，撞击反馈都被降到游戏的用户界面上。当玩家撞击一个敌人，“X”将出现在UI上并告诉玩家他所连接的射击。关于玩家模式的撞击反应并未存在过多的阻碍。而如果缺少了界面，我们便很难识别玩家何时撞击到敌人而何时又错失这样的撞击。结果便是，《战地2》（游戏邦注：当图像保真度到达一定水平时，缺少撞击反馈将变得相冲突）的核心射击机制让人觉得很奇怪。对于车辆与爆炸之间的所有强力来说，步兵战斗将归属于一个较乏味的非动态设计模式。这是在《战地：叛逆连队》发行后才出现的情况，即DICE添加喷血和撞击标志到游戏世界中，为玩家在游戏中的互动方法提供一个更自然且视觉化的反应。

《极度恐慌3》在处理撞击反应时与其它第一人称射击游戏一样，但是它是基于一定完成标准而完整地呈现出第一人称射击游戏玩法。敌人在每次受弹时都会喷血，墙上还会出现血迹以突显玩家撞击到敌人的位置，通过创造撞击反应的动画让我们能够看清楚敌人的哪个位置被击中，十字光标/UI也将快速闪烁以预示一次成功的撞击，画外音也将作为附加的听觉回应。在这些撞击回应方法中至少有一种能够成功地提醒玩家，让他们在朝周边空间射击时能够获得所需要的信息。

这是我之前所概括的低级别游戏组件中的一个。最终的游戏玩法是所有的这些低级别系统在一组中级别系统中被整合在一起的结果，这可以从整体上履行游戏目标。在我看来，这是低级别系统的最理想状态。一个完整的组件履行游戏的一个方面。就像在《极度恐慌3》中武器发射便是带有创新性，但这却是非常简单，直接且有效执行的系统。正是它与游戏中的其它内容间的相互影响造就了《极度恐慌》，但作为一个孤立的组件，武器以及在游戏中使用武器的感觉都是非常可靠的。

不管怎样所有的这些射击系统层面都是必要的，而这也是像《极度恐慌3》这类型游戏想要做到的：成为与10年前的FPS一样的快节奏第一人称射击游戏，而不是像现在这样的类型混合体。《极度恐慌3》便始终坚持着这一目标而贯彻于低级别系统，这也是这款游戏表现出色的主要原因。它努力实现着目标道路上的一切，并有效执行着所有的这些目标。

（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）

Low-Level Systems

by Trent Polack

In my absence from writing and independently making games, I’ve been doing my best to play as many as varied games as I can get my hands on. The game combination which has specifically spurred this set of pieces (and it is a set) is: F.3.A.R. (henceforth entitled ffthrir), Shadows of the Damned, Bioshock 2 (“Minerva’s Den”), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, DiRT 3, Tactics Ogre, Trenched, Outlands, Gods Eater Burst, and Dead Rising 2. I’m also in the process of adding Fallout: New Vegas to the mix. Also Starhawk, but I’m making that once so I’ll omit it from discussion. None of these games have much (if anything) in common other than as a set indicating that I both play entirely too many games and play entirely too many games at once. One game in particular prompted the thought exercise that led to this series: ffthrir.

A F.E.A.R. 3 Analysis

ffthrir is such a strange game. If someone was to take a cold and impartiel view of ffthrir, I wonder if that person would find what is simply a largely competent and uninspired first-person shooter (a very crowded genre). What I found when playing ffthrir, however, was a game which appeared to not have the significant budget or AAA polish of its predecessors but, despite that, remained an incredibly fun and entertaining game from start-to-finish. On the surface, there was absolutely nothing extraordinary about the game other than its story hinging on a dead psychic girl who is pregnant with the rape-child of the player character from F.E.A.R. 2. What made ffthrir so enjoyable, however, was its dedication to ensuring that everything it did mechanically, it did well. While that is often not enough, it was in this case because the game didn’t really ask much of its player (which, industrially, is far from a commendable attribute). What ffthrir aimed (har) to be was an enjoyable shooter with an interesting cooperative mode and even more interesting multiplayer modes, and they succeeded on all counts. The reason their success was made possible is due, entirely, to how rewarding and interesting their low-level systems were designed and executed; it was simply fun to move and shoot.

That moving and shooting in a first-person shooting is fun is by no means a revelation. It’s why the genre exists and why Call of Duty has made more money than exists in active circulation at any one time (not a real statistic). What’s remarkable about ffthrir is how little else of the typical first-person shooter supporting cast is there: the story is passable, there isn’t a lot of complex scripted sequences or cinematics, no open world, no real continuity from level to level, and the level design itself is a throwback to shooters of the late 90s in its workmanlike environments and linear progression/cover placement. To tangent: this is with the exception of one remarkable bit of a level set in a Best Buy-esque electronics store. It’s astounding.

ffthrir is a shooter about moving around an encounter space as ammo and AI maneuvers dictate and all accompanied with the [present] industry standard two weapons and regenerating health. The fact that this is an entertaining game to play through given how many games I play through yearly, seems like it would defy explanation. In most media that wouldn’t be the case, but so much about what makes video games unique is through the interaction with a human player. A game which feels like it gives the player a unique experience solely through how it interprets the player’s actions on-screen has the capability to immerse and enthrall players almost regardless of the game’s specific context and surrounding elements. That importance of that supporting cast of X (where X is the set of the innumerable amount of things that go into the game) should never be far from a designer’s mind, but focus is often a helpful tool. So, in the interest of focus, here is an attempt at breaking down the low-level interactions in ffthrir(for the “Point Man”, which is the traditional shooter character in the game). There is going to be some interactions and overlap between these core systems and higher-level ones, but there isn’t really much of a need or use in being overly pedantic about how granular a given system or mechanic is:

Moving

Melee

Shooting

Cover

Inventory Management

Throwing a Grenade

Reloading

Avoiding Death

Slow Motion

All of these interactions are commonplace in the span of any given encounter throughout all of the game. To take it a step further: with the exception of slow motion these are all interactions that are commonplace throughout the first- and third-person shooter genres. It’s the specific execution, prominence, and the allowed overlap between all of these systems which give each game its unique second-to-second and minute-to-minute gameplay.

Low-Level System Design

Back when I discussed what I was then calling the “systemic integrity of expression”, I got a little bit ahead of myself discussing the high-level importance of various game systems when there is a lot of value in starting with a quick discussion of the lower-level systems that most gamers like/dislike on a largely subconscious level. One of the aspects of first-person shooters that has always fascinated me is the degree to which people begin to internalize all of the lower-level mechanics and systems. Whenever I get a new game, I have about an hour of complete unfamiliarity while my hands, eyes, and brain adjust to the slight differences in systems and input response from the last game I played. And then, once that learning curve has been surpassed, I subconsciously move on to the next layer of design features to really understand.

When I think about what constitutes a low-level system in design, I think of a single interaction (or feature) from the player’s perspective. So, while a number of various code features or content may make up something like the firing of a weapon, it is the act of shooting that weapon which is the system. And that system is made up of any number of individual art assets and code components, but it’s the combination of these varying factors which makes up the system as a whole. Firing an AK-47 in any modern first-person shooter is likely going be composed of a variety of the same components from game to game — sound effects, art effects, lighting effects, camera shake, controller vibration, aim/bullet assist, and recoil — but it is the specific tuning, combination, and implementation of these components which makes one weapon differ from game to game.

These low-level components aren’t exactly topics that are broached in casual design conversation, but they’re where the type of tuning and fiddling that make a game’s “feel” unique are derived. Two of the best talks across GDC 2010 and 2011 were both given by ex-Bungie designer Jaime Griesemer and carried session titles like “Design in Detail: Changing the Time Between Shots for the Sniper Rifle from 0.5 to 0.7 Seconds for Halo 3″ and “Tuning the Muzzle Velocity of the Plasma Rifle Bolt on Legendary Difficulty Across the Halo Franchise.” It’s hard to think of a more seemingly minute detail of a game that could possibly make for an hour-long design lecture, but both years Griesemere not only pulled it off, but made it superb. And game development and design is a string of these sorts of seemingly-insignificant decisions; this is true regardless of the scope of the game.

If a system is defined as the concerted operation of its components, then it follows that good system design is about breaking down problems into a bunch of little pieces and knowing what to tune and when. That’s far more general advice than is particularly useful, though; specifically, good low-level system design is being able to identify a problem and consider one of the many solutions that could possibly fix it. In addition, the problem being identified needs to be at an appropriate level of granularity to yield positive and productive discussion following its identification. It’s not enough to say “the game is too hard,” designers need to know enough about the game to be able to say “enemy A does unbelievably aggressive” or “enemy B is impossibly accurate” or a more fundamental “the player’s health takes too long to recharge.” Saying “the game is too hard” identifies a feeling, which is a good starting point in a discussion, but it’s a fundamentally meaningless statement by which to balance the game.

Basically, in thought and discussion, spend time identifying the right problem before tuning things which will at best be a partial fix and, at worst, cover up a more glaring issue. Beyond that, system design is generally learning the granularity with which to break down a system as well as what is and what is not important to tweak (see: Sid Meier/Soren Johnson on tuning).

The Shooting in the Manshooter F.3.A.R. (ffthrir)

When compared to F.E.A.R. (1ear) and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (fe2r), the weapons of ffthrir are actually fairly reserved and tame. There’s no particle cannon which vaporizes enemies, there’s just a laser and a nailgun (video games). There are the standard fare weapons, though, and these provide not only a good baseline for design comparison, but they’re also the primary weapons in the game as well.

For the sake of comparison, I’m going to look specifically at the initial SMG (acquired in the introductory level of the game) and the “advancement” of that, the assault rifle. First, there are the common gameplay elements you’d expect in a modern first-person shooter weapon:

Ammunition: max clip size and total ammo count

Rate of fire: the speed at which the weapon fires every individual projectile

Reload time: the amount of time it takes a player to reload the gun

Damage: How much damage each projectile does. This is modulated by where the projectile hits on a target and while I don’t know the specific breakdown for the game, it is, hypothetically, base damage for a torso hit, 0.75x damage for arms/legs, and 2x damage for a headshot.

Recoil: the amount the gun kicks the player’s aim vector per every shot fired (may operate with a different value set depending on hip fire versus iron-sights fire)

Spread: the x/y velocity variance (and the increase per shot) when firing a projectile — this may also function slightly different when using iron-sights as recoil will take care of the spread that is simulated when hip firing

Muzzle velocity: speed at which the projectile is fired from the weapon (which determines the delay between firing and the projectile hitting its target)

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all of the values which go into the gameplay behavior of ffthrir‘s weapons, but it’s a decent working list. And to get the desired gameplay variance for two types of weapons, it’s just tuning these values to end up in a happy place for each weapon and each weapon within the context of every other weapon (both criteria have to be satisfied).

SMG: The “quick,” reliable, low-powered weapon. Moderate clip size/ammo belt, moderate rate of fire, fast reload time, low damage, low recoil, and moderate spread.

Assault Rifle: the “go-to” weapon is moderately powerful, accurate, but takes longer to reload and has more recoil. Low clip size, moderate ammo belt, moderate rate of fire, moderate reload time, moderate damage, moderate recoil, and low spread.

Here are two weapons with similar characteristics, but which behave slightly differently at a numerical level and, in practice, “feel” differently enough from each other that in my playthrough of ffthrir, these were the weapons I chose to have on me most often.

It’s not enough to have purely numerical variance between weapons. While these two weapons will feel different in the hands of the player who is familiar with the game, there may not be a perceptible difference to someone who is not extensively familiar with the game. This is where other presentational elements pick up the slack. The weapon model and audio will obviously be different, but there are other things that the game does to further differentiate their behavior in a very low-level way: controller vibration and camera shake. The only tool the player has for interacting with ffthrir is the game controller and how the game responds to his input. Controller vibration plays an obvious role in that it simulates the feel of actually firing the weapon, but the game camera needs to have the same caliber of response as well to maintain the player’s perceived simulation. By giving the assault rifle a stronger vibration and more potent camera kicks/shakes, that weapon is more obviously differentiated in a way that is consistent with the player’s perspective of the game.

That’s still not enough.

For every release of Battlefield prior to Battlefield: Bad Company, hit feedback was relegated solely to the game’s user interface. When the player hit an enemy, an ‘X’ appeared on the UI signalling to the player that his shot connected. There wasn’t much in the way (if any) of hit reactions on the player model and there was no blood. Without the interface, it was almost impossible to discern when a player hit an enemy and when he missed. As a result, games of Battlefield 2 (when the graphical fidelity reached a level where the lack of hit feedback became jarring), the game’s core shooting mechanics felt wrong. For all of the violence going on between vehicles and the large explosions, infantry combat was relegated to a very sterile, non-dynamic shooting model. It wasn’t until Battlefield: Bad Company was released where DICE added blood sprays and hit decals to the world, giving players a more natural, visual response to their primary method of interaction within the game.

Ffthrir handles hit response like any other first-person shooter, but they do it to a level of completion that manages to completely sell their first-person shooter gameplay. Enemies have blood sprays for every bullet they take, decals that get projected onto walls to highlight where the enemy was when the player hit him, animated hit responses so the enemy can clutch whatever part of him was just hit (and also momentarily stun the enemy), the crosshair/UI will have a quick flash to indicate a successful hit, and a voiceover clip to play for the added aural response. At the very least, one of these methods of hit response will be noticed by the player, providing him/her with the information he needs while maneuvering and shooting around the complex encounter space.

And that’s an analysis, more or less, of one of the lower-level components of the game that I outlined earlier. The resulting gameplay is the result of all of those low-level systems being tied together through a set of mid-level systems, which serve to deliver on the goals of the game as a whole. In my mind, that’s the ideal state of a low-level system: a thorough, encompassing set of components delivering on one aspect of the game. The firing of a weapon in ffthrir is by no means original or innovative, but it is a very simple, straight-forward, and well-executed system. The interplay with everything else in the game is what makes the game ffthrir, but taken as an isolated component, the weapons and the feel of using them in the game are solid.

By no means are all of those layers of the shooting systems necessary, but it’s all informed by the kind of game that ffthrir wants to be: a fast-paced first-person shooter which seemingly has more in common with an FPS from ten years ago than the more cerebral, genre mix of the genre presently. And the game is completely consistent in all of its low-level systems with this goal, and that is largely why it works so well. It does everything it aims to do, and it executes on each of those goals well.(source:polycat)