作者：John Polson

我们的姐妹网站IndieGames继续其对于年度最杰出独立游戏开发者的检查，这次他们询问了2013年名列前10名的开发者对于2014年产业的希望，以及最让他们难以忘怀的游戏。这些开发者包括创造了《滑稽钓鱼》，《Device 6》，《Paper’sPlease》以及《Guacamelee》等游戏的创造者。

2013年最出色的游戏：

《到家》：这是一款只依赖于探索而没有任何多余的过场动画或噱头的游戏。只有你和一间房子：你需要做的只是探索。这是与《Myst》一个级别的出色作品。

《洞穴探险》。我每天会玩一次游戏（并不是完全正确），并持续了超过一年。我仍然在游戏。也仍然在学习。它仍然是我的游戏设计老师。在1对1的死亡竞赛中胜利或失败会让我大声地喊出自己的姓，甚至足以唤醒办公室上方的小孩。

《Samurai Gunn》：一款竞技场游戏。玩家需要使用仅有的3枚子弹努力获胜。游戏的磨练方式是让其他玩家的行动先于你的想法，而你将自己的行动与基本元素深深地扎根于爬行动物般的大脑中。在第一次接触后的几分钟内你便会进入游戏中。没有移动列表，没有过滤器组合。这里的挑战就在于：摸清楚对手的想法。

《肯德基0号路》：虽然不知道原因，但《肯德基0号路》的确是我玩过的最好看的游戏。在玩了第一章节后，我的感受与看完《2001：太空漫游》一样。我需要一根烟以及并在安静的路灯下待会。而在继续玩下去会发现每个部分都会带给我这样的感受。

《滑稽钓鱼》的设计师Greg Wohlwend，是“30 Under 30”的开发者之一

对于2014年产业的愿望清单：

打开水闸：索尼，微软，任天堂：让任何人每年支付100美元面向你们的主机发行游戏。显然我们很难做到这点，也许我的一些数据已经失效，但是情感却依旧。我希望看到主机能够停止追逐带有基于恐惧的无知功能的激进现实主义的”Wii 市场“。苹果已经垄断了该市场。

当然了，下一代游戏主机将通过授权所有类型的开发者而自信地提供最优秀的电子游戏。苹果的App Store已经充满了创造性，但随着控制/用户的发展，它具有一个严格的上限。最优秀的游戏总是能够自然地匹配每个平台。因为索尼和微软都具有强大的控制器，所以如果他们允许所有人都能够尝试并在自然环境下使用它们那就再好不过了。

苹果电视主机：也许比起技术，我们更难改变系统。苹果的系统能够有效运行。但却不是说它没有漏洞，不过从很大程度上来看真的比XBLIG好多了。如果苹果带着苹果电视进入游戏控制器市场会怎样？如今硬件还未得到最好的完善，所以也许苹果电视的完整强化是为了变成一个适当的极简主义游戏/应用主机。我也喜欢我的苹果电视上的Spotify（游戏邦注：一个起源于瑞典的音乐平台，提供包括四大唱片公司和众多独立厂牌在内， 约3200万歌曲的流媒体服务）。打开苹果电视！

苹果撤销关于政治游戏的声明：能在App Store中看到《Paper’s Please》真的很棒，也许之后他们将收回有关书籍和电影是唯一适合文化批判的形式的看法。

Kickstarter和独立泡沫：Kickstarter比以前更受欢迎，也有人说“独立开发者”将消失。并不会这样。也许在某些情况下我们不会使用“独立开发者”这一词，但是否就意味着我们失去了它？这只是个标签。艺术也不是“泡沫”。Kickstarter的底线是关于钱。我们很容易将其与房产维系在一起。这是关于这些领域的经济。但游戏一直都是艺术。人类总是想要看到新的或旧的故事。明确不同面间的区别。

这并不是说并没有发生改变。我们总是在改变着，但如果某些内容“爆炸”了，那么很有可能创造这些内容的首要指令并非诚实的创造性表达，而是关于金钱。这些市场类型会“爆炸”，但是作为设计师（特别是前面还加了独立这两字），我们将不断适应并寻找全新媒介/平台去传达我们的想法。

来自DrinkBox Studios的《墨西哥英雄大混战》的开发者Graham Smith

2013年最出色的游戏：

《环绕走廊》：这是一款第一人称射击游戏，并带有我们能在这类型游戏中看到的所有规则。我真的很喜欢在探索并尝试着理解这一奇异世界中种种规则的同时享受发现感。所以它自然成为了我去年最喜欢的游戏。Alexander Bruce真的是个天才。

《史丹利的寓言》：我不知道《史丹利的寓言》是否想要成为讲故事或对于游戏中玩家选择幻觉的讽刺内容的实验，但从游戏呈现出最初门廊开始我便沉浸于其中。游戏带给我一种叛乱感，就像叙述者是我需要在他自己的游戏中将其打败的敌人。

《Device 6》：《Device 6》具有我所喜欢的两大元素，即探索与谜题解决。这款iOS游戏让我想起了早前的经典游戏《第七访客》或《第十一个小时》，但它用独特的文本取代了糟糕的CG图像去呈现探索和导航。游戏将自己作为全新神经系统科学技术的临床试验简直就是锦上添花。

《140》：有一些出色的人将平台与音乐巧妙地融合在一起，就像带你进入了《Limbo》一样。我认为《140》可能不会吸引很多人，但这却是我在2013年最喜欢的游戏之一。它还拥有任何游戏中最出色的游戏屏幕。

《Ingress》：去年，我投入于这款只面向Android的游戏的时间远远多于其他游戏。由谷歌发行的《Ingress》是一款增强现实区域控制游戏，在这里两个团队将使用谷歌地图修改版本基于现实世界控制点进行战斗。这是我玩过唯一引起另一名玩家为了阻止我破坏他的虚拟对象而在现实世界奔跑的游戏。

对于2014年产业的愿望清单：

作为一名玩家，我真的很希望游戏门户网站能够完善游戏的可发现行。对于像iOS这样的门户网站，那里每一周都会出现数百款新游戏。找到一款我喜欢的新游戏并不需要在无数游戏中筛选着，或离开数字商店使用我们的浏览器搜索所信任的人的评价。这些平台拥有者应该着眼于像亚马逊或Netflix是如何使用他们的用户基础的购买行为或评级去影响推荐。

作为开发者，我希望面向主机发行一款数字游戏能够成为更加轻松的事，且无需多次经历同一个过程。我同样也希望主机上的数字销售报告能够变得更好。Steam凭借实时销售数据和图像在这方面表现突出，我也希望其它平台拥有者能够更好地做到这些。

《Divice 6》的开发者Simon Flesser

2013年最出色的游戏：

《塞尔达传说：众神的三角力量》是我一整年玩过的最出色的电子游戏。关于这款游戏的突出之处有许多可说的内容，不管是关卡设计还是惊人的音效设计，但真正突出的还是那有规则的60帧/秒立体视觉效果以及3DS Circle Pad的橡胶般的阻力。这让这款游戏拥有任何一款游戏都未曾做到的流畅。你很少玩过一款游戏带有如此有趣的角色移动，甚至让你愿意只是花时间到处走走。

《NES Remix》是另一款我在去年非常喜欢的一款游戏。我真的很喜欢将我们知道的游戏放在一些新的环境中的想法。尽管它围绕着创造挑战的游戏都是非常出色的游戏，但有些却并未取得成功—-但是《NES Remix》努力通过从中开创出一些较小但却出色的内容而让这些游戏变得有趣。

在2013年还有一些我特别喜欢的游戏，它们分别是：《Tearaway》，《Divekick》，《Pokemon Y》，《Steamworld Dig》，《Pikmin 3》以及《来吧！动物之森》。

对于2014年产业的愿望清单：

对于2014，我的唯一愿望便是所有游戏创造者将专注于创造独特，精致且让人经验的游戏体验，并以此鼓励更多人这么做！

《Papers，Please》的开发者Lucas Pope

2013年最出色的游戏：

PuzzleScript

PuzzleScript本身并不能说是一款游戏，但它却是一个很棒的工具，在它的帮助下诞生了许多2013年最出色的游戏内容。Stephen Lavelle清楚如何创造出真正让人费解的谜题，他把自己的经验整合到这一工具中去创造其它游戏。以下是我最喜欢的基于PuzzleScript所创造的游戏（排名不分先后）：

《Soloslam》（Aaron Steed），《shoving》（Aaron Steed），《Cratopia》（CHz），《Explod》（CHz），《Heroes of Sokoban Series》（Jonah Ostroff），《Take Heart Lass》（Kevin Zuhn），《Dang I’m Huge》（Guilherme Tows）

非传统游戏

这是我个人觉得最有趣的游戏风格。对于小型或独立开发者来说，非传统游戏是基于较少的资源而有效创造游戏的一种方式。这更多的是关于改变我们所认为的游戏，而不是匹配一个更大的团队的图像或编程资源。扩展游戏定义理念对于更小且更敏捷的开发者而言也是一重要元素。

《You Can’t Javascript Under Pressure》（usvsthem），《Nested》（Orteil），《Last Words》（frankbsad）

具有颠覆性的游戏

这也是我真的很喜欢的一种游戏类型。它们也可以被当成是非传统游戏，但也包含一些特别的技巧去设置一些机制，然后在之后颠覆它们。

《Notes》（Droqen），《Dragon Drop》（Tom 7）

指向点击游戏

虽然我并不是指向点击冒险游戏的忠实粉丝，但是有时候我还是蛮喜欢这类型游戏。这一类别的游戏基本上是来自一些个体开发者，如JO99和Kronsilds。他们的游戏都是伴随着典型的像素搜寻以及无意义的对象使用的宽松式机制。但它们都具有丰富的视觉，音频和整体呈现效果，从而让我很长一段时间沉浸于其中。在玩这类型游戏时，我真的觉得自己来到了一个奇怪的世界。

《The Queen of Snakes》（JO99，Kronsilds），《Humanoid 47》（JO99，Oliv. Kronsilds）

行动游戏

真正优秀的行动游戏总是能够立刻吸引我的注意并让我认真地玩到最后。不幸的是，大多数行动游戏都只是基于Windows，而我是致力于Mac。偶尔我会打开Windows VM去看看一些更受关注的游戏。

《SUPERHOT》（Piotr Iwanicki，Jakub Ziembinski，Lukasz Spierewka，Marek Bacaynski，Konrad Kacperczyk，Dawid Adamkiewicz，vxd555），《Exposure》（zillix）

叙述游戏

如果要我对2013年做出总结，我会说这是属于叙述游戏的一年。《史丹利的寓言》可能是我在2013年玩过最长的独立游戏，并且我也认为这是一款完美的叙述游戏。玩家决策结构和叙述分支都完美地依赖于四处行走的核心机制。《到家》虽然没有很多选择，但它却具有很强大的叙述深度。优秀的叙述游戏具有特别的质量，即能够设置一个明确的世界，并留给玩家许多内容让他们发挥自己的想象力进行填充。

《史丹利的寓言》（Galactic Cafe），《到家》（Fullbright），《Icarus Needs》（Stillmerlin），《A Duck Has An Adventure》（Daniel Merlin Goodbrey）

对于2014年产业的愿望清单：

面对这么多优秀的数字发行平台以及主机制作商想要拉拢更多独立开发者的想法，我认为如今游戏的分销情况真的很可观。如果你已经想出了一个有趣的游戏理念，你便可以忽视几年前市场所要求的巨额市场营销预算或PR机制而取得较高的游戏销量。此外，技术也达到一个稳定的水平，游戏制作过程变得更加简单，廉价且可容易接近。对于未来我不想做出任何预测，但是如果事情的发展能够保持像2013年这样的态势，我们便一定能在新的一年中看到更多优秀的独立游戏的出现。特别对于我最喜欢的非传统游戏，具有颠覆性的游戏以及叙述游戏，我期待更多富有创造性的人能够创造出更多更有趣的游戏。

（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）

Independent game devs pick their favorite games of 2013 (part 1)

By John Polson

Sibling site IndieGames continues its tradition of checking in with the top indie game developers of the year, this time asking the top 10 of 2013 what they hope from the industry in 2014, along with what their most memorable games were. Today’s developers include some of the creative minds behind Ridiculous Fishing; Device 6; Papers, Please; and Guacamelee.

2013′s top games:

Gone Home: What BioShock and all its deformed children should have been. It’s a game with the courage to rely solely on exploration without any bullshit cutscenes or gimmicks. Just you and a house: explore. Brilliant work in a class with Myst.

Spelunky: I beat Hell in 2013. I played once a day (not completely true) and it took me over a year. I still play. I still learn. It’s still my game design teacher. Losing or winning a close 1on1 death-match (you should never play anything but 1on1) makes me scream my last name loud enough to wake the baby above our office.

Samurai Gunn: The poker of fighting games. Anything less than three buttons and three bullets would be too little. Four is clutter. It’s honed in a way that forces the other player’s movements to the front of your mind and settles your own movements and fundamentals back deep in your reptilian brain. You’re inside the game naturally within minutes of first touching it. No move list, no combos. The challenge is where it should be: getting inside your opponent’s head.

Kentucky Route Zero: I don’t know why but Kentucky Route Zero is the most beautiful game I’ve ever played. After playing its first episode I felt the same reverence I felt after seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey in my freshman dorm room. I needed a cigarette and a quiet street lamp. That continues with each installment.

Under 30 dev Greg Wohlwend, artist for Ridiculous Fishing

2014 wish list for the industry:

Open the floodgates: Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo: let anyone pay $100/yr to publish on your console. Curate that with some smart human beings. Don’t hide it like XBLIG. Obviously it’s more complicated to execute this and maybe some of my figures are off but the sentiment remains. I’d love to see a console that stopped chasing the 5 year old “Wii market” with a kitchen sink of headless features based on fear. Apple already has that market cornered.

Rather, the next game consoles should take a confident stance on serving up the best video games by empowering developers of all types. Apple’s App Store is full of creativity but it has a serious ceiling as far as controls/audience go. The best games fit each platform naturally. Since Sony and Microsoft make controllers so well, it’d be nice if they allowed most everyone to try and utilize them in their natural habitat.

Apple TV console: Maybe it’s harder to change the system than it is the technology. Apple’s system works well. It’s not without holes, but for the most part it’s a hell of a lot better than XBLIG ever was. If Apple entered the game controller market somehow with Apple TVs… The hardware isn’t up to snuff there currently so maybe an entire beefing up of Apple TV is in order to make a proper minimalist game/app console. I’d also love Spotify on my Apple TV. Open the Apple TV!

Apple rescinds statement about political games: It’d be great to see Paper’s Please up on the App Store and then maybe they’ll take that dumb line back about books and movies being the only form of art suited for cultural criticism.

Kickstarter & The Indie Bubble: Kickstarter is more popular than ever and that has people saying “indie” is going to burst. It won’t. Maybe we won’t use the term “indie” at some point, but will we miss it? It’s a label… Art isn’t a “bubble”. Kickstarter’s bottom line is about cash. It’s easy to equate that with a trend like dot com booms or housing markets. It’s all about economics in those fields. But games are and always have been art. Humanity always want stories new and old. Told a little differently from one side or many others.

That isn’t to say it’s not changing. We’re always changing, but if something does “burst” it’s likely that the prime directive of those creating it wasn’t honest creative expression but instead: cash. *cough* candycrushhaydaydragonvaleetcetcetc *cough* Those types of markets do burst, but as artists (especially indies) we will always adapt and find new mediums/platforms to express ourselves with.

2013′s top games:

Antichamber: Antichamber took the first person shooter and turned it inside out, playing with all of the rules that one normally expects from the genre. I really loved the sense of discovery while exploring and trying to figure out the rules of this bizarre world. Easily my favorite game of the year. Alexander Bruce is an insane genius.

The Stanley Parable: I don’t know if The Stanley Parable was intended to be an experiment in storytelling, or a satire about the illusion of player choice in games, but I was completely engaged from the moment the game presented its two initial doorways. For me, the game gave me a feeling of rebellion, as if the narrator was an opponent that I needed to beat at his own game.

Device 6: Device 6 appealed to both my love of exploration and puzzle solving. This iOS game reminds me of the old-school classics The 7th Guest or The 11th Hour, but replaces the bad CG graphics with a unique text-based take on exploration and navigation. The way the game spins itself as a clinical trial for a new piece of neuroscience technology was like the icing on the cake.

140: A fantastic fusion of platforming and music from some of the talented folks that brought you Limbo. I think 140 flew under the radar of most people, but it is definitely one of my favourites of the year. It also has the best title screen of any game ever.

Ingress: I sunk more hours into this Android-only game than any other game this year. Published by Google, Ingress is an augmented reality territory control game in which two teams battle over real-world control points using a modified version of Google Maps. This is the only game I have ever played that caused another player to physically run outdoors in the real world in an attempt to stop me from destroying his virtual objects.

2014 wish list for the industry:

As a gamer, I would really like for game portals to improve the discoverability of games that I might like. For some portals, e.g. iOS, there are hundreds of new games a week. Finding a new game that I will enjoy should not need to involve sifting through tons of shovelware, or leaving the digital store and using a we browser to search reviews from people I trust. These platform holders should look at how Amazon or Netflix use their customer base’s buying habits or ratings to influence recommendations.

As a developer, I’m hoping that releasing a digital game on consoles becomes easier to do in multiple territories without having to work through many of the same processes multiple times. I also hope that digital sales reporting gets better on consoles. Steam does a fantastic job of this with their near real-time sales data and graphs, and I would love for other platform holders to try to do this as well.

2013′s top games:

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was the best videogame I played all year. There’s so much to say about what this game does right, from level design to amazing sound design, but what really stood out was the amazingly fine-tuned stereoscopic visuals coupled with 60 frames per second and the rubbery resistance of the 3DS Circle Pad. It made the game feel fluid like no game has ever done before. It’s not often you get to play a game in which character movement is so enjoyable that you’ll want to spend time just walking around.

NES Remix is another game that I will remember very fondly from this year. I really love the idea of taking games we know so very well and putting them in new contexts. And while many of the games it creates challenges around are very good games, some haven’t held up as well – but NES remix even manages to make those games fun by carving out small delicious pieces from them.

Other games released 2013 that I particularly enjoyed were Tearaway, Divekick, Pokemon Y, Steamworld Dig, Pikmin 3 and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

2014 wish list for the industry:

My only wish for 2014 is that all game creators will focus on making unique, well-crafted and surprising experiences, and by doing so encouraging others to do the same!

Papers, Please developer Lucas Pope

2013′s top games:

PuzzleScript

PuzzleScript isn’t a game on its own, but it’s such a great tool, and it’s spawned so many great games that I think it’s one of the best things to come out of 2013. Stephen Lavelle (increpare) has a near perfect sense of how to create mind-bending puzzles and he’s funneled his experience into this tool for others. Some of my favorite PuzzleScript games in no particular order:

Sokoslam (Aaron Steed), shoving (Aaron Steed), Cratopia (CHz), Explod (CHz), Heroes of Sokoban Series (Jonah Ostroff),Take Heart Lass (Kevin Zuhn), Dang I’m Huge (Guilherme Tows)

Non-traditional Games

This is a style of game that I find the most interesting personally. For small or solo developers, non-traditional games are a great way to do a lot with very little. It’s more about changing what’s considered a game than matching the art or programming resources of a bigger team. Expanding the concept of what defines a game is also an important role for smaller, more nimble developers.

You Can’t Javascript Under Pressure (usvsthem), Nested (Orteil), Last Words (frankbsad)

Subversive Games

Another type of game that I really enjoy. These can also be considered non-traditional but there’s a particular technique of setting up some mechanics, then subverting them later on that I like.

Notes (Droqen), Dragon Drop (Tom 7)

Point-n-click Games

I’m not a huge fan of point and click style adventure games but I do enjoy them from time to time. This category is basically just for one developer though: JO99 & Kronsilds. Their two games are kind of loose mechanics-wise with the typical pixel hunt and nonsenical object usage. But the visuals, audio, and overall presentation are so rich that they stuck with me for a long time. I really felt transported to a strange world when playing them.

The Queen of Snakes (JO99, Kronsilds), Humanoid 47 (JO99, Oliv. Kronsilds)

Action Games

A good action game grabs me immediately and keeps me hooked till the end. Unfortunately, most action games are Windows-only and I work on a Mac. Every once in a while I’ll fire up a Windows VM to check out the more talked-about games.

SUPERHOT (Piotr Iwanicki, Jakub Ziembinski, Lukasz Spierewka, Marek Baczynski, Konrad Kacperczyk, Dawid Adamkiewicz, vxd555), Exposure (zillix)

Narrative Games

If I had to sum up 2013, I’d say it’s the year of the Narrative Game. The Stanley Parable is probably the longest indie game I played in 2013 and struck me as the perfect narrative game. The structure of player decisions and narrative branches perfectly builds on the core mechanic of just walkin round. Gone Home doesn’t have the choices but it nails the narrative depth. There’s a special quality of a good narrative game that sets up a well-defined world but leaves enough things out that the player has to fill in the rest with their own imagination.

The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe), Gone Home (Fullbright), Icarus Needs (Stillmerlin), A Duck Has An Adventure (Daniel Merlin Goodbrey)

2014 wish list for the industry:

With so many great digital distribution platforms and the console maker’s willingness to embrace indies I think the distribution situation is in really good shape. If you’ve got a good game idea, you can find interest and sales without the huge marketing budgets or PR machines that were necessary a few years ago. Technology has also reached a nice plateau and the process of making games is easier, cheaper, and more accessible than ever. I don’t want to make any precise predictions about the future, but if things just stay on the same trajectory as 2013 then we can look forward to lots more great indie games. Especially in my favorite categories of non-traditional, subversive, and narrative games I expect more and more creative people to produce more and more interesting games.(source:gamasutra)