作者：Alex Wawro

Molyneux在最近的题为“从独立到AAA再到独立领域”的GDC演讲中描述了自己作为独立开发者的经历，他称“我们必须共同创造定义下一代游戏的内容。”

他首先分享了自己曾伏案工作过的许多桌子（包括车库角落的一个简陋小桌，以及EA、Buffrog、Lionhead、Microsoft办公室里的一系列正式办公桌）的一个幻灯片，他称“我真的一度认为自己在同这些桌子对话”，并以此来说明自己情愿“走向独立领域”而不是待在企业环境中的原因。

从中可以看出，这些桌子的一个共同点就是——全部覆盖着有待完工的作品。据Molyneux所称，当时他出于需要“创造“的本能而创立了22cans，这是他数年前在微软就职时就已经涌现的念头。

Molyneux表示，“当我身处企业环境时，我有一种安逸感。我的生活具有满足感和安全感，完全可以预期。我们一生都在追求这些东西，但对于设计和创新来说，它们却是致命杀手。”

Molyneux直言不讳地指出，他认为贪婪的盈利模式是扼制游戏设计的一大障碍。像Supercell和Mojang这类公司开发了吸引广大用户的游戏，快速聚集了开发者所能瞄准的潜在用户，因此许多公司都在开发盈收潜力超越玩家满意度的游戏。

重新发现独立开发途径

Godus(from pcgamer.com)

Molyneux继续分享他制作《Godus》（游戏邦注：这是22cans即将面向PC和移动设备发布的游戏）的6步计划，他建议开发者在技术上大胆尝试——他以22cans试发布《Curiousity：What’s inside the cube》这款仅由5人使用Unity完成的游戏为例指出，“如果你将100万人集中在一起，约有5000人会将你辛辛苦苦创造的文化氛围毁于一旦。”他称通过移除《Curiousity》中的玩家社区，22cans掌握了更好地创造健康社区的经验。

Molyneux认为社区建设是开发过程中的第二大绊脚石。这当然是一个普遍障碍——Molyneux声称通过众筹平台Kickstarter为《Godus》集资，并向捐赠者这个小型社区发布游戏的早期版本，22cans团队更好更迅速地回应了玩家反馈并更新了游戏。

因此他建议开发者转向Steam的Early Access服务，声称《Godus》通过该服务获得了另外100万次安装量，也因此获得了更多推动游戏继续开发的收益和玩家。

他表示，“我们意识到如果我们继续每周更新内容，我们最终不会是完成一款游戏，而是结束所有的即时响应。”

22cans停止了更新，将时间用于重新设计《Godus》的一些核心系统，之后又为游戏发布了一次较大更新内容。

鉴于我在GDC 2014大会上遇到的许多开发者都热衷于讨论公开制作游戏的话题这一现实，Molyneux的建议颇具趣味性。对那些开发者来说，迫于回应玩家反馈以及通过Early Access或者其他类似服务每周更新内容的压力，他们不得不“专注于趣味性”并确保自己的游戏在整个开发过程中仍然保持娱乐性。Molyneux似乎建议独立开发者花点时间评估和迭代自己的设计，而不是担忧如何取悦粉丝的事情。

下一步就是制作游戏的限量发布版本以衡量玩家的反应。《Godus》将于4月份在丹麦、爱尔兰、瑞典、菲律宾和新西兰试发布，随后才会进行正式发布。对Molyneux来说，独立开发者的价值就在于能够在无需响应广大权威群体的下捣鼓旧筹资模式或发布日程计划。

Molyneux称“独立开发者应该接纳大型企业无法尝试的东西，例如挑战现成的游戏题材，我又爱上了独立开发者这一身份。”（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）

Molyneux shares his strategy for indie development

By Alex Wawro

“Together, we must create something that defines the next generation.” said Molyneux. “Nature abhors a vacuum, and I would say that, at the moment, we have one fucking huge vacuum.”

It was a punchy way to open a talk titled “From Indie to AAA to Indie,” and Molyneux leaned into characteristically bombastic language while describing his experiences as an indie developer.

But first, Molyneux decided to share a slide showcasing the many desks he’s worked upon, from a shanty desk in the corner of a garage to a series of proper office desks at Bullfrog, EA, Lionhead, Microsoft. “I actually thought I’d talk about desks for a moment,” he said, as a way to better explain his reasons for “going indie” instead of staying in the corporate world.

See, the desks in the picture share a common trait — they’re all covered with half-finished work. To hear Molyneux tell it, he was driven to start 22cans out of an innate need to “create,” one that bubbled up while he was working at Microsoft a few years ago.

“When I was in the corporate world, I was safe,” said Molyneux. “There was predictability to my life, contentment, security. We all crave those things in our life, but for design and innovation, they are fucking death.”

Molyneux spoke out against what he perceives to be greedy monetization models that are handicapping game design. Companies like Supercell and Mojang have developed games that appeal to a broad audience, rapidly bolstering the ranks of potential players that developers can target, and as a response many companies are creating games that prioritize revenue potential over player satisfaction.

Rediscovering the path of the indie

Molyneux went on to share his six-step plan for making Godus, 22 cans’ upcoming god game for PC and mobile devices. He recommended that developers experiment with technology — he points to 22cans’ experimental launch of mobile tap receptacle Curiousity: What’s Inside the Cube, which was built by 5 people using Unity, as an example.

“If you put a million people together, about 5,000 of them will turn into nightmare bullies who will destroy the culture you’re trying to create,” said Molyneux. He claims that by removing player communication from Curiousity, 22cans learned how to better create a healthy community.

Community-building is the second stone on the path of Molyneux’ suggested development path. It’s a common refrain, of course — Molyneux claims that by using Kickstarter to fund Godus and then releasing early versions of the game to that small community of backers, the team at 22cans was better empowered to quickly respond to player feedback and update the game.

From there, Molyneux recommends developers move to Steam’s Early Access service. He claims that Godus netted another million installs through Early Access, which brought in more money and players to keep development going.

“We realized that if we continued updating on a weekly basis, we would not end up with a game at the end of it,” said Molyneux. “We’d just end up reacting all the time.”

22cans stopped updating, took time to redesign some of the core systems of Godus, and later released one large major update for the game.

It’s an interesting suggestion in light of the fact that many of the developers I’ve spoken to during GDC 2014 are enthusiastic about developing their games in public. To them, the pressure of having to respond to player feedback and release weekly builds of a game in development via Early Access or some sort of beta program forces them to “focus on the fun” and ensure their game remains entertaining throughout the development process. Molyneux seems to recommend that indie developers take time to evaluate and iterate upon their design without worrying about keeping their fans engaged.

The next step is to do a limited release of your game to gauge reactions. For Godus, that means an April launch across Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, the Philippines and New Zealand, with a proper launch to follow. To Molyneux, the value of being an independent developer lies in being able to do things like muck around with odd funding models or release schedules without having to answer to a broader authority.

“Indie should be about embracing the things that larger corporations can’t possibly attempt, which are insane approaches to established genres,” said Molyneux. “I love being indie again.” （source：gamasutra）