游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

以“门问题”解释游戏设计等工作岗位的职责

发布时间:2014-04-25 11:27:10 Tags:,,,,,

作者:Liz England

“游戏设计师究竟做什么?你是美术人同吗?你设计角色和编写故事?或者都不是,你实际上是程序员?”

对于外行人来说,游戏设计就是这么一个定义模糊不清的术语,而对我来说却无异于像“天体物理学家”这么明确的一个工作岗位。这也是我的工作,所以我要向各位不同背景的人(其中包括根本不了解游戏的人)解释游戏设计的意义。

我习惯将自己的工作用“门问题”来描述。

假设:你正在制作一款游戏。

*你的游戏中有门吗?

*玩家能否开门?

*玩家能否打开游戏中的每一扇门?

*还是说有些门只是装饰作用?

*玩家如何理解这些门的区别?

*你可以打开绿色的门但不能打开红色的门?你无法打开的门前是否堆放着垃圾?你是否只要移除门把手就算大功告成了?

*这些门是可上琐还是不可上锁?

*如何告知玩家某个门上琐但可以打开,而另一个门永远无法打开?

*玩家是否知道如何为一个门开锁?他们需要钥匙吗?还是撬开手柄?要解开一个谜题?还是等到一个故事节束为止?

*是否存在可以打开,但玩家永远不会进入的门?

*敌人从哪出现?他们是从门里跑出来的吗?这些门之后会上锁吗?

*玩家如何打开一扇门?他们是否只要走到门前,门就会自然开启?还是摇晃着开启?玩家是否需要摁个按钮开门?

*门会在玩家身后锁上吗?

*如果有两名玩家会怎么样?游戏是否会在两名玩家都走过门之后才锁上?

*如果该关卡实在很庞大并且两人无法同时共存时该怎么办?如果一名玩家落后了,他们脚下的地板可能就会消失,这时该怎么办?

*你是否会阻止另一名玩家前进,直到二人都置身于同一个房间为止?

*你是否会超时空传送被落在后头的那名玩家?

*门的大小如何?

*它是否应该大到足够玩家穿过?

*如果是协作型玩家呢?如果玩家1站在门口——这是否会挡住玩家2的去路?

*如果同盟跟随你又该如何?他们若不想被卡住,该有多少人需穿过那道门?

*敌人呢?块头大于人类的小型boss是否也需要穿过那道门?

这是一个相当经典的设计问题。总得有人来解决这个“门问题”,而此人就是设计师。

Door problem(from theblockheads.net)

Door problem(from theblockheads.net)

其他人的门问题

为了便于人们理解大公司中的角色分类,我有时候也会分析其他人需要解决的门问题。

*创意总监:“没错,我们在这款游戏中当然需要门。”

*项目经理:“我会制定好大家制作门的时间表。”

*设计师:“我撰写了一个文档解释了这些门的作用。”

*概念美术师:“我绘制了一些美妙的门图案。”

*美术总监:“这第三张图显然就是我们所需要的门的风格。”

*场景美术师:“我截取了这张图中的门,并将其安置在游戏中。”

*动画师:“我让门可以打开和关闭。”

*音频设计师:“我制作了门开关时候的声音。”

*音频工程师:“门开关的声音会根据玩家所在位置,以及他们的去向而发生变化。”

*作曲人:“我创造了门的主题音乐。”

*特效美术师:“我为这扇门开启的时候添加了一些很酷的闪光。”

*文案:“当门打开的时候,玩家会说,‘嘿,快看!门开了!”

*照明:“门锁上的时候会出现红色的亮光,打开的时候则是绿光。”

*法务:“场景美术师在那扇门打上了星巴克的标志,如果你不想被起诉的话,最好把它移除掉。”

*角色美术师:“我才不关心这扇门的事情,它又不需要戴帽子。”

*玩法程序员:“这扇门的资产现在会根据它与玩家的接近程度来打开和关闭。它也可以通过脚本上锁和解琐。”

*AI程序员:“敌人和盟友现在知道那里是否存在一扇门,以及他们是否能够通过。”

*网络程序员:“所有玩家都必须在同一时间看到门打开吗?”

*发布工程师:“如果你想让它们备份的话,就必须在下午3点前把门加进来。”

*核心引擎程序员:“我得优化代码以便游戏可容纳1024扇门。”

*工具程序员:“我优化工具以便你在游戏中设置门。”

*关卡设计师:“我在关卡中设置了上锁的门。在一个事件之后,我会解琐这个门。”

*UI设计师:“现在门上有个对象标志,它在地图上有自己的图标。”

*战斗设计师:“敌人会从门后涌现, 并放火让他们的同盟进来。除非玩家正查看门内的情况,否则他们就会从另一扇不同的门涌现。”

*系统设计师:”在第4个关卡玩家因打开这扇门而赢得了148个XP,花掉了3个金子。“

*盈利设计师:我们可以向玩家收取0.99美元的开门费,或者让他们等待24小时让门自动开启。”

*QA测试人员:“我走进门,我跑向门,我跳向门,我站在门口直到关门。我保存并重载并走向门。我死了又重载,然后又走向门。我向门抛了一颗手榴弹。”

*UX/易用性研究人员:“我发现有些在Craigslist的人穿过了这扇门,的怪我们应该看看出现了什么问题。”

*翻译人员:“ “Door. Puerta. Porta. Porte. Tür. Dør. Deur. Drzwi. Drws. ”

*制作人:“我们需要为所有人提供这些门吗,还是将其作为预订奖励?”

*发行商:“这些门有助于这款游戏在众多竞争者中脱颖而出。”

*首席执行官:“我想让你们知道,我真的很感谢各位在制作这些门的过程中所投入的时间和精力。”

*PR:“各位粉丝,你们将为我们最新公布的消息#gamedev #doors #nextgen #retweet而疯狂。”

*社区管理员:“我让粉丝知道他们对于门的问题将在下一个补丁中得到解决。”

*客服:“有名玩家联系我们,说对门很困惑。我就为他们提供了如何使用门的详细指导。”

*玩家:“我完全没有注意到那里有扇门。”

我喜欢以门为例来解释职业区别的一个原因就在于它很通俗易懂。人们总认为游戏设计就是炫酷劲爆的想法,并总是很有趣。但在我看来,它却与日常实践考虑密切相关。(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

“The Door Problem” of Game Design

by Liz England

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.

The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

“So what does a game designer do? Are you an artist? Do you design characters and write the story? Or no, wait, you’re a programmer?”

Game design is one of those nebulous terms to people outside the game industry that’s about as clear as the “astrophysicist” job title is to me. It’s also my job, so I find myself explaining what game design means to a lot of people from different backgrounds, some of whom don’t know anything about games.

The Door Problem

I like to describe my job in terms of “The Door Problem”.

Premise: You are making a game.

Are there doors in your game?

Can the player open them?

Can the player open every door in the game?

Or are some doors for decoration?

How does the player know the difference?

Are doors you can open green and ones you can’t red? Is there trash piled up in front of doors you can’t use? Did you just remove the doorknobs and call it a day?

Can doors be locked and unlocked?

What tells a player a door is locked and will open, as opposed to a door that they will never open?

Does a player know how to unlock a door? Do they need a key? To hack a console? To solve a puzzle? To wait until a story moment passes?

Are there doors that can open but the player can never enter them?

Where do enemies come from? Do they run in from doors? Do those doors lock afterwards?

How does the player open a door? Do they just walk up to it and it slides open? Does it swing open? Does the player have to press a button to open it?

Do doors lock behind the player?

What happens if there are two players? Does it only lock after both players pass through the door?

What if the level is REALLY BIG and can’t all exist at the same time? If one player stays behind, the floor might disappear from under them. What do you do?

Do you stop one player from progressing any further until both are together in the same room?

Do you teleport the player that stayed behind?

What size is a door?

Does it have to be big enough for a player to get through?

What about co-op players? What if player 1 is standing in the doorway – does that block player 2?

What about allies following you? How many of them need to get through the door without getting stuck?

What about enemies? Do mini-bosses that are larger than a person also need to fit through the door?、

It’s a pretty classic design problem. SOMEONE has to solve The Door Problem, and that someone is a designer.

The Other Door Problems

To help people understand the role breakdowns at a big company, I sometimes go into how other people deal with doors.

Creative Director: “Yes, we definitely need doors in this game.”

Project Manager: “I’ll put time on the schedule for people to make doors.”

Designer: “I wrote a doc explaining what we need doors to do.”

Concept Artist: “I made some gorgeous paintings of doors.”

Art Director: “This third painting is exactly the style of doors we need.”

Environment Artist: “I took this painting of a door and made it into an object in the game.”

Animator: “I made the door open and close.”

Sound Designer: “I made the sounds the door creates when it opens and closes.”

Audio Engineer: “The sound of the door opening and closing will change based on where the player is and what direction they are facing.”

Composer: “I created a theme song for the door.”

FX Artist: “I added some cool sparks to the door when it opens.”

Writer: “When the door opens, the player will say, ‘Hey look! The door opened!’ ”

Lighter: “There is a bright red light over the door when it’s locked, and a green one when it’s opened.”

Legal: “The environment artist put a Starbucks logo on the door. You need to remove that if you don’t want to be sued.”

Character Artist: “I don’t really care about this door until it can start wearing hats.”

Gameplay Programmer: “This door asset now opens and closes based on proximity to the player. It can also be locked and unlocked through script.”

AI Programmer: “Enemies and allies now know if a door is there and whether they can go through it.”

Network Programmer: “Do all the players need to see the door open at the same time?”

Release Engineer: “You need to get your doors in by 3pm if you want them on the disk.”

Core Engine Programmer: “I have optimized the code to allow up to 1024 doors in the game.”

Tools Programmer: “I made it even easier for you to place doors.”

Level Designer: “I put the door in my level and locked it. After an event, I unlocked it.”

UI Designer: “There’s now an objective marker on the door, and it has its own icon on the map.”

Combat Designer: “Enemies will spawn behind doors, and lay cover fire as their allies enter the room. Unless the player is looking inside the door in which case they will spawn behind a different door.”

Systems Designer: “A level 4 player earns 148xp for opening this door at the cost of 3 gold.”

Monetization Designer: “We could charge the player $.99 to open the door now, or wait 24 hours for it to open automatically.”

QA Tester: “I walked to the door. I ran to the door. I jumped at the door. I stood in the doorway until it closed. I saved and reloaded and walked to the door. I died and reloaded then walked to the door. I threw grenades at the door.”

UX / Usability Researcher: “I found some people on Craigslist to go through the door so we could see what problems crop up.”

Localization: “Door. Puerta. Porta. Porte. Tür. Dør. Deur. Drzwi. Drws. 문”

Producer: “Do we need to give everyone those doors or can we save them for a pre-order bonus?”

Publisher: “Those doors are really going to help this game stand out during the fall line-up.”

CEO: “I want you all to know how much I appreciate the time and effort put into making those doors.”

PR: “To all our fans, you’re going to go crazy over our next reveal #gamedev #doors #nextgen #retweet”

Community Manager: “I let the fans know that their concerns about doors will be addressed in the upcoming patch.”

Customer Support: “A player contacted us, confused about doors. I gave them detailed instructions on how to use them.”

Player: “I totally didn’t even notice a door there.”

One of the reasons I like this example is because it’s so mundane. There’s an impression that game design is flashy and cool and about crazy ideas and fun all the time. But when I start off with, “Let me tell you about doors…” it cuts straight to the everyday practical considerations.(source:gamasutra


上一篇:

下一篇: