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开发者分享:怎样以低成本做高效能游戏

发布时间:2014-10-10 10:12:46 Tags:,

今天我要谈论怎样去开发一个低成本游戏。Red Forest到目前只花了我不到500英镑。

你刚刚开始游戏开发?你正在考虑开发你的第一个游戏又不想花光你的积蓄?或者你是一个想挑战预算的开发者?

这些事情意味着你不想多花钱,想在任何可能的地方减少开支。下面我们来探讨低成本/零成本开发。

game cost(from gamerboom.com)

game cost(from gamerboom.com)

1)你本可以提高成本,把游戏做的不糟糕。

这很明显是错的。现在许多非常出色的游戏都是低成本开发的,其中很多从游戏开发竞赛中脱颖而出。(看看Thomas was Alone,它让Mike Bithell成为知名独立开发者。)

如果你有一个游戏蓝图,热爱它,对它充满了希望,那么你在它上面花多少时间都不是问题了,你要做的就是继续做下去,完成它。

Red Forest有一个非常搞笑的原型,但是我们做的并不糟糕,即使我们用小画家(MSPaint 一个非常简单的绘图软件)去画它的材质。当我们加入了适当的键盘操作,我们的游戏 吸引了人们的注意。当然,你要把可玩性做好才可以。

另一点非常重要的是如果你已经做到了这一步,但是你的游戏看上去还是不好。可以考虑一下放弃它了。不要害怕一次次重头再来。你的游戏可以做的更好,不是每一个游戏都是 好游戏,趁早舍去失败的设计,去做一个更好的游戏吧。

用一个简短的例子说明这一点。Gravity Ed是我花了一年多开发的游戏。人们喜欢我的想法,但是我没有把好的想法变成好的游戏。在得到了一些测试版反馈之后,我决定停止开 发,去做其他更好的东西了。

2)成为一个让其他开发者重视的开发者。

在你证明自己身份之前,其他开发者会谨慎地与你交往。证明自己身份是得到重视的关键。如何做到这一点呢?利用互联网,出门去见一些当地的开发者。社会上存在很多这样的 开发者群体,我曾经和很多出色的开发者面对面的交流。在网络上查找之后,我确实感觉到了这样开发者团体的氛围,我后悔没有早点这样做。你会发现这样的组织规模并没有看 上去那么大,我的一个朋友会偶然地结识我的另一个朋友,而不是通过我认识的。他们会是出色的开发者、艺术家、音乐家或者是擅长其他方面的人。

做好一个游戏初始版本,处理好可玩性。在网上发布炫耀你的初始版本,你会变得有自信(如果一开始你缺乏自信),并且当更多的人开始玩你的游戏,你会发现受到关注并不是 一件难事。

3)你可以找到和你一起工作的人。

让别人接受你的观点并且跟你一起努力是非常困难的。但是当你做到这两点,1,对你要做的事有信心,2,别人玩过你的测试版。你就会发现当人们认识到你的游戏项目是有价值 的之后,他们会很乐意帮助你。

Red Forest到目前只花了不到500英镑很大程度上得益于那些愿意提供帮助的人。我不可能直接去论坛发帖子,就像“谁想帮助我开发pod racer,我没有钱了…”。这带来的只会 是无视和嘲笑。网络上的人都经过了时间打磨,变得老谋深算了。还记得2)吗?去联系一些可以见你的人吧,他们可能帮的上你。

有两个人在音乐上给了Red Forest帮助,两个设计师提供了他们的游戏操作设计.Mad Array很早就加入进来,她对游戏的成形有很大帮助。我现在还没有凑到钱支付他们,这一点我 在他们帮助之前就让他们知道了。如果他们看到你的游戏项目,玩过了,了解它,那么让他们帮助你就是很轻松的事了。感激他人,但不要依赖你的运气。

4)用你非常低的预算买必要的东西。(没有必要把钱花在媒体宣传上!)

毫无疑问,你在网上认识了一些非常好的朋友。他们在社会各个地方,他们是典型的好好先生。游戏媒体不是太阳报(英国报纸,面向社会中下层读者的通俗报纸)。他们不会出 门见你,他们想要的是你的故事,就像你想得到关注一样。所以跟他们交流,利用你的关系,给他们发邮件,让游戏杂志评测报道你的游戏。

关于媒体,有一点非常重要却不容易被发觉。低发行率的杂志通常不需要你花钱就刊登你的游戏。你给他们提供的内容在根本上是在维持他们的工作。如果他们向你要钱,那他们 不会给你带来曝光率,他们只是想赚钱。

我们发现用低预算营销Red Forest 是很困难的,但是这是绝对可能的。

为你的游戏注册一个推特账号。

建一个项目网站,并链接你的推特。

发表每日更新日志,直播到推特上。

用你的个人账号去转发更新日志。

加入Thunderclap(国外宣传网站)疯狂的宣传你的游戏

加入IndieDB(国外独立开发者博客圈),列出你的游戏和更新。

跟别人谈论你的游戏,分享细节,游戏指南,你的游戏有什么特色。

跟媒体讨论你的游戏。最幸运的事是友好的媒体人转发你的推特。

尽可能的用多种方式做宣传。

5)你会成功的!

如果你接纳了上面的建议,把学到的东西付之行动,会大大增加你成功的几率。然而,你的第一次尝试有可能不是成功的,甚至第二次也不成功。做独立开发有一点非常重要:不要 放弃,这是你的梦想,请继续为之奋斗。

不要放弃,继续做下去,你会成功的。这不是一件容易的事,但是却很快乐。你要为你的项目付出努力。更重要的一点,如果很不幸你失败了,那么要从失败中学习,然后从头再 来。你只会在失败中变得更好。

祝同样是开发者的你好运!继续做你出色的游戏吧。(本文由潘煦翻译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao)

Today I’m going to talk a little bit about how it is possible to produce low cost games. Red Forest has cost less than £500 so far!

Are you new to the scene? Are you looking at creating your first game but don’t want to run through your savings? Or are you a financially challenged talented developer?

All of these things- and many more- will mean you won’t want to spend money, and cut back where possible. Here are some points to argue against common misconceptions with regards to low cost/ zero cost development:

1) Your game doesn’t have to suck.
This is simply not true. Some of the best games today had low cost. Many come out of game jams (look up Thomas was Alone, which unexpectedly launched Mike Bithell to Indie-Fame.)

if you have a vision, thrive on it, build on it. It doesn’t matter if it takes a while to do so, just get on and do it.

Red Forest started as a fun prototype, but it never sucked, even when we created textures in MSPaint (Yep, i did that.) – and from the moment we implemented decent keyboard controls, it grabbed attention. Get your gameplay right.

Another important thing: If you get this far and the game just doesn’t feel good: Consider dropping it. Don’t be afraid to try, try and try again; Your game doesn’t have to suck, likewise, not every game is a great game. Kill it early and move onto something better.

To demonstrate this, I’ll briefly mention Gravity Ed, which I spent a year or so developing. People liked it, but it never crossed the line from good idea to good game. After gaining feedback, it was decided to end development and pick something better.

2) You CAN be a respected developer.
It is true that other developers will be cautious to get involved with you until you have proven yourself, and this is a key part of gaining respect. How do you start? Network! Go out and meet local developers. Many such groups exist and i’ve met many great developers at these meet-ups. I honestly felt overwhelmed by the community until I started networking, and once I started I wondered why I hadn’t done so earlier. You’ll realise the community is much smaller than it seems; My friends know my other friends by pure chance; not necessarily through me.

Get a prototype built, prove the gameplay works. Once you start networking and showing off these prototypes, you’ll gain confidence in yourself (if you lacked it in the first place) and will start to find getting attention a little easier as more people join in. From there…..

3) You CAN find people to work with!
Well, it may be difficult to get people in on your idea, but once you’ve got your head around point 1- and have faith in what you are doing, and point 2- and have people playing your prototypes, you will have met people who are much more willing to help as they have seen your project and know that it’s worth something. At this point, people who are really in to your project may even offer to help!

Red Forest has so far cost less than £500 to develop due to the amount of people willing to help. There’s no way I could just turn up on a forum and post a thread with a subject such as “Hey! Who wants to help me make a pod racer. I can’t pay but” – Nope. These will be mostly ignored or ridiculed. People on the internet have been burnt badly over the past and as a result a lot of these people have become jaded. You’ll need to try harder. You’ve seen post 2? Go and network and meet the people who can help you first hand.

I’ve got two people helping with music on Red Forest, and two designers giving their input. Mad.Array jumped on board early on just from the prototype and has helped shape the game as it is now, but I’ve not got the funds to pay these people much, and I’ve made these people aware of that early on; face to face. If they can see your product, play it, interact with it, they’re going to be much easier to get on board. Respect others and don’t push your luck.

4) You CAN do some basic marketing on low budget, (and you don’t need to pay for media coverage.)
No doubt you’ve met some lovely people from the media during your networking- They’re all over the place, and they’re typically  Really nice People – Games
media are not The Sun. They’re not out to get you, they need their stories as much as you need visibility- so, speak to them. Send an email to your favourite contact, ask some magazines to review/preview your game.

An important thing about the media that was not immediately obvious- and is being exploited by low-coverage publications- You DON’T need to pay the media to cover your game; you are providing them with content that ultimately keeps them their jobs. If they want you to pay, they aren’t going to get you any visibility; they’re just gathering money.

One thing we’re finding really difficult with Red Forest- Marketing on a low budget. It is absolutely possible.

Create a twitter account for your product;
Create a website for the product and link it to twitter;
Post updates daily- these will feed through to twitter;
Retweet product updates from your personal accounts;
Join Thunderclap and SPREAD THAT AROUND LIKE CRAZY;
Join IndieDB and list your product and updates;
TALK ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT. Share details, tutorials, show how you did a specific feature;
Get the media talking about it. An RT from a friendly media contact is a godsend!
Use cross-promo based advertising if possible and if relevant.

5) You CAN succeed.
If you apply everything above- along with anything you learn along the way- you’ll massively increase your chances of success. However, you may not get there on your first go, or even your second. A very important thing in Indie development is: Do not give up. It’s your dream, so keep fighting for it.

Don’t give up, keep coding, and succeed. It’s not easy, but it’s fun and you should give your project all of the effort it deserves. Most importantly, if you do sadly fail, learn from your mistakes, then turn around and give it your all. You’ll only be even better at it!

Good luck, fellow developers! Keep doing what you do best.(source:moddb.com


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