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关于《Monster Mingle》的创造经验

发布时间:2015-08-10 15:46:02 Tags:,,,,

作者:Chris OShea

我叫Chris O’Shea,我在伦敦运行了一家名为Cowly Owl的独立工作室,它主要是为3至7岁的孩子制作数字玩具和游戏。我想要在此分享我在过去8个月里创造《Monster Mingle》(游戏邦注:是一款寓教于乐的应用,小朋友可以在应用中制作属于自己的的怪兽,选择不同的身体部位来制作,通过怪兽来帮助小朋友去探索这个世界,发现每一个与众不同的岛屿。)的全部经验。

概况

《Monster Mingle》发行于4月23日,是我与合作者Nick Stoney(负责角色设计和图像),Wip Vernooij(负责所有动画和音乐与声音设计)共同创造的一款应用。它让玩家通过寻找身体零部件去创造属于自己的怪兽,探索世界并寻找各种独特的岛屿。他们能够在此看到一些有趣的生物,伴随着音乐的场景以及怪兽在这个奇幻王国所带给你的惊喜。这个充满想象力的世界能够帮助孩子们发挥创造性,创造他们想要的生物,并学习如何飞得更高,游得更快或如何四处走动。

制作过程

概念

《Monster Mingle》是遵循我之前的一款应用《Dinosaur Mix》,在那款应用中你可以在蛋里找寻新的身体部位去创造属于自己的恐龙。我希望各个年龄层的人都会喜欢这款应用,让玩具能够控制怪兽的行动并呈现给他们一个充满惊讶的世界。一开始玩家将只拥有一个身体,然后他们将四处走动并寻找自己想要的身体部位。当玩家赋予怪兽一个新的身体部位时,怪兽变会呈现一个新能力,如行走,游泳或飞行。

monster-mingle-sketch(from gamasutra)

monster-mingle-sketch(from gamasutra)

我希望关于怪兽的创造不存在任何界面或按键,游戏能够直接呈现给玩家一切。相反地,玩家将在游戏各处寻找隐藏着的各个部位并将其带给自己的怪兽。这将带给玩家一些疑问,如我该如何离开海底,或者我该如何到达某处以找到更多需要的内容。我希望这是一个没有目标的开放世界,这里只有探索以及创造生物所需要的身体部位。

之所以会取《Monster Mingle》这个名字是希望玩家能够在此遇到不同的生物并通过交谈或唱歌等方式发挥创造性。

角色设计

我让Nick创造了一个充满友好生物的世界,一些生物将与玩家进行互动,一些生物看起来就像迷失了方向并会跟着你到处走,还有一些生物会因为受到惊吓而逃走。Nick创造了各种各样的生物,它们带有各种颜色,并且稀奇古怪,足以吸引孩子们的兴趣。关于主要怪兽,我们在身体设计方面进行了多次迭代,希望每个部位都能够有效地组合在一起。

monster-mingle-sketch2(from gamasutra)

monster-mingle-sketch2(from gamasutra)

一些生物将会隐藏在环境中,如石头会在你靠近的时候跳出来并四处走动,树叶会从树上落入水中,或者有些生物会隐藏在地面下。

动画

经过讨论,我们决定Wip应该使用Anime Studio Pro 10,因为全新的FBX输出功能意味着我们能够使用受控制的皮肤网格,而不是基于精灵的框架将动画整合到Unity中。一旦我们创造了角色动画,FBX文件便会被输入到Unity,动画便会被嵌入输入设置中,同时会添加脚本到动画时间轴中去控制事件和声音。我会在适当的地方使用Mesh Baker将每个模型的多个网格变成一个网格和精灵列表以减少绘画调用。我在模型中使用了一个双面unlit着色器让它们能够翻动起来。

monster-mingle-unity(from gamasutra)

monster-mingle-unity(from gamasutra)

关于主角,不同类型的怪兽的腿会影响其身体动画。Wip创造了所有伴随着所有身体而变化的腿部行走动画。在游戏中玩家可以改变腿部和身体,如此角色创造的控制器代码便能够基于被选中的部位而间断地改变网格。自定义附件代码将不断添加部位和动画到身体骨骼,附属的眼睛,嘴巴,翅膀和角上。我们使用了Mecanim去创造状态机以控制所有动画。我们还使用了基于框架的所有动画去创造所有嘴巴和眼部动画。

开发

我们使用了Unity和C#去创造应用。我使用了FBX文件组合去创造角色,使用了2D Toolkit去创造精灵并使用了RageSuite去创造岛屿的矢量形状。而关于MeshBaker模型,它们始终都需要动画设置以避免默认摄像机选择发挥作用。自定义的摄像机选择路径将创造摄像机周围的一个大片区域并启动任何玩家看得到的模型的动画。整个游戏世界被分割成不同区域,有些区域用于生产食物,有些区域则用于隐藏怪兽的身体部位。如果玩家已经拥有手臂,那么当他进入一个新区域时,他便能够找到一些新的翅膀,或者当玩家进入水中时,他便能够创造一些鱼鳍。

我难以克服的一个大问题便是创造一个环绕的世界,从而让玩家能够从右边离开世界并在左边出现。虽然这很简单,但是我们的游戏使用了4台摄像机,结合了2D和3D去创造视差层并确保实体阵容。当你靠近屏幕边缘,你便需要摄像机转向另一边,呈现出你想在屏幕上看到的内容。这意味着分离这些摄像机并基于你的位置去呈现每一面的百分比,之后我同样也会遇到实体问题,即一个对象可能会靠近重叠屏幕的一个边缘,但却不会出现在其它位置上。我花了一周时间去尝试多个不同路径,但却始终不能解决这一问题,所以我最终还是放弃了环绕的世界。

关卡设计

我们的设计理念是玩家将始终从同一座岛屿开始并向外探索。在第一座岛屿中并不存在任何翅膀,所以玩家将会掉进水里。一旦玩家进入水里,他便会沉到海底,并且能够在那找到鱼鳍,从而学会游泳,但同时玩家也可以通过使用上升泡沫而离开水域。每个岛屿都有自己的颜色方案和不同的生物。

不管是在水里,陆地还是天上,我们都需要创造足够有趣的事物。即使你不在屏幕上,但一旦你靠近某些生物,它们便会走向你。

我们花了很多时间去调整关卡的规模,不同内容间的分布以及玩家完成关卡所需要花费的时间。我们还在远处背景中添加了不同颜色的岛屿去创造方向感,从而帮助玩家判断哪些岛屿是在近处而哪些岛屿则在远处。

声音

关于声音设计,我们使用Resonate从头创造了所有怪兽和生物的声音,并且也对此进行了多次的调整以获得最佳效果。我不希望添加可怕的咆哮声,反倒想要呈现基于音乐旋律的一些声音。游戏世界中的所有事物都带有自己的音乐,不管玩家经过的场景还是他们所遇到的神秘惊喜。

关于主题音乐,我想要的是“Munsters”主题与April March相结合的风格。因为这是一个充满着怪兽的世界,但也像是一个联谊会。

游戏测试

在早期阶段我们便邀请了一些3至8岁的孩子对应用进行测试,我也在旁边进行观看,聆听,做记录。

当完成一些更有趣的内容时,我便会将其发送给周边的朋友希望他们的孩子能够帮忙进行测试并告诉我结果。我发现这是获得真实反馈的一种有效方式,因为这些孩子们是处于他们所熟悉的环境中,并且是由他们所了解的人陪伴着。他们将没有陌生人盯着自己看并害怕出错的压力。结果便是我们能在开发过程中收到许多关于需要修改并再次思考的问题的视频。看到他们发送的反馈以及因为一些不可预见的事情而大笑时,我们真的非常欣慰。

最初你可能会尝试着游泳或飞翔,但是你的头可能会因此撞到地上。我一直尝试着创造一个系统让玩家能够从边缘处安全降落在陆地上,但却始终未能成功。于是我便改变了做法从而让玩家能够从所有岛屿的底部出发并更好地降落在地表上。有时候一些无形的力量能够帮助你更好地做到某些事。

关于在没有鳍的时候如何游泳,或者在没有翅膀的时候如何飞翔还存在一些困惑。我添加了一个思考泡泡去提供给玩家线索,但是我却不想给予他们太多指引,我更希望孩子们能够通过不断尝试去摸索出更多答案,因为这是更具奖励性的做法。但是做到平衡是很困难的,因为你也不希望孩子们因为游戏内容而受挫。

结果

monster-mingle-drawing(from gamasutra)

monster-mingle-drawing(from gamasutra)

到目前为止我们已经完成了这款应用。不管是在App Store还是博客上,这款应用的评价都很不错,同时也具有很高的用户粘性。我们也很高兴看到它开始向数字领域外部延伸。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转发,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

The Making of Monster Mingle

by Chris OShea

My name is Chris O’Shea and I run a 1 man indie studio in London called Cowly Owl, creating digital toys and playful games for children aged 3–7. I wanted to share my story of pouring everything into creating Monster Mingle over the last 8 months.

About

Monster Mingle was released on 23rd of April, created by myself (Cowly Owl), working with collaborators Nick Stoney who did character design and illustration, Wip Vernooij creating all animation and Resonate on music and sound design. It allows players to create their own monster by finding body parts, explore the world and uncover unique islands. Discover fun creatures, musical scenery and hidden surprises as your monster plays in this magical kingdom. A free play imaginative landscape helps children to be creative, building the creatures they want and learning what is needed to fly high, swim fast or simply walk around.

The making of

Concept

Monster Mingle follows on from my previous app Dinosaur Mix, where you could create your own dinosaur by finding new body parts inside eggs. I wanted this app to be enjoyed by a wider age range, giving the player control of where the monster goes and providing a world full of surprises. The player starts out with just a body, but then you could hop around and find other parts if you want them. The parts you give your monster would give it new ability, from walking to swimming or flying.

I wanted there to be no interface or buttons for building a monster, with everything given to you on a plate. Instead you would find parts hidden around the world and drop them on to your monster. This would lead to a little problem solving, like how do I get off the sea bed, or how do I get up there to find more things to play with. I wanted it to be open ended world with no goals, just explore and swap body parts for the creative fun of it.

The idea of the mingle name came about from wanting the player to meet other creatures and be sociable, either through talking or singing together.

Character Design

I asked Nick to create a world full of friendly creatures, some of which would interact with you, others might look lost and follow you, or be scared and run away. Nick came back with a wide variety of creatures there were colourful and weird enough to be interesting to kids. For the main monster we went through various iterations on design of body parts to get them to all work when you fit the parts together.

Some creatures would be hidden within the environment, like a rock that gets up and walks away when you are near, a leaf that falls off a tree then runs into the water or creatures hiding beneath the ground.

Animation

Working with Wip, we decided he should use Anime Studio Pro 10 because the new FBX export feature meant that we could bring the animations into Unity using rigged skinned meshes, rather than sprite based frames. Once the characters were rigged and animated, FBX files were imported into Unity, animations trimmed in the import settings, as well as adding scripts to the animation timeline to control events and sounds. Where possible I used Mesh Baker to convert the multiple meshes per model into 1 mesh and sprite sheet to cut down draw calls. I used a double sided unlit shader on the models so that they could be flipped in the game.

For the main character, the type of legs your monster has effects the movement animation of the body. Wip animated all of the leg walk cycles with all of the bodies attached. In the game you can change legs and bodies, so the character build controller code would switch meshes on and off depending on the part chosen. Custom attachment code would add further parts and animation to the body bones, attaching eyes, mouths, wings and horns. Mecanim was used to create a state machine for controlling all of the animations. Frame based animation was used for all of the mouth animations and eyelids.

Development

The app was created in Unity and C#. I used a combination of FBX files for character, 2D Toolkit for sprites and RageSuite to create vector shapes for the islands. With MeshBaker models, they need to always animate so default camera culling wouldn’t work. A custom camera culling routine creates a large zone around the camera and turns on animations of any models that are about to come into view. The world was divided up into zones which was used for spawning food and body parts to find. So if you had arms, you’d find some wings near by once you crossed into a new zone, or it would spawn fish fins once you enter the water.

One big issue I couldn’t overcome was making the world wrap around, so if you go out of the world on the right you would appear on the left. Well that is easy, but the game uses 4 cameras, a mixture of 2D and 3D to create layers of parallax and to make sure the physics lineup. As you approach the edge of the screen, you need to have the camera wrap around to the other side, revealing what you would see on screen. This would mean splitting those cameras up and showing a percentage of each side based on your position, but then I also ran into issues with physics, as an object might be near one edge of the screen overlapping, but not appearing on the other. I tried many routes for a week and couldn’t get it right, so had to limit the world to not wrap around in the end.

Level Design

The idea was that you would always start on the same island and explore outwards. There are no wings on the first island, so you can only fall into the water. Once you are in the water you sink to the bottom, you can find fins to swim, but you can also get out by using push up bubble volcanos at either end. Each island had its own colour scheme and different creature you could meet.

There had to be enough interesting things to see underwater, on land and in the air. Some creatures come towards you if you are nearby but you are off screen.

A lot of time was spent tweaking the size of the level, how apart things are and how long it takes to travel around. Additional coloured islands in the far background were added to help with orientation, to show you which island was nearby.

Sound

For the sound design, Resonate created all of the monster & creature voices from scratch, which took a lot of tweaking to get the feel right. I wanted no scary growls, but unintelligible gibberish in a musical melodic tone. Everything in the world has a music tone to it, from scenery that you brush past to hidden surprises that you touch.

For the theme music I asked for a 1960’s number in the style of the Munsters theme meets April March. It’s a monster mingle, a social gathering.

Play Testing

The app was tested from a very early stage with children aged 3-8, with me watching, listening and taking notes.

Once something more playable was working, I sent it out to a close network of friends who would test it on their children and film the results. I find this is a great way to get honest feedback, as the child is in their own familiar environment with people that they know. There is no added pressure of someone watching them in case they do something wrong. The result was many videos during development full of issues to fix and think about. It was really lovely to see their reactions, hearing them copy the noises of the monster and laughing at unexpected things.

Originally you could swim or fly up, but would bump your head underneath islands. I had worked on a system to give players a push up if they were trying to get on land from the edges but this still didn’t work. I changed it so that you could go up through the bottom of all islands and land on the surface which worked much better. An invisible force also gives you an upwards push when you do so.

There was some confusion about how to swim if you have no fins, or how to fly. I added a thought bubble to prompt you with a clue, but I didn’t want to guide them too much, I’d rather children figure things out through experimentation, it’s more rewarding. It’s difficult to get the balance as you don’t want it to be frustrating.

The Result

So far the app has gone down really well. Reviews on the App Store & blogs have been positive, engagement is high and nice to see it starting to live outside of the digital space too…

Monster Mingle(thanks @millsustwo for this photo, it warms my heart)

If you are interested in Monster Mingle, it is available on the App Store for iOS devices, coming soon to other platforms.

Thanks for reading.(source:gamasutra)

 


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