作者：Ben Kuchera

在我眼中，《Rocket League》是2015年最优秀的游戏之一。

Rocket League(from polygon)

其官方Twitter账号宣称，这款游戏已经获得了500万的下载量，如此看来它已经获得了巨大的成功，尽管其背后的付费模式（即在PlayStation Plus上“免费”出售）并不透明。

《Rocket League》是一款“简单的”游戏，玩家将在游戏中驾驶一辆汽车并尝试着将一颗球击中目标。你可以跳跃并加速。就这么简单。很少出现会让人感觉“良好”的游戏，而这款游戏的5分钟回合设置意味着存在着足够的空间让玩家进行另一轮游戏，即使是在凌晨2点。

当这款游戏获得了许多玩家，并获得了许多媒体和开发者的喜欢时，我们可以来看看它到底具有什么样的吸引力以及是如何做到这点的。

不存在一夜成名的故事

我一直听到有人说《Rocket League》是突然冒出来的，我也不得不承认我也是这么想的。这款游戏并不存在一个宣传周期；前一天还是名不见经传，隔天就红遍了天下。

但你可能已经玩过Psyonix所创造的其它游戏。听过《战争机器》吗？玩过《虚幻竞技场2004》的突击模式吗？或者是否听过手机游戏《A.R.C. Squadron》？也许你会对《子弹风暴》这个名字感到耳熟？那《Nosgoth》呢？

Psyonix创造或参与了所有这些游戏的创造（并且不只有这些游戏）。这并不是一家拥有最棒的理念能够落实于自己第一款游戏中的开发商；这其实是一支已经拥有许多优秀游戏的资深团队，而他们也使用了所积累起来的技能创造出这么一款简单，但却几近完美的游戏。

如果未曾创造出那些大型且复杂的游戏，Psyonix便不可能创造出像《Rocket League》这样优秀的游戏。这也引出了我们的下一点内容：

最简单的游戏也是最难创造的游戏

如果当你在玩游戏的时候并不觉得《Rocket League》有多好，那么游戏也就没有其它什么可掩盖的了。这里没有故事。在游戏中玩家只需要执行少数行动。如果所有一切未能有效运行，这便是游戏的灾难。

许多游戏会扔给玩家大量的系统，而如果其中一两个系统不能有效运行，这便不是一种好方法。《Rocket League》并未这么做。如果游戏的物理系统崩溃了，游戏便会非常糟糕。如果跳跃功能不平衡，玩家便会觉得自己失去了控制。

这款游戏依赖于许多混合的简单系统让玩家能够做一些惊人的事，这也是一种高风险/高奖励的策略，只有当团队非常肯定他们执行这些“简单的”系统是合理的时候才会这么做。

需要清楚的是Psyonix并不是第一次这么做。《Rocket League》的前传是《Supersonic Acrobayic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars》，即一款独立发行的PlayStation 3游戏，不过这款游戏所收到的评论都不怎样，也未曾引起轰动。

再次选择一款评论不怎么样也未引起轰动的游戏，还要重新回到绘图板并迭代所有内容，包括名字，并且将创造一些已经具有粉丝和批评者的内容等都是需要很大的胆量。你已经发现了一些特别的内容这是一件事，而愿意堵上时间和金钱去迭代一款已经聚集了一定用户基础，但却被更广阔的的产业所遗忘的游戏则是另一件事。

游戏设计师Adam Saltsman告诉Polygon，“游戏中强大的极简主义和简单性其实便是坚持了‘容易学习，难以精通’的理念。”

他继续说道：“某些东西从表面看来很简单，但是当你深入了解时，你便会发现一些隐藏的深度。作为设计师，在这一点上我相信像这样的游戏其实是一种发现行为。的确在发现之后还存在提炼与编辑的过程，就像你在你所认为的能够发现宝石的地方找到宝石后，你也需要去清洗它一样。”

做到简单并不容易，这并不是当你不能创造一些大型内容时的选择。这其实是基于精确度，迭代，技术以及Slatsman所谓的一点点运气的奖励方式。

就像厨师Thomas Keller曾经说过的：“一名厨师所面临的真正考验并不是来自像鹅肝酱和鱼子酱等奢华食材做成的精致菜肴，而是他如何使用最简单的食物烹制出一道美味的菜肴。例如鸡蛋。就像我便非常喜欢像蛋卷或焦糖布丁等简单的料理，因为它们不仅能够呈现出食材的品质，更重要的是它们也能够展现出厨师的烹饪技巧。”

而《Rocket League》便是Psyonix所端上来的最美味的鸡蛋。

时间便是一切

现在的《Rocket League》并未为了获得玩家的关注而与众多游戏展开竞争，在它发行的时候刚好是玩家能够轻松向其他人分享游戏的时候。这是一款很容易理解并且看着也很有趣的游戏，这都为游戏获得更多关注奠定了基础。

Psyonix的市场营销兼通信部副总监Jeremy Dunham说道：“《Rocket League》所选择的时间非常合适。现在的YouTube和Twitch都非常强大。电子游戏流无处不在。eSports非常盛行。单是在旁边观看就很有趣。因为我们非常特别的发行窗口，我们不需要与特别强大的对手竞争去获取人们的关注。这款游戏集合了所有能够成功创造游戏所需要的元素。”

也许这款游戏的前传未能获得足够的用户，但现在正是反击的时候了。

Dunham说道：“其实《Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars》缺少了足够的曝光度。它出现的时候并没有足够的修饰物让它能够与拥有大量市场营销预算或传奇故事以及出色的音效的AAA级游戏相抗衡。而正是今天的eSports和流文化的发展让我们走上了一条更顺畅的道路。”

这种坚持一个理念并看着它不断发展的自信在游戏领域是很少见的，所以它理应得到重视。

Saltsman说道：“我的意思是，《Rocket League》的创造者应该从自己对于游戏概念的贡献以及关于如何更好地完善自己的发现的感觉中获得更大的回报。因为公众能够理解这样的创造艺术我真的非常高兴。我们应该放下信仰与灵感，并通过感觉和勇气去遵循直觉，要相信耐心能够帮助你打造出更加华丽的花园。”

很多游戏都未能找到用户，即使它们值得拥有用户。这可能是因为时间的问题，所以请将时间花费在你所信赖的东西上。

每个人始终都是平等的

现代游戏中最让人沮丧的部分便是邀请好友加入你的游戏意味着他们将落后于你。你花了很多时间去打开全新的能力，武器和宝物，这也会提供给你很大的优势。但是在新人花费与你相同的时间以前，他们将一直处于劣势。

而在《Rocket League》中便不存在这样的系统。你将通过实践与学习如何最大化地使用你的汽车的一些能力而变得更厉害，但是花费100个小时于游戏中的玩家并不会比首次游戏的玩家获得特别的游戏优势。在这里每个目标都是公平的。每个分数都是玩家挣到的。

这也让玩家更容易像朋友推荐《Rocket League》，即使你需要花时间与他们一起对抗bots或进行一对一的比赛。你甚至可以通过这些比赛获得升级，尽管这么做只是起着“搭线”的作用。

很多游戏认为赋予游戏内部优势的关卡系统是必要的，因为它能够提高“用户粘性”，当然了，这让你能够出售魔法和宝物而更快速地前进。但是《Rocket League》却是因为彻底忽视了这样的系统而更受欢迎，因为这让所有人都可以纯粹基于技能而竞争。

结论

看起来《Rocket League》好像是突然出现的，但其实这是一支经验丰富的团队所经历的一次多年旅程中的一段。游戏看似很简单，但它所呈现出的优雅的游戏玩法却是非常少见的。整个产业中分布着许多未能有效执行自己的理念而难以突显的游戏案例。

Saltsman说道：“我认为游戏开发者和设计师都会非常喜欢《Rocket League》，因为几乎所有人都很喜欢这款游戏。而游戏设计师只是人类中的一份子。”

他继续说道：“但，也许对于我们来说这里还存在其它乐趣，因为我们比普通人知道的更多，即关于这样的发现有多稀有，设计师们在优化这些内容时有多投入等等。是的，我们住在梦里，但最终《Rocket League》还是诞生了，而其他人也需要更努力去创造出像它这样的游戏。”

（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）

What developers should learn (and steal) from Rocket League

by Ben Kuchera

Rocket League is, in my somewhat humble opinion, one of the best games of 2015.

The official Twitter account announced that the game has been downloaded 5 million times, which has to be considered a success, even if the payment model behind the downloads that were “free” through PlayStation Plus is somewhat opaque.

Rocket League is a “simple” game where you drive a car around a field and try to hit a ball into a goal. You can jump and boost. That’s about it. It’s also tuned to perfection; games that feel this “right” don’t come along that often, and the five-minute rounds mean that there’s always room for another round, even if it’s 2 in the morning.

When a game grabs so many players, and finds so many fans among the press and other developers as well, it’s worth taking a good look at what it does well, and how it achieves it. This is what we should learn, and what other developers may be able to steal, from Rocket League.

OVERNIGHT SUCCESSES DON’T REALLY EXIST

I keep hearing that Rocket League came out of nowhere, and I’ll admit to thinking that myself. There wasn’t much of a hype cycle for the game; one day very few people had heard of it, and the next day it was everywhere.

But you’ve played games that Psyonix has worked on. Ever hear of Gears of War? Did you play the amazing Onslaught mode of Unreal Tournament 2004? Have you heard of the pretty frickin’ great A.R.C. Squadron mobile game? Maybe you’re familiar with the name Bulletstorm? How about Nosgoth?

Psyonix either developed or had its hand in every one of those games, and more. This isn’t a garage developer who had a great, high-concept idea for its first game; this is a veteran team with an amazing list of games under its belt that brought all those learned skills to create a game that looks simple, but does everything nearly perfectly.

You have to understand the rules before you can subvert them, and it’s unlikely that Psyonix could have made a game that looks and feels as good as Rocket League without working on this impressive expanse of larger, more intricate games. Which brings us to our next point:

THE SIMPLEST GAMES ARE THE HARDEST TO DO WELL

If Rocket League didn’t feel this good when you played it, there is nothing else for the game to hide behind. There is no story. There are few actions the player gets to perform in the game. If everything didn’t work well, it would have been a disaster.

Many games throw a large number of systems at the player, and if one or two don’t work well it’s not that big of a deal. There’s a lot to do, right? Rocket League doesn’t have that luxury. If the physics were off, the game would have been terrible. If the jumping wasn’t balanced just so, the player wouldn’t feel as if they were in control.

The game relies on many simple systems mixing together to allow the player to do amazing things, and that’s a high-risk/high-reward strategy that only happens when the team is sure they can do each of those “simple” systems justice.

Keep in mind Psyonix had already tried this. The prequel to Rocket League was Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, a self-published PlayStation 3 game that earned middling reviews and didn’t make much of a splash.

Think of the guts it took to take a game that wasn’t well-reviewed and not much of a hit, going back to the drawing board and iterating on everything, including the name, to create something that has taken off so strongly with fans and critics. It’s one thing to know you’ve found something special, it’s quite another to be willing to bet your time and money on iterating on a game that gathered a respectable fan base, but has otherwise been forgotten by the wider industry.

“Powerful minimalism and simplicity in games is basically this idea of ‘easy to learn, difficult to master,’” game designer Adam Saltsman told Polygon.

“Something that looks simple from the outside, but as you start to mess with it, you discover hidden depths,” he continued. “At this point in my so-called career I am convinced that games like these are an act of discovery on the part of the designer too, much more so than an act of invention. Yes there is a process of refinement, of editing, after the discovery, the same way you have to clean up that amazing gemstone you found in the place where you thought there might be a gemstone only it was over here instead of over there but hey, you found a gemstone!”

Simplicity isn’t easy, and it’s not what you do when you can’t afford to make something big. It’s an approach that rewards precision, iteration, craft and, as Saltsman explained, a bit of luck.

“The real test of a chef doesn’t come from elaborate dishes with luxury ingredients such as foie gras and caviar but from how well he uses the most humble foods in the pantry,” chef Thomas Keller once wrote. “Consider the egg. I’m fascinated by seemingly simple dishes like an omelet or a crème caramel because they not only showcase the quality of their ingredients, but, more important, they also demonstrate the skill of the cook who prepared them.”

Rocket League is Psyonix delivering, and serving, the perfect egg.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Rocket League isn’t competing with many games for the attention of players right now, and it has been released in a time when it’s easy for fans to stream their games and draw in others. Rocket League is easy to understand and fun to watch, both of which helped it gain momentum.

AMAZING! More than 5 MILLION downloads since we launched on July 7! Your continued support for our game is truly humbling. Thank you.

— Rocket League (@RocketLeague) July 29, 2015

“The timing of [Rocket League] worked out for us really well,” Jeremy Dunham, vice president of marketing and communications at Psyonix, told Motherboard. “YouTube and Twitch are huge now. Video game streaming is everywhere. eSports is a thing. It’s fun to watch. Because of our very specific release window, we don’t have a lot of high profile competition to fight against to get people’s attention. It’s the collection of all these elements that is making the game successful.”

The game’s precursor may not have found an audience, but it’s very possible the timing was just off.

“What Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars really was, was under exposed,” Dunham said. “It came out in a time without the sort of bells and whistles that it needed to get to compete with AAA games that had massive marketing budgets or epic stories and amazing voice acting. It’s today’s eSports and streaming culture that has allowed us to find a better path.”

That sort of confidence to keep at an idea, to watch it grow, can be a rare thing in gaming, and it’s worth prizing.

“I mean by their own admission, Rocket League’s creators probably should be credited more for their devotion to the concept and their sense for how best to refine their discovery, as opposed to inventing the thing, which is refreshingly honest,” Saltsman said. “I would love for that to be the overwhelming public understanding of the creation of art. Down with epiphany, down with [lightning] strikes of inspiration, up with sensitivity and the courage to follow a hunch, and the patience to let your garden grow a bit.”

Plenty of games don’t find an audience, even if they deserve one. It can all come down to timing, and taking your time with something you believe in.

EVERYONE IS EQUAL, ALL THE TIME

One of the most frustrating aspects of modern gaming is that inviting your friends to join you means that they’re going to be behind the curve. You spend time unlocking new abilities, weapons and boosts that gives you an advantage. Until they put the same time in, they’re going to be at a disadvantage.

There is no such system in Rocket League. You get better by practicing and learning how to use the few abilities of your car to their fullest, but a player with 100 hours has no game-given advantage over a player who plays for the first time. Every goal is fair. Every score is earned.

This makes it much easier to recommend Rocket League to friends, even if you have to spend some time with them against bots or in one-on-one matches. You even earn points for those matches to level up, even if doing so is only used for matchmaking purposes.

So many games think a leveling system that grants an in-game advantage is necessary to fuel “engagement,” and of course this also allows you to sell buffs and boosts that let you level faster. Rocket League is made much more welcoming by ignoring this system completely, allowing everyone to compete based purely on skill.

TO SUM IT UP

It may seem like Rocket League came out of nowhere, but it’s the next step in a multi-year journey undertaken by a veteran team. It may seem simple, but that sort of elegance of play is incredibly hard to find, and then perfect. The industry is littered with examples of games that didn’t execute on their own ideas well enough to stand out.

“I think game developers and designers like Rocket League so much because fucking everybody likes Rocket League so much. Game designers are just a subset of humans in this case,” Saltsman said.

“But… maybe there is another (not better, just … parallel) pleasure in it for us, because maybe we know more than ‘normal people’ how rare a discovery this is, how good a job they’ve done of refining this wonderful thing, we’re the best kind of jealous,” he continued. “We’re living the dream because yes, finally, Rocket League exists AND somebody else had to make it.”(source:polygon)