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

有关章节式游戏设计的经验教训

发布时间:2016-02-03 11:57:42 Tags:,,,,

作者:Pascal Luban

《猛鹰雄风》(游戏邦注:1976年上映的剧情电影)

虽然现在的章节式游戏还没能登上头条新闻,不过它们也一点点在游戏产业中彰显出自己的位置。需要注意的是,这些游戏是分章节售卖,每一章需要几美元,并且会提供一到三小时的游戏时间。这些游戏只以数字形式发行;玩家必须下载它们,而不能在实体店购买。

WalkingDead_Game(from gamasutra)

WalkingDead_Game(from gamasutra)

这种游戏出现了很多年,但还没能获得实际意义的成功。而《行尸走肉》的发行改变了这一现状。受电视剧启发的章节式游戏很有可能吸引上百万的玩家,并以这种形式产生可观的收入。由Telltale Games设计和发行的《行尸走肉》已经更新了两季并出现在各大平台:PS3,Xbox 360和Steam。它已经卖出了2800万份,并且销量还在上升。

这种成功的商业模式已经吸引了很多人的注意,但少有工作室和发行商跻身其中。Telltale近来发行了三款全新的章节游戏:《权力的游戏》、《无主之地:传说》和《人中之狼》。Square Enix发行了由法国工作室Dont Nod所开发的《奇异人生》,同时独立工作室Camouflaj也在iOS,安卓及Steam平台上发行了《Republique》。在完整版游戏发布前,Konami以四个独立章节的形式发行了《生化危机——启示录2》。最后别忘了还有两个独立作品《Cognition》和《The Last Door》。

让我们来看看它们在内容上与传统游戏有什么区别。

我们在章节式游戏中发现了什么?

首先,主角在故事中占中心地位。这些游戏都是基于精心编写的剧情和角色发展。可以说在章节式游戏中,故事意义已经超越了游戏玩法,这一点可谓是游戏业中的小革命。

其次,我们发现章节式游戏具有点击式游戏的机制:探索,寻找线索,解谜和对话。大多数游戏的情节依靠小游戏推动,主要是通过快速反应事件(QTE)。像射击或是潜行元素等硬核游戏玩法是很少见的。

最后一点,很多游戏让玩家能在游戏的关键时刻中选择态度或行为。而这些决定都将对故事的后半阶段产生影响。

章节式游戏依赖于丰满的叙述,而这也恰好是游戏设计师所缺少的技能。我将与大家分享我对此的看法以及对于游戏故事叙述的一些建议。

章节叙述入门

章节式叙述是基于传统叙述的原则,但是增加了些许特殊药店。《越狱》和《迷失》(游戏邦注:ABC Studios出品的科幻悬疑类电视连续剧)依靠扣人心弦的剧情一夜走红。编剧使用了一些存在于肥皂剧中的叙述技巧,并将其套用于现代题材。而今,TV剧集上出现了一些很好的叙述形式。在年青一代中章节系列(游戏、剧集)成为了最流行的娱乐形式之一。这一现状使我相信电子游戏能够从好的故事中明显受益;而这种状态也不是所有产业都能拥有的。

关于电子游戏中的叙述部分,我们可以从电视剧中吸取成功经验,但在具体讨论之前,让我来告诉你一个屡试不爽的秘诀:观众是推动主线剧情的中心——编剧要密切关注观众的反馈,并相应地调整剧本;因此,一个深入人心的配角可能成为主角,而一个吸引观众的事件也有可能添加像《Space》那样的剧情和角色角色,等等。

让我们来谈谈章节式游戏的其它特点。

正确选题

选题是章节式游戏的第一个关键。它必须满足下列要求:

它必须有丰富而独特的内涵,而且你的用户须对其闻所未闻。强大的题材才能激起用户的兴趣。想想看《越狱》中,一个人为了解救无辜的哥哥,顶罪入狱。这样的主题既独特又煽动人心。

主题必须让用户有所期待并报以希望,一个大快人心的结局才是值得等待的。主角(们)为了达到好结局而做的努力被称为主线剧情。《亡命天涯》(1994年在美国上映的动作犯罪电影)这样没有结局的电影最终会失去观众。

内容必须足够丰富来为文案提供足够的材料去开发支线剧情。《迷失》的前四季都扣人心弦,可最后编剧却江郎才尽了。这可能是第四季结束后主角离开小岛,回到美国的原因。《越狱》也面临了同样的问题,出于监狱内素材开发殆尽的原因,主角不得不逃出生天来维持支线剧情。

只要主角是普通人的话便可以出现科幻环境。 通过置身喜欢的角色身份和地位,而非只是目睹他们的动作戏,观众将会投入大量的时间深入游戏中。章节式游戏/剧集中的完美英雄往往很快就会让人感到乏味。

Lost_TV(from gamasutra)

Lost_TV(from gamasutra)

叙述结构和章节内容

故事线是章节式游戏/剧集的支柱。通常同一时间内会同时运转三,四个故事线。

首先一定要有主线。它与游戏/剧集的主题相关。因此幸存者逃出荒岛是《迷失》中的主线。请注意,就像《行尸走肉》那样,主线可以不受拘束并没有尽头:生存在一个僵尸横行的世界。

然后是支线剧情。这些是主线故事中的小故事,任务可长可短,并且出现在这里的角色是有限的。例如,在《迷失》中作为第一季的配角的John Lock发现了一个神秘掩体的封闭入口。然后在未来的几季中他将试着进入其中。

支线是十分重要的。它们给了编剧将第一线配角展现给观众的机会。由于多个支线剧情在运作的时候是并行的,编剧可以在其中穿越,打造跌宕起伏的情节。最后,最后它们总是能在每一章节的最后(支线)能提供悬念。支线剧情可长可短,但他们必须有足够的缘由收尾。否则观众便会忘了它们。

第一章节会介绍主角和主线剧情,也就是主题。主角必须在所有要素都交代完毕的情况下出现。换言之,主线剧情一定要将其置入冲突之中,如此编剧才能启动支线剧情。

剧集开始时,主线将占剧情的主导地位。然而,随着时间的推移,支线占据主导地位;主线趋于消失。这就是主题必须足够丰富的原因:它必须支持众多的支线。而丰富和多样的支线剧情便是《行尸走肉》和《迷失》经久成功的主要原因。

我们应当如何编写支线?其中一点就是充分利用传统戏剧中的经典元素:爱恨情仇,奉献精神,超越自己和怯懦怕事等。至少主角中的一个一定要与其有关。

支线剧情的交错复杂使得编剧能够写出情节跌宕的剧集,因为观众可以同时追寻好几个剧情。在其中一个又一个的切换中,关注便能感受到悬念,并有了想看到结局的愿望。这种剧情的交错能使游戏的用户留存率有效提升。

每一章节都必须终结悬念。以下是几个典例:一个领头的角色完成了生死抉择;发现了一个角色言行不一;一个党羽的暴露。扣人心弦的好剧必须烦扰观众甚至是不惜激怒它们。没有什么更有效的方法来让他们追下一集了!主角的死亡是个有趣的问题。他们应当死掉吗?“杀掉”他们中的一个是恢复观众兴趣度的有效方法,但如果该角色太受欢迎的话,这就非常危险了。

以下是你需要避免的一些常见错误:

支线剧情太过冗长

主线结束了,但剧情还在继续

出现了新的主题,并掩盖了推动用户追随章节内容的主题

角色

章节式游戏/剧集保持效益的最后一个要点是,将角色和观众联系起来。让后者驱动剧情发展,而不是主线,这是因为他们对角色感同身受。而编剧该如何建立这种联系呢?

章节系列中的大多数角色都是普通人,但在他们身上发生了非同寻常的事情。因此,相对于超级英雄而言,观众就很容易找出这种角色的性格。想想作为《超能英雄》中的主角,故事一定要与其相当。我们能想到Hiro,一个胖乎乎的日本上班族,Niki,单身母亲,Matt,婚姻不得意的警员。这一系列中至少有一个角色能让我们感同身受。

游戏中的每个章节都提供了大量的人物,包括主角和配角。他们有的刻板有的具有强烈个性。因此观众总是很容易找到记下他的方法。如果一个配角火了起来,他便有可能成为主角。

剧情跨越十几个章节来展开。因此,观众有时间来发掘一个角色,并且喜欢上他。最重要的是,编剧必须建立有趣而深刻的桥段。这使得角色因为其真实性而更加吸引人。

当他们第一次出场时,主角或配角往往已经定型了。通过这种方式,观众能够快速理解其性格。但是,随着角色的重要性提升,他们的性格将以更加微妙的形式表现出来。一个很好的例子是《迷失》中的坏小子,Sawyer。他首先以狂妄自大,滥用暴力的形式出现。然而,当我们去深入了解他,其灾难性的经历最终使他成为剧集中最受欢迎的人物之一。

最后一点是,角色的重要性是不固定的。配角,甚至是龙套都可以成为主角。《迷失》中的Desmond和Richard就是很典型。当然也有可能发生其它情况,如主角不再引人注目。就像《迷失》中的过气摇滚明星Charlie在之后的剧集中便几乎不再出现了。

章节式游戏的叙述风格应当怎样?

从上述内容中我们可以发现章节式游戏的一些基本叙述规则,但必须承认的是,它们的叙述性还没有达到电视剧的复杂程度:支线十分稀少,次要人物无关痛痒,甚至是主角往往缺乏鲜明的个性。

当然,我们并非在所有的游戏中都发现了这些缺点,而且明显有些内容已经按照正确的方向发展着。特别是《奇异人生》中,引入了一个有趣的配角,Chloe,即主角最好的朋友。《人中之狼》更是设有一个十分赞的主角。

事实是,电子游戏的预算和开发时间使其不能拥有媲美电视剧的质量,尤其是在留存率这一方面。然而,尽管存在这些限制,我认为一个好的编剧还是能将有趣的角色和引人入胜的剧情引入章节式游戏中。他们成功的关键是要知道如何将有趣的角色和剧本结合起来。

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 Design Of Episodic Games (part I)

by Pascal Luban

? The Eagle has landed ?

Episodic games are not making the headlines yet but they are quietly carving out their place in the industry. As a reminder, those games are sold in episodes. Each of them costs a few dollars and offers between one and three hours of gameplay. Those games can only be found in digital form; players must download them and they cannot be purchased in retail stores.

Walking Dead – Telltale game series

They have been around for many years but without achieving any real success. The release of The Walking Dead has changed that reality. Inspired by the successful TV series, this episodic game has proven that it is possible to draw millions of players and to generate substantial revenues using this format. Developed and published by Telltale Games, the game already features two seasons and is present on major platforms: PS3, Xbox 360 and Steam. It has sold over 28 million episodes already and the figure continues to rise.

Such a success has drawn a lot of attention for this business model but few studios and publishers have entered the fray yet. Telltale has published three new episodic games: Games of Thrones, Tales From The Borderlands and The Wolf Among Us. Square Enix publishes Life Is Strange, a game developed by the French studio Don’t Nod, the indie studio Camouflaj has released Republique on iOS, Android and Steam, Konami has published Resident Evil – Revelations 2 in four separate episodes before releasing the full game. Lastly, let’s not forget a few interesting indie developments like Cognition or The Last Door.

Let’s take a look at the content of episodic games and see how they differ from traditional games.

What do we find in episodic games?

First, their main characteristic is the central role given to the narrative dimension. These games are built around a well-written story and their characters. One could say that storytelling in episodic games has become more important than gameplay, a little revolution in our industry.

Second, episodic games heavily feature gameplay mechanisms we find in point-and-click and adventure games: exploration, search for clues, puzzle-solving and dialog gameplay. Most episodic games offer little action gameplay, essentially through quick time events (QTE). Hardcore gameplay like shooting or infiltration is rare.

Lastly, a good number of them offer the player the possibility to select his attitude or behavior at key moments in the story. Such decisions are supposed to have an influence on latter stages of the story.

Episodic games rely on strong narration, a skill which is not common among game designers. I will share with you my vision and my recommendations on the best practices on storytelling for this game format.

Life Is Strange

Episodic storytelling 101

Episodic storytelling is based on the principles of traditional narration but adds its specificities. It earns its claim to fame with enthralling series like Lost or Prison Break. Their scriptwriters used some of the storytelling tricks present in soap operas and adapted them to action and modern themes. Today, we find some of the best stories in TV series. Episodic series are one of the most popular forms of entertainment today among the younger generation. This fact leads me to believe that video games can significantly benefit from good stories; a statement that is not shared by all in the industry.

Regarding narrative storytelling in video games, we can draw inspiration from the recipes that have been so successful on TV but before going into the details, let me give you the secret that makes episodic series so effective: It is their audience that drives the central writing decisions: Scriptwriters closely follow the reactions of their audience and adapt the script accordingly; thus, a popular secondary character could become a main character, an event that enthralls spectators will gain ? space ? in the storyline and involve more characters, etc.

Let’s review now other specific features of episodic narration.

The selection of the right theme

The theme is the first key ingredient of a good episodic series. It must meet the following requirements:

It must deal with a strong and unique subject, not something your audience has already seen. A strong theme is one that will stir emotions. Think of Prison Break where a man gets deliberately put in jail in order to rescue his brother that has been accused of a crime he did not commit. The theme is both unique and highly emotional.

The theme must let the audience hope, and expect, a happy end that deserves the wait. The search by the main character(s) to reach that happy end is called the main narrative arch. Series with no end like The Fugitive lose their audience eventually because there was no definitive ending.

It must be rich enough so the scriptwriters have enough material to develop numerous secondary narrative arches. The first four seasons of Lost are enthralling until the scriptwriters ran out of ideas. That’s probably the reason most of the main characters leave the island at the end of the fourth season and return to the US. Prison Break suffered from a similar problem; The main characters had to escape because the prison environment was not rich enough to sustain more secondary narrative arches.

It can deal with a fantasy environment as long as its characters are ordinary people or nearly so. Spectators are going to spend a lot of time with them and their greater enjoyment will come, not from the action they witness, but from their identification with the characters they like and can relate to. An episodic series whose main characters are flawless heroes would become boring very quickly.
Lost

The narrative structure and the episodes content

The backbone of an episodic series is made up of so-called narrative arches. Usually, there are three or four of them running at the same time.

First, there is the main arch. It is focused on the theme of the series. Thus, in Lost, the main arch is the survivors’ quest to escape the island. Note that the main arch can be loose and endless like in The Walking Dead: Survival in a zombie-infested world.

Then, there are the secondary arches. Those are stories within the main story, quests that can be short or long, and focus on a limited number of characters. For instance, in Lost, John Lock, who is a secondary character in the first seasons of the show, finds the closed entrance of a mysterious bunker. He will attempt to enter it over the course of several episodes.

Those secondary arches are very important. They give the scriptwriters the opportunity to bring to the forefront secondary characters with whom spectators can relate. Because several secondary arches are running in parallel, the scriptwriters can jump from one to the other and create very dynamic episodes. Lastly, they provide content to add cliffhangers at the end of every episode. Secondary arches can be short or long but they must end within a given season. Otherwise, spectators could forget about them..

The first episode introduces the main characters and the main narrative arch, the theme of the series. That theme must throw the main characters in a situation for which they appear ill-prepared. In other words, the main arch must put them in a conflict. Once the main arch and characters have been introduced, the scriptwriter can initiate the secondary arches.

At the beginning of a series, the main arch dominates the script. However, as time passes, the secondary arches become predominant; the main arch tends to fade away. That’s the reason the theme of a series must be rich enough: It must support numerous secondary arches. The quality and diversity of the secondary arches in The Walking Dead or Lost is the reason behind their long-lasting success.

How should we write secondary arches? One must leverage the classical themes of drama: Love, revenge, cowardice, sacrifice, transcendence, etc. At least one of the main characters should be involved in each of them.

The multiplication of the secondary arches makes it possible for a scriptwriter to write highly dynamic episodes because the audience can follow several narrative arches at the same time. The switch from one to another creates suspense and the desire to see how each arch will conclude. This multiple arches architecture explains the high audience retention of episodic series.

Each episode must conclude with a cliffhanger. Here are a few classical ones: A leading character ends up in a life-or-death situation, the discovery that one character is not what he or she appears to be, a family-related revelation. A good cliffhanger must unsettle the audience or even irritate them. There is nothing more effective to make them watch or play the next episode! An interesting issue is the death of main characters. Should they die? Killing one of them is very effective to revive interest in the series but potentially very dangerous if the character is very popular.

To conclude this section, here are a few common errors to avoid:

A secondary arch becomes too long and takes too much space in the series

The main arch concludes but the series continues

A new major theme emerges and overshadows the one that drove people to follow a series.

The characters

The last secret of the episodic series’ effectiveness is the bond that emerges between their characters and the audience. The latter ends up following the series, not for its main narrative arch, but because they have empathy with certain characters. How can scriptwriters build such an atachment?

Most characters in an episodic series are ordinary people, even mundane, to whom something extraordinary happens. Thus, it is much easier for the audience to identify itself with this type of character than if it were a super-hero. Think of the main characters in Heroes, an episodic series that well deserves its name. We meet Hiro, a chubby Japanese office worker, Niki, the single mother, and Matt, the police officer who struggles with his marriage. In such a series, there is always at least one character with whom we feel genuine empathy.

Each episodic series offers a relatively large cast of characters, main and secondary. Among those, many are either stereotypical or feature strong personalities. Thus, it is easy for a spectator to find a character that resembles him or, at least, the image he would like to give of himself. Furthermore, if a secondary character happens to become very popular, it is possible to make him into a main character.

The narration can span over dozens of episodes. Thus, the audience has the time to discover a character and to get fond of him. Most importantly, scriptwriters have the time to build interesting and deep personalities. They can create characters that have more appeal because they behave in more realistic ways.

When they appear for the first time, main or secondary characters are often stereotypes. This way, the audience can quickly get an idea of their personality. But, as characters grow in importance, their personalities appear in more subtle ways. A good example is Lost’s bad boy, Sawyer. He is first displayed as self-centered and prone to violence. However, as we get to know him, his tormented personality emerges and he ends up being one of the more endearing characters in the series.

Lastly, the importance of characters is not fixed. Secondary characters, or even guest ones, can become main characters. This is the case of Desmond or Richard in Lost. The other case is also possible; main characters can stop appearing. Charlie, the fallen rock star in Lost, nearly completely disappears from the series.

Heroes

What is the right narration for episodic games?

We can find some of the above rules in episodic games but it must be admitted that their narration has not reached the sophistication of TV series: Secondary arches are very rare, secondary characters are superficial, and even the main characters often lack interesting personalities.

Of course, we don’t find those weaknesses in all episodic games and some are clearly heading the right direction. In particular, I am thinking of Life Is Strange that introduces an interesting secondary character, Chloe, the best friend of the game’s lead character. The Wolf Among Us also features a really engaging main character.

It is true that the budgets and the development times for video games do not make it possible (yet) to offer the same narrative quality and, in particular, the retention effectiveness, of TV series. However, in spite of those limitations, I think a good scriptwriter could build interesting characters and write spellbinding multiple arches that would fit the format of episodic games. They key to success is to know how to merge together interesting characters and drama.

Next …

In the second part of my feature on episodic games, I will talk about their design and focus on the right questions a designer must answer.(source:Gamasutra

 


上一篇:

下一篇: