作者：Brendan Sinclair

在过去几年里我们看到了本地多人游戏取得了巨大发展，像《魔塔大乱斗》和《尼德霍格》等游戏便向我们证实了有些游戏仍然非常适合于朋友（或敌人）间面对面进行游戏。来自谢菲尔德的Boneloaf所创造的《基佬大乱斗》便是另一个成功的独立本地多人游戏案例，在Early Access上，这款多人游戏提供了一种轻松的打斗内容，即伴随着一些程序生成动画角色去阻碍玩家前往各种荒谬且通常都是有危险的区域。

Gang Beasts(from gamesindustry)

Boneloaf的开发者Michael和James Brown表示，尽管该工作室明确想要创造的是“具有实验性的多人游戏”，并且他们摒弃了任何精打细算去利用复苏游戏趋势的想法。

Michael说道：“我不认为我们很聪明。”

James也表示认同并说道：“在Boneloaf并不存在突出的商业人才。我们是一家想要致力于游戏开发的伸展型公司，因为我们所拥有的技能和经验都非常有限。在Boneloaf，5个开发者中有4个都是以艺术或插画为专业的。即我们并未真正学过游戏设计或开发。只有Michael学过游戏设计，而他不久前刚刚毕业。

James表示，他自己，Michael还有一个兄弟Jon Brown是从小伴随着本地多人游戏长大的，所以他们希望能够创造属于自己版本的这些游戏。当他们开始参加游戏jam时，他们便自然被这类型游戏所吸引。但基于《基佬大乱斗》在2014年8月进入Early Access以来所收到的所有反馈，我们发现缺少在线游戏成为了最让玩家难过的地方。

James说道：“我们收到的任何负面评论都是关于人们购买了游戏并期待能在线游戏，因为这是人们所习惯的游戏方式。”

尽管Boneloaf表现出自己擅长创造一款有趣游戏的原型，但是他们仍未真正发行一款带有在线元素的游戏。他们知道自己需要一些资深人士的帮助去做到这点。

James说道：“在线是我们对于游戏的第四次重建，因为这对于游戏在一个系统中的运行具有很大的影响。所以我们必须与那些足够了解游戏且清楚怎样的内容才是有趣的以及游戏现在的不足的人合作。”

但是在线多人游戏并不是他们需要获得帮助的唯一内容。就像Michael所解释的那样，他们同时也需要引进一个虚拟现实模式到游戏中，因为这与游戏的决斗概念相匹配，并且能让游戏关卡更接近动作任务间的组合。结果他们发现来自英国桑德兰的Coatsink能够带给他们这样的帮助。

James说道：“这并不是基于雇工形式。相反地我们是基于彼此间的合作。我们想要在VR内容方面与Coatsink合作不仅是因为他们拥有VR创造的历史和经验，同时也因为我们知道他们知道我们的游戏，玩过我们的游戏也喜欢我们的游戏。他们还了解我们公司的结构，知道我们公司并不擅长处理业务方面。还有在线游戏的大量工作也让我们非常伤脑筋，所以我们希望他们拥有足够的耐心与我们在这些工作上展开合作。”

当然了，本地人游戏的社交元素可能会因为转换成在线模式以及戴上耳机进行游戏而发生改变。但Coatsink的首席运营官Simon Launder却声称并非如此，他表示：“我认为VR会增添更多游戏体验。只要拥有语音聊天功能，你便仍然能够与人们进行交流。特别是对于在线多人游戏来说，因为玩家通常都不是与其他玩家待在同一个房间玩游戏，所以耳机的使用能够增添游戏的社交体验。”

James表示他并不担心游戏质量在转换过程中的下降，并且到目前为止的情况也证实了他的说法。开发团队只测试过一次远程游戏，即在上个月于伦敦举办的EGX Rezzed上。结果便是，即使玩家带着耳机在玩游戏也仍然能够听到玩家间所进行的交谈和谩骂。

James说道：“即使是那些并未与其他玩家展开交谈的玩家也会笑出来，这告诉我们VR和在线或远程游戏体验也可以和本地体验一样。我们也希望尽力让它们更加接近。”

即使《基佬大乱斗》正在使用在线多人游戏模式，但是Boneloaf并不认为它完全发挥了游戏的本地多人游戏潜能。

James说道：“我们已经尝试将《基佬大乱斗》呈现在IMAX大荧幕上，甚至将其投射在一个没人的游泳池上。我们已经将其呈现在许多不同的环境中，并且玩家也发给了我们许多在世界各自玩游戏时拍的照片，所以我们认为这种活动型游戏变得越来越重要了。为了避开当前国内技术的种种限制，我们购买了一些超级计算机并打算创造面向基于30名玩家的Royal Rumble活动的《基佬大乱斗》模式或面向基于22名玩家的《基佬大乱斗》足球模式。”

在完整的Early Access版本发布后，《基佬大乱斗》将于今年年末面向PlayStation 4发行。像VR模式和完整故事模式等功能也将出现在发行后的更新中。不管在那之后游戏会经历什么，不管它能否吸引到死忠用户或扩展到不同服务器上，Boneloaf都对这一项目是源于来自同一个房间的游戏体验而感到骄傲。

James说道：“本地多人游戏始终都会是我们的优先选择。这也仍然有可能是我们玩游戏最有趣的方式，因为你将与朋友进行直接交流。而在线和VR模式也会添加一些我们认为具有吸引力的不同体验；但这只是一种稍有不同的体验而已。”

（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）

Can local multiplayer translate to online VR?

By Brendan Sinclair

The last few years have seen an uptick in success stories for local multiplayer games, with titles like Towerfall and Nidhogg underscoring that some games are still best enjoyed when played face-to-face with friends (or enemies, for that matter). Gang Beasts from Sheffield, UK-based Boneloaf has been another indie local multiplayer success story, with the Early Access multiplayer party game providing a light-hearted take on the fighting genre with procedurally animated characters stumbling their way through a variety of absurd and often hazardous arenas.

While the studio is set up explicitly to produce “experimental multiplayer party games,” Boneloaf developers Michael and James Brown spoke with GamesIndustry.biz and dismissed any notion that it was a calculated move to capitalize on a resurgent trend in gaming.

“I don’t think we’re that clever,” Michael said.

“There’s no obvious business intelligence in Boneloaf,” James agreed, adding, “We’re kind of a stretch company to be doing game development, really, because we have pretty limited skills or experience. Four out of the five people that have worked on the game from Boneloaf are all trained in fine art or illustration. We’re not trained in game design or development. Michael’s the only one who’s trained on that, and he’s a recent graduate.”

James said he, Michael, and fellow brother (and Boneloafer) Jon Brown grew up playing local multiplayer games and always wanted to make their own versions of those games. When they started participating in game jams, those were naturally the games they gravitated toward. But for all the positive feedback Gang Beasts has received since it launched into Early Access in August of 2014, its lack of online play has been a constant sore spot for users.

“Any kind of negative reviews we get are generally about people buying it and expecting online because the audience for games has gotten used to expecting that,” James said.

While Boneloaf had shown itself to be proficient at prototyping a fun game, it had still never shipped a game, much less one with an online component. They knew they’d need experienced help to make it happen.

“Online is effectively the fourth time we’ve rebuilt the game, because it has that much of an impact on how the game works at a system level,” James said. “So it was really important to work with somebody that already knew the game and was familiar with what was fun about the game and what the annoyances in the game are currently.”

However, online multiplayer wasn’t the only feature they needed help with. They also wanted to introduce a virtual reality mode to the game, as Michael explained, because it fit with the game’s concept of dueling vinyl toys, and would make levels feel more like action figure playsets than digital arenas. They found a partner in Sunderland, UK’s Coatsink to help bring both features to life.

“It’s not work for hire. It’s more collaborative than that,” James said, “The reason we wanted to partner with Coatsink on the VR stuff was partly because they have history and considerable experience working with VR, but also we know they know the game, that they play the game and enjoy the game. They also know the structure of our company, how new our company is in terms of dealing with business. And the significant rollout of online is going to take us a little while to get our heads around certain aspects of it, and we needed them to have the patience to work with us on some of that stuff.”

Of course, the social aspect of local multiplayer gaming could be altered by both the move to online as well as the experience of playing with a headset on. But Coatsink COO Simon Launder insisted that hasn’t been the case, saying, “I think VR adds to the experience a bit. As long as you’ve got things like voice chat so you’re still interacting with people. Especially with online multiplayer, you tend not to be in the same room as someone anyway, so I think the headset adds to [the social experience].”

James said he wasn’t worried about the game’s qualities being lost in translation, and so far, the results have backed that up. The team has really only tested remote play once, at last month’s EGX Rezzed in London. And even with multiple banks of people in Oculus headsets playing the game, he still heard the standard trash talk and chatting between players.

“Even people who weren’t [talking to other players] were still laughing, and that gave us a clear indication that the VR and online or remote play experience can be very similar to the local experience,” James said. “We’re trying to make them as similar as possible.”

Even if Gang Beasts is adopting online multiplayer, Boneloaf doesn’t think it has fully explored the game’s local multiplayer potential just yet.

“We’ve had Gang Beasts played on IMAX cinemas, on big screens at events, even projected on the bottom of an empty swimming pool,” James said. “We’ve had it in so many different contexts and people have sent us so many images of them playing it all around the world, we definitely think that sort of event gaming is becoming more and more significant. And we do have plans to kind of bypass the limitations of current domestic technology so we can get some supped-up computers to go out to events to have a 30-player Royal Rumble battle royale Gang Beasts mode, or a 22-player Gang Beasts football mode, that kind of thing.”

Gang Beasts is expected to launch on the PlayStation 4 later this year, followed by a full release outside of Early Access. Features like the VR mode and a full story mode are also planned for post-launch updates. Regardless of what happens with the game from this point, whether it finds its audience clustered around couches or spread across servers, Boneloaf is confident its projects will always begin as same-room experiences.

“Local multiplayer will always be our first priority, I think,” James said. “And it probably will still ultimately be the most fun way to play the game because you’re directly there with your friends. But the online and VR modes add something different that we think is just as compelling; it’s just a slightly different experience.”(source:gamesindustry)