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将游戏移植到主机平台上的过程

发布时间:2017-02-06 14:06:20 Tags:,,,,

作者:Richard Atlas

经常有人问我们,《超级鸡马》什么时候会出现在主机上。这的确是一个值得研究的问题,因为这款游戏看起来的确很适合主机。有时候人们能理解移植一款游戏很麻烦,但大多数情况下人们只是抱着“难道你就不能只是将其带到主机上?”的想法。所以我今天想要和你们分享有关如何面向主机创造游戏的答案,这一答案主要是面向那些非游戏开发者。如果你是一名游戏开发者,你也可以使用这一答案去回答问你的人。

设置

第一步便是添加游戏开发工具包并设置所有账号以便你能够真正使用这些工具包。这通常需要一个固定的IP地址,如果你没有的话便需要先进行设置。工具包还需要许可密钥与注册,然后你将前往菜单中寻找能让主机连接到你的PC的地方。如果你之前未做过这些,这可能会繁琐些。

从游戏引擎输出

game engine(from gamasutra)

game engine(from gamasutra)

我们使用的是Unity,而从Unity输出到主机原本很简单。实际情况虽然也并非特别困难,但你还是需要拥有一个特殊Unity插件才能做到这个。来自平台所有者(游戏邦注:如索尼,微软,任天堂等)的Unity插件通常版本都较旧,所以你必须确保Unity版本与所使用的插件相匹配。同时你还需要另一个许可密钥才能真正进行输出并尝试让游戏运行于主机上。

特定平台功能

我们的游戏最初是面向Steam开发的,所以游戏代码中有许多针对于Steam的内容,如Steam比赛创造,玩家身份验证,版本检查,成就等等。在主机上,游戏只能在所有这些内容被删除时才能开始。而这便意味着我们需要用一些特定主机功能去取代这些Steam内容。除此之外,我们还需要添加像社交互动,用户账号,用户界面等内容以确保玩家在按压Xbox按键时能够访问自己的Xbox账号。

认证

为了在主机上发行游戏,你需要通过认证过程。对于每一款主机,认证过程都是不同的,但不管怎样都是关于你的游戏需要去做的一列特定内容。有时候是关于你需要去遵守的规则,也有时候是你需要添加的特殊功能。然后为了通过认证你还需要完成一系列测试。例如如果你关掉网络和控制器,切换到Netflix,同步一个全新控制器,重新连上网络并切换回游戏,那么游戏是否还能追踪到用户的改变并确保他们仍会来签到?一旦你明确已考虑到所有情况,你便可以将游戏架构发给平台所有者并让他们开始测试游戏,不可避免的还是会出现一些你未能察觉到的问题。而在再次进行认证前你需要先解决那些问题。

年龄评级

说真的,这是没人想去面对的梦魇。不同国家和区域拥有不同的评级系统,并且它们也都拥有着自己的管理层,要求,意见和支付方式。国际年龄评级联盟(IARC)便尝试着去简化这一过程,但进行的速度实在太慢了。我们需要将游戏提交到ESRB(北美),PEGI(欧洲,除德国外),DSK(德国),CERO(日本),GRAC(韩国)等等机构。此外在某些情况下你还需要使用目标国的语言。例如如果没有日本当地公司的帮助你便不可能在日本获得年龄评级,而如果要在日本索尼发行游戏你就需要来自CERO的评级。所以这真的是一个非常麻烦的过程。

发行

一旦你完成了所有这些内容,你便需要与来自主机领域的人交谈并基于其它发行内容决定最终游戏发行日期。你肯定希望在没有许多其它大型游戏来抢关注的时候发行游戏。此外,如果你能够更多地了解目标主机,它们便能够提供给你更多市场营销和曝光度方面的帮助。而一旦你做到了这些,你便能够发行游戏了!

所以说,从PC到主机不可能多快。而本文只是简单谈及移植的一些表面内容,除此之外你们还有许多需要考虑的东西。我只是希望你们知道移植一款游戏的难度以及不能草率做出这一决定的原因。

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 Goes Into Porting To Consoles (for non-developers)

by Richard Atlas

We often get the question about when our game, Ultimate Chicken Horse, is coming to console. A fair question for sure, as the game seems like the perfect fit for consoles. Sometimes people understand that it’s a lot of work to port a game, but most of the time people get annoyed because “can’t you just sell it on console?”. I wanted to write an answer today about what goes into making a game for console, directed at people who aren’t necessarily game developers. If you are a game dev, feel free to use this to answer people who ask you.

Setup

The first step is to plug in the development kits and get all the accounts set up so that you can actually use them. This usually requires a static IP address, which you have to set up if you don’t have one. The kits also need license keys and need to be properly registered, then you have to (figure out and then) navigate through a bunch of menus to find the spot to allow the console to connect to your PC. If you haven’t done it before, this is not a trivial process.

Exporting from the Game Engine

We use Unity, and exporting from Unity to console is meant to be easy. While it’s not particularly difficult, you still need to get a special Unity plugin to be able to do this. The Unity plugins from the platform holders (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) are often a few versions old, so you need to make sure to roll back Unity to a version that works with the plugin. You’ll also need another license key to actually do the export and try to get the game to run on the console.

Platform-Specific Features

Our game was first developed for Steam, and there were many Steam-specific things in the code such as Steam matchmaking, player authentication, version checking, achievements, etc. On console, the game won’t even start until all of this is removed. Usually, that means replacing the Steam stuff with platform-specific stuff like achievements that are handled differently on different consoles. Beyond that, there’s also the social integration, user accounts, and user interface that needs to be added to make sure that when a player, for example, pressed the Xbox button, they get access to their Xbox account.

Certification

To release on console, you need to pass a certification process. For each console this is slightly different, but in any case it’s a list of hundreds of very specific things that your game needs to be able to do. Sometimes these are rules that you need to abide by, other times these are functional features that need to be added. Then, there’s a list of test scenarios that you’ll need to pass for certification. For example, if you unplug the internet, turn a controller off, switch to Netflix, sync a new controller, plug the internet back in and switch back to the game, will it track the user change and make sure they’re still signed in? Things like that. Once you think you’ve covered all your bases, you send a build to the platform holders and they test the game, and inevitably come back with a bunch of issues that you didn’t see. Getting back to you can take a while, and then fixing the issues can also take a while before sending for certification again.

Age Ratings

These are a nightmare that no one wants to deal with. There are different rating systems for a bunch of countries and regions, each with their own governing boards, requirements, submissions and payments. The IARC (International Age Rating Coalition) is trying to simplify this process, but it’s going slowly. We have to submit the game to ESRB (North America), PEGI (Europe except Germany), DSK (Germany), CERO (Japan), GRAC (Korea), and more. What’s more, in some of those cases you need to do them in the language of the country. For example you can’t get an age rating in Japan without a Japanese company, and to launch on Sony Japan you need a rating from CERO. So… not super straight-forward.

Release

Once you’ve finally done all of this, you need to talk to the console folks and determine a launch date based on other releases that are coming out. You’ll want to be slotted in at a time where there aren’t a ton of big hyped games coming out to maximize visibility on the storefront. In addition, the more you lean toward exclusivity toward one console, the more they’ll try to give you in terms of marketing and visibility. Once you’ve figured that all out, you can release!

So, all this to say, that going from PC to console is not a quick process. This article barely scratches the surface of the technical side of porting, and there’s a ton more to know about it. I wanted to give an idea of what goes into it though, so that you (the average non-game-developer) understand and also so that game developers can share this as a beginning of an explanation about the difficulties we face and the reason that the port doesn’t take two weeks.(source:gamasutra)

 


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