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访谈:Rovio伦敦工作室和可能更多元化的操作方式

发布时间:2017-07-05 10:36:19 Tags:,

本文原作者:Will Freeman  译者游戏邦ciel chen

《愤怒的小鸟》的开发者Rovio工作室在伦敦成立了新的工作室,这对开发者、发行商和手游热作来说都是一个意义重大的举措。

这是Rovio第一个离开了北欧的团队。该核心团队在Mark Sorrell的领导下,还处在募集状态。Mark Sorrell担任Rovio伦敦工作室负责人,目前他正满怀激情地享受着对付 “激动人心的问题”的快感。

london(from developonline.net)

london(from developonline.net)

这里的“问题”就是——Rovio要挑战蒸蒸日上的大型多人在线(MMO)手游领域。不过Rovio把工作室搬到伦敦不仅仅为了研发新型游戏,更多的原因在于伦敦当地汇集了大量的游戏界人才,不仅如此,伦敦更是吸引了很多来自世界各地工艺纯熟的游戏开发者。

Sorrell解释道:“从大方面上来讲,把工作室开到北欧之外(这里不是特指伦敦)是因为Rovio已经雇佣了芬兰游戏界10%的人员了,然而这对我们来说是完全意料之外的——公司的建设速度居然这么快就到了这里,而我们搬离是为了找到水平高超的成员与团队,毕竟要想在赫尔辛基还是斯德哥尔摩找到这样的人才实在是有些难度。

离巢

Rovio的其他各大工作室将仍按原来的轨迹进行系列游戏的运营,Sorrell相信只有伦敦能够处理这种非典型Rovio游戏产品的开发。

Sorrel说道:“我们的三个埃斯波工作室手头的游戏类型都是Rovio最擅长的。我们对这一类的游戏产品和市场都有足够了解,毕竟这些游戏一度是我们公司发展的基石。”

Sorrell说:Rovio的埃斯波Battle工作室正在着手原IP(《愤怒的小鸟》)的mid-core PVP游戏发行,比如正在进行中的《Battle Bay》就是Rovio的其中一款非典型系列的作品。不过相比之下,伦敦工作室将要开发的游戏非典型程度将更高。

他表明:“我们将致力开发的游戏可能跟Rovio的原生游戏有着天壤之别。Rovio伦敦工作室将主打研发的MMOs类型游戏是Rovio之前从来没接触过的。它将完全脱离《愤怒的小鸟》,所以我们也将放弃我们熟知的核心内容。然而我们的目标之一是让我们最后做出的作品仍旧保留有Rovio的痕迹。”

有“嚼劲”的问题

Rovio伦敦工作室希望能在2019年把游戏成品做出,除此之外,伦敦团队目前对具体游戏将采取的形式避而不谈,现在还不到做这种创造性决定的时候。

“我们觉得既然要开一间新工作室,就要确保这个新工作室有令人兴奋以及“耐嚼”的问题可以去探索去解决,而MMO移动游戏对我们来说正是这样的大问题。”

这是个需要投注大量时间的挑战,而真正让Sorrell感到兴奋的是这个挑战的难度——要让呈递出的MMO手游真正受到广泛玩家的欢迎可不容易。

他这样说明道:“说实话最终游戏究竟会是什么样子不在我的工作范围内。我说我正在招募团队成员,所以是我所招募来的团队在开发游戏而不是我。我只负责给他们提供方向,告诉他们哪些东西不能要,但我不会告诉他们具体该做哪些事。好的决策者可不会指使雇来的天才们‘做这个做那个’。我们只会告诉他们‘我们有这样的问题,这是问题的具体内容。’”

讲了这么多有关招募的事,现在有一个值得一问的问题——Rovio伦敦工作室有什么值得让开发者前去应聘的职位?

Sorrel回应:“我们给开发者提供了一个解决难题的机会。这让开发者有机会挑战难题。目前我们希望这团队先保持较小的规模,第一年我们计划是包括我在内的8人团队,第二年20人。也许之后不止这么多,不过在游戏没有成型之前我不会希望我们的团队人数扩展太多。”

工作室在雇佣成员时还秉承着多元化的精神。值得注意的是Rovio伦敦工作室对多样化的定义——就是要有各行各业的成员。

Sorrel说道“我对团队成员的多样性真的是非常极其以及特别地看中,我希望他们能有不同的背景以及不同的生活与专业经历。”

工作室负责人不仅重视塑造传统意义上的多样性,并且对成员专业和技能范围上的多样性也很看重。

Sorrel说“多样性是针对你整个团队内的——团队需要各行各业的成员。这不是指个体成员自身的多样化,而是指整个团队内的多元化。”

“我们需要那些眼界开阔、从没有从事过这个行业的人加入我们,因为他们会给我们一些从来没人涉足过的疯狂想法。这些想法有多少,能做成游戏的概率有多大都不重要,重要的是他们能给出有价值的建议来帮助我们开发出牛逼的游戏。”

“我会希望团队成员里有建筑师还有魔术师,当然最想要的是魔术师。”他透露误导人的技巧跟游戏设计是息息相关的。“我觉得能雇到会任何一种魔术的人那会是非常棒的事;我还觉得雇佣到独角滑稽秀演员也会给我们很多帮助——他们可以教我们很多稀奇古怪的事物;我甚至还希望能雇到时尚市场人员或者超市设计者,他们对游戏设计也有很大帮助。总之我希望带好多好多不同职业的人进入到游戏这个行业中。”

Sorrell打开了游戏开发的大门,他的对各种职业接纳的许诺听起来着实让人为之一振,并且这似乎同时对开发者和无关行业的人们都产生了巨大的诱惑。

放手利基市场

如此多元化的团队将致力于创作属于Rovio的MMO手游,根据Sorrells所述,如何将利基类游戏转化为大众游戏将会是这个进程项目的指导方针。Sorrell认为暴雪公司为Rovio伦敦工作室做了一个可行的示范。

Sorrel提出:“我们成立这个工作室的真正兴趣点在于‘去利基’。我们希望能把一些对少数人来说熟悉和精彩的游戏带给更广泛的人群。暴雪公司是我们可以学习的榜样,他们在这点上做得非常成功。”

“我们必须弄清楚每种类型游戏的核心体验是什么,其真正的意义又是什么。这样我们才能把它推向更广大的用户。”

正是这种 “去利基”的过程,以及对探索“新型游戏应该有和不应该有的样子”的挑战吸引了Sorrell加入Rovio伦敦工作室团队。

距离我们一窥ROVIO伦敦工作室游戏成品之前可能还要有一段时间,不过可以确定的一件事是——这个游戏的制作团队将可能会非常的与众不同,而这作为新型游戏开发的开端,让人对其最终成果非常期待。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

A gaming giant has come to roost in the UK capital and it is establishing a place where games developers may find themselves working alongside magicians, as Will Freeman finds out

Angry Birds creator Rovio opening a new studio in London marks a significant move for the developer, publisher and icon of mobile gaming.

It is Rovio’s only team based outside of the Nordics. The core team is still being assembled, under the guidance of Mark Sorrell, head of London Studio and he is currently full of enthusiasm about the thrill of tackling what he calls an ‘exciting problem’.

That ‘problem’ is the challenge of building a thriving mobile MMO. But Rovio’s move from the Nordics isn’t only about tackling a new genre. It is equally about talent. For Rovio, London not only provides a rich pool of local talent, but also a globally appealing destination for skilled games makers from across the world.

“The core reason for opening outside the Nordics at all – rather than specifically London – is because Rovio employs 10 per cent of everybody who works in the games industry in Finland,” Sorrell offers. “So while we absolutely have no desire to grow here really very quickly, it’s just a case of wanting to have extraordinarily good people, and extraordinarily good teams. And there’s ultimately a limit of what is possible, whether you’re in Helsinki or indeed Stockholm.”

I’d love to hire a magician. I think it would be fantastic to hire anybody who has done any kind of magic

“Our three Espoo studios are covering genres that we at Rovio are very comfortable with,” Sorrel confirms. “Those are genres I think we understand – we understand the market and the product there, and they are something of a bedrock of the company at the moment.”

Rovio’s Espoo Battle Studio is working on original IP mid-core PvP releases, such as the on-going Battle Bay. It’s an example, Sorrell says, of Rovio tackling a genre that is not absolutely characteristic of the wider company’s background. And by contrast, what is underway in London will be even less typical.

“Perhaps the very furthest away from the bedrock of what Rovio games are is us,” he suggests. “Here in London we’re working on MMOs, which is something we at Rovio obviously haven’t done before. And it’s non- Angry Birds, specifically. So we’re stepping away from the core there too. That’s not to say that what we make won’t be very identifiably Rovio when it comes out. That’s absolutely one of our aims.”

THE CHEWY PROBLEM

Rovio London hopes to have a playable game available in 2019 and, beyond that detail, the London team is currently intently avoiding a commitment to exactly what form the game will take; something of a distinct creative decision.

“We felt it was important, if we were opening a studio, to make sure that it had really exciting, chewy problems to explore,” says Sorrell. “And the mobile MMO sounded like a great problem for us.”

It’s a challenge that’s going to need a good investment of time, but it is the scale of the challenge of delivering a truly popular mobile MMO that fills Sorrell with excitement.

“Exactly what that game will be is not my job to work out, to be frank,” he states. “I say that at the moment I’m hiring the team that will hire the team that will make the game. So that’s what’s happening now. It’s my job to provide direction, and it’s certainly my job to say what we’re not making. But it’s definitely not my job
to say what we are making. It’s no good hiring really good people and then saying ‘do exactly this’. We want to say to those people ‘we have this problem, and here’s the context.”

With all this talk of hiring, it’s worth asking an important question. Why should a developer look at a position at Rovio London?

“It’s a chance to solve a hard problem,” Sorrel responds. “It’s a chance to do something difficult. We are keeping it small, for now. We’re planning eight people year one, including me, and then 20 in year two. We’re might grow a little more, but until we have a game out I can’t imagine us getting much bigger.”

The studio is equally focused on employing in the spirit of diversity. Importantly, the definition of diversity at Rovio London is – well – diverse.

“I’m extremely, extremely conscious of having a diverse group of people, with different backgrounds and different experiences, both in terms of life experiences and professional experiences,” confirms Sorrel.

He is keen to foster diversity in the traditional sense, certainly, but the studio head is equally keen to employ from a broad range of professions and skill sets.

“Diversity is that across your team, you want to have a wide variety of people,” Sorrel says. “It’s not about individuals being diverse themselves. Across the team, I think I’d be crazy if I didn’t want to have at least 50 per cent – for instance – of them being experienced in making games.

“But we’d be equally mad if we didn’t want people who have ever done it before. Those people can suggest to us those completely crazy things nobody has done before. How many of those ideas and how much of that thinking makes it into a game is not really the point. It’s about having people that are open eyed, have never done this before, and is equally as valuable to making an amazing project.

“I’d love to have an architect. I’d love to hire a magician too. A magician’s top of my list,” he reveals, pointing to the skill of misdirection as particularly relevant to crafting games. “I think it would be fantastic to hire anybody who has done any kind of magic. I think we’d get a lot from a stand-up comedian too. I think there’s a lot that they could teach about weird things. I’m thinking about how somebody in fashion marketing or a supermarket designer could help us too. There’s loads of roles I’d like to bring here.”

Sorrell’s commitment to opening up the skill set of games making is invigorating and likely to be hugely enticing, both to developers and those from unrelated fields.

LIBERATING NICHES

That diverse team will work on shaping Rovio’s MMO; a process Sorrell says will be guided by considering how to take niche genres to mass audiences. Blizzard sets an example, Sorrell believes, that Rovio London can build on.

“It’s definitely true of this studio that we’re interested in ‘de-nicheing’,” Sorrel offers. “It’s the idea of taking something fantastic and familiar to a small group of people, and bringing it to a much, much larger audience. I think we look up to Blizzard, because they’ve done this successfully.

“We have to ask what the core experience of a genre is, and what it really means. We want to give that to a wider audience.”

For Sorrell, the appeal of joining Rovio London was this de-nicheing process, and the challenge of exploring what a new game should be – and what it shouldn’t be.

It may be some time before we see even a glimpse of what the studio’s game will be, but one thing is certain. It is likely to be inspired by a very distinct team make-up. As a starting point, that’s an encouraging sign. (source:develop online


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