开发者访谈：《浴火银河3：蝎狮号崛起》的制作过程

原文作者：Matt Suckley 译者：Megan Shieh

2016年12月，Deep Silver Fishlabs发布了《Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore》（浴火银河3：蝎狮号崛起）。

距离2006年发布的首版《浴火银河》整整10年，这两版游戏的鲜明对比应该最能体现手机游戏在相对短时间内的发展。

的确，《蝎狮号崛起》的视觉效果甚至能让2006年的游戏机折服，转换到现代手机和平板电脑的高保真屏幕上就更不用说啦！

《浴火银河3：蝎狮号崛起》是系列中第一个带有F2P模式的游戏，这也许是最根本的变化。

为了全方位了解这一切，PocketGamer.biz对Deep Silver Fishlabs工作室的负责人Michael Krach就游戏开发的幕后进行了针对性的访问。

PocketGamer.biz: 随着2006年的首版发布，《浴火银河》成为目前为止运行时间最长的手游系列之一。在开发《蝎狮号崛起》时，这一传承对你的思维产生了什么影响？

Michael Krach: 在它的全盛时期，《浴火银河2》从经济上和评论上看都真的很成功。

如果玩家和媒体没有表现出对我们游戏的热爱，我们根本都不会想到要制作第三部。

然而在过去的几年里，移动市场发生了巨大的变化；我们发现像《浴火银河2》这样一个游戏已经无法被再造了。

所以我们选择了一条不同的路——在《蝎狮号崛起》里引入了新的想法，同时也保留了《浴火银河2》中的精华：绝妙科幻环境中的激烈太空战斗。

《蝎狮号崛起》的团队里有没有人从一开始就参与了这个系列的开发？

有的，我们团队中的部分开发人员已经在公司工作超过10年了；也有5年前加入的人，他们参与了《浴火银河2》的开发。

然后还有一些专门为了《蝎狮号崛起》的开发而加入我们的新成员，它们带来了新的想法。

总而言之，《浴火银河》团队是目前业内最大的独立手游开发团队之一。

你如何在‘系列粉丝’和‘没有玩过该系列游戏的新玩家’之间，保持吸引力平衡？

《蝎狮号崛起》是以浴火银河宇宙上未知的神秘部分为背景。

还是在同一个宇宙上，这点与该系列的其他游戏产生了连接；因为是未知的部分，所以新玩家不需为了理解《蝎狮号崛起》的内容而被迫去玩之前的版本。

《蝎狮号崛起》讲述的是一个全新的故事，将新的概念带入该系列；但与此同时它也充满了对前几版游戏的敬意。

《浴火银河》中的叙事部分比公司旗下一般的免费游戏要大得多，你是如何在手游领域里实现这点的？

《蝎狮号崛起》不仅是一款非常故事驱动的、带有IAP的免费应用程序，而且它比起前几版游戏更强调潜在的叙述。

实际上，《浴火银河2》和它两个附件的旁白结合起来，都没有《蝎狮号崛起》里的多。

这个游戏定位在一个被称为“Neox Sector”的神秘边缘世界里，讲述了一个关于危险和欺骗的、扣人心弦的故事，新的故事情节比以前更深刻，更严肃。

然而在《蝎狮号崛起》中所发生的一切都基于浴火银河系列的传说，而经验丰富的玩家将会在沿途遇到许多熟悉的面孔、场景和彩蛋。

总体来说，我们相信《蝎狮号崛起》的叙事引导方式确实有助于维持我们游戏的动作序列，同时也促进了玩家的沉浸感。

在广泛的移动设备上运行这样一个复杂且视觉上令人印象深刻的游戏，开发团队遇到了多少技术上的挑战？

除了成为我们迄今为止规模最大、最佳的项目之外，《蝎狮号崛起》的开发也是最具有挑战性的。

iOS版本引入了Metal，以及我们专有的ABYSS引擎的升级版，该系统的引入使我们实现了超高的视觉和技术标准。

虽然我们对迄今为止所取得的成就感到无比自豪，但《蝎狮号崛起》的发布并不是我们旅程的结尾。

我们的团队现在正在做Android移植，平台上的高度碎片化使得这比iOS版本更难实现。

安卓的设备有太多种，它们都有各自的备用芯片组、分辨率和操作系统版本，以及像OpenGL 和Vulkan 这样多样的图形标准。

所有的3D环境（比如旁白），对你提供内容更新和保持游戏新鲜的频率有什么影响?

如果我们说游戏的深度和复杂性在这方面没有影响，那是骗人的。

增加新内容时，如果你不想就只是启动一个关卡编辑器，那就必须从零开始创作高质量的内容，这使增加新内容变得极具挑战性。

这点我们从一开始就知道，在制定内容策略的时候也充分考虑过。

我们现在处于在线运营阶段，有几十个人在为《蝎狮号崛起》研发新内容。

我们的计划是每隔几个月发布一次重大的更新(即：后续故事章节)，以及之间的小补丁。

在这里，我们区分不同程度的大小。

尽管一个新的故事章节应该总是有完整的旁白（VO），但如果我们的玩家可以提早地享受它，我们不介意在没有完整VO的情况下添加一个新的副任务，

《蝎狮号崛起》的开发团队有多大？总开发时间有多长？

这是一个由40名敬业的程序员、艺术家、设计师和制作人组成的团队，《蝎狮号崛起》是这些人的血液、汗水和眼泪的产物。

该项目已经进行三年多了，团队规模各异。在这段时间里，我们不仅不断地与手机游戏领域的变化保持一致，而且还开发了我们自己的引擎和游戏。

ABYSS 4.0 引擎处于科技的前沿，没有它的存在这一些都不可能发生。

游戏的测试发行持续了多久？你从这个过程中学到的最重要的东西是什么？作为学习结果，你做了哪些改变？

我们的游戏最初在2016年6月底于荷兰启动测试发行。发行地区逐步地增加，直到将近半年后，我们实现全球上架。

在那六个月里，我们在所有领域都做了很多宝贵的学习——从后台开发和性能优化到玩家行为和功能请求。

我们在软发行期间做出的最大改变是对去年9月所做的社区调查进行了后续行动。

根据从玩家那里得到的反馈，我们增加了一种探索模式、移除了飞船机库中的修理计时器、提供了更多的任务种类，并引入了老版游戏中的传统飞船。

苹果电视版《蝎狮号崛起》的幕后思维是什么? 玩家们是如何反应的？

在苹果电视上发布《蝎狮号崛起》是一个我们不能错过的机会，因为它让我们成为了世界上最大的科技公司运营的全新平台上的先行者！

这种好机会怎么能错过呢？此外，它给了我们一个机会向世人展示《浴火银河》系列还活着，而且还是很棒！

当时距离第2部问世已经有一段时间了，而完整的iOS版本在那个时候还没有准备好。

在一个游戏越来越自动化的移动市场上，你认为手游市场对像《浴火银河》这样相对激烈的游戏体验是否还有需求？

肯定的！年复一年，数以亿计的人们将他们的手机和平板电脑升级为最新的标准。

如今这些人的口袋里都装有强大的迷你游戏机、并且想要体验超越休闲游戏的图像效果和游戏。

与此同时，随着玩家期望的增加，他们可以玩游戏（或者其他形式的数字娱乐）的时间也变短了。

所以他们最终想要的是:在他们的移动设备上得到高质量的体验，每当他们想玩游戏的时候，都能在5分钟内被惊艳到。

阐述的就是类似《蝎狮号崛起》的高端技能游戏，因为要平衡玩家的各种不同期望，所以它的设计难度会特别大。

你当初对于实施货币化是怎么个想法？在这个过程中发生了多少迭代?

货币化显然是决定游戏成败的关键因素。

再好的游戏设置、再完美的呈现，如果没有下载量那基本上是没有价值的，因为没人原意为你的游戏预先花钱；或者可能你有数百万的安装量，但从中没有赚到任何钱，那你就没办法维持在线运营；这是目前移动应用商店中所谓的“premium offer”的悲哀现状。

在《蝎狮号崛起》中，我们决定采用比较不唐突的货币化方式，拒绝带有侵略性地、强制性地推动玩家花钱。

这基本上是现在大多数游戏必须采取的方法。由于大部分的娱乐都是免费的，所以真正的支付压力会让人们远离产品。

看看《Super Mario Run》（超级马里奥跑酷），100个玩家中只有3个决定一次性支付9.99美元的价格，这可是世界上最大的IP之一诶！

你为什么决定加入内置录屏功能（Replay Kit）？玩家是如何与之互动的？

Replay Kit 是苹果公司推出的一款很棒的功能，让玩家可以轻松地记录、编辑和分享他们的游戏视频。

你已经可以在Youtube和Facebook上看到很多以这种方式录制的视屏，这些视屏呈现激烈的任务、充满动作场面的挑战还有猛烈的boss战斗。

你对全球发布有多高兴？有没有什么预料之外的事？

这可能是我们有史以来最好的一次发行。当《浴火银河3：蝎狮号崛起》在全球应用程序商店上架时，我们非常兴奋；之前做了非常充分的准备，一切都很顺利。

游戏运行良好，服务器即使在高压下也保持稳定。

最重要的是，苹果也给了我们很多支持。他们授予了《蝎狮号崛起》‘编辑推荐勋章’，然后还说他们“很喜欢游戏中史诗般的体验以及巨大而绚丽的宇宙。”

此外，我们在App Store上获得了超过13000个用户评论，在几乎所有的市场上都被评为4星。

《浴火银河》系列的粉丝都很喜爱这个游戏，媒体也对我们很好，给了我们很多好评！

有什么可以分享的早期统计或KPI吗?

很抱歉，现在我不能分享任何具体数字。

但我可以告诉你现在的数据看起来很不错，很多玩家每天都在漫游、射击、探索我们的游戏世界。

《浴火银河3：蝎狮号崛起》的未来规划是什么？

我们现在有三个重点:

即将在亚洲推出的iOS版本(包含完整的日文旁白，这是我们的第一次尝试)。

全球推出的Android版本(计划在今年上半年进行)。

发布我们的第一个大内容更新(开放星图上的Rigant Vortex区域)。

在此期间我们将继续调整和改进我们的游戏，加入很多的小补丁，比如我们最近更新的加速器控制，这是许多粉丝要求的一个功能。

正如你所看到的，我们有很多很棒的东西。对我们公司和我们的玩家来说，2017年将会是美妙的一年。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Deep Silver Fishlabs launched Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore in December 2016.

A full decade on from the launch of the originalGalaxy on Fire back in 2006, comparing the two is perhaps the most stark display of how far mobile gaming has come in a relatively short time.
Indeed, Manticore boasts visuals that would have impressed even on consoles back in 2006, swapping cramped feature phone displays for the high-fidelity screens of modern phones and tablets.
Perhaps the most fundamental change, however, is that Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore is the first in the series with a free-to-play model.

To discuss all this and more, PocketGamer.biz spoke with Deep Silver Fishlabs Head of Studio Michael Krach to go behind the scenes on the game’s development.

PocketGamer.biz: With the first entry launching back in 2006,Galaxy on Fire is one of the longest-running mobile game series out there. How did this legacy affect your thinking when developing Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore?

Michael Krach: At its heyday, Galaxy on Fire 2 was really successful – both financially and critically.

If the fans and media had not shown that much love for our game, we would not even have thought about making a third instalment.

Yet, the mobile market changed significantly in the past couple of years and we reached a point where it became obvious that a game likeGalaxy on Fire 2 could not be re-created anymore.

So we went down a different path, introducing new ideas to Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore while simultaneously keeping the essence of the previous Galaxy on Fire games preserved: intense space fights in stunning sci-fi environments.

Are there team members working on Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore who have been with the series since the very start?

Yes, we still have developers on board who have been with the company for more than 10 years.

Then we got people in our team who joined us over five years ago and worked on the DLC for Galaxy on Fire 2.

And finally, there are new team members that joined us specifically for Galaxy on Fire 3 and brought in fresh ideas.

All in all, the Galaxy on Fire team is one of the biggest standalone teams working on a mobile game these days!

How did you balance appealing to series fans and onboarding new players who may not have played a game like Galaxy on Firebefore?

Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore is set in a hitherto uncharted part of theGalaxy on Fire universe.

This allows us to link the game to its predecessors, without requiring people to play the old games first in order to understand what is going on in the new game.

Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore tells a fresh story and introduces novel ideas to the franchise. But at the same time it is also packed with nods and homages to its predecessors.

Narrative plays a bigger part in Galaxy on Fire than in your average free-to-play game, so what was your approach to making this work on mobile?

Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore is not only surprisingly story-driven for a free app with in-app purchases, but it also puts a stronger emphasis on the underlying narrative than its predecessors.

MICHAEL KRACH

There are actually more lines of voiceovers in our new game than in Galaxy on Fire 2 and both add-ons combined.

Also, the story – which tells a gripping tale of danger and deceit in a mysterious fringe world of known space called the Neox Sector – is much deeper and more serious than before.

Yet, everything that happens in Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore is rooted in the rich lore of the Galaxy on Fire saga and veteran players will encounter many familiar faces, situations and Easter eggs along the way.

Generally speaking, we believe that the narrative-led approach of Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore really helps with sustaining the action sequences of our game as well as promoting the immersion of our players.

How much of a technical challenge was it to get such a complex and visually impressive game running on a broad range of mobile devices?

Besides being our biggest and best-looking project to date, Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore is also our most challenging one.

On iOS, it was the introduction of Metal and the next-gen version of our proprietary ABYSS Engine that really enabled us to bring the game such a high visual and technical standard.

While we are really proud of what we have achieved so far, our journey has not ended.

As we speak, our team is working on the Android porting, which is a lot harder to realise than the iOS version due to the high level of fragmentation on the platform.

There’s just so many different Android devices out there, all of which have alternate chipsets, resolutions and OS versions as well as diverting graphics standards such as OpenGL and Vulkan.

How do all the 3D environments, voice acting etc. affect the frequency with which you’re able to deliver content updates and keep the game fresh?

We would be lying if we said that the game’s depth and complexity had no effect on this.

Of course, adding new content is much more challenging if you have to produce everything from scratch – and at top quality – instead of merely starting a level editor.

But that is something we knew right from the start and considered when we laid out our content strategy.

Now that we are in live operation, we have several dozen people working on new content for Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore.

Our plan is to release one major new update (i.e. a follow-up story chapter) every few months, plus smaller patches in-between.

Here, we differentiate between varying levels of magnitude.

While a new story chapter should always be fully voiced, we would not mind adding a new side mission without complete VO if this meant our players could enjoy it much sooner.

How big was the team on Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore and how long was the total development time?

Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore is the product of the blood, sweat and tears of a 40-strong core team of dedicated programmers, artists, designers and producers.

The project has been in the works for more than three years with varying team sizes.

Throughout that time, we have not only constantly aligned our game with the ongoing changes in the mobile gaming landscape, but also developed our own engine alongside with the game.

The ABYSS Engine 4.0 is now a bleeding-edge piece of tech without which none of this would be possible.

How long was the game in soft launch? What were the most significant lessons you learned from the process, and what changes did you implement as a result?

Initially, our game soft-launched in the Netherlands in late June 2016. Step by step, more territories followed until we went live globally almost half a year later.

In those six months, we made a lot of invaluable learnings in all areas, ranging from backend development and performance optimisation to player behavior and feature requests.

The biggest changes we made during soft launch were the follow-ups to the community poll we ran last September.

Based on the feedback we received from our players, we added an exploration mode, removed the repair timers in the ship hangar, provided bigger mission variety and introduced legacy ships from the previous Galaxy on Fire games.

What was the thinking behind the Apple TV prologue Galaxy on Fire – Manticore RISINGand how did players react to it on that platform?

Releasing Manticore RISING on the Apple TV was an opportunity we could not pass by as it allowed us to be first-movers on an all-new platform run by the biggest tech company in the world!
How could you say no to that? Furthermore, it gave us a chance to show the world that Galaxy on Fire was still alive and coming along great.

It had been a while since part two came out and the full iOS version ofGalaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore was simply not ready at that point.

In a mobile market where games are becoming increasingly automated, do you feel there’s still a healthy appetite for more intense gaming experiences like Galaxy on Fire on mobile?

Absolutely! Year after year, hundreds of millions of people upgrade their phones and tablets to the newest standards.

They now have potent mini-consoles in their pockets and want to experience graphics and gameplay that goes beyond casual play.

At the same time as the expectations of the players increased, the time they could spend with games (and other forms of digital entertainment) got shorter.

So what they ultimately want is this: high-quality experiences that happen right there on their mobile devices and “wow” them in less than five minutes – whenever they feel like it.

This presents high-end skill games such as Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore with a particularly tough game design challenge, namely to balance all the diverse expectations of the players.

What was your thinking in terms of implementing monetisation and how much iteration occurred around this?

Obviously, monetisation is a key factor in the success or failure of a game.

Even the best gameplay and slickest presentation are not worth much if nobody downloads your game because they are not willing to spend any money up-front – which is the sad reality for so-called premium offers on the mobile app stores at the moment – or if you cannot uphold live operation because you make millions of installs but zero money.

For Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore we decided to go with rather unobtrusive monetisation that does not aggressively push players towards payments as a mandatory means of progression.

Basically, that is what most games have to resort to these days. With the bulk of the entertainment being available for free, real pressure to pay simply drives people away from the product.
Look at Super Mario Run. Only three players out of 100 decided to pay a one-time price tag of $9.99 for one of the biggest IPs on the planet. It says a lot.

Why did you decide to include in-built Replay Kit functionality and how have players interacted with it so far?

Replay Kit is a fantastic feature introduced by Apple that allows our players to record, edit and share their gameplay footage easily.

On YouTube and Facebook, you already find a lot of very cool videos that were produced this way, showing intense missions, action-packed challenges and fierce boss battles.

How happy have you been with the global launch? Any surprises?

This was probably the best launch we ever had. When Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore hit the App Store globally, we were very excited, extremely well-prepared and everything went smoothly.

The game performed fine and the servers remained stable, even under high pressure.

On top, Apple gave us a lot of support as well. They bestowed Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore with an Editor’s Choice badge and said that they “love how epic it all feels – and how gorgeous this vast universe is”.

Furthermore, we got over 13,000 user ratings on the App Store with solid four stars out of five in almost all markets.

The loyal Galaxy on Fire community has appreciated the game and the media has also been very kind to us, with lots of good reviews!

Are there any early stats/KPIs you’re able to share?

I am sorry, but right now, I cannot share any concrete numbers here.

But I can tell you that the stats are looking very promising right now and that quite a lot of players are roaming, shooting and exploring our game world every day.

What’s next for Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore?

We have three big points on our agenda right now:

The impending Asian launch of the iOS version (including full Japanese voiceovers, which is a first for us).

The worldwide launch of the Android version (planned to take place in the first half of this year).

The release of our first big content update (unlocking the Rigant Vortex area on the star map).

In-between, we will continue to tweak and improve our game with numerous smaller patches, such as our most recent update introducing accelerometer controls – a feature many fans have requested!

As you see, we have quite a lot of great stuff up our sleeves! 2017 will be a fantastic year, both for our company and for our players. （Source: pocketgamer.biz ）