原文作者：James Cox 译者：Megan Shieh

游戏开发中的某些部分会让开发者觉得压力山大，这已经不是什么秘密了。但是有一些方法可以让开发的过程变得更加有趣，YoYo Games的总经理james Cox就总结出了自己的一套小秘诀。

制作游戏的过程是充满收获的，但有时也可以让你感觉到举步维艰。游戏的创作和开发并没有想象中那样简单；再加上资金、分销、营销、曝光率和竞争等问题，使得游戏的制作难上加难。

Age of Empires（from gamasutra.com）

但是，我们不应该让这些事情成为享受开发过程的阻碍。当我们看到自己的游戏被展示在电子商店或展架上的时候，那种成就感会让你觉得一切都是值得的。

你可能会说：“最后的收获是挺不错的，但是我们如何才能在开发的过程中得到乐趣呢？” 和生活中的绝大多数事情一样，我们的选择有很多种。下面要分享的是我自己从同事和朋友那里学到的小窍门。

第一：尽早从别人那里得到反馈

好的想法是无可替代的，但是有时候游戏方面的想法可能会偏主观。当然如果你的伟大构想被别人否决了，对你来说可能会有点难以接受。然而当我们得到反馈时，应该在批评中寻找论证和有趣的观点。这将会帮助我们迭代自己的想法，从而使它们变得更好。这里的一个关键点是当你有好想法的时候，尽早从别人那里得到反馈——将想法变成现实的过程是很有趣的，但是重做耗时几个月的开发工作就没那么有趣了。

第二：和靠谱的人一起工作

无论你的想法有多棒，如果参与开发的人不靠谱，那么这些想法就很难实现。无论我们是自己制作游戏，还是作为团队的一员工作，每个人都需要有对应的才能。我们可以试着去了解每个人的才能以及他们喜欢做的事情，还可以通过学习新事物来提高我们的技能。把工作交给合适的人可以创造奇迹；但是如果这个人没有对应才能的话，就算他再有本事我们也不用。总而言之，和靠谱的人一起做靠谱的事儿、制作靠谱的游戏，就会乐趣无限。

第三：使用正确的工具

工具的选择非常关键，正确的工具可以帮你节省时间，同时使开发的过程更加愉快。这里最重要的一点是针对项目的需求选择合适的工具。有些工具专注于2D游戏开发，而有些则专注于3D。各种工具都有自己迎合的游戏类型。通常情况下，组合工具是最好用的。即使项目的规模非常小，有些人也会花上很长的时间来做调查和研究，从而找出最省时、最适合自己的工具。毕竟，用牙刷来粉刷墙壁会累爆你，但是用喷漆枪就不一样了。

其次，我们公司致力于开发和销售制作2D游戏的软件，所以自然也会向你们推荐一些工具。良好的工具都是经过行业认可的，也是在行业中口口相传的。我们公司开发的GameMaker Studio 2软件在今年赢得了Develop Awards的设计与创意工具奖（Design & Creativity Tool Award）。在使用自己工具的同时，我们时常也会使用别人开发的工具，这样能让我们的开发更有效率。因此，非常感谢所有的工具制造商，你们的辛勤工作使得游戏行业变得更加有趣。

第四：保持工作与生活之间的平衡

在设计游戏的同时保持工作与生活之间的平衡，这点非常关键。我们有时需要大胆地说NO，对别人说NO，也对自己说NO。工作与生活之间的平衡可以直接影响到生产效率。有多少人遇到过这种情况：花了一整天的时间，绞尽脑汁都不能把一个bug处理掉；第二天神清气爽地来到工作室，10分钟就把那个bug搞定了。

有追求是好的、是必要的，但是不要以失败为代价。永无止境地开发游戏或者到后面发现来不及了而把开发叫停，可一点都不好玩；制作一套精选的高质量特性才是充满乐趣的。

我坚信，在游戏开发中所获得的乐趣最终将在我们的产品中大放异彩。如果我们很享受开发的过程，那么玩家也很可能会很享受玩游戏的过程。最重要的是，无论这段旅程最后把我们带到哪里，至少我们沿途都很开心。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

It’s no secret that some parts of game development can be stressful. But there are ways to make the development process much more fun. James Cox, general manager of YoYo Games, has some top tips

Creating games is very rewarding, but it can also be tough. Inventing and developing a game can be
difficult. When you add questions about funding, distributing, marketing, discoverability and competition, it can get really tough. However, these things shouldn’t stop us from having fun during development. Certainly, these things do not prevent that amazing feeling we get when we see our games in a digital store or on a shelf.

“Ok,” you may say. “A great feeling at the end is good, but how do I have more fun along the way?” Well, as with most things in life, there are plenty of options. Here’s some of the ones I’ve discovered on my journey through the games industry, often learnt from my colleagues and friends.

1. GET FEEDBACK ON YOUR GOOD IDEAS
There’s no substitute for good ideas, but game ideas can be rather subjective. Subsequently, having your great inventions shot down by others can be difficult to accept. However, when we get feedback we should look for the reasoning and interestingpoints in any criticism. This will help us iterate on our ideas to make them even better. A key point here is getting feedback as early as possible. Developing great ideas is good fun, reworking months of development effort is certainly not.

2. WORK WITH GOOD PEOPLE
Good ideas are always needed, but without good people those ideas can’t materialise. Whether we’re making a game on our own or working as part of a team, everyone needs to be talented at what they do. It’s good to find out what everyone’s talents are and what they enjoy doing. Learning new things to improve our skills is also great. Transferring a job to the right person can work wonders. Maybe even drop a feature if the talent is not available. With good people working on the right things, making great games is a lot more enjoyable.

3. THE RIGHT TOOLS
Picking the right tools is very important. Using a good tool will save time and make development more pleasant. The most important aspect here is picking the right tool for the right job.

Some tools specialise in 2Dand others in 3D. Some tools cater to certain genres and others to different parts of the game making pipeline. Most often a combination of tools will be best. Even on the smallest hobby project some research into what tools to use is time well spent. After all, painting your wall with a toothbrush would not be much fun, whereas one of those paint spray guns is awesome.

As we develop and sell software for making 2D games, it’s no surprise that we’d recommend some tools. Good tools are discussed and recognised across our industry including several tool categories in the Develop Awards. This year we won the Design & Creativity Tool Award for our GameMaker Studio 2 software. We routinely use other people’s tools as well as our own and they make our development more efficient. So, a big thank you to all the tool makers out there for making the games industry more fun for us all.

4. SCOPE FOR A GOOD WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Designing our games to be achievable while maintaining a sensible work-life balance is key. We need to say no sometimes, to others and to ourselves. Achieving a good work-life balance can have a direct impact on productivity. How many of us have worked on a bug unsuccessfully all day, only to come in refreshed the next day and solve the bug in ten minutes?

Ambition is great and necessary but not at the cost of failure. Working on a game in development forever or having a game cancelled because it’s too late is definitely not fun. Making a select set of high quality features, well that is a lot of fun.

I strongly believe the joy we have making games will shine through in our finished products. If we have fun making something then chances are people out there will enjoy playing it. And, most importantly, wherever our journey takes us at least we had fun along the way.（Source: develop-online.net）