《古墓丽影》前开发者谈为什么离开游戏行业:做游戏变得不酷

前排提示：必须是跟钱有关

原作者：Patrick Stafford 译者：Willow Wu

在1990年代，也就是《古墓丽影》的巅峰时期，有很多公司努力劝说该系列的主要发行人员之一Jeremy Heath-Smith支持他们的品牌商品计划。

你知道最疯狂的提议是什么吗？

“古墓丽影卫生棉条，”他说。

“那些可笑的公司提供给我们一堆可笑的计划，让我们去做那些可笑的事，然后我们直接拒绝了。”

但是这些闹剧只是Heath-Smith选择离开游戏行业其中一个原因，他之前已经在这个行业干了20多年了。Jeremy Heath-Smith是《古墓丽影》开发工作室Core Design的合作创始人，他还曾担任过发行商Eidos的首席运营官。在2005年，他离开游戏行业。

“我当然爱游戏……但是如今的行业规模实在是太大太复杂了，游戏早已不是当年那样，”Heath-Smith说。“现在它变成了一个收益高达数十亿的产业，收入成为了游戏开发的动力。对我来说，做游戏的兴致已经没有以前那么高了。”

对于Heath-Smith来说，从无到有的那个阶段才是有趣的。1980年代他进入Activision成为销售助理，向英国各地小商家推销他们的产品。Heath-Smith是个极致的游戏死忠粉，以至于他的上级都担心他能不能认真工作。

tomb raider(from gamasutra)

“这就像是地球上最酷的工作了。我知道有好几百人都在申请这份工作，我是个非常走运的人，”Heath-Smith说。“但是那个录用我的人说‘我打算让你试试……我不太确定你是不是适合这份这工作。’”

Heath-Smith花时间去跟各个店主谈论游戏，学习知识，把能学到发行领域知识学了个透。之后他加入了一家工作室：Gremlin Graphics，为各类操作系统发行游戏，包括当时的Commodore 64。他说1980年代有各种各样的新型游戏机，新游戏一波接着一波，速度快到令人咂舌。

疯狂地追求硬件是有弊端的，这是他学到的教训，也是导致他之后职业生涯走下坡路的其中一个原因。

技术不断更新，于是他就一家一家店地跑，推销他的游戏。同样的压力也对公司产生了影响：一直忙于推出新产品从而忽视了质量问题。

“突然之间，市场不再稳定，一夜之间它就不再是以前那个生机勃勃的样子了，”他说。“这种状态是会改变的，你回顾一下以前，其实历史是具有重复性的，每次硬件迭代都发生过这种事。

在早年的游戏生涯中，就是新科技在前面跑，我们开发者在后面追。追逐科技是最糟糕的事情之一。”

1988年，Gremlin Graphics进行裁员。Heath-Smith和公司的部分员工离开，建立了Core Design。公司初期阶段的作品有Rick Dangerous以及趣味平台游戏Chuck Rock。Heath-Smith的事业逐渐走上巅峰。

公司的业绩蒸蒸日上，然而Heath-Smith心中的疑虑并没打消：尽管硬件设备性能一代比一代优秀，但是追求最先进的游戏画面就意味着要牺牲掉一部分游戏内容，这样真的好吗？

Heath-Smith也目睹了早期硬件迭代的相关事件：索尼和任天堂合作为超级任天堂（SFC）开发新的外围设备，可以让玩家使用CD。然而结果就是两家谈崩了。Heath-Smith说这次失败的实验又一次证明了硬件制造商们的无知与自负，技术和游戏内容比起来，后者当然是更重要的。

到现在，Heath-Smith还清楚地地记得他当年的销售经历——他在某个建筑的某个厅里和世嘉人员会面。他也去了任天堂那边。跑了很多公司，最终进到了高层办公室，但是对于主管的回复他还是感到很失望。

“我最喜欢做的事就是问那些公司的首席执行官……‘那么，你能告诉我PlayStation的手柄配置吗？’然后他们就会惊讶地看着我，就好像我是个疯子。这就很让人恼火了——如果你经营的是一家游戏公司，那你至少玩玩那些游戏啊。”

“所以，那些公司的CEO并不知道他们的产品是什么，他们在意的是收益，我总是为这种事恼火。而我一直都很了解我卖的游戏。”

（初代《古墓丽影》让Core Design成为了业内最热门的游戏工作室之一。）

尽管Heath-Smith更在意的是游戏内容，而不是硬件，但是当他第一次见到PS游戏机的时候,他就坚信这台游戏机就是游戏产业的未来，索尼也意在如此。在初次会面之后，Heath-Smith冲回英国，要求他工作室的人做出能在索尼游戏机上大放异彩的游戏。

《古墓丽影》就是产物之一，尽管这系列获得了巨大的成功，但是它引发的一连串事件也导致Heath-Smith离开了游戏行业。

这游戏的成功现在是无人不知无人不晓，7百万多的销量，好莱坞还把它拍成电影（Heath-Smith是头两部电影的制片人）。但是资金上的充足并没有让Heath-Smith和他的团队改变长时间紧张工作的状态，而且索尼的欲望还不止于此，不惜一切代价。

“硬件更新速度是很快的，在第二代PlayStation发行之前我们的时间是很有限的。我们根本没有两年的时间去开发PS2游戏，所以我们只能加快节奏，趁PS1还是主流机型的时候把游戏做完，”他说。

“《古墓丽影2》必须在一年内就完成，这就意味着我们的实际开发时间大概只有8个月。那段时间我们就是没日没夜地工作。”

“但是我们也赚了一大笔。”

要求不断，牺牲不断，游戏续集就像复印机做出来的，速度快但是没有新意。质量下降，自然也就卖不好了。系列的第六部游戏《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》发行之后，Eidos公司表示他们受够了——这游戏bug太多，被批得体无完肤。

Heath-Smith也被开除了。

（《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》是整个系列发展的转折点）

“《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》算是把我们都打垮了，所有相关的工作人员都经历了一段相当困难的转折期，”他说。

“我也算是Eidos的合作经营者……大家在软件方面都有问题，因为索尼更改了开发系统，我们之前的18个月的心血全都泡汤了，只能从头再来。”

Heath-Smith又一次地成为了硬件快速迭代的受害者。但是他本人对开除这件事并没有什么遗憾的感觉，实际上，他早有预感。

“唯一让我不爽的地方是他们是打电话告诉我这件事的，而不是正式地、面对面地来跟我说，我简直要气疯了。我知道他们会开除我，这并不意外。我们已经讨论过了将来会发生的事情。到最后，我已经能坦然接受离职。都结束了。”

协力制作了业内最成功的游戏系列之一，Heath-Smith现在的生活可谓是衣食无忧。他后来又跟别人合作创立了新的工作室Circle Studio，呆了几年之后，他认为是该离开这个行业的时候了。现在Heath-Smith在Spike Global担任CEO，这是一家为其他大型企业开发软件和其他技术的公司。

对他来说，硬件更新换代的脚步实在是太快了，也很难再做出能跟《古墓丽影》相媲美的系列游戏了。

“行业变化太快了，”他说。“现在做游戏就像是拍电影。你需要好大一笔资金。

“我觉得做游戏的那段时光还是挺让人享受的。那是一段非常棒的经历。现在是该放下这个担子，换个新东西试试了。

“我不会回头看，也不会怀念过去。我期待的是未来。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Hint: it has to do with money

At the height of Tomb Raider’s popularity in the 1990s, a swarm of companies tried to persuade Jeremy Heath-Smith — who played a key role in launching the franchise — to approve their plans for branded merchandise.

The craziest option?

“Tomb Raider tampons,” he says.

“We were made ridiculous offers by ridiculous companies to do ridiculous things, and we just said no to all of them,” he says.

That bedlam is just one reason why Heath-Smith left the industry, one he worked in for more than 20 years. The co-founder of Tomb Raider studio Core Design and the former chief operating officer of publisher Eidos stepped away from games in 2005.

“I love where games are … but it’s just too big a business,” Heath-Smith says. “It’s turned into a multi-billion dollar revenue business now, which it was always going to do. For me, that kind of takes some of the fun out of it.”

For Heath-Smith, fun is how it started. He joined Activision as a sales assistant in the 1980s to push product to small stores in the United Kingdom. Heath-Smith was such a die-hard fan that the man who recruited him was concerned he wouldn’t take the job seriously enough.

“It seemed like the coolest thing on the planet. And I know there were hundreds of people that applied to this job, so I felt very fortunate,” Heath-Smith says. “But the guy who hired me said, “I’m going to take a chance on you … I’m not sure this is right for you.”

Heath-Smith spent his time talking with shop owners about games and learning the industry, including everything he could about the publishing business as a whole. In time, he joined up with a studio — Gremlin Graphics — to help publish games for systems including the Commodore 64. In the 1980s, there were so many new console that the pace was frantic to get product out the door, he says.

But here, he says, Heath-Smith learned a lesson that would plague him throughout the rest of his time in the industry: working frantically to chase hardware has its disadvantages.

The same pressure to keep up with near-constant technology changes that had him running door-to-door selling games was the same pressure that distracted the company’s efforts to create solid content, says Heath-Smith.

“Suddenly the market can change, and overnight, from being this vibrant market,” he says. “The tap can be turned off, and if you look at history, which does have a tendency to repeat itself, that has happened over each iteration of hardware platforms.

“I always fought for back in the early years is that we as developers were always chasing technology. And chasing technology is one of the worst positions to be in.”

Gremlin Graphics downsized in 1988. Heath-Smith and others left to form Core Design. The firm took off with games like Rick Dangerous and slapstick platformer Chuck Rock; Heath-Smith’s clout in the industry began to grow.

But as Heath-Smith witnessed the firm’s growth, he was troubled by what he saw: although impressed by advances in hardware, he was constantly let down by what he felt was a chase to the most advanced graphics at the expense of content.

Heath-Smith was privy to see one of the first iterations of the hardware venture between Sony and Nintendo to produce a new peripheral for the Super Nintendo that would use CDs. Heath-Smith says the failed experiment was yet another example of hubris among hardware manufacturers that the tech mattered more than the content.

To this degree, Heath-Smith distinctly remembers a slight in working in sales: a Sega meeting being held in the lobby of a building. The same thing happened with Nintendo. But even after several trips when he was allowed to enter an office, he was disappointed with the executive response.

“One of my favourite questions was to ask the chief executives at these companies … “Well, can you tell me about the configuration of the PlayStation joystick?” and they’d look at me as if I was mad. It was my frustration — it you’re running a video games company, then at least play the bloody games.”

“So, it always frustrated me that people [ran] companies but didn’t really know what their product was. I always knew what my product was.”

The original Tomb Raider established Core as one of the game industry’s most popular studios

Despite Heath-Smith’s love for the content over hardware, his first early look at the PlayStation solidified what he believed — and what Sony pushed — was the future of gaming. After an initial meeting, Heath-Smith rushed back to the UK and asked for ideas for something that would impress on Sony’s machine.

Tomb Raider was among them — and while a massive success, it put in motion a chain of events that ultimately resulted in Heath-Smith leaving the industry.

The game’s success is obvious now, with more than seven million sales and a legacy that extended to Hollywood (Heath-Smith was a producer on the first two Tomb Raider films). But financial security for Heath-Smith and the team didn’t negate the long hours and intense work, and Sony was eager for more, no matter what it took.

“There was a finite amount of time in how long the PlayStation was going to be around before they launched the second one, because hardware was on fire. We didn’t have two years to write a PlayStation 2 game, so we needed to make games while [the first] was on the rise,” he says.

“Tomb Raider 2 had to be written within a year, which means the development time was probably about eight months. We worked long, long hours.

“But we also earned an awful lot of money.”

The constant turnover demanded sacrifice, and the sequels “rolled off like a machine”. The quality suffered, and so did the sales. By the time Angel of Darkness, the sixth game in the franchise, was released, Eidos had had enough — the game was riddled with bugs and critically panned.

Heath-Smith was fired.

Angel of Darkness marked a turning point for the Tomb Raider franchise

“Angel of Darkness just about killed us all, and it was a life-changing experience for everyone involved in it — and not necessarily a great one,” he says.

“I was basically co-running Eidos … and everybody had software problems because Sony changed the development systems we’d been working on after 18 months, so we had to start again.”

Once again, Heath-Smith had been the victim of the frantic pace of changing hardware. But he doesn’t regret the firing, and in fact, knew it was coming.

“The only ill will was the fact that they phoned me to tell me that I’d been canned rather than telling me face-to-face. I was so pissed off about that, because I knew it was coming. This was not a shock. We had talked about what needed to happen. At the end of the day, I was ready to go. I was done.”

Heath-Smith is now financially set for life after helping debut one of the most successful franchises in video games. After helping found another studio, Circle, and remaining there for some years, he decided it was time to bow out. Now Heath-Smith serves as the CEO of Spike Global, a firm that creates software and other technology for larger businesses.

The pace was just too much for him and the pressure of finding another franchise with Tomb-Raider level of success was too great.

“The business has changed so dramatically,” he says. “It’s like making a movie now. You need an enormous amount of money.

“I enjoyed my time in the games business. It was an incredible time. I’m delighted about that and it was time to pass that mantle onto a new holder.

“I don’t look back and miss it. I look forward.”（source：polygon ）