独立开发者谈品牌的续作化和再创造的问题

原作者：Brendan Sinclair 译者：Willow Wu

要如何延续一个3A大热门游戏的势头？一般答案就是做续集。游戏续作要包括一些新内容、一些原有的内容以及一些优化过的内容。总的来说就是在前作的基础上对创意、概念、游戏玩法进行迭代，制作出可以超越前作、可以提升品牌效益的内容。

但对于独立游戏而言，有时候这并不是一个适合的选项。像Gone Home和Papers, Please这样的游戏似乎就在否定创作续集的想法。甚至连热门独立游戏，比如《时空幻境》（Braid）《洞窟物语》（Cave Story）也没有3A游戏那样的续作概念束缚。就算有发行续集，比如《超级食肉男孩:永无止境》（Super Meat Boy Forever），开发者们一般也会利用这个机会把游戏做成另外一种风格。

当我们和Subset Games的Justin Ma谈论这个话题时，他解释了其中的原因。

“我认为小型游戏工作室很少发行续作因为做事方式不同，”他说。“对我们来说，做游戏是什么？它是一种真正想要实现某个想法的创意表达方式，我们跟普通的游戏工作室不一样，他们有很多岗位，员工需要养家，你需要有定期产出来支持公司的运作。而我们没有多少员工，自然也少了很多担忧。如果我们做的是3A游戏，我们大概会着重考虑怎样才能让游戏卖出去。这就是位置不同的结果，我们有自由去尝试全新的东西。”

Subset的首款游戏《超越光速》（Faster than Light）非常成功，但是他们四年之后发行的Into the Breach却是一个非常不一样的策略游戏。

“我们很明确不想做《超越光速2》，只是因为我确实想不出要怎么更改前作，”Ma说。“我们感兴趣的就是玩法或者是机制相关设计的戏剧性转变，从这个角度来看，我对《超越光速》续作并没有什么好的想法。理论上说，如果我们有了不错的思路那我们可能会做《超越光速2》，但目前还没有。”

Indie(from gameacademy.com)

对于独立开发者们来说，他们的问题在于游戏的成功很多时候无法为团队本身带来优势。举个简单的例子，很多人都知道《超越光速》这个游戏，但又有多少人知道Subset Games这个名字呢？甚至连密切关注游戏行业的人都很少有了解的。

“是的，游戏成功并没有提升工作室的知名度，”他承认说。“吸引玩家的是游戏本身的特性。我想这是因为独立游戏跟连续剧一般的漫威电影不一样，我们不会因为游戏反馈好的就做一个类似的续作。独立游戏是全新的体验，能让玩家摆脱模式化思维。所以Gone Home 2或者是《超越光速2》几乎不可能带给玩家和前作一样的冲击感。至于那些想要《超越光速2》的人，其中肯定有玩家是真的想要更多类似的游戏体验，但是我觉得很多请求发行续作的人其实想要的是刚接触前作时所带来的那种惊艳感。我认为这很大程度上是由于游戏的未知探索体验、新机制，将玩家置于一个陌生的新模式中。因此，在我看来，去创造一款全新的游戏才是对症下药。”

所以独立团队要怎么做才能让他们真正受益于游戏成功所带来的价值，而不是让它停留在一个没有续作希望的品牌上呢？Ma说这通常要归功于运气，或者是天时地利人和。他认为即使是最优秀的开发者也不敢期望比四中一更好的情况（每四款游戏中会有一个以上成为大热门）。

“大家的普遍想法都是一个游戏团队不可能每款游戏都很成功，记他们的名字没有多大意义，”Ma说，“所以人们不会将团队和成功游戏联系起来。” Subset Games是二中二，或许这就是个好开头。

热门手游《纪念碑谷》的主设计师王友建也有类似的经历，他的新工作室Mountains所发行的Florence备受好评。但他对当前所发生的事并不乐观。

在谈到这一话题时，他说“很多人不知道一部电影的导演是谁，他们只知道演员，因为观众可以从荧幕上直接看到。人们会去看汤姆·克鲁斯的新片，但是《碟中谍6》的导演是谁又有多少人说得上来。这就跟我们的情况类似。除非你真的非常喜欢这个游戏，会去了解它背后的创作者，不然一般是不会知道的。”

“其实这并没有关系，我觉得这是一种人类的自然行为。你也可以用PR手段让人们记住幕后团队，但关键是让用户爱上开发者是你的最终目的吗？其实为Florence打上‘出自于《纪念碑谷》主设计师之手’这样的标签我并没有什么意见。玩家知道这个游戏不会跟《纪念碑谷》一样，但是会期盼它延续了《纪念碑谷》艺术风格以及鉴赏品味。”

王友建今年发行的剧情游戏讲述的是一位年轻女性如何通过一段以分手告终的恋爱成长起来的，至于它跟2014年的埃舍尔式抽象解谜游戏有什么共同之处，他也给了出了进一步说明。

“有些人能够看得出来，有些人看不出来，”他说。“这挺有意思的，但是我可以，这两个项目的共同之处应该是在定位以及价值方面。《纪念碑谷》和Florence都无关输赢，跟玩家技能也没有什么关系。它们的核心目标就是给玩家提供一段时间不长但是非常令人享受、有价值的体验。每个场景都可以接触到新的内容，没有重复式的体验。所以从这个方面来说，我认为这两个游戏很像。”

我在展会上遇到的另一位开发者就有应对这个问题的有效方法。Dylan Cuthbert早在2000年代就创立了独立游戏工作室Q-Games，发行了很多高质量游戏，比如Star Fox Command和 Star Fox 64 3D。然而，人们对他们的印象大多都是《像素垃圾》（PixelJunk）的开发团队——这个系列有十多个游戏，涵盖了多种游戏类型。

“标签的意义就在于此，”Cuthbert说。“我以前就明白如果我们发行更多不同类型的游戏，没有玩家会把它们联系在一起。他们不会意识到这些游戏都是同一个团队做的。于是我就想那就在标题表现出来吧。不要用Q-Games Monsters这样的标题，我们不是什么巨头公司，这样做不会有什么效果。所以我挑了一个能够让人们记住的关键词，这就是为什么你去PSN商店搜《像素垃圾》的射击类游戏就能找到《像素垃圾：射击》。这个标题无处不在，文本里有，图片里也有，所以‘像素垃圾’就成了一个品牌。”

幸运的是，就算没有像素垃圾这样的标签，独立游戏的成功所影响的也不止于销量。正如《伊迪芬奇的秘密》（What Remains of Edith Finch）创意总监Ian Dallas所指出的，热门产品带来的不仅仅是潜在消费者，它们还能吸引潜在的合作伙伴。

“对我来说，其中一个比较实际的好处就是能够找到下一个项目的新工作伙伴，” Dallas说。“对于那些喜欢类似游戏体验的人，我们就相当于是他们的避雷针——尽管下一个游戏是不一样的，但还是会包含一些令人感到熟悉的东西。相比以前我们多多少少涨了些名声，会有人想加入工作室，这样我们在招聘方面也轻松了不少。”

“我真正要的就是可以做出下一个游戏。我并不渴望拥有一个系列作品，甚至是为它建个主题公园什么的。除了有经典前作支撑，我不知道大家如何能确信游戏会成功，我猜这要交给玩家来决定了。问题就在于你怎样才能做出让人们久久不忘、深入内心的产品？”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

In the AAA world, the question of how to follow up a hit game has largely been answered. You make a sequel with some new stuff, some improved stuff, and some old stuff. Generally speaking, you iterate on the idea and concepts and gameplay and produce something that can outperform its predecessor and grow the brand.

In the indie world, that’s not always an option. Games like Gone Home and Papers, Please seem to defy the very idea of a sequel. Even indie hits that don’t have the same conceptual restraints around a sequel–think Braid or Cave Story–don’t often get them. And when they do (Super Meat Boy Forever), there’s a good chance it inhabits an entirely different genre.

When we spoke with Subset Games’ Justin Ma about the topic, he explained why that might be.

“I feel like the reason why we don’t see a lot of sequels from small studios is because of the way we approach it,” he said. “What is making a game to us? For us, it’s this creative expression of really wanting to pursue an idea, as opposed to a normal studio where a lot of jobs are on the line, people have families, and you need to have regularity. For us, we don’t have a lot of employees we have to be worrying about. If we were in that [AAA] space, we’d probably strongly consider the prospect of something that could certainly sell. It’s just a result of the position we’re in that we could just do something entirely new for ourselves.”

Subset’s first game, FTL, was a hit, but it followed that up four years later with Into the Breach, a very different sort of strategy game.

“We did know we didn’t want to do FTL 2, just because I don’t have that much more to say about FTL in terms of some sort of dramatic shift,” Ma said. “The things that are interesting to us are like gameplay and mechanics-based dramatic shifts, and I don’t have a great idea [for FTL 2]. Theoretically we could go back to FTL 2 if we come up with something that is that compelling to us, but right now I don’t have that.”

The problem for indies is that often times the value created by their original hit often doesn’t transfer to the team itself. Lots of people know FTL, but Subset Games isn’t necessarily a household name, even among people who follow the industry closely.

“Yeah, it doesn’t carry over,” Ma admits. “Everything’s based on their own individual merit. And I think that’s because the appeal of indie games isn’t the same as the next Marvel movie. It’s not ‘We know what we’re going to get. Is it good and would I like to do it again?’ It’s more, ‘This is a new experience that makes me think in different ways’ so it’s very unlikely for like, a Gone Home sequel, or an FTL sequel, to impact the same way as the first one. People who say they want FTL 2? There are certainly people who sincerely just want more of the same, but I feel for a lot of people who say they want FTL 2, what they’re saying is they want to feel the same way they did when they first played FTL. And I think a big part of that is discovery, new mechanics, and being put in a situation you’re not accustomed to. So in that way, in my mind, me making another game that’s really something new is kind of a way of trying to appease the fans who wanted a sequel to that game.”

So what can indies do to make sure the value created by their hits goes into the people who created them, rather than onto a brand that’s unlikely to receive a sequel? Ma said hits often come down to luck, a fluke, or just the right collection of circumstances. He estimated even the smartest developers would be hard pressed to expect a hit more than once out of every four games.

“So maybe people are not accustomed to a certain group being able to hit it every single time,” Ma said, “so they don’t think of it as, ‘That’s the studio that does that.’”

Between FTL and Into the Breach, Subset Games is two for two, so it might have a good head start on that. Ken Wong is another name that might be associated with a track record like that, as the lead designer of the mobile hit Monument Valley followed it up with the critically acclaimed Florence from his new studio, Mountains. But he’s not terribly optimistic about it happening.

“A lot of people don’t know who film directors are,” Wong said when we discussed the issue. “They know who stars are, because they’re on the screen. You go see the new Tom Cruise movie, but I’m struggling now to remember who’s the director of Mission Impossible 6. I think it’s a similar thing where people remember what’s on the screen. Unless you’re really into games and you know who the people are who are making this, it’s hard to know that.

“And that’s OK. I think the audience and how it behaves is very organic. It’s human behavior. And you can sort of manipulate it a little bit with PR, but I don’t know if making them fall in love with the developers is necessarily the end goal. I’m actually OK with saying, as I did with Florence, that it’s ‘from the lead designer of Monument Valley.’ And hopefully there’s a trust there that it’s not going to be the same as Monument Valley, but there’s going to be some sort of holdover of an artistic hand, the eye, the taste that it took to make Monument Valley has been brought over to this new product.”

As for what the 2014 puzzle game built around Escher-esque abstractions has in common with this year’s narrative game about a young woman’s growth through a failed relationship, Wong elaborated.

“Some people join the dots and some don’t,” he said. “It’s interesting. Most people don’t see the connections between the projects, but I do. They’re kind of in terms of positioning, and values. Both Monument Valley and Florence are not about winning. And they’re not about skill. It’s about giving players a really good, valuable time. A short time, but a good use of their time. And every scene, there’s something new to see. You’re not really repeating things. So in that sense, I think they’re very similar.”

One developer I spoke with at the show had a proven method of handling this problem. Dylan Cuthbert’s Q-Games has been an independent developer since the early 2000s, and in that time it has produced a number of high-profile games including Star Fox Command and Star Fox 64 3D. However, it is best known as the studio behind PixelJunk, a label that spans more than a dozen releases from about half as many genres.

“That was really the point of making that label,” Cuthbert said. “I saw that if we wanted to do a vast range of different types of games, there was no way to connect them in the consumer’s mind. They wouldn’t know it was the same people making it. What I thought was, I’ll put it right in the title. It’s on the store. You wouldn’t write Q-Games Monsters. It doesn’t work. So I tried to make a key word that people would remember. That’s why when you look at the PSN store for Pixeljunk Shooter, it’s there as Pixeljunk Shooter. And that title is everywhere. It’s in text form. It’s in graphic form. So it becomes a brand. You can’t really do that with a company name.”

Fortunately, even without a label like PixelJunk to grow, indie hits have upsides beyond their initial sales figures. As What Remains of Edith Finch creative director Ian Dallas pointed out, hit games aren’t just good for bringing in future customers; they’re good for bringing in future collaborators.

“For me, I feel like one of the more tangible benefits is who we are able to hire for the next game,” Dallas said. “Because we’ve put our name out there and created something that is kind of a lightning rod for people who like that kind of experience–even though the next game is going to be different it will have perhaps some similarities–it’s much easier for us to find people to hire in the future. They will look for us, and they will know the name a little bit.

“My interest is really just in being able to make the next one. I don’t really have any long-term [aspirations] of wanting to have a franchise and a theme park and all those things. I don’t know how anyone parlays success other than with sequels. I guess it’s more a question for fans. How do you make something that sticks in people’s minds long enough?”（source：gamesindustry.biz ）