《堡垒之夜》设计师谈游戏的更新、设计理念和进化

原作者：Brian Crecente 译者：Vivian Xue

《堡垒之夜》的成功也许在Epic Games意料之外，但这家游戏开发商兼引擎开发者已经欣然接受了这个事实。

去年12月游戏下载量为3000万，并在短短一个月后突破了4000万，同时在线人数峰值达200万。尽管Epic拒绝透露不同平台和游戏模式（除了免费的吃鸡模式外，游戏还有另一个付费PVE模式Save the World）间的差距，但增长量依然令人惊叹。在享受着成功喜悦的同时，Epic还在不断根据玩家要求推出新的内容和玩法。

《堡垒之夜》最开始是一款僵尸生存类游戏，玩家在游戏过程中要一边寻找物资、建造基地，一边防止基地遭到攻击。在加入吃鸡模式后，他们从开发团队中调了一些人出来组成第二个团队，专门负责这个模式。如今两个团队独立工作。吃鸡模式的首席系统设计师埃里克·威廉森（Eric Williamson）说，该团队的工作重点是“听取玩家意见，围绕游戏核心机制持续进行迭代和发布新内容。”

“自我们去年9月份推出吃鸡模式以来，我们惊喜地听到人们说《堡垒之夜》基本上是西方玩家数量最多的吃鸡游戏之一，”他告诉Glixel的人，“我们很高兴能拥有这么多玩家，并且他们是如此地喜爱这个游戏。”

Building in Fortnite（from gamasutra.com）

游戏的重大更新

周四，吃鸡模式迎来了自游戏发行以来最大的更新之一，它将重塑地图上的大部分景观，不同区域将展现出不同的生态，新建了两个主要的战斗区域，并对游戏的架构做了轻微调整。

威廉森称这些更新不太容易被玩家注意到，但肯定会让他们感激。

其中一个更新将改变游戏的场景加载方式。游戏不再像从前一样加载出整个世界、甚至是你看不见的像素点，在保真度相同的条件下，游戏将加强玩家周围以及所能见到的景物的细节显示。这不会影响远处景物的显示效果，而是那些玩家永远看不见却仍在距他们很远的地方存在的景物。威廉森说，这样做将使游戏运行更加流畅，并且节省了主机以及低端电脑的显卡内存。这一切促进了装扮道具和游戏玩法的改进。“这使得我们能够改进更多的内容，”他说。

这个更新对大多数玩家来说也许不太明显，但地图的变化相当大，更新版中增加了两个新城市。

“当我们最初发布地图时，我们感到很高兴，但同时我们也知道有些地方是需要改进的，” 游戏的首席关卡设计师西德尼·罗切伯格(Sidney Rauchberger)说，“比如增大地图西面景点的密度，但最重要也是游戏最需要的是一个新城市。”

因此在这次更新中，他们增加了一个城市以及一个被他们称为战斗区域。战利湖的东南方增加了一个斜塔小镇，这块区域曾经是山丘和空地。这很好地填补了战利湖和多汁果园间的空白区域。增加新城镇时，团队所做的不是把一堆建筑放在一起然后把它们命名为城市，他们决定创造一种能够为游戏带来新玩法的东西。“我们不想仅仅往地图上添东西，”罗切伯格说，“我们想确保它为游戏带来了新元素。”

比如说新增的斜塔小镇，其实它是垂直的。罗切伯格说这个区域的室内结构复杂，常常会引发近距离的战斗。

另一个主要的新增区域是变化的轴，它位于地图西部，在多汁果园的南边。这个区域布满了矿井，拓展了游戏的地下空间，“矿井中存在许多狭窄、恐怖、黑暗的走廊，”罗切伯格说。

除了这两项主要更新之外，游戏对整个地图进行了彻底修改。最大的变化是地图被分成四个生态区，首席关卡设计师大卫·斯帕林斯基(David Spalinski)说：“我们想要更新现有的区域，并让各个区域呈现出不同特点。”之前整个地图基本上只有草地一种地貌，而现在它被分成草地、田野、山脉和沼泽四个生态区。斯帕林斯基说：“我们想要创造更多视觉上的差异，使玩家能够分辨自己身处何方，比如现在如果你在山里，意味着你在地图的西方。”在新地图中，山脉、农田、沼泽各自分布在西方、北方和东南方，草地大部分在地图中部。

在对地图进行了重大的添加和修改之后，团队重新审核了一遍所有内容。“我们希望在玩家反馈的基础上改进游戏的各个方面。因此我们在许多地方做了修改，引起玩家的注意并使他们做出平衡反馈以让地图变得新鲜。“

这些修改包括了一些极小的改变——比如，由于一扇门的打开方式调整进入商店的动作 ——也包括一些更明显的事物——比如增加部分区域的弹药数量，增加更多宝箱，或者更好的建造方式。斯帕林斯基说：“我们经常浏览Reddit和在线论坛，看看我们能做什么或大或小的调整。”

吃鸡模式的设计理念

虽然吃鸡模式开发团队一直关注着游戏的模式和地图，但至少到目前为止，他们从未开发过新地图。专注于扩建和完善当前地图的做法从一定程度上体现了团队的总体理念。“我们认为地图是玩家表达自我的画布，”斯帕林斯基说，“我们希望为某些玩法提供便利，但从某种程度上，我们希望保持中立。这需要我们不断地调整游戏，同时避免过度的干预和控制。“

也许有一天团队会添加新地图，但前提他们感到当前的地图足够完美。“我们认为现有的地图还有许多可以改进的地方，” 斯帕林斯基说，“因此，我们当前更加关注玩家建造的内容，找到让玩家表达创意的方法。每当玩家的创意出现，我们总是试图提供支持。”

罗切伯格补充道：“我们对制作新地图仍保持开放的态度，但是将当前地图优化到最佳版本也是很有价值的。这次更新将极大的提升地图，但我们会继续观察它的表现。我们希望实现玩家表达的最大化。”

这种实时的、以玩家为中心的游戏设计方式是Epic Games目前迭代的动力。也许，这一点在该工作室不断更新的MOBA游戏《虚幻争霸》（Paragon）上体现得最为明显，这款游戏经过了多次彻底改造，但《堡垒之夜》以及它在加入了新模式后瞬间获得的成功，再次体现了这一点。并且在吃鸡模式成功后，团队成员并没有故步自封，而是继续创新游戏玩法。

吃鸡模式的进化

团队对吃鸡模式进行了许多试验性的创新，其中之一便是限时推出了一些新模式。在Epic Games看来，吃鸡模式是《堡垒之夜》两种主要模式之一，但团队正在不断地尝试其它的模式。在此之前，他们推出过将玩家分成两大阵营的50v50模式，以及一种高爆武器模式，每位玩家只能使用爆破类武器。这些模式的开放时间很短，团队成员在此期间观察评估玩家的游戏体验。

“我们限时推出这些新模式是有目的，”首席系统设计师威廉姆森说，“我们把它们看作味觉清洁剂，使人保持兴奋、有趣、新鲜的东西。但它不会永远存在，因为我们还是希望玩家回到游戏的核心模式中。此外这些新模式使我们能够探索不同的事物、尝试新的想法，并测试一些我们无法在核心模式中测试的东西。我们由此获得了许多对核心游戏有价值的数据。”

该团队将限时模式视为吃鸡模式中的第四种模式。另外三种分别是单人决斗模式、双人模式和团战模式。双人模式从本质上说是一种在线版的合作模式，这是一个让两个好友聚在一起迅速打比赛的机会。团战模式和许多射击游戏中典型的团队作战模式差不多。

团队一边通过限时推出新模式测试各种玩法，一边不停地开发新武器，并且由于游戏的画风偏卡通，他们能够研发一些很特别的武器。比如说，最近他们创造了一种迪斯科手雷，被炸到的玩家将尬舞10秒且无法使用道具，基本上只能乖乖等死。“迪斯科手雷是一个例子，它展现了我们的创造空间还很大，”威廉森说，“我们设计武器的要求是它必须对玩法有帮助并且足够有趣。”

同时，团队还鼓励玩家们寻找使用武器的新颖方式。有时游戏中的bug反而让游戏更有意思。例如，玩家们发现自己可以乘一枚发射的火箭在地图上穿越，同时射击经过的敌人。开发团队决定保留这个bug。“我们完全没想到会发生这种情况，”威廉森说，“当我们第一次遇到时，我们觉得这真糟糕。后来我们通过观察发现，这种打法有很大的风险，于是我们想，它的存在也挺合理的。”

除了火箭意外成为了交通工具，最近加入的发射台也起到了相同作用。总的来说，团队认为他们不需要再往游戏里添加载具了。威廉森说，“我们对载具和优缺点进行了大量的讨论，但是我们不需要往地图里增加载具因为我们给玩家的移动时间足够让他们到达几乎任何他们想去的地方。当我们讨论载具时，我们讨论的是如何让它实现独特的功能，而不是简单地将玩家从点A送到点B。”

同时，团队也没有计划让玩家选择自己的初始角色。相反的，如果玩家想表达自己的个性，他们可以选择购买皮肤。“我们暂时不打算改变这一点，”斯帕林斯基说。

他们三位都不愿意谈论的是这4000万的用户中，打吃鸡模式和Save the World模式的玩家分别有多少。他们不愿讨论吃鸡模式的玩家是否会花钱购买另一种模式。尽管这两个团队确实一起工作。

“我们在开发工作上有许多交集，”威廉森说，“两种模式中的许多元素是可以互用的，并且效果很好。这提升了整个产品。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao
Fortnite may not be the success Epic Games planned for, but it’s a success the game-engine creator and developer has embraced.

As of this month, more than 40 million people have downloaded Fortnite. That’s up from the 30 million announced in December. The game also peaked at more than 2 million people playing at the same time, recently. While Epic declined to say how that splits between platforms and game modes (Fortnite has both the paid Save The World version and free Battle Royale mode), it’s still impressive growth. And the company isn’t simply basking in those numbers, they continue to chase what players are asking for to build out and transform the game.

Fortnite was conceived as a zombie survival game of sorts, asking players to spend part of the game hunting for resources and building up a home base and the other part defending that base from an onslaught. But once they added the Battle Royale mode, a second team was split off to support it. Now the two teams work independently. The Battle Royale team focus on what Eric Williamson, lead systems designer for the mode, says is “listening to the player base, continuing to iterate on the core game and releasing new content.”

“Since we launched Battle Royale at the end of September last year, to hear people say we’re basically one of the biggest, if not the biggest Battle Royale games in the western world in terms of numbers of player is amazing,” he tells Glixel. “We’re really excited about the number of players and how much they like the game.”
The Update

On Thursday, Battle Royale gets a major overhaul, one of the largest since the game’s launch, that will rework the look of much of the map, add biomes, build out two major play areas and tweak some of the bones of the game.
Williamson calls the changes quality of life improvements; they’re the sort of things a player may not overtly notice, but will certainly appreciate.

One of those changes will change how the game streams visuals into the world as you play. This means instead of loading out the entire world, even the bits you can’t see, in the same level of fidelity from your hard drive, the game will focus on detailing what’s around you and what you can see. This won’t impact what things look like in the distance. Instead, it will be about the things you could never see but still existing far from where you’re playing. By doing this, Williamson says, it will increase the performance of the game and provide more memory to the console versions of the game and those playing on lower-end computers. All of this adds up to more cosmetic and gameplay improvements. “It frees us up to do more things,” he says.

While that may not be very noticeable to most players, the biggest change coming to the map will be, the addition of two new cities of sorts.

“When we initially shipped the map, we were happy, but we knew there were areas we wanted to improve on,” says Sidney Rauchberger, lead level designer for the game. “Thinks like increasing the density of the points of interest we have on the western points of the map. But one of the biggest, most requested things was adding a city.”

So the update brings with it a city and what the team is calling a play area. Tilted Towers will be just southeast of Loot Lake, in an area that once was rolling hills and space. It nicely fills that gap now between the lake and Greasy Grove. Instead of plopping down a small complex of buildings and calling it a town, the team decided to build something that would provide a new sort of play to the game. “We didn’t want to just add more stuff to the map,” Rauchberger says, “we wanted to make sure it also added new elements.”

In the case of Tilted Tower, that new element is verticality. The area is packed with lots of inside building and close-quarters play, Rauchberger says.

The other major addition is an area called Shifty Shafts, located to the west and a bit south of Greasy Grove. This area is a series of mines, bringing a much larger element of underground, tight corridor play to the game. “It’s tight corridors, scary, dark, corner-to-corner play,” Rauchbeger says.

Alongside those two new major additions, comes a complete overhaul of the entire map. The biggest element of that is breaking the map down into four biomes, says David Spalinski, lead level designer. “ We wanted to refresh the existing areas and bring more identity to the square footage of sections of the map,” he says. Where once the entire map was essentially in a grass biome, it is now broken up into grass, farmland, mountain and swamp biomes. “We wanted to accomplish bringing a little more visual difference, identity to where you are, variety and theme to various areas,” Spalinski says. “So you can identify if you’re in the mountains now on the west of the map.” In the new map, the mountains run along the west, the farmland along the north, the marshes in the south-east and the grass in much of the center.

After those major additions and changes to the map, the team went back through the entire thing to give what Spalinski calls a once over to the entire thing. “We wanted to improve aspects of gameplay based on player feedback. So we changed a few things up, here and there to keep people on their toes and reacted to balance feedback to make the map feel fresh.”

That includes a variety of changes from the extremely minor – like tweaking the flow through a shop because of the way a door opens – to more obvious things – like adding ammo to sections, more treasure chests or better ways to build. “We’re constantly scouring Reddit and online forums to see what are the major or minor adjustments we can make,” Spalinski says.

The Philosophy of Battle Royale

While the Battle Royale development team is constantly caring for the game, its modes and map, one thing they’re not doing, at least yet, is working on a second map. In many ways, the teams focus on building out and finessing the current map speaks to the general philosophy the team has for Fortnite Battle Royale in general. “We look at the map as a canvas on which players can express themselves,” Spalinski says. “We want to facilitate certain types of gameplay, but in a way, we want to be neutral. That requires constant reaction in ways that aren’t facilitating too much or controlling too much.”

While one day the team may add a new map, it won’t be until they feel they’ve finished with this one. “We think there is more we can do to make the existing map better,” Spalinski says. “So we’re much more focused on player built content, finding ways to let players express creativity. We’re almost always playing catch-up to support that creativity.”

Racuhberger adds, “We’re still open to the idea of making a new map, but there is a value in understanding the best version of this map. This next update is going to significantly update the map, but then we’re going to look at it and see where it goes. We want to maximize expression.”

This live, player-focused approach to game design is what powers the most current iteration of Epic Games as a whole. Perhaps, that’s most obvious in the studio’s ever-evolving MOBA, Paragon, which has completely reinvented itself multiple times, but Fortnite and it’s sudden success with a mode it didn’t launch with, is a close second. And instead of locking into the current success of Fortnite Battle Royale, the team continues to innovate and elevate the game’s play.

Evolution

One of the most experimental elements of Battle Royale is what the game calls timed modes. These are essentially modes inside a mode. In the eyes of Epic Games, Battle Royale is simply one of two major modes found in Fortnite. But inside Battle Royale, that team is constantly playing around with other modes. They have in the past included things like a 50 versus 50 mode that divided the players into two massive teams and an explosive mode that gave everyone only weapons that fired explosives. These modes tend to only run for a bit, with the team quietly watching behind the scenes to see what they learn from the player’s experiences.

“There are a few goals with limited time modes,” lead systems designer Williamson says. “We kind of think of them as palate cleansers, to keep things exciting, fun, fresh. But it doesn’t stick around forever because we want our players to enjoy our primary experience, which is the core game mode. These new modes also give us an opportunity to explore different things and try out new ideas. To test things we wouldn’t test otherwise in the core game. We are getting plenty of data for the core game.”

The team considers the limited time mode the fourth of Battle Royale’s modes. The other three are the solo mode, the duo mode, and the squad mode. Duo was conceived as essentially an online version of couch co-op, a chance for two buddies to get together and quickly play a match with one another. Squad is meant to be more aligned with the typical team versus teams mode of many shooters.

While types of play are experimented with in the game’s limited time modes, the Battle Royale team are also constantly working on new sorts of weapons, and because the game is designed around a cartoonish aesthetic, they feel they create some pretty unusual weapons. Most recently, for instance, the team created a disco grenade which leads to people dancing themselves to death, stylishly. “The disco grenade is a good example of how far we can push things,” Williamson says. “The requirement a weapon needs to be included is for it to be fun and good for gameplay.”

The team is also not adverse to players finding unusual ways to use weapons. Where some developers would see a bug needing a fix, the Battle Royale team may decide it just makes the game better. For instance, when players realized that they could ride a fired rocket across the map, all while shooting at enemies, the team decided not to fix the issue. “We had no idea that was coming,” Williamson says. “The first time we saw it we were like, ‘Oh crap.’ Then we watched it, and we saw that there was a real risk for the reward, and we thought, ‘That’s pretty neat.’”

While the unexpected rocket riding adds a vehicle of sorts to the game, and the recent introduction of a launch pad does that as well, in general, the team doesn’t see a need to add vehicles to the game. “We talked a bunch about vehicles and pros and cons,” Williamson says. “But we don’t have a need to add vehicles to get around the map because our travel times allow you to get mostly wherever you want to go. When we discuss vehicles, we talk about trying things with unique functionality and make it not just about going from point A to point B. That’s the extent of it.”

The team also has no plans to allow players to choose which of the characters they spawn as. Instead, they’re focused on allowing players to customize the clothes of their players if they want to express their individuality. “I don’t think there are any plans to upend that,” Spalinski says.

The one thing none of the three would talk about is how that 40 million player count splits between the obviously popular Battle Royale mode and the game’s Save the World mode. Nor would they discuss if Battle Royale players are spending money to purchase that other mode. TThough the two teams do work together.

“We’re seeing a lot of crossover in development,” Williamson says. “Things in Save the World that works really well in Battle Royale and things in Battle Royale that work in Save the World. As a result the whole product benefits.” （source：MSN）