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GDC Online:开心农场开发者传讲述社交游戏开发之“道”

发布时间:2010-12-06 14:00:03 Tags:,,

在最近GDC China的演讲中,“开心农场”开发公司——五分钟公司的合作创办者郜韶飞在发言中讲述了如何结合幽默,人性和哲学开发社交游戏。

在发言中,郜韶飞认为“道”和“术”对开发社交游戏,吸引玩家参与至关重要。简单来说,“道”就是指“方式”,而“术”则是指“技术”。

什么是“术”?就是技术,策略,方法和手段等具体事物。“术”可以解释,而“道”正相反,是指某些人们可以感觉其存在,却无法清楚解释的事物。

“正因为我们无法准确定义‘道’,但我们又真切体会它的存在。那么今天我们就一起来寻找社交游戏之‘道’。”郜韶飞说。

社交游戏三大原则:1,面向非游戏玩家的游戏;2,真实的朋友;3,5分钟游戏体验

首先,人们应该如何理解“非游戏”这一概念呢?

据游戏邦所知,现在在中国大陆地区开心农场有近1亿玩家,其中很多玩家之前并未玩过任何游戏。这就是社交游戏领域的挑战这一,社交游戏开发商怎样才能开发出面向非游戏玩家的游戏呢?为了吸引更多的非游戏玩家参与,就必须了解非游戏玩家心目中所期待的游戏体验。

现在市面上的许多经典游戏大多以我们耳熟能详的农场,城市,海底世界,部落,帝国等为主题。哪怕有些玩家之前没有玩过类似游戏。只要一提到农田,人们都能在脑海中勾勒出农田的景象,而《龙与地下城》这类主题的游戏则不适合非游戏玩家。

既然并不是所有玩家都可以了解游戏的主题,那么对可玩性的理解也是一样。人们即便之前没有进行过游戏,也会明白种植,浇水和烹调等活动。因此,社交游戏开发商必需寻找非游戏玩家熟悉的主题进行开发。

然而,有些情况下即使游戏主题通俗易懂,但也可能屈服于文化差异的影响。开心农场在美国并没有取得成功。对此,郜韶飞认为这是因为美国农场一般规模更大,而开心农场塑造出来的中式农场体验并不符合美国人的心理期待。

其次,在玩家彼此是真实朋友的情况下,社交游戏的互动产生了不同的含义。譬如,在开心农场中玩家可以互相偷菜。这种“偷窃”行为在友谊的名义下就变成了一种有趣的互动方式。如果与其他陌生玩家一起游戏则没有这种效果。

在五分钟公司的新款游戏《小小的战争》中,玩家要想方设法占据别人的领地。一开始,五分钟公司也疑惑玩家是否能接受这种“掠夺”的互动方式。然而实际上,在朋友的互动中,战争不再是真正的战争。

小小战争

小小战争

最后,游戏时间不宜过长。在现在的信息时代,人们总是会被各种通讯工具所干扰,人们的生活十分忙碌,因此,游戏也必须根据这种情况有所改变。“这也正是为什么我们公司命名为五分钟的原因,现在人们很难花费更长的时间进行游戏。”

二,深入:四大黄金规律

成功的社交游戏之间总是有一些共通点。但为什么这些共同点可以有效吸引玩家?为什么人们喜欢社交游戏?人们从社交游戏中收获了什么?

一旦了解人们玩游戏的原因,社交游戏开发公司就能坚定地进行游戏开发。对此,郜韶飞表示自己更注重游戏开发前的各种筹备。他认为,在开始开发游戏后的发展,各社交游戏公司可以借鉴Zynga,但在着手开发之前应该如何做呢?

因此,郜韶飞研究了传统游戏设计,并总结出4条黄金规律,即美感,学习,快乐和社交存在。

1,美感:当人们在日常生活中感受和体会到各种不同之美的同时,就会产生欢欣鼓舞的心情。因此美感其实就是人们所眼见,耳闻的欢乐,也正是开发成功社交游戏的秘诀之一。由此可见,非游戏玩家更希望的是寻找美感而不是自己开发美感,而社交游戏开发商就应该开发玩家所寻找的美感。

2,学习:每当人们首次尝试或学会某种新事物,人们就会产生一种满足感。学习就是为了了解人类社会和自然的各种规律和现象。学习是人的内在能力,也正是学习的力量使我们开发创作并持之以恒。

因此,郜韶飞认为玩家可以通过游戏模仿某些社会经验,可以体验快乐的学习过程。

3,快乐:人们通过游戏总是可以获得快乐,譬如玩家在《植物大战僵尸》中再次打破自己保持的最高记录时,譬如玩家在投出无数个技巧高超的投篮时,人们总是感觉到十分快乐。因此人们的快乐其实与成就感息息相关。

满足感不仅代表人们受到外部的肯定,更有意义的是它证明我们超越了自己的极限,因而更能驱动人们不断发展,超越自我。所有游戏都应包含激励人们不断发展的游戏机制。

4,社交存在:人类是一种群居动物,我们无法独立存在。社交存在就是我们的内在需求,我们的朋友圈越广,人也就会越快乐。

这也正是人们为什么想要成为名流。人们都希望受到别人的褒奖,尤其是在带到竞争对手的同时,人们可会体会到一种“窃喜”。因此,在游戏中欢乐,高兴同样可以通过竞争获得。社交存在实质上就是一种优越感,激励玩家彼此竞争。

5,感觉。在这里,郜韶飞讲述了一个简短的故事:一位年过27的游戏设计师江被家里长辈催促结婚。父母中意的是和江青梅竹马一起长大的邻居女孩。她美丽,善良,是一位好妻子,好母亲的不二人选。这位女子正符合我们上述的4大规律,但江却对这个女孩没有“感觉”。

郜韶飞认为“感觉”每个人都有,虽然我们无法清楚表达它。感觉是虚无缥忙的,但却无处不在。而抓住“感觉”的人就是抓住了“道”。

感觉和游戏设计

针对游戏设计,所有人士共同的疑惑是如何抓住对的感觉。

郜韶飞认为坚持对的感觉对游戏开发至关重要。当面对上司的质疑,我们的“感觉”辩解时常并不奏效。那么,我要要怎么让上司相信我们的“感觉”。或许让他体验游戏5分钟,他也就能体会你的“感觉”。

然而,感觉不能充当武器。我们要为自己的感觉找一个合理的解释,必须总结出感觉背后的经验。

游戏应该是乐观积极的。如果游戏开发者无法真心体会玩家的游戏感觉,开发者就很难开发出令人满意的游戏作品。游戏开发并不容易,因此开发者必须掌握一定的技术,在各种机会中努力学习,同时不要惧怕打破规律,毕竟世界上没有永恒不变的东西。

最后,郜韶飞表示在有些情况下,游戏开发者不得不为了更加正确的方向放弃自己的“感觉。”(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

In a compelling speech at GDC China, Ellison Gao, co-founder of Happy Farm creators 5 Minutes explained the development of social games using a mixture of humor, humanity, and philosophy.

“What I am going to talk to you about today is not easy to talk about,” Gao warned, in a speech delivered in Chinese to an appreciative and engaged local audience. The topic? “Tao and Shu in Social Game Design for the Masses.”

To define “tao” and “shu” simply, he said, “basically it’s ‘way’ and ‘technique’.”

“What is shu? Techniques, tactics, methods, skills — something tangible. Something that can be explained is shu,” he said. Conversely, “Tao is something where you can feel its existence but not explain it clearly.”

He selected this proverb about tao: “It is intangible but it creates but it creates the heaven and the earth; it is indifferent but operates the sun and the moon; it is nameless but breeds all creatures; tao is the name I can make it.”

“Through these descriptions we should know that we don’t know what tao is, but we know it’s really forceful. So today we’re going to look for it and see if we can find it,” Gao explained.

The Three Principles of Social Games

- Games for non-gamers.
- Real friends.
- Play for five minutes.

“So how can we understand the non-gamer concept? Actually you may find the number of players who have played Happy Farm in Mainland China is exceeding 100 million. A lot of gamers who played Happy Farm haven’t played any games before.”
But that presents a challenge, said Gao. “How can we create games for non-gamers? You can do that through looking for the genre and gameplay which are in the heart of non-gamers.

“For example, at present we see a lot of classic themes — farms, town, aquariums, tribes, empires. These words are very familiar. If you haven’t played these games it doesn’t matter — if I tell you about a farm, you will have an image of a farm in your head. A theme like Dungeons & Dragons is far away from non-gamers.”

“Not a lot of themes are easily understood to a lot of 80 percent of people. Playability is the same: planting, watering, cooking, etc. Even if you are not a gamer you understand this,” he said. “We have to look for something which is in the heart of non-gamers.”

Even an easily understandable theme may be susceptible to cultural influences — Happy Farm didn’t make it in the U.S. “In the U.S., farms should be a big scale one — it’s different from the Chinese people’s impression of farms,” Gao said.
“Our game was not successful; in the end FarmVille got the upper hand. We think it’s because we haven’t grasped the true nature of a farm in U.S. people’s heart.”

When people are real friends, it changes the meaning of their interaction. Happy Farm allows users to steal vegetables from each other — but in the context of a real friendship, it’s a fun interaction. It would not work with anonymous players, Gao said.

In the company’s new game, Little War, players “are trying to occupy others’ land. When we first did the design we were not so sure. Some people think it goes too far — whether this kind of strong interaction can be accepted by players now… But it has proven acceptable. We now see wars between good friends… [In this context], war is no longer war.”

And of course, games must be played in short duration because of the shape of today’s society, he says. “In the information era, we are constantly interrupted by different kinds of telecommunication tools, and we have a lot of things to do. The itinerary of your whole day may be fully packed and your time fragmented. In such a situation, people’s ways of doing things or playing is different.

“That’s why our name is 5 Minutes. Because now people can no longer find a large period of time to play games, usually,” said Gao.

Going Deeper: Four Golden Rules

“It seems that all good [social] games have common features, but why? Why are these principles are effective? Why would players like to play social games? What do the players get from these kinds of games?” Gao asked.

“If we know why the players play games, then we can be more confident in developing games. That is, it seems that we have grasped something really fundamental but which is also intangible.”

“I am more concerned with what we should do before a game exists, rather than after it exists. I think that after it starts to exists in this world, we have to learn from Zynga. But what should we do before?”

Gao did research to see what traditional game designers had grappled with, and came up with four “golden rules” (also all “gifts from God” in his phrasing) that fundamentally govern human behavior.

They are: aesthetics, learning, delightfulness, and social existence.

“If you [examine] the four golden rules you can explain anything of human behavior,” Gao said.

Aesthetics. “When we place ourselves in the beauty of nature, joy will be produced… When we hear a story which strikes a chord in our hearts, when we watch a favorite movie, see a beautiful picture, or hear a favorite song, joy will be produced in our hearts.”

“Aesthetic is the joyfulness when the surroundings we see, hear, and feel are close to perfection in our mind. This is an instinct provided by God to protect the order of nature. That is a secret recipe nature employs to maintain its order.”

“From this point, non-gamers are only looking for things — not wanting to create things. They are just looking for things; we need to create the things they are looking for.”

Learning. “When we swing [on a playground] for the first time, we are so overjoyed. When you first drive your favorite car, when you first had the correct shot of a basketball, when you talk to a perfect stranger.

“When you first got a girl’s heart… you were very satisfied with yourself and you are so happy now that you know you can spend time with a girl,” Gao said.

“Learning is to understand the rules and phenomena of human society and nature. Study is one of the innate abilities of human beings. It is the power of study that drives us to create things and work on and on.”

Importantly, Gao said, “Through games, people can mimic the partial workings of society and nature. Through games people can actually obtain the joy of study.”

Delightfulness. This can be achieved readily by games, said Gao. “When you break your own gaming record. If you play Plants vs. Zombies, you are blocked at a certain level but after dozens of practices, you can break the level limit, and you feel awesome. If you play basketball, you’ll play many times and have lots of wonderful shots, you’ll feel wonderful. Feeling wonderful is related to the sense of achievement.”

“If you have that feeling, you are also being recognized by others, and you gain recognition when you do something successful,” said Gao. “The joy obtained after surpassing yourself or overcoming your own limit. It is another God’s gift, in encouraging us to move forward and exceed ourselves. All games will create a mechanism to continue progress and transcend beyond the current limit.”

Social Existence. “We are actually animals who live together. We need companionship. We cannot survive individually. Social existence is our innate ability. If we come to know more people, you’ll get joy,” Gao said.

“This is why so many want to be celebrities. If you are being praised by others, you also feel wonderful. If you create something, or if you own something that is appreciated by others, you also have this feeling… And of course if your competitor is beaten you have a secret joy. This is actually another way of making yourself a more excellent guy.”

So in games, this can be harnessed by competition. “Social existence is actually the feeling of superiority. It is another of God’s gifts, encouraging us to compete against each other. Social and online gaming just amplify our feeling of social existence.”

And with social games’ reliance on real-world identity, “Among true friends these interactions can be enhanced and intensified. You can actually feel a stronger feeling of social existence by playing with your true friends.”

“Given these four in-born abilities you can now analyze better the success of social games,” said Gao.

But, “Following this logic, have we found tao? The answer is no, there’s still a way to go.”

In the End, It’s Feelings

“Are you disappointed I went such a long way, only to talk about feelings?” Gao asked the audience — who mostly laughed.

He delivered his point, however, by a hypothetical scenario about a 27-year old game designer named Mr. Jung, whose parents are pressuring him to get married. They suggest that he might wed a neighbor he grew up with — she’s beautiful, nice, and would be a good wife, responsible in raising kids.

In short, she fits the four golden rules well. “Guess what Mr. Jung will say? ‘I have no feelings for her.’”

Similarly, Jung’s friends will ask him what kind of girls he likes, and he’ll deliver aesthetic criteria. He’ll go on a bunch of blind dates — but “he is very discouraged because he has no feeling toward these girls,” said Gao.

“But one day he was on his way to work and he saw a girl in front of him… He has suddenly has a feeling but he can’t nail it down. He can’t really say it; it’s just a feeling.”

In short, said Gao, “Feelings are such a thing that you certainly get hold of. You can’t really say it out… Feelings are intangible. You can’t touch or smell or taste it, but it’s always there. Those who get the feeling can get the tao — really get it.”

Feelings and Game Design

When it comes to game design, of course, said Gao, “I know your questions are very concrete — how to find the right feeling. But even if you find the feeling, nobody will believe you.”

Said Gao, it’s a constant struggle to find the right feeling in your games. “You will not get the right feeling every day. You will need to constantly look for the right feeling; [otherwise] you will never get it. You need to constantly pursue it and look for it.”
And when you talk to your boss, “you will say, ‘Don’t change it, because this is the way I feel about it.’” But arguing never works. How do you convince your boss? You say, “Just play the game for five minutes and you will believe in my feeling.”

However, said Gao, “Don’t use a feeling as a kind of a weapon. You should also look for the logic behind the feeling. You should look for the experience behind the feeling.”

Gao clearly has a different idea than many about the core inspiration behind social games: “You can look inside your heart and think why you are developing a game. Maybe everybody has different answers. When I ask you to spell it out, you may give a really lofty answer, but in your heart you know what your real answer is.”

Since games are active, not passive, “Without a true heart to understand a player’s feelings when they play a game, it’s really difficult to develop a real game players will feel good about.”
“Game development is hard work, and you need a lot of skills. As long as you have opportunity, try to learn as much as possible. And break the rules as needed. There’s nothing which will never change.”

And, Gao warned, sometimes it’s necessary to deny your own feelings in the pursuit of the right decisions when developing a game.  (Source:Gamasutra)


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