游戏开发者杂志2011年3月版已开始印刷，电子版订阅用户也收到杂志，在Game Developer Digital上可以看到整本电子杂志及其中文章的内容。游戏邦了解到，这份Gamasutra姐妹杂志是美国视频游戏行业主要商业出版物。

本期封面故事关注的是Firaxis Game的《文明5》，这款广受玩家欢迎的战略类系列游戏最新作同以往存在显著差别，如战场六边形布局的“一格一兵制”。但是，这些改变带来许多未曾预见的问题。来自Firaxis的Dennis Shirk详细解释为何看似微小的改变却整体颠覆了游戏的设计：

“一格一兵可能是新作最大最为明显的改变。或许玩家更适应之前版本的大军团作战，但一格一兵增添了这款战略游戏的趣味性，使玩家更能参与其中。我认为虽然目前该想法的施行已获得成功，但设计团队需要花大量时间来制作这个系统，这确实影响到游戏中的其他核心内容。团队需要设计全新的AI系统，虽然游戏能够取得很大的进步，但我们低估了制作这个庞大且富有竞争性的系统所需耗费的时间。结果，我们越注重新系统给玩家带来新体验，就越需要休整系统以满足玩家的期望。”

文明5

杂志次页关注PSN双摇杆射击游戏《死亡国度》，这是《Super Stardust HD》开发商Housemarque的最新作品。随着工作室对这款游戏开发的深入，许多预想的内容被抛诸脑后。开发团队说道：

“我们事后才发现，关卡应该设计得更小点。虽然开发游戏的团队成员很少，但我们仍然希望能够制作出需要数个小时方能打通的游戏，并且值得玩家再次体验。游戏逐渐侧重其战略性，我们在游戏的设计中也更强调玩家对各种道具和武器的合理使用。随后我们发觉应该将关卡设计得小点，用节省下来的这些时间来制作更为独特的游戏元素，但已为时过晚。由于每个关卡中所包含的内容大量增长，我们决定将某些关卡设计外包。”

在本期杂志中，设计师Simon Strange探讨低危设计改变相关事宜，Arcade Berg关注雷管在Epic Games和People Can Fly联合推出的游戏《子弹风暴》中的应用。而且，三月版中还有某些常见的专栏作家和特别嘉宾细致剖析游戏开发各项领域的重点。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Game Developer’s March Issue Showcases Civilization V, Dead Nation Postmortems

The March 2011 issue of Game Developer magazine, the sister print publication to Gamasutra and the leading U.S. trade publication for the video game industry, has shipped to print and digital subscribers, and is available from the Game Developer Digital service in both subscription and single-issue formats.

The exclusive cover story to this issue focuses on Firaxis Games’ work on Sid Meier’s Civilization V, the latest incarnation of the wildly popular strategy game series, which introduced a number of notable changes to the established formula, such as a hex-based layout that allowed only one unit per tile. Along with these changes, however, came a number of unforeseen problems. Firaxis’ Dennis Shirk details why seemingly minute changes fundamentally changed the way the team approached design:

“One unit per tile was perhaps the biggest, most noticeable change. Whereas a player in previous versions would work with large stacks of units, one unit per tile was more about expanding the tactical game to make it more interesting and engaging. While I think we succeeded in this concept, the time commitment to this system needed by our design team was fairly costly, and it had a very real impact on the other core components of the game. An entirely new AI system also had to be created, and while great strides were made, we underestimated the time needed to make such a large system work in a consistent, competitive manner. The reality is that the more we focused on brand-new systems to create a brand-new experience, the more we had to trim systems that players had come to expect from previous versions.”

A second postmortem covers the PSN twin-stick shooter Dead Nation, the latest title from Super Stardust HD developer Housemarque. As the studio saw the title expand in scope, a number of planned features were left on the cutting room floor. The team writes:

“In hindsight, our levels should have been smaller in scale. After all, we had a fairly small team for the game we were making, but we still wanted to make a title that would take hours to play through, with lots of replayability. As gameplay changed toward a more tactical direction, and as we increased emphasis on necessitated use of different items and weapons, we realized too late that we should have made the levels shorter and used the saved time to create even more variation and unique gameplay moments within the game. As the amount of content required per level increased exponentially, we decided to outsource some of the level assets.”

Also in this issue, designer Simon Strange presents a decision making approach for identifying and defining low-risk design changes, and Arcade Berg takes a look at the use of exploding barrels in Epic Games’ and People Can Fly’s Bulletstorm. In addition, the March issue features our regular columnists and special guests who contribute detailed and important pieces on various areas of game development. (Source: Game Set Watch)