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掌机姐妹版《DAL》制作人Ethan Levy谈游戏制作始末

发布时间:2011-04-28 12:00:42 Tags:,,

《Dragon Age Legends》刚发行就被视为Facebook平台上首款真正的游戏,这款游戏先于3月份推出的掌机游戏姐妹版《Dragon Age 2》问世。Facebook玩家如今已感受游戏中的西达斯世界1个多月了,现在团队是时候该思考游戏是否达到了他们的期望。《Dragon Age Legends》制作人Ethan Levy日前就此接受了媒体采访,谈论自己对于游戏的看法,同时还详细讲述了游戏的潜在内容,及Levy团队如何延长游戏的寿命周期。以下为游戏邦编译的相应内容。

dragon age legends

dragon age legends

如今《Dragon Age Legends》(DAL)已问世近1个月,你对游戏表现感觉如何?你最欣赏游戏哪个部分?你认为游戏还有哪些方面需要改善?

我觉得让硬核玩家体验并享受Facebook游戏就像一场赌局。这款游戏完全忠实于恐龙时代的画面景象,且也同Bioware所创造、玩家所喜爱的画面效果保持一致。最受鼓舞的是,每当用户评论这款Facebook游戏的时候,他们总是把我们当作Bioware。一方面,我花了2年半的时间协助EA2D成立,我希望我们能够保持自己的独立身份。另一方面,Bioware是全球备受赞誉的开发商之一。所以,如果玩家能够面对我们的成就发表这样的感慨,‘哇,Bioware。好样的,但这里和那里还有待改进’。这也是种荣誉象征,他们认为我们和Bioware处于同样的质量水平。

至于提高方面,团队遵循的是软件充当服务模式,我们每周定期更新关卡和功能,同时还进行补丁修复。昨天我们刚刚推出了新功能‘工会’,我们计划不断推进游戏。所以对于团队充满激情的不同功能及功能升级,我具有非常深刻的路线图。我们和Bioware就故事叙述合作了1年。我们开始享受这一过程,现在我们新增了‘公会’功能,我们希望成立一个不同于工会竞技场系统的工会。所以,游戏需要完善的方面还有很多。

为什么你们不植入更具硬核风格的游戏体验,而是采用颇具视觉效果的动画呢?

我觉得这就是场赌局:玩家不会小瞧Playfish中的EA同行或者其他致力于真实性游戏的公司。每个项活动都是颇具意义的真实性体验;开发商可以从中获得庞大用户群。我们希望开发一款吸引硬核玩家或Bioware粉丝的游戏。

我们利用成熟主题,面向成熟的用户,因此我们可能无法达到像《Farmville》那样的数据(游戏邦注:2500万的DAU)。但是我们的目标玩家生命力更长,在微交易上花费的资金更多,因为玩家购买宝剑或盔甲才是更有意义、更具持久性的活动。

dragon age legends

dragon age legends

在整个开发过程中,你们所面对的最大困难是什么,为什么这会成为你们的困扰?

我们所面临的最大障碍是技术基础。《DAL》也许看起就像款Flash游戏,但它事实上它是款MMO游戏,对于这一技术我们完全是从零开始。所以,大家看到的游戏只是我们系统和平台团队所研发的技术的冰山一角。平台建设是EA2D长期投资的组成部分。我认为在建设团队和研发技术的过程中,我们将积累许多宝贵的经验。现在既然游戏已经拥有自己的位置,我们就可以推出其他更多的东西如将DAL扩展至手机领域,这是我们引以为豪的部分。

所以,就像你提到的为期1年的路线图。

(笑)至少是这样!这是我们目前能够想到的功能。

这真的很吸引人。你们似乎希望游戏能够别具一格,所以你们打算如何将《DAL》同其他姐妹游戏及Facebook游戏区分开来呢?

我们坚持的理论之一就是将游戏视为沟通桥梁,或者说一款能够将掌机玩家和可下载游戏玩家融为一体的游戏。在Bioware陆续推出硬核游戏的时候,玩家还能够坚持体验这款游戏数个礼拜或者甚至好几年。

你们有没有考虑过将两种游戏(游戏邦注:掌机游戏和Facebook游戏)以更有意义的方式结合,如情节路线的融合,或者游戏角色的借鉴?

我们希望对这两款游戏做更深入的整合。当我在构思《DAL》情节框架的时候,我有幸和《Dragon Age》首席设计师共事。两款游戏同处于开发之中,所以当时对我来说很重要的一点是避免出现从属感。

在两款游戏开发阶段,有两方面是我非常不愿意看到的。一是Bioware在最后时刻更改了故事情节,这使得我们的某个故事情节变得有点突兀。更糟糕的是我并不希望听到《Dragon Age》团队说,‘为什么你们要发明这坐城市?’所有的《Dragon Age》内容都是标准化的,所以我们是有意基于《Dragon Age 2》推出《DAL》,我们希望未来能够把这些路线更有意义地贯穿起来。

更重要的是,你认为将姐妹游戏入驻facebook的未来何在?你认为掌机游戏和它们对应的Facebook游戏之间的联系会如何发展的?

我想我们会看到两种不同风格的游戏。显然推出对应的Facebook游戏是个营销策略,它们并非什么有深度、有意义的游戏。我可以举些例子,但这可能会有些无礼。我认为Facebook广告游戏将会继续存在,我们希望《DAL》能够为那些更有意义的独立姐妹游戏铺平道路,因为未来还会涌现更多的游戏。我们希望快速广告游戏能够慢慢淡出人们的视野。

现在很多Naughty Dog之类的开发商开始将Facebook平台和YouTube功能融为一体(游戏邦注:如《神秘海域 3》)。这会是这两种游戏的下个结合点吗?

如果这样能够加强玩家的游戏体验,那么成效将会颇为惊人。但是如果这不过是个供玩家将游戏内容发布至Facebook墙的功能,那么这只适应拥有众多好友玩家的用户。我知道要将掌机作品和Facebook游戏或者其他网页游戏进行深层整合是颇有难度的。团队成员需要加强前进步伐,而不是敷衍了事。

dragon age legends

dragon age legends

EA2D已经先于最近的《AWOL》等游戏推出了数款原始社交游戏。《DAL》的推出是否是个分水岭,工作室未来是否会继续推出原始游戏?

我认为推出姐妹游戏并非EA2D的使命。我们的任务是为玩家推出社交游戏。我们对于这两项任务均怀有同样的热情。我们并非营销公司,我们是独立游戏开发商,我们希望未来推出更多原始游戏和姐妹游戏。

我忍不住想问,‘EA2D会推出3D Facebook游戏吗?’

(笑)事实上我们将公司命名为EA2D的时候考虑过这个问题,这个名字是我提出来的。之所以取名EA2D和游戏的空间维数没有什么关系。这更多是和心境有关。EA2D希望能够重回EA的黄金时代(游戏邦注:当时只有若干经典游戏,开发商并非依靠依靠游戏画面取悦观众,而是更多考虑游戏设置)。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Dragon Age Legends producer Ethan Levy: This game ‘was a gamble’ [Interview]

Deemed the first real game on Facebook when it was released, Dragon Age Legends launched in advance of its console counterpart, Dragon Age 2, in March. It’s been over a month since EA2D threw you into the world of Thedas through Facebook, and now it’s time to see whether the team feels that it lived up to its lofty expectations. To do just that, we had the chance recently to chat with Ethan Levy, producer of Dragon Age Legends, and get his reflections on the game. Of course, we also learned quite a lot about what’s in store for the game, and how Levy and his team plan to keep your adventures going for a very, very long time.

Now that Dragon Age Legends (DAL) has been out in the wild for a month, how do you feel about it? What do you like most about the finished product? What, in your opinion, still needs work?

It was a gamble whether a hardcore gamer audience would show up for a Facebook game and enjoy it. And I think we did a very good job of staying true to the vision of Dragon Age and the world that Bioware has created, and players responded. One of the best moments is whenever people comment on the game on Facebook or review it, they refer to us as Bioware. On one hand, I’ve spent the past two and a half years at this point helping to build EA2D, and I wish we stood on our own right. But on the other hand, Bioware is one of the most acclaimed game developers in the world. So, if people look at what we’ve done and say, ‘Hey Bioware. Great job, but you really need to improve this and this,’ it’s kind of a badge of honor that they hold it to the same level of quality.

As for what needs improvement, the team is working in a software-as-service model, and we update the game every week with new quests, new features and bug fixes. Just yesterday we released a major new feature called ‘Guilds,’ and we plan on operating this game for a long time. So, I have a really deep road map of different features and improvements that the team is excited about. We have a year-long narrative outline that we worked with Bioware on. We just started teasing that, now that we have Guilds, we’re going to do a Guild versus Guild arena system. So, there are really hundreds of ways that we want to improve to the game.

Why did you decide to go with not only a decidedly more hardcore play style, but such graphic animation?

That was the gamble, I guess: That gamers would-and not to disparage my fellow EA employees at Playfish or any other company-show up for a real game. And not an activity where there’s no real meaningful choices; games that just reward you for showing up. So, we wanted to do a game that any hardcore gamer or Bioware fan would show up for.

By tapping into a mature theme and audience like that, we would never hit the 25 million daily players of a FarmVille, for instance. But the players that we did cater to would stay around longer and would pay more on average for micro-transactions, because when you buy a really cool sword or armor it’s more meaningful and long lasting in its effects.

During the development process, what was most difficult and why did it give you so much trouble?

The most difficult obstacle for us was the technology base. DAL might look like a Flash game, but it’s actually built a lot more like an MMO, and we built all that tech from scratch. So, the game that you see is just the tip of the iceberg of a really impressive piece of technology that our systems and platform team here has built. And that platform was built with long-term investment for EA2D. I think there are a lot of hard lessons learned along the way as we built our team and technology. Now that it’s in place, we’re able to create some pretty incredible things like the mobile extension of DAL, which we’re really proud of.

So, you mentioned a year-long road map–

(Laughs.) At least! That’s the features we can think of now.

And that’s impressive. You seem to want this game to stand on its own, so how do you plan to differentiate DAL from companion game to just Facebook game?

Part of our theory is that this will serve as a bridge game, or a game that bridges gamers from the release of the console product to downloadable packages. People can be playing this for weeks and weeks or potentially years and years in between releases of the core game from Bioware. It’ll differentiate itself over time.

Better yet, is there any desire to link the two games in more meaningful ways like crossing plot lines or introducing characters from one game to the other?

We have hopes to do some deeper integration points than we have so far. I was very privileged to work with Dragon Age’s lead designer when I crafted the story for DAL. And the two games were in development at the same time, so something that was important to me was to avoid any dependency.

There are two things I really wouldn’t want to happen while we were both in development. One would be that [Bioware] changed something at the last minute story wise and all of a sudden a piece of our game doesn’t make sense. What a harder case would be is that I never want to get a call from the Dragon Age team saying, ‘Why would you invent this city?’ (Laughs.) No Dragon Age product is non-canon, so making DAL parallel to Dragon Age 2 was very intentional and we hope to intersect those paths more meaningfully in the future.

Gallery: Dragon Age Legends on Facebook

More importantly, where do you see the future of companion games going on Facebook? How do you see the links between console games and their Facebook counterparts growing?

I imagine we’ll see two different flavors of games. It’s very clear when there’s a Facebook game launch that really is a marketing ploy and not really a deep and meaningful game in any sense. I could point out examples of, but that would be kind of rude. Facebook advergames-I think those will continue to exist. I hope DAL paves the way for more meaningful companion games that live on their own, because there are other games I’d love to get little bite-sized pieces of everyday. I’m hopeful that the idea of a quick advergame will be marginalized.

You and me both, honestly. Now, some developers, like Naughty Dog, are integrating Facebook and YouTube right into their games like Uncharted 3. Is this the next point of collision for the two genres?

If it’s built in a way that enhances the experience for players, that will be phenomenal. But if it’s just functionality to post to your Facebook wall from within the game, that really only applies to a certain type of gamer who has a lot of gamer friends, frankly. I know how difficult it would be to do that level of deep integration between a console product and Facebook or anywhere on the web. A team really has to step up and not just pay lip service.

Now, EA2D has created original social games before like, most recently, AWOL. Does DAL mark a move away from that or will we see more original games from the studio?

I would say it’s not EA2D’s mission to create companion games. It’s our mission to make social games for gamers. There’s equal passion around here to do both. We’re not a marketing arm; we’re a game developer in our own right, and I hope both more original games and companion games are in store for us in the future.

Now, I can’t help myself but ask, ‘Will EA2D ever make a 3D game on Facebook?’

(Laughs.) I was actually part of the conversation when we chose to call ourselves EA2D, and I was the one who put the name forward. Calling ourselves EA2D is not about the dimensions of the art in the games we’re making. It’s really about the frame of mind. [EA2D is] trying to hearken back to a golden era of EA when there was some really classic games we made, when it wasn’t possible to amaze people with visuals and gameplay came first.(Source:Games.com


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