游戏邦注：本文作者为Jim Squires，他根据Brandon Williamson接受采访时谈论的内容撰写了本篇文章。

虽然大型开发商的在App Store的地位越来越稳固，但辛勤耕耘的独立开发商还是能够时不时带给用户惊喜，推出备受赞誉的游戏。Brandon Williamson就是凭借今年3月份推出的复古迷宫游戏《Forget Me Not》一举成为颇受关注的开发者。

Brandon日前接受采访，谈到《Forget Me Not》灵感来源及自己最喜欢的迷宫游戏如《Pac-Man》。以下是游戏邦编译的相关内容。

《Forget Me Not》延用《Pac-Man》的古典迷宫模式，同时通过添加火力、入侵敌人及随机等级等新元素再创全新游戏风格。能够和我们谈谈《Forget Me Not》游戏的创造过程？

我开发这款游戏的过程并没有遵循特定模式。开发《Forget Me Not》的初衷不过是希望能够尽快推出一款简单游戏体验，仅仅是处于好玩。我很喜欢迷宫主题的游戏，希望能够尝试开发程序生成等级模式游戏，所以我开始着手开发随机迷宫生成机器。虽然我在游戏中添加玩家和其他生物。受《Pac-Man》启发的花朵收集机制最初不过是个暂时元素，但我开始逐渐喜欢上这个充满花朵的迷宫。

Flower Maze

当然有些元素是受《Pac-Man》启发，但最主要的灵感还是来自于克门多尔64游戏《Crossroads》，这是我小时候很喜欢的一款游戏。《Crossroads》迷宫充斥着各类小生物，它们四处游荡企图吃掉对方（游戏邦注：甚至包括玩家扮演的角色在内），并相互展开射击，让玩家觉得自己不过是迷你生态系统中的生物之一。我决定开发类似游戏。所以，添加各类不同敌人以及促使他们之间展开互动成了游戏开发关键所在。

游戏似乎还需添加其他的元素，所以我就增加了钥匙和入口。我不确定它们最初是否有带给游戏附加价值，但我随后把钥匙打造成了盾牌，它活脱脱就像个BAM！像极了！

游戏画面效果着实颇具复古PC游戏风格，以致让我回想起童年体验的Tandy 1000游戏。是什么原因促使你设计这样一款复古风格作品呢？

主要原因在于我不会画画。

除此之外就是因为，我太喜欢童年时代的游戏了。前面提到的《Crossroads》具有定制文本人物图像。所以所有头像均置于方框之中，拥有同样的尺寸大小。我过去常玩的另一款游戏是《ZZT》（游戏邦注：这款游戏采用的是标准的ASCII码图像），游戏画面注重动作元素，极富动态效果。

所以我希望开发一款具有ASCII游戏画面效果的游戏，同时又能突破其中存在的限制因素。开发配有音效、能够旋转及变更大小和颜色的游戏体验是件很棒的事情。是的，开发这个风格的游戏并不困难，仅凭我有限的艺术才能就驾驭得了。

近年来，很多人士都像你一样大胆突破《Pac-Man》机制，尝试添加新元素。Namco自己就尝试推出系列新作品，从《Pac-Man Vs.》到《Pac-Man Championship Edition》，更别提其他众多分拆游戏如《Pac-Chomp》和《Pac-Man Pizza Parlor》。

我玩过的唯一一款新版《Pac-Man》游戏是《Pac-Man CE》，我很喜欢这款游戏。游戏的视觉和感觉效果均非常不错，让《Pac-Man》体验变得趣味横生（我从未深入体验原版游戏），我也没有试过CE DX版本，但我很想亲自体验一番。我不认为《Forget-Me-Not》是翻版《Pac-Man》，它并不像电脑游戏那样纯粹或者讲究。

Forget Me Not

我可以理解Namco为什么要推出系列分拆游戏（游戏邦注：很多公司都有采取类似行动），但我个人认为如果他们能在游戏中添加新角色，那么效果将更棒。如果游戏被扩充为毫无关联的体验，那么就会显得有点廉价。但是如果游戏足够有趣或者拥有巧妙的设置，那么就可以了！这点更重要。

其他复古游戏也陆续于App Store推出翻版作品，如《Space Invaders: Infinity Gene》和《Centipede Ultra》，你认为是什么因素促使玩家重新体验这些经典电脑游戏呢？

仅仅是因为这些游戏十分有趣。健步如飞及爆炸性元素（游戏邦注：特别是爆炸过后能够形成很多水果）能够给玩家带来满足感。迅速的属性着实非常适合iOS之类的平台，玩家可以利用等候公车之类的零碎时间，使用手机设备体验2分钟游戏。这些游戏颇为抽象，同现实世界的视角和行为方式大不相同。我认为这促使游戏画面变得活灵活现（至少胜过早期的PS1游戏）。也是充满怀旧之情。

你有没有仔细研究过App Store其他延续《Pac-Chomp》风格的复古迷宫游戏？你觉得怎么样呢？我认为《EVAC》和《Treasure Grab》都是很不错的作品。

我还没有体验过这两款游戏，不过以后我会仔细研究下！《EVAC》似乎还不错。我过去玩过的一款游戏是《DungeonMoto》，这是一款有趣的小型游戏，延用了《Pac-Man》模式，是款风格淘气的游戏（游戏邦注：游戏更像是《Pac-Man》和《Archon》的结合体），虽然游戏模式和《Forget-Me-Not》截然不同，例如其中的芯片收集是个及时体验，但整个战斗过程变幻莫测的。我很喜欢《DungeonMoto》，特别是游戏的画面和氛围，但游戏进程很慢，更多是沉思式的体验。我只希望游戏能够融入随机迷宫！

DungeonMoto

如果明天Namco打电话给你，邀请你到他们公司任职，你会怎么回应？

哈哈，我会说，“又是你吗？Bob。我不是和你说过不要再给我打电话了吗。”其实我没有什么概念。这很奇怪，我认为我不适合在那些有模有样的游戏公司任职，因为他们绝对不会让你在床上进行编码工作。

Brandon Williamson工作室的下步计划是什么？有没有计划重新打造一款经典电脑游戏？

我有很多零碎的游戏构思，但对于下一步我没有什么明确的想法。有时心血来潮我就会开始修改填充一些游戏，然后看看修改后的效果。我目前的想法都和经典游戏无关，但它们均颇有成效。我想开发的游戏太多了，如谜题游戏、策略性RPG游戏以及古怪的驾车游戏。虽然这些游戏有可能只是风靡一时，但这就是我所喜欢做的事情。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Unforgettable: An Interview with Forget-Me-Not creator Brandon Williamson

By Jim Squires

While big name developers are becoming a more and more steady presence on the App Store, every now and then an indie developer, coding out of their bedroom until the wee hours of the morning, can still manage to break through with a critically-acclaimed title. Thanks to the release of his retro-tinged maze game Forget-Me-Not back in March, Brandon Williamson has become one such developer.

We recently had a chance to speak with Brandon about everything from the origins of Forget-Me-Not to his feelings on other maze-based favourites like Pac-Man. Here’s what he had to say;

Forget-Me-Not takes the classic maze-clearing formula of Pac-Man and re-invents it with firepower, aggressive enemies, randomized levels and more. Tell us a little about how Forget-Me-Not came to be.

My process is fairly random. Forget-Me-Notstarted as an exercise in trying to make a simple game as quickly as possible, just for fun. I’ve always liked games set in mazes, and had been wanting to have a go at doing something with procedurally generated levels, so I started by making a random maze generator.Then I put in the player and a couple other types of creatures. The Pac-Man inspired flower-collecting mechanic was just a temporary thing at first, but I ended up liking how it looked having the mazes full of flowers.

Though some of it was of course inspired by Pac-Man, a bigger inspiration was the Commodore 64 game Crossroads which I loved as a kid. Crossroads had mazes full of tiny creatures wandering around eating each other – as well as the player – and shooting at everything. It had the feel that you were just one of many creatures living in a miniature ecosystem. I decided to make something like that. So then it was just a matter of adding whatever different kinds of enemies I came up with and making them interact.

The game still felt like it needed something else, so I put in the key and door. I wasn’t sure if they really added anything to the game at first, but then I made the key also be a shield and it was like, BAM! That’s it!

The game’s visuals had an authentically retro PC gaming feel to them, so much so that it reminded me of being a kid and playing on my Tandy 1000. What inspired you to design the art with such an old school feel?

The main thing is: I can’t draw.

Aside from that, I too loved the games I played as a kid. The aforementioned Crossroads had graphics made of customised text characters – so everything was on a grid, and everything was the same size.Something else I used to play a lot was ZZT, which had normal ASCII graphics, but used them in an action oriented, dynamic kinda way.

So I wanted to make something whose graphics felt like those of an ASCII game, while not being held to the same limitations. It’s nice being able to make things whizz about, rotating or changing size and colour. And, yeah, that style issimple enough for me to handle with my very limited art skills.

You’re not the only who’s taken the Pac-Man formula in bold new directions in recent years. Namco themselves have tried with a slew of releases from Pac-Man Vs. to Pac-Man Championship Edition, not to mention the dozens of spin-offs like Pac-Chomp and Pac-Man Pizza Parlor. How do you feel about the current state of the Pac-Man franchise?

The only new Pac-Man game I’ve played is Pac-Man CE, which I love. It has a beautiful look and feel to it, and makes Pac-Man fun (I never really got into the original). I haven’t had a go of CE DX yet, but I want to. I don’t really see Forget-Me-Not as being a re-invention of Pac-Man… it’s not as pure or elegant an arcade game.

All the spin-offs…well.. I can understand why they do it (lots of other big games companies do the same kind of stuff), but personally I think it’d be cooler if they’d make up new characters for most of those games. When it’s like, <insert mascot character here> is jammed into a completely unrelated game, it feels a bit cheap. Though if the game is actually fun or clever then it’s all okay! That’s more important.

Other retro games have seen re-inventions on the App Store in games like Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, Centipede Ultra, and more.What do you think keeps gamers coming back to these classic arcade formulas?

They’re simply fun to play. Things whooshing around and exploding (especially exploding into showers of fruit, obviously) is satisfying. Their quick nature definitely suit platforms like iOS, where you can pull your phone out for a 2 minute game while waiting for the bus or whatever. Also they’re a bit abstract, rather than trying to look or behave like the real world. I think that makes them hold up well, graphically (or at least better than say, most early PS1 games). Also, nostalgia.

Have you had a chance to check out any of the App Store’s other Pac-inspired maze games? What do you think of them? EVAC and Treasure Grab both stand out as particularly notable releases in my opinion.

I haven’t played either of those but I’ll check ‘em out! EVAC looks very shiny indeed. One game I did play was DungeonMoto, an interesting little game which also combines Pac-Man with roguelike-ish gameplay (actually maybe it’s more like Pac-Man meets Archon), though in a very different way to Forget-Me-Not – moving around collecting pellets is in real time, but battles are turn-based. I like DungeonMoto a lot, especially the graphics and atmosphere, but it’s a slow game to play – definitely a much more contemplative kind of thing. I just wish it had random mazes!

If your phone rang tomorrow and it was Namco with a job offer, what would you say?

Haha, I’d say “..is this you again Bob? I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME”. Really, I have no idea. It would be weird. I don’t think I’m cut out for a job in a proper games company… they probably don’t let you code in bed.

What’s next for Brandon Williamson? Any plans to re-invent another arcade classic?

I have lots of little game ideas, but nothing specific planned for next up. I’ll start tinkering when the mood strikes and see what happens. None of my current ideas is based on any particular classic game but they do all have collectible fruits. There are far too many games I want to make… puzzlers, tactical RPGs, weird driving games… most likely I’ll end up making something shooty though, I think that’s where my heart is.（Source：gamezebo）