作者：Joe Osborne

大家都知道，游戏中带有3D图像已经不是什么新鲜事了。但Rocket Ninja执行制作人Neil Haldar表示，带有3D图像的Facebook游戏并不多见。公司近期发布了基于Flash（游戏邦注：几乎所有的Facebook游戏都用Flash来制作）的3D图像引擎Shr3d。

我们得知，该公司首款采用这项技术的游戏是《Wrestler: Unstoppable》。3D会如何改变社交游戏呢？更为重要的是，社交游戏已经做好迎接3D到来的准备了吗？Haldar在最近的媒体采访中介绍了Facebook游戏3D化的未来。以下是游戏邦编译的访谈内容：

Wrestler:Unstoppable(from vortexeffect.net)

为何Rocket Ninja决定制作自己的3D Flash游戏引擎？

之前我们在寻找制作网页MMO的方法，因而才走到了这一步。公司希望借此能够移除下载的繁琐。

因而，最初游戏引擎是以网页为基础，我们尽量将其做得开放些，能适用于最普遍存在和拥有最多用户的平台。其次，我们坚持自己的看法，就是要给用户带来3D的无下载体验。

3D部分很重要，因为我们想要让那些网页浏览器产生与众不同的游戏体验。很多人都只是把Flash拼凑起来，加入些2D内容并让其在网页平台上运行，这是个很简单的过程，但3D需要大量技能和制作原理。这也是我们与其他游戏开发商的不同之处，即如何通过网页浏览器来传达趣味性和娱乐。

为何你决定首个项目是在已有游戏中添加3D元素，而不是制作新游戏？

可以从两个方面来解释这个问题。首先，就像你已经了解到的那样，我们拿自己的Facebook游戏来做测试，就是《Ocean Kingdom》这款鱼类游戏。此前，我们学到了很多经验，包括如何获取用户、给予他们对游戏进行病毒性传播的工具、让他们不断玩游戏并最终获得盈利。

我们知道要推广新游戏很难，尤其是当我们需要用游戏内容风格来吸引玩家。在整个游戏世界都充斥着2D作品的时候，推广3D游戏极具挑战性。为解决这个问题，我们决定用此引擎来深化现有的游戏。

其次，当我们考虑最适合这项技术的游戏和社群系统时，我们发现《Wrestler》提供了绝佳的机会。我们调查的时间越长，越觉得可以用我们的新引擎来改善游戏设计。如果我们能够将游戏的音频和音效3D化，让游戏体验更具吸引力，玩游戏的人可能会更多，或许我们可以从中分一杯羹。

现在你说的是为其他开发商提供此类服务，Rocket Ninja可曾计划在将来发布自己的游戏？

现在有很多极具天分的开发者，同时也有很多杰出游戏设计师和程序员愿意接受3D引擎。我们深化《Wrestler》项目之后，这些开发者加入我们公司成为全职雇员。

我们已经使自行开发游戏和深化他人游戏之间的界面变得模糊。我想要玩这些游戏，因为我觉得游戏确实很棒，而且会有很多人想要玩。那么问题在于：为什么用户数不多呢？如果我们能用自己的工具来解决这个问题，这些开发者就有可能加入我们。

那么，你是否认为3D将是下个改善社交游戏的方法？如果是这样的话，3D会如何改变社交游戏的体验？现在市面上的3D版Facebook游戏还很少。

我知道现在Facebook上的3D游戏并不多，但它们的数量正在增长。下个版本的Adobe Flash将融合“Molehill”这项技术。这就是Adobe给Flash中的3D体验提供的解决方案。那么，这对游戏可玩性有何帮助呢？我制作游戏的时间已经很长了，依我的经验来看，通常每个平台从2D到3D的过渡都会让用户对3D内容异常兴奋，游戏便会大踏步向前发展。

向3D的转化是件很现实的事情，这会区分出社交网络开发商间的高低水平。如果你将原2D游戏制作成3D并投放到某个平台（游戏邦注：比如Facebook）上，我想很快就会看到大量新式游戏随即出现。

我见过有些游戏使用3D图像，但社交功能会使得开发商暂时将3D放在一旁。那么，我们要如何改变中年妇女对社交游戏的期望呢？

看看《Wrestler》，原先它不仅仅是款2D社交游戏，其中潜藏着巨大的社交社群。我们允许玩家与陌生人一起玩游戏。3D图像最终会使用户的游戏体验大大加深，即便是中老年玩家也是如此。

玩家的品味慢慢变得更为复杂。他们想要获得非同寻常的游戏，他们想要让互动娱乐继续深化。我们正处在这个方向上，而且提供的3D服务正让我们具有一定的优势。更为重要的是，我们可以测试自己的想法，比如当老年玩家在Facebook上玩3D游戏是会怎么样？这是否会改变他们购买东西或玩游戏的方式？他们的社交行为会变得更多还是更少？我们现在正通过数据来查看未来Facebook的样子。

你是否认为3D是加深游戏复杂性的必要条件？

不，我认为这只是某些年轻开发者的想法。我们觉得3D还应该提升可接入性，驾驭3D空间对目前休闲用户来说还是太难了。因而，我们不是要玩家驾驭3D世界或玩第一人称射击游戏。现在的3D还很复杂，但使用2D界面来与3D对象互动会比较简单些。这对初学者来说是个不错的做法。

你能否再说说其他使用Shr3d引擎的项目？

当然可以。我们正在同许多不同的开发商讨论，尝试找到其他可供我们深化的游戏。从本质上来说，我们是个游戏公司，我们不会关注其他领域的内容。我们也不会将这项技术转让给任何人。所有采用这项技术的东西都是真正出自我们之手。我们可以自行制作游戏，也可以帮助其他开发商深化游戏。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Rocket Ninja’s Neil Haldar: 3D will separate the wheat from the chaff on Facebook

Joe Osborne

Games with 3D graphics are nothing new–you know that. But Facebook games with 3D graphics are, according to Rocket Ninja executive producer Neil Haldar (pictured). The company recently unleashed Shr3d, a 3D graphics engine for Flash (the platform on which almost all Facebook games are created) that requires no extra downloads.

We dug the company’s first game using the technology, Wrestler: Unstoppable, but is begs a few questions. How will 3D change social games? More importantly, are social gamers ready for 3D? We sat down with Haldar recently to hash out the future of 3D in Facebook games–check it out:

Why did Rocket Ninja decide to create their own 3D Flash games engine?

Well, the way the company got started was we were really looking at ways of how to originally get into the web-based MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) space. And one of the ways the company was looking to innovate there was to remove the requirement of a significant download.

So, we started it as web-based, tried to make it as open as possible and get into the platform that is most ubiquitous and has the most number of users. [Ed. Note: Haldar is referring to the Adobe Flash Player used to display almost all Facebook games.] Second, we absolutely held up to our belief that we need to be a download-free experience in 3D.

The 3D part is important, because we wanted to deliver a different kind of gaming experience to those web browsers. It’s pretty easy for an awful lot of people to throw some Flash together, make a lot of 2D stuff and have it run across a screen, but 3D requires a lot of skill and know-how. And that’s what really sets us apart-as game developers, how can we express fun and entertainment inside of a web browser.

Why did you decide with your first project to add the 3D element to an existing game rather than create your own game?

The answer to that is in two parts. The first is, as you know, we started off building our own game on Facebook that was intended to be a test, and much like everyone it was a fish game called Ocean Kingdom. We learned a lot of what it takes to acquire a user, give them tools to be viral with their friends, to have them keep playing the game and eventually, you know, shake a couple coins out of them.

We learned that it’s much harder to start off from scratch, especially when we need to ask the player to trust us when it comes to game content type. But also in terms of, ‘Hey, I’m also bringing you 3D-trust me! 3D is much more fun, trust me!’ when the whole world out there is 2D. To solve some of these things we realized that we could help accelerate other developers’ games. A lot of developers are realizing that the jig is up [Ed.Note: due to Facebook's many changes in 2010.]. Things like that we think we can solve for a lot of other developers.

The second part is that, as we were thinking about the kinds of games and the kinds of community systems that best benefit from the expertise and technology that we have, this Wrestler game was a great opportunity for us. And the longer we looked at it, the more we were convinced that this would be a great acceleration product for us-something we could lend better game design to. If we could enable 3D with audio and sound to make the game experience more compelling, people would probably play the game more, and we might be able to shake a couple extra nickels and pennies out of them.

Now, you’re talking about providing these services to other developers, but are there plans to release future Rocket Ninja games developed in house?

There are a lot of really talented developers out there, and at the same time there are a lot of genius game designers and programmers that originally put the 3D engine together. You know, our experience with Wrestler was that, ‘Yes, we did accelerate someone else’s game, we really sort of adopted it and made it our own.’ So, with the passion that the original developer had for that, they joined us as our employee full time.

We sort of blurred the lines of developing a game in house or accelerated someone else’s game. These are the games that I would want to play, because I think it’s a game that an awful lot of other people would want to play, but the question is: Why haven’t they? If we can answer that ‘why’ with the tools we have in our arsenal, then that’s probably a great candidate for us to add to the fold.

Now, do you think that 3D is the next answer to that ‘Why?’ and if so, how is 3D going to change how social games are played? Because I’ve yet to see many 3D Facebook games that make liberal use of the 3D space.

I know there aren’t many 3D games on Facebook, but they are coming. The next major release of Adobe Flash will have incorporated technology called ‘Molehill.’ [This] is essentially Adobe’s answer to 3D-high-quality 3D experiences within Flash. So, how does that help with the gameplay? I’ve been making games for a long time, and generally with every platform what happens when you make the jump from 2D the 3D is that the user is so excited about manipulating 3D objects that the emotional connection between the consumer and the game just grows leaps and bounds.

The transition to 3D is going to be very real-it’s going to separate the wheat from the chaff amongst developers on social networks. When you unleash 3D onto a platform [like Facebook] that’s originally been 2D, I think you’re going to see an awful lot of new kinds of games coming out of that.

I’ve seen some social games that use 3D, but the social features take a back burner to the novelty of 3D. So, how do we change the average middle-aged mother’s expectations of social games?

When you take a look at Wrestler, it’s not just a social game originally built in 2D, but it has an enormous, thriving social community within the game. We allow players to play with total strangers through loose organizations. That’s different than your peanut butter and jelly 2D game on Facebook. The availability of 3D will ultimately make the gaming experience much more interesting for the end user-even for grand mom. It’s like the isle of Facebook gaming is full of accidental gamers.

Eventually those gamers will have greater, more sophisticated tastes. They too want different kinds of scenarios-they too want deeper pieces of entertainment to interact with. We’re sort of on that cusp, and the ability for us to provide [download-free] 3D now puts us a little ahead of the pack. More importantly, it allows us to trail blaze and understand, ‘What does happen when we have grand mom playing a 3D game on Facebook?’ Will it change how they buy things, how they play the game, are they less social or are they more social? We’re now sifting through the data to find out what that future world on Facebook looks like.

Do you think 3D necessarily leads to complexity?

No. I think there’s a desire by younger developers to make 3D for 3D’s sake. We think the tact of 3D should be easy to approach-navigation of 3D space is difficult for your casual consumer. So, we’re not asking you to navigate 3D worlds or play first-person shooters. The 3D we have right now is pretty big, but it’s simplistic using a 2D interface to interact with 3D objects. That’s the right approach for starters.

Without the 3D tool set, we could not begin to approach solving interesting gameplay problems without adding to a quagmire of 2D complexity. I take a look at how FarmVille runs at it height versus Empires & Allies just 18 months later, and there are probably one hundred times as many things on my screen trying to grab my attention.

Are there any more projects you can talk about using the Shr3d engine?

Oh yeah, we certainly do. We have ongoing discussions with a bunch of different developers trying to figure out whether we can make ends meet or whether there are other games out there that belong in our acceleration pipeline. First and foremost we’re a games company-you’re not going to see us making medial device imaging or some crap like that. We do not intend to license our technology to anybody. Everything done to games with our technology will be something we do ourselves. Whether we built it in house or whether we accelerated somebody else’s and made it our own has yet to be seen. (Source: blog.games.com)