作者：Josh Sprague

《FrontierVille》被誉为升级版《FarmVille》，但其实二者的设计理念并未存在明显区别。Zynga首席游戏设计师布莱恩·雷诺兹在GDC2011发表演讲时表示，团队已决定将某些农场元素移至边境中。其中包括《FarmVille》的能量条框，这能够避免过快玩完游戏。他们还把游戏世界的所有物品变得具有点击性（游戏邦注：特别是在拜访好友期间）。此外，他们希望探索和修复荒地能够成为游戏重要内容。

frontierVille from tamibaribeau.com

虽然还想到其他功能，但他们很快就把方案付诸实践，变成具有可玩性的游戏。他们制作的是粗糙版本，随后便逐步在《FrontierVille》添加特色功能。雷诺兹表示，核心功能是在全新边境试验环境完成后出现的。

Doober

你是否想过点击《FrontierVille》树木或动物后，出现的成果叫什么？团队把这些东西称作“Doober”，名字会停留在屏幕中（游戏邦注：完成任务后显示的不是单调数字），团队发现能够查看生成结果和点击奖励更加令人愉悦（游戏邦注：这个doober名称也被沿用至《CityVille》，此后成为许多游戏的标准功能）。

融入不讨喜动物

最初，玩家只有添加猪、羊、鸡之类友善群种，动物才会出现于边境当中。团队开始考虑在荒地中融入某些不那么讨喜的动物类型。所以他们添加蛇元素，清理岩石和石楠时，蛇就会出现。在测试中，当蛇出现时，玩家会跳起来，并出现忧虑表情。但此忧虑表情在他们击倒蛇，获得奖励后消失。玩家甚至会用剩余时间清除杂草，直到除去领地中的所有蛇类。所以，虽然社交游戏常常避开消极场景，但他们发现意想不到的挑战能够带来更多乐趣。

声誉机制

《FrontierVille》团队希望玩家从游戏开始就频繁互访。但他们会互访和互相帮助玩家一定奖励。这是融入声誉系统的原因所在。玩家会进行互相帮助，给予帮助越多（晋升等级），获得奖励也就越多。

融入幽默元素

Facebook有关丢失动物的状态信息在《FarmVille》也行得通，但《FrontierVille》团队发现，在状态信息里融入幽默元素会让信息更具传播性。例如，孤独拓荒女梳洗小羊照片有点搞怪意味，玩家更愿意将此发布在他们的消息墙。雷诺兹表示，“玩家希望我们制作同他们相关的玩笑”。虽然我希望能够自由定制这些“玩笑”，但其有趣提示确实是个不错方案。

故事内容

《FrontierVille》的另一特色功能就是融入叙述情节，但这最初并不在计划当中。团队从一开始就知道要在游戏中融入关卡元素，但直到他们开始思考如何串联这些关卡，故事理念才出现（游戏邦注：所以，玩家砍伐树木不是为了满足某配额要求，而是为了建造木屋，供丈夫或者妻子入住）。

游戏邦注：原文发布于2011年3月8日，文章叙述以当时为背景。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Five Features FrontierVille Discovered During Design

by Josh Sprague

FrontierVille was lauded as a big step up from FarmVille when it released, but it wasn’t a lot different from FarmVille when it was still on paper. Speaking at GDC2011, Zynga’s Chief Game Designer Brian Reynolds explained that the team had already decided on certain things they wanted to carry from the farm to the frontier. They would include the energy bar from FarmVille since that prevented the player from burning through the game too quickly. They would also make everything in the world clickable, especially when visiting friends. As well, they wanted exploring and reclaiming the wilderness to be a big part of the game.

While they had a few other features in mind, they quickly jumped off paper and into a playable game. As they put together a primitive version of the game, they began to make discoveries that would become the hallmark features of FrontierVille. Reynolds explained that the best features showed up after they started playing in the new frontier-themed sandbox they set up.

Doobers

Have you ever wondered what the name is for all the goodies that spill out of a tree or animal when you click on it in FrontierVille? Well, the team dubbed these things “Doobers” and the name stuck. Rather than just showing plain old numbers after completing an action, the team found out it was more enjoyable to see what came out and click up the rewards. This doober moniker carried over to CityVille as well and has become a standard feature in many games since.

Varmints

Initially, animals only showed up on the frontier when the player added friendly fauna like pigs, sheep and chickens. The team wondered what kinds of less lovable creatures might show up in the wilderness. So, they added a snake that would pop out when clearing away rocks and briars. In testing, players would jump and become a bit concerned when the snake appeared, but the concern would melt as they clobbered the snake and goodies popped out. One player even spent the rest of his day clearing weeds until he conquered every last snake on his property. So, while negative situations are typically avoided in social games, they found that a surprise challenge could turn out to be more fun.

Reputation

The FrontierVille team wanted players to visit each other a lot from the outset. However, they wanted to find a way to reward players for visiting and helping each other out. This is where the reputation system jumped in. Players would get hearts (read experience) for helping each other out and the more they helped (leveled), the more they were rewarded.

Humor in Feeds

Facebook status messages about lost animals worked for FarmVille, but the FrontierVille team found that adding a layer of humor to status messages made them even more viral. For example, a picture of a lone pioneer woman washing a sheep added some goofball charm that players more readily posted to their walls. Reynolds said, “Players want us to write their jokes.” While I would like to have some freedom to customize these “jokes,” I think they’re right about starting with a funny prompt.

Story

One of FrontierVille’s hallmark features was the inclusion of a narrative arc, but this wasn’t planned from the outset. The team knew they wanted quests to be part of the game from the outset, but it wasn’t until they started thinking of ways to tie these quests together that the idea of a story appeared. So, instead of just chopping wood to fulfill an arbitrary quota, you were chopping wood to build a cabin to get ready for your husband or wife to come.

What great features have you seen show up in games after play kicked off?（Source：socialgamestoday）