游戏设计基本原理

制作互动体验有些令人望而却步。本文我们将谈论游戏基本要素，这样当你自己动手开发时，就知晓下步要进行什么。

我们常在内化构思时碰壁。游戏构想通常是简单内容，内容制作以及判断从何处着手才是困难的部分。

就像作家工作方式不同一样，有些作曲家在脑中谱曲，有些则通过乐器，不同游戏设计师有不同工作方式。有些更擅长“编码”，有些习惯事前书面规划所有内容。有些从故事和叙述角度切入，有些主要是系统设计师。所以文章也许会同你的原有想法存在出入，这取决于你的性格。

下文主要采用游戏语言，但其实每条建议同样适用其他互动项目。所以这也适合教室活动、聊天室或其他应用开发项目。

游戏要素

首先要把握的是游戏由游戏组成。大型游戏通常包含许多迷你游戏。即便小型游戏也是由其他更小的游戏组成。规模最小的游戏通常简单和单调，玩家能够轻松完成。你可以将此当作“游戏原子”。

例如，在经典益智游戏《俄罗斯方块》中，基本游戏通常是争取更高积分。要获得成功，你需把握游戏基本轮廓。其中存在许多变式，玩家需学会放置各种砖块。最简单的游戏是旋转砖块，这只需一个按键，几乎不会出错。

有些游戏由游戏构成。这就引出第1条建议：

建议1：1次设计1个游戏

层层重叠的组合

即便你制作的是复杂游戏，由许多“游戏原子”构成，但每个原子本身就是款游戏，需包含趣味和满足感。即便是毫无挑战的简单内容也要给人予良好感觉。假设“点击按键，静观砖块旋转”的琐碎内容缺乏趣味，那么《俄罗斯方块》将是款非常糟糕的游戏。

很多游戏都在这个非常基础的层面上因设计糟糕遭到到破坏。例如，糟糕设计师会觉得偶尔出现不旋转的砖块也可行。毕竟我们会在赌场、棋盘和角色扮演游戏中融入随机运气，是吧？但这会让《俄罗斯方块》缺乏可玩性。

游戏原子

所以你要设计的是某个游戏原子。幸运的是，每个游戏原子都有相同特性：

* 玩家任务

* 对手预测反应

* 玩家获得反馈

* 玩家从反馈中学习，继续操作

你可以以抽象角度看待这些步骤：

* 输入

* 模型

* 反馈

* 精通

接着将此应用至《俄罗斯方块》中。在这个琐碎的“旋转砖块”层面，我们会看到：

* 玩家点击按键

* 电脑预测这意味着逆时针旋转L

* 玩家获悉砖块当前新位置

* 玩家认为：“我确信通过其他砖块我也能完成这个任务。或许某处有个顺时针旋转按键。旋转是我的目标！”

建议2：确保控制装置符合玩家所要进行的操作

在更高层次，我们会发现：

* 玩家可以左转、右转、下抛砖块、预览下个砖块。有许多选择。

* 电脑径直抛下砖块，或生成前所未有的砖块形状。

* 砖块向下移动。也许能够形成一排砖块，也许不能。

* 玩家会说：“啊！拼凑出直线砖块是我的目标，不同形状会促进或阻碍我实现这个目标！”

注意若某些步骤选择不当，游戏就会变得一塌糊涂。

* 玩家移动鼠标。

* 电脑认为这意味着旋转砖块

* 玩家看到的不是砖块，而是股票报价

* 玩家略显迷惑，然后退出。

建议3：确保玩家能够从你给出的反馈中学习。

趣味源自何处？

趣味源自掌握过程。但玩家掌握的是模式。所有游戏都是某种数学模型（游戏邦注：例如，我们通常将象棋比作战争）。

即使是一字棋之类的游戏也能够通过数学谜题呈现。循序渐进的资源管理游戏是微积分训练活动。玩家在角色创建中进行选择的RPG游戏其实是在探索可能空间，寻找局部最大极限，游戏总是向我们掩饰其真实面貌。

建议4：暂时不要思考游戏外观，而是想想其模型是什么。

潜在数学原理

所有这些听起来有些令人生厌，但不是数学极客才能充分享受游戏内容。诀窍是让砖块轻松下降。其实有些数学问题和模型更有趣。没有人会对需要反复计算“2X5=？”的游戏感兴趣。游戏涉及的应该是你常遇到，且试图探索不同解决方案的问题。

这意味着某些问题能够形成优质游戏内容。在数学领域，许多这类问题被称作困难问题。但你无需精通高等数学才能变成优秀游戏设计师。相反，你需问自己一些基本问题：

* 在哪里？

* 什么时候？

* 怎么样？

* 是什么？

* 通过什么方式？

* 目的是什么？

* 少数？

* 嘘。

上述内容似乎有些滑稽，但这是如下有关游戏原子问题的简要叙述。

* 是否需要准备迎接挑战？

准备包含先前的步骤？能否通过不同方式进行准备？

* 空间拓朴学是否有关系？

拓朴学是否发生变化？

* 挑战是否有核心动作？

这是否能够通过内容修改？

* 是否能够在此发挥不同技能？

是否需凭此获胜？

* 是否存在运用此技能的技巧？

或者这只是个基本UI行动？

* 是否存在多种成功状态？

无需采取秘密举措？是否有失败代价？

只有所有答案都是肯定，游戏原子才会富有趣味。是的，我们的意思是所有游戏原子都要符合这些标准。

建议5：基于上述列表检验所有目标、点击挫折、玩家活动和决定。

如何实现目标？

目前只有一个方式，建模和更新。不要仅瞄准图像，除非是考虑是否给予足够反馈。优质游戏通常能够通过各种道具体验。

你能够通过各种要素建模。我有“建模工具包”，因为我通常在进入编码前通过实物建模。这主要包含我能在手工店找到的东西：

* 两叠常规卡片。

* 一叠Uno卡片

* 一个西洋棋板

* 6个6面骰子

* 全套多面骰子

* 一堆不同颜色的索引卡

* 12磅不同颜色的珠子。到当地手工店的陶瓷区域——这些也就是能够放入鱼缸和盆栽的东西。

* 木制零件，也是来自手工店。这些在钟盘旁边：

—木制方箱，各种形状

—彩色平面四边形，3种尺寸

—木制鱼竿

—“抵押”零件

—木制芯片（圆形）

—各种圆形、六边形和星形

* 空白木制钟盘，你可以在上面绘制棋盘

* 木胶

* 砖子工具

* 方形玻璃芯片（游戏邦注：也是来自手工店）

但这些还是让很多人还是觉得过多。

建议6：观看他人体验你的游戏——你会很快发现自己何处未给予足够反馈，玩家在何处无法发现潜在模型。

最后想法

若你打算设计游戏，就大胆尝试。获得进步的唯一方式是不断尝试，游戏制作本身就是个有趣而多变的游戏。

游戏邦注：原文发布于2010年10月12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）

The Fundamentals of Game Design

I got a request via Twitter for this old essay which had fallen off the Internet, so I am posting it here. This was originally written for Metaplace users… there is nothing here new to anyone who has followed the blog for a while, but since it was requested, here it is.

The fundamentals of game design

Starting out creating an interactive experience, of any sort really, can be rather daunting. In this tutorial, we’ll run through the basic components of a game, so we can get a handle on what the next steps are when you make the jump from the training tutorials to your own projects.

Often people have trouble when conceptualizing a game. The idea, after all, is often the easy part. It’s actually making it, and figuring out where to start, that is the hard part.

A friendly warning, though! Just like writers have different ways of working, and some composers write music in their head and others at an instrument, different game designers are going to have different ways of working. Some work better “in the code” and others like doing everything on paper beforehand. Some think in terms of story and narrative, and others are systems designers first and foremost. So this tutorial may actually run a bit against the grain for you, depending on your natural temperament.

In what follows, I am going to use the language of games, but really, every piece of advice in this article applies equally if you are designing any sort of interactive project whatsoever. So just because I say “game” in what follows doesn’t mean this article won’t be useful to you when you start making a classroom experience or a chat room or some other application.

The components of a game

The first thing to understand is that games are made out of games. A large game is actually composed of minigames. Even a small game is built out of very very simple small games. The smallest games are ones that are so simple and stupid, you can’t lose. You can think of this as “game atoms,” if you like.

For example, in the classic puzzle game Tetris, the basic game is beating your high score. To beat that game, you have to master the game of forming lines. There’s actually multiple variants there, because you have to learn the games of placing all the different sorts of blocks. And finally, the simplest game is rotating a block, which is just a button and hard to screw up.

So games are built out of games. This brings us to key piece of advice #1:

Advice #1: Design one game at a time.

Turtles all the way down

Even if you are making a complex game, built out of many “game atoms,” each atom is a game in its own right, and has to feel fun and satisfying. Even the stupid ones with no challenge have to feel good. Imagine how poor a game Tetris would be if the stupidly trivial game of “press a button and watch the block spin” wasn’t satisfying.

Many games are ruined at this very fundamental level by poor design. For example, a bad designer might have decided that a random chance of the block not rotating would make sense. After all, we use random chance in gambling, board games, and roleplaying games, right? But it would make Tetris unplayable.

Game atoms

OK, so you’re going to design one of the game atoms. Luckily, every game atom has the same characteristics:

* A player does something.

* The opponent (which might be the computer) calculates a response

* The player gets feedback.

* The player learns from this feedback, and gets to do something again.

You can think of these steps in very abstract terms:

* Input

* Model

* Feedback

* Mastery

Really, that is it. Let’s apply it to our Tetris example again. At the trivial “rotate a block” level, we have

* A player hits a button.

* The computer calculates that this means rotate the L counter-clockwise.

* The player is given the feedback of the block in its new position.

* The player figures out “I bet I can do this with other sorts of blocks too. And there’s probably a rotate clockwise button somewhere. Rotating is my goal!”

Advice #2: make sure the controls match up well to what the player is attempting to do.

At a more advanced level we have

* A player can rotate left, right, drop a block, glance at the next block, etc. Lots of choices.

* The computer is going to take its turn and move the block further down regardless, or spawn a new block of a random shape if there isn’t one.

* The block moves down. Maybe it completes a line, maybe it doesn’t.

* The player says “aha! Completing lines is my goal, and different shapes help or hinder that!”

Notice that if any of these four steps is poorly chosen, the whole game sucks.

* A player moves the mouse.

* The computer figures this means rotate a block.

* The player is not shown the block, but instead a stock quote.

* The player is baffled and quits.

Advice #3: make sure the player can actually learn from the feedback you give them.

Where does the fun come from?

The fun comes from the mastery process. But what the player is mastering is the model. All games are mathematical models of something. We often speak, for example, of Chess being like war (we actually speak of lots of games as being like war!).

Even games like Tic-Tac-Toe are expressible as math puzzles. Games of resource management over time (like an RTS or Civilization) are exercises in calculus. RPGs where you make choices in character building are actually examples of exploring possibility spaces searching for local maxima… games lie to us all the time about what they are really about.

Advice #4: try to stop thinking about what your game looks like, for a moment, and think about what it is actually modeling.

The underlying math

All this sounds incredibly geeky, but you don’t have to be a math geek to enjoy games. The trick is to make the pill go down easy. And the fact is that some math problems and models are more interesting than others. Nobody is that interested in a game that pushes you to solve “2×5 = ?” over and over. It has to be a sort of problem that you can come to again and again, and explore possibilities looking for alternate solutions and paths.

This means that there’s a specific and highly varied set of problems that make for good games. In math, a lot of these problems are what is called NP-Hard problems. You don’t need to dig into higher mathematics to be a good game designer, though. Instead, you need to ask yourself a basic set of questions:

* Where?

* When?

* How?

* What?

* With?

* For?

* Few?

* Phooey.

This list seems facetious, but it’s a shorthand way of asking yourself the following questions about your game atom:

* Do you have to prepare for the challenge?

…where prep includes prior moves? …and you can prep in multiple ways?

* Does the topology of the space matter?

…does the topology change?

* Is there a core verb for the challenge?

…can it be modified by content?

* Can you use different abilities on it?

…will you have to in order to succeed?

* Is there skill to using the ability?

…or is this a basic UI action?

* Are there multiple success states?

…with no bottomfeeding? …and a cost to failure?

You have to answer yes to all of these for your game atom to be fun. And yes, we mean every atom in the game has to meet these criteria.

Advice #5: check this list for every goal, every objective, every button press, every action a user can take, every decision they make.

How do you get there?

There’s really only one way, right now. You prototype and iterate. Don’t get hung up on the visuals, except for worrying about whether you are giving enough feedback. The best games can be played using sticks and stones. (You can play most roleplaying games with pretty much any random chance generator, for example).

You can prototype with all sorts of things. I have a “prototype kit” because I often prototype using physical objects before going into the code. It consists mostly of stuff that I can pick up at a craft store:

* Two decks of regular cards.

* One deck of Uno cards.

* One Go board.

* One Checkers board.

* A half dozen six-sided dice.

* One full set of polyhedral dice.

* A large stack of differently colored index cards.

* Twelve pounds of differently colored beads. Go to the pottery aisle at your local craft store — these are the kind that get put in fish tanks and potted plants. It’s a bit more than a buck for a pound of one color.

* Wooden pieces, also from the craft store. These are found in the aisle with the clock faces:

—wood cubes, various sizes

—colored flat squares, three sizes

—dowel rods

—‘pawn’ pieces

—wooden chip (circles)

—assorted circles, hexagons, stars, etc

* Blank wooden clock faces that you can draw boards on.

* Wood glue

* Dremel tool

* Square glass chips (also from the craft store, asst colors)

But even that is overkill for most people.

Advice #6: watch others play your game – you’ll quickly see where you didn’t provide enough feedback, or where they can’t figure out the underlying model.

A final thought

Fundamentally, never forget that if you want to design, you have to just go do it. The only way to get better at it is to keep doing it, because gamemaking is in itself a great and varied game to play.（Source：raphkoster）