作者：Rondal

设计、插图、动画、创意指导……你真的就是个单人工作室，Michael。你如何让自己变得如此多才多艺？

哇哦，现在我不想回答这个问题，因为这听起来好像我接受你的赞美。

关于涉猎众多不同创意领域，我想这要归因于我对创意事物存在天然的激情。若我发现他人从我尚未涉猎的领域中有所收获，我会觉得自己好像错过什么。然后我就会进行尝试。我觉得就这么简单。而且我认为若你满怀激情投入某件事，最终大多会取得好结果。我不喜欢做事三心二意，我是个注重细节的人，因此若有内容看起来差强人意，我就清楚自己还需投入更多，直到我愿意将自己的名字放置其中。

你从事的工作很多涉及电子游戏行业——你是否是此类游戏的忠实玩家？

我收集的游戏作品多达上百款，包括30多种游戏掌机，4个街机设备，30多种原生街机PCB（游戏邦注：这是一种家用大型电玩的游戏机板）……所以可以这么说（笑）。自复古游戏变成现代游戏以来，我就开始收集这些作品。

从10岁开始，我就完全沉浸在游戏世界。我没有一天离得开游戏，或进行体验，或思考、阅读相关内容，或进行相关幻想。游戏行业是我的精神食粮。我从中收获许多，游戏属于虚构内容。我因着迷玩游戏，在学校常受同学欺负，老师对我也很不满，因为我只进行同游戏相关的项目，还被美术老师拧耳朵，因为我只画商业游戏角色，因为他说“画那些垃圾没有未来，孩子，还是画画花瓶！”

所以，是的，游戏就是我的生命。

可以列举几款你一直非常喜欢的游戏吗？

我是复古街机玩家，所以下面这些游戏对有些人来说可能非常古老，但依然有几款现代经典作品。

1. 《街头霸王 2》冠军纪念版（以及该作品的2D系列）

2. 《恶魔战士》系列

3. SNK的所有作品

4. 《异形战机》

5. 《海底大战争》

6. 《快打旋风》

7. 《大魔界村》

8. 《怒首领蜂大复活》

9. 《超级马里奥世界》

10. 《异形大战铁血战士》（是传统Capcom街机版本）

11. 《战斧》

12. 《绝对征服》

13. 《光晕》（原生版本）

14. 《杀戮地带 2》

15. 《荣誉勋章》（原生版本）

你上大学是为了成为美术设计师，但你真正感兴趣的是插图。毕业后你如何完成此过渡？

我非常幸运，我的学位课程是开放式的“Design”学位，一年后，学生可以自己调整课程内容，充分发挥自己的优势。所以大三时，我就把方向转到插图和摄影。坦白讲，我的课程非常薄弱，我的导师非常古板（游戏邦注：Michael称老师不允许他们在设计过程中使用电脑），但在大学最后一年，所有不幸都烟消云散，Pete Beard的出现给我们带来新希望。

Pete是位杰出的卡通插画家，且是位活跃的自由商人，他带来新的设计理念，简直就是上帝的恩赐。他同游戏行业联系密切，知识渊博，才华横溢，欣赏所有同样对插图怀有热情的人士，去年真的充满奇妙色彩的一年。我带着他的谆谆教导离开大学，满怀激情，希望成为一名插画家，我用8个月制作出我的首个专有角色。非常感谢Pete，他真是个传奇人物！后来又过了8年我才真正进入游戏行业。

作为插画家，哪些人给你带来深刻影响？

坦白讲，深刻影响我的人不多，但他们带给的灵感着实难以言表。一个传奇人物是Frank Frazetta，他是永远值得我们铭记的大师；还有尚在人世的John Howe；杰出插画师Paul Bonner；Genzoman以及Udon旗下的所有美术师。这些杰出人士总是能够很好拿捏情境、色彩、色调和纹理，令我可望而不可及。

今年初，你和Chris Wilson联合创建自己的独立游戏公司Joystick Generals。什么促使你们决定自己制作游戏？

制作自己的作品从一开始就是我们的梦想，我们只进行简短交流，就决定一起创办公司。坦白讲，我们彼此都忙于自己的外包工作，合创公司一直都没有消息。说起来非常惭愧，但我猜这就是世道常情。

我决定2012年开始自己的探索之旅，投入2-3个月时间构思大型游戏项目，这是我毕生的梦想。我的目标是勾勒故事情节、游戏世界、角色和基本机制。然后将此构思展示给我业内好友/合伙人，看看他们是否有兴趣进行进一步开发。同几家公司的早期沟通令我受益匪浅，所以目前我锁定这片市场。

目前你们的公司处于静止状态，但你们今年是否有计划推出什么作品？

恐怕没有，我们的外包工作排到2011年底，实在非常惭愧。

《超人小猪大战屠夫》是款很棒的游戏，我们非常享受其中。游戏头年就获得75万次下载量，表现异常突出。我们希望通过更新内容融入更多元素（游戏邦注：如关卡、武器和战役模式），但外包工作依然是今年的主导。希望2012年能够有新作品问世！

你觉得游戏开发最困难的部分是什么？

真实感（笑）。我觉得每款游戏一开始都是宏幅巨制，然后慢慢由于时间按限制逐步削减。我们原本也计划在《超人小猪大战屠夫》中融入许多内容，但最终时间有限。我想多数开发者都清楚这点。

作为提供全套服务的工作室，你无疑在移动游戏领域给自己开创一片细分市场。是否能够细述其中一款具有代表性的作品——你们从何处着手？

我通常最先从品牌着手。这里主要塑造的是主题形象、气氛和基调。这通常同角色设计互相渗透，这样二者就能够相互影响，无需事后再进行补充。所以，我通常会在一份陈述囊括二者，向客户呈现。仅呈现一个角色不够，这样角色就只是角色，无法构成其他内容的组成部分。同品牌和整体色调一同呈现，能够带来统一性，让客户看到构思的根本要素。

只要此部分确定，我们就能够着手游戏的其他内容，根据我的经验，后面的内容通常能够顺利完成。网站和宣传资料等内容通常会在项目末期自然产生。我所说的“自然”是指这些内容通常由游戏要素、色彩基调和品牌构成。这意味着所有视觉工作都已完成，网站顺利诞生。到项目末期，你就能够得到连贯体验，其中各元素都密切联系。

杰出游戏角色的基本特点是什么？

在我看来，只有一点。角色需要能够立即引起情感共鸣，或“嗯，不那么可爱”，或“他看起来有些卑鄙”，或是简单的“酷极了”。所以若玩家/用户/观看者在角色形象中投入情感，他们就会立即同其建立联系。联系必不可少，因为缺乏此要素，玩家会毫无感觉，不会进一步深入。若你能够深入某人的情感，在我看来，你就创建起真正的联系。

若你能够消灭某电子游戏恶棍，会是谁，你会怎么做？

Robotnik，他是个超重的巨人。他需同《快打旋风》的Haggar在封闭室内共处一小时，有什么比同留着小胡子，只穿裤子，还挥着大烟斗的愤怒健美先生共处一室更可怕。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

From Gamer to Game Designer – Interview with Michael Heald from Fully Illustrated

By Rondal

Design, illustration, animation, creative direction… you really are a one man shop, Michael. How did you become so talented?

Wow, now I don’t think I want to answer this one as it will make me sound as though I agree with your compliment (laughs).

As far as being able to dip my toe into different creative disciplines, I think this was born through my ridiculously overeager enthusiasm for just about everything creative. If I see something that I haven’t tried before and I can see other people getting great results from it, I feel as though I’m missing out. I then end up on a mission to try my hand at it. It’s kinda that simple I think. I also think that if you go headlong into something with a passionate (and stubborn) outlook then good things seem to sprout from that. I never like settling for anything half arsed, and am a stickler for detail, so if something doesn’t look good enough, I know I need to put more work in until I’m willing to put my name to it.

A lot of the work you do is related to the video game industry– are you a pretty big gamer?

My games collection stands in the hundreds, I have over 30+ games consoles, 4 arcade machines and over 30 original arcade PCB’s… so you could say that, yeah (laughs). I’ve been collecting retro games since they were modern games.

Literally since the age of about 10 (maybe younger actually as I was obsessed with my Donkey Kong 2 game and watch) I have been totally engrossed in the world of games. I don’t think one day has passed where a game hasn’t featured in my daily life either being played, thought about, read about or dreamt about. The games industry is my own personal soul food. I draw so much from it, it’s unreal. I was bullied throughout school for being a gamer (back when it wasn’t cool to be a gamer) in trouble off my teachers for only ever making my personal projects games related and always getting ear ache from my art tutors for drawing commercial games characters because “there’s no future in that rubbish boy, now go draw that flower pot!”.

So yes, games are, for want of a better term… my life.

What are a few of your all time favorite games (past or present)?

Being predominantly a retro/retro arcade gamer this list will look quite old to most, but there are some modern day classics in there too…

1. Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition (and just about every 2D SF2/3 title ever made)

2. The Darkstalkers series

3. Just about everything published under SNK

4. R-Type

5. In the Hunt

6. Final Fight

7. Ghouls n Ghosts

8. DoDonPachi Resurrection

9. Super Mario World

10. Aliens vs Predator (The old Capcom arcade game, not the modern incarnation)

11. Golden Axe

12. Vanquish

13. Halo (the original)

14. Killzone 2

15. Medal of Honor (the very first one, man that was amazing back in the day)

You attended university to become a graphic designer, but your real passion is illustration. How did you go about making that transition after school?

Well I was VERYlucky in that my degree course was an openly titled ‘Design’ degree and after your first year you could tailor your course to play to your strengths. So, by my 3rd year I’d channeled my degree to illustration and photography. In all honesty, my course was very weak and my tutors were VERY old school (let’s just say that you got seriously chastised for using computers by the head of design!) but in my last year the dark clouds parted and ray of sunshine shone through… Pete Beard.

Pete was a classical cartoon illustrator that was still highly active as a trade freelancer and came in as the new head of design… what a god send. He was in touch with the industry (he used to work for Cosgrove Hall!), knew just about all there was to know, was insanely talented and just LOVED anyone that had a passion for illustration… it was a magical last year. With his spectacularly wonderful guidance I left Uni with massive drive to become an illustrator and within 8 months landed my first dedicated role. Thanks Pete, you’re a legend! With all that said, it took me a further 8 years until I finally broke into the games industry…remember when I mentioned passionate and stubborn?

As an illustrator, who are some of your biggest influences?

In all honesty my biggest influences make up quite a small list, but my goodness do they inspire me beyond words… the legend that was Frank Frazetta, the man was, is and always will be a fantasy god; the alive and kicking John Howe; the epic Paul Bonner; the insanely crisp lines of Genzoman and just about every artist that is employed under the Udon label. These guys have such a breathtaking grasp of mood, colour, tone and texture that they will always give me something to strive toward.

Earlier this year you and Chris Wilson co-launched your very own indie games company, Joystick Generals. What inspired the decision to begin developing your own games?

Making our own games has been a dream since the beginning and it was just a passing conversation that made it happen. In all honesty, we are both so busy with contract work that our ventures have ground to a halt. This is such a shame, but the way of the world I guess.

I’m personally stepping out into a voyage of self discovery in 2012 and dedicating 2-3 months into building a huge game concept that has been a lifelong dream of mine. The aim is to outline the story, world, characters and gameplay basics. This is all in a view to pimp out the concept to some of my games industry friends/associates to see who’d be interested in taking it further. I’ve already had a huge amount of interest in my early talks with couple of companies, so watch this space.

With things coming to a halt, are there any other games planned for release this year?

I’m afraid not as our contract work has totally soaked up 2011, it’s a real shame.

Super Turbo Action Pig was a great little journey and one we enjoyed thoroughly. It drew in just over 750,000 installs in its first year so it did pretty darn well. There is a lot we wanted to add into that game via updates (levels, weapons, and a full campaign) but again, contract work took precedence this year. Hopefully 2012 will see the dawn of a new game!

What have you found to be the most difficult aspect of game development?

Reality (laughs). I think every game starts out as an epic, and then slowly but surely gets chopped back more and more due to time restraints. We had SO much planned for Super Turbo Action Pig, but time just took over in the end. I’m sure most dev’s will understand this.

You’ve definitely created a niche for yourself in mobile games as a full service studio. Can you walk us through a typical project like this– where do you begin?

I always start with the brand, first and foremost. This is the point where you create the overall image, atmosphere and tone. This is usually done in tandem with the character design so that one can influence the other without either one being an afterthought. In so, I always present both of these aspects together in one presentation to my clients. Just showing a character isn’t enough, its just a character, and doesn’t form part of anything or anywhere. Presented with the brand and an overarching colour palette, it creates a degree of unity and allows the client to see the roots of your vision.

Once this is settled and signed off, we move onto the rest of the game, which generally comes together pretty smoothly from my experience. Things like the website and promotional material come together very organically at the end of the process. I say organically as these elements are all made up from the game assets, colour palettes and branding. This means that all the visual groundwork is done and that the website naturally grows out of this world. By the end of the whole process you have a thoroughly congruent experience where each element feels like part of the other.

What are a few of the essential characteristics that make for a great game character?

There is only one in my opinion. The character needs to immediately evoke an emotional response, be it “awww, isn’t he cute,” “wow, he’s pretty mean” or plain and simply “man that’s cool.” So if the player/user/viewer can attach a personal emotion to the image, they are immediately connected to it in one way or another. That connection is essential as without it the player feels nothing and is unlikely to look further. If you can tap into a person’s emotions then, in my opinion, you’ve made a true connection.

If you could frag any video game villain, who would it be and how would you do it?

Robotnik, as lets face it, he’s a big overweight bunny boiler. He needs to spend an hour in a locked cell with Final Fight’s Haggar, as lets face it, what’s scarier than an hour in cell with an angry moustachioed bodybuilder wearing nothing other than trousers, braces and brandishing a massive pipe.

Thanks for your time, Michael, really appreciate it. Frag on!

Boom! Thanks for the interview Rondal, keep up the good work!（Source：startfrag）