作者：Josh Bycer

光驱和云存储使今日的游戏玩家能够更容易地完成游戏。在NES时代，如果你想要打通游戏，就必须一直坐在主机前。在行业发展初期，硬驱使得RPG和电脑游戏首先采用游戏内保存的方法。对于其他种类的游戏来说，如果玩家足够幸运的话，游戏会设置密码保存选项。

随着游戏复杂化和技术的不断提升，保存从奢侈功能变成标准做法。然而，真正的执行存在多种不同的方式。有些游戏允许玩家在任何时间和地点保存游戏，而有些游戏只允许玩家在特定节点保存游戏。随着保存使用逐渐标准化，设计师可以增加游戏内容数量，因为他们知道玩家无需一次性打通游戏。今天，保存已经变成了设计过程的一部分，可用来正确地调控游戏节奏和挑战。于是，就产生了我们今天的讨论话题：保存系统是否应该纳入游戏设计，成为其中的一部分呢？

许多设计师尝试在他们的游戏中插入有意义的选择，比如《生化奇兵》中的little sister选择。玩家可以重新加载任何想要的选择，但这会降低做出重要选择的价值。很多玩家会在游戏中做出重大选择前设置独立的存档，这样如果选择错误便可以重回该点，做出其他的选择。

保存与游戏挑战也有所关联，如果玩家在游戏中的任何地点都可以保存，那么会破坏游戏的挑战性或气氛。在《失忆症：黑暗后裔》中，玩家可以在任何地点保存，也就等同于生命值数量无限，这完全破坏了游戏中的紧张感。但是，在玩该游戏的扩展包时，因为玩家无法保存而且只有1个生命，又会让玩家感到过于紧张，因为不知道前方会有什么在等待着自己。

保存可以用来作为提升游戏中紧张感和挑战的方法。《生化危机》系列从初作到第4代都设计了特定保存点，还限制玩家保存游戏的次数。玩家每次保存游戏都要使用打字机中的墨带。但是，游戏中墨带的数量是有限的。游戏的目标用户是专家级玩家，如果游戏能够随意保存和重载，那么必将失去挑战性。

但是，固定保存也会变成一个大问题。对多数成年人来说，空闲时间并不总是固定的，家庭事务、计划甚至工作都可能产生影响。在有些游戏中，保存点间间隔20到30分钟，并在两个保存点间设置检查点。问题在于，如贵哦他们需要外出的话，检查点并无法保存玩家的进程。

因为玩家外出处理事务而强迫他们重玩已经打通的关卡，这是否算是公平的做法呢？还有种更令人不悦的做法，游戏将保存点设置在多个部分之后，玩家必须在完成各部分内容后才能保存。游戏的长度和复杂性逐年增加，这也就意味着玩家需要在游戏中投入的时间也逐渐增加。这也正是手机和休闲游戏变得如此流行的原因所在：玩家很快便可以入手，可以用很短的时间来体验游戏，如果玩家因意外必须暂停游戏，损失的游戏进程也很少。

接下来，我将提出自己对这个话题的想法。我并非在A或B间做出选择，我打算呈现的是C选项。

我认为，“暂时保存”选项将成为设计的新标准。暂时保存在Rogue-like游戏中已得到广泛运用，除此之外，这样的游戏还使用了永久保存。游戏允许玩家在任何时刻保存游戏，但是保存后玩家就会退出游戏。当他们加载存档时，玩家就处在保存的位置上，同时存档会被删除。

这就使得玩家无需担心需要外出的事务会影响到他们的游戏进程，同时还能够保留有价值的游戏设计。游戏中仍然包含永久保存，但玩家也不会因为无法到达保存点而被迫丢失进程。

breath fired(from vidgamejournal.blogspot.com)

我玩过一款使用这个系统的游戏，那就是《Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter》。该游戏部分是Rogue-like游戏，部分是RPG游戏，游戏在设计时考虑到玩家将分多次来体验。玩家有个职衔排名，这会影响到他们在游戏期间能够访问的故事事件和版块。玩家每次打通游戏或被击败都有得分，他们的排名也会随之更新。而影响得分高低的细节因素之一便是玩家保存游戏的次数。

与早期版本的《生化危机》一样，玩家可以进行永久保存，但需要消耗1个保存符号，这种符号在游戏中是有限的。玩家也可以像我上文中描述的那样创建暂时保存。要在游戏中获得最佳的职衔，条件之一便是不能在游戏中进行任何永久保存。

这个系统的精妙之处在于，作为得分要素的保存行为依然是设计的一部分，但不会产生惩罚玩家的感觉。在挑战性和硬核体验方面，《恶魔之魂》和《黑暗之魂》都显得相当仁慈。这两款游戏都会不断在场景过后保存进程，玩家可以随时退出游戏，返回游戏时就处在退出的位置上。

现在，玩家可选择的游戏方式有很多：主机、掌机、手机和电脑。对许多人来说，空闲时间都是种宝贵的商品。如果能够做出选择的话，都希望能够玩些有机会取得进展的游戏。首先，他们要计划在什么时候玩游戏。

这便是本文最后要探讨的内容。你应该在做决定时考虑到最后一项因素：有多少人因为想要到达保存点而延误了本该睡觉的时间？我目前的记录是，为了打通《Rayman Origins》最后关卡玩到凌晨5点半，因为游戏没有保存点，我也不想从头开始玩整个游戏。（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）

Great Game Design Debate: Saves- Integral To The Design or Time Killers?

Josh Bycer

This is another one of those topics where I get to sound old at the age of 27. Gamers these days really do have it easy with their disk drives and cloud saves. Back during the NES era, if you wanted to finish a game, you were sitting there until the credits rolled. During the early days of the industry, saving during a game was reserved for RPGs and Computer games which were a step ahead with the hard drive. For everything else, you had to be lucky if your game had a password save. You youngsters out there are fortunate that you’ll never have to deal with a 30 character password system.

As games became more complex and technology improved, saving went from being a luxury feature, to now standard. However, the actual implementation has several variations. Some games allow the player to save at any point, while others only allow it at specific locations. As the use of saves became standard, it allowed designers to increase the amount of content knowing that someone won’t have to do it all in one sitting. Today, the act of saving has changed to be a part of the design process with how to properly pace and challenge games. This brings us to today’s debate: should saving be an integral part of the game design, or not?

A lot of designers are trying to inject meaningful choices into their games such as the little sister decision in Bioshock. Being able to reload any choice you want undervalues making important decisions. Raise your hand if you ever created a separate save in a game before a major choice so that you can go back to it and select the other one.

Another detail of saves is with challenge; games where the player can save anywhere can ruin the challenge or mood of the game. In Amnesia: The Dark Decent, with the ability to save anywhere and infinite lives, it killed the tension of the game for me. However, playing the mini expansion where the player can’t save and there is only one life, I was feeling nervous due to not knowing what’s going to happen.

Saving can be used as a way to jack up the tension and challenge in a game. The Resident Evil series up until 4 (if I remember right) not only had specific save points, but a limit on how often you could save a game. Each time the player wanted to save they had to use an ink ribbon at a typewriter. However, there was a limit of how many were in the game. Games aimed at expert gamers, lose a lot of their “bite” if you can just quick save and quick load your way out of trouble.

With that said however, fixed saving can be a major hassle to deal with. Free time as most adults know, is not always guaranteed: family emergencies, plans and even a job can get in the way. Some games have their save points anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes apart from each other with checkpoints dispersed between. The problem is that checkpoints won’t save the player’s progress if they need to go somewhere.

Is it fair to force people to replay sections they already beat because of outside issues? An even harder blow to take is having a save point after multiple sections and the player having to go before finishing the whole thing. The length and complexity of games has increased over the years which also mean the amount of time that has to be dedicated to play. That’s one of the reasons why mobile and casual games have become so popular: They’re quick to get into, can be played in short bursts and there is very little progress lost if the player has to stop all of a sudden.

Now this is the part where I normally talk about where my opinion falls on the topic, however I’m going to mix things up. Instead of deciding between A or B, I’m going to purpose option C, a way of having your cake and eating it too.

I purpose that the option of having a “temporary save” become the new standard for design. A temporary save which is used a lot in Rogue-likes, is that besides having a permanent save. The game allows the player to save at anytime, but upon saving the player quits the game. When they load the save up, they are right where they started and the save is deleted.

This will allow gamers to not have to worry about outside issues stopping them from playing while still preserving the game design. Games can still have permanent saves in select places, but the player is no longer forced to lost progress if they can’t reach a save point.

There is one game that I’ve played that used this system to great effect – Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. BoF is one part rogue like and one part RPG, in how the player is supposed to play it multiple times. The player has a rank that affects what story events, or sections they are allowed to visit during the game. Each time the player beats the game or is defeated, there score is tallied up and their rank is updated. One of the details that are factored in is how many times the player saves in the game.

Like the early Resident Evils, the player can make permanent saves, but at the cost of a save token which are limited in the game. Players can also create temporary saves in the same way I described further up. To get the best ranking in the game, one of the conditions is that the player cannot have any permanent saves in their run.

The beauty of this system is that the act of saving is still a part of the design by being a score factor, but at the same time it’s not punishing people for having a life. For such a challenging and hardcore experience, both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls are very lenient in this regard. Both games are constantly saving your progress behind the scenes and the player can quit out of the game at anytime returning to their exact position next time.

In today’s world there are numerous ways for people to play games: consoles, handhelds, phones and computers. Free time for many people is a precious commodity and if given a choice, will prefer to play something that they have a chance at making progress with. Instead of playing a game where they have to effectively plan out when they can play it beforehand.

And that takes us to the last part of these posts, what do you think? One last thing that should be factored in to your decision: How many of you have stayed up way past your bedtime to try and reach a save point before bed? My current late night record is being up to 5:30 in the morning to finish the final level of Rayman Origins. As there was no way in hell I was starting that one from scratch again. (Source: Gamasutra)