作者：Ryan Langley

最近，随着基于PC和平板电脑的Windows 8的问世，Halfbrick也面向这一平台推出了他们的两款游戏，而我刚好有幸参与了设计过程。

每一个游戏平台都具有其“怪癖”，就像Xbox Live Arcade对菜单的特定要求，Android设备具有各种各样的分辨率和处理器等，而Windows 8所具有的独特资产也将它与其它竞争对手区别开来。任何一名优秀的设计师都应该重视这些资产，而这也是我希望在本篇文章中着重讨论的内容。

对于设计师们来说，Windows 8是一个非常棒的系统。这些新资产让我能从一个不同的角度思考像《水果忍者》以及《火箭飞人》等游戏在Windows 8上的运行，并让我能够为这两款游戏而探索一些全新的类型。让我们着手进行游戏设计吧！

捕捉视图

基于Windows 8，任何应用在使用全新的Windows UI时都应该遵守一个规则，即必须支持16:9的宽屏，4:3的全屏以及1:4的捕捉视图。而在平板电脑设备上，用户则可以同时基于全屏和捕捉视图去体验应用，从而创造了一种全新的多任务处理类型。

这一点对于许多应用都非常有利——能够帮助Twitter，Facebook和Messenger等应用摆脱台式电脑的狭小窗口，而更完美地呈现在用户面前，但是对于游戏又有何帮助呢？我们需要好好思考这一问题。

Fruit Ninja（from gamasutra）

《水果忍者》一直都是呈现出全屏的游戏模式，狭小的空间不适合其游戏玩法。对于应用来说，捕捉视图便是在“暂停”应用时所出现的画面。但是这并不是你当下需要关注的焦点，如此《水果忍者》的捕捉视图会是怎样的？

在这款游戏的用户预览版本中，我们创造出了最最无聊的例子，即一个不断跳跃的《水果忍者》logo。很多人都抱怨这一点都不有趣！但是不得不说这是最简单的做法，那时候的我们实在没辙了，也只能采取这种最快捷的方法。

不过我们真心希望能够做得更好。之前，随着Windows 8的发布日期逐渐逼近，我们只能挪出1周左右的时间致力于捕捉视图模式的创造工作，所以我便开始基于Windows 8的屏幕在Photoshop上制作一些实物模型。

如果屏幕中呈现出《水果忍者》的统计数据会是怎样的情况？比起其它游戏（像《火箭飞人》），我们并未在《水果忍者》中进行这种尝试，但是或许这会非常有趣。还是呈现出Sensei的“Fruit Facts”？将“暂停”屏幕变成一个不停变化的日历可能会非常生动。或者还有其它更棒的想法？

人们为什么玩《水果忍者》？有时候只是为了消磨时间——基于一些简单的动作，这款游戏能够帮助玩家缓解日常工作或生活中的压力。也许我们可以利用这一点？所以我们便最终创造出了“减压”模式。当面向Windows 8的《水果忍者》处于捕捉视图中，玩家们便能够看到这一有趣的模式。即我们创造了一个布满水果的传送带，让玩家可以在任何闲暇时间切下任何水果。没有记分，没有成就，只要切开就行。“诶，我快被这些文书搞疯了！让我切些水果缓解下心情吧！”这便是我们想要呈现给玩家的内容。

Fruit Ninja（from gamasutra）

而对于《火箭飞人》，我们则希望保持最初的游戏理念——简单地输入所有内容。现在像《火箭飞人》等游戏在数据追踪方面做得比《水果忍者》出色多了，但是我们同样也希望将《水果忍者》中所使用的“简单但却与众不同”的方法带进这些游戏中。

在设想了各种类型的理念后，包括Barry（游戏邦注：《火箭飞人》的主角）垂直逃离实验室并直线飞向太空等，我们决定换个环境。即我们创造了一间“休息室”，让所有科学家可以在此履行他们的职责。

Jetpack Joyride（from gamasutra）

新添加的最简单的游戏玩法便是Flash——我们在最初配件更新时添加的一只机器狗。在此Flash将跟在科学家身后奔跑着，玩家还可以通过点击鼠标让它发出叫声，吓跑任何靠近的人。

Jetpack Joyride & Fruit Ninja（fromgamasutra）

开始屏幕图层

图层便是Windows 8的另外一个独特之处。比起在《水果忍者》中只设置1个图标，现在开发者可以在此设置多达5个图标，并通过切换不同图标而揭示更多有关应用的信息。

Fruit Ninja（from gamasutra）3

许多日常应用都在利用这一图层功能，包括浏览电子邮件，呈现每天的天气等等。而对于《水果忍者》，我们决定通过4个额外的图层去告诉玩家他们当前的活动——在Classic，Zen以及Arcade模式中的最高分数，而Sensei的“Fruit Fact”可以在每次应用开始时发生改变。

Fruit Ninja（from gamasutra）

尽管Windows 8在活动图层中设有一些文本模版，但是这些模版却不适合《水果忍者》相对凌乱的外观。所以最终我们选择了较大的图层，并使用我们自己的字体将文本内容直接植入这一图层。结果看起来不错，所以说投入的时间还是有价值的。

而在《火箭飞人》中我们则遵循了不同的方法——我们创建了一些场景模型，将文本设置于这些模型之后。而为了做到这一点我们为玩家设定了3个有效的当前任务。我们基于文本上的不同环境和位置以及一些有效的细节创造了一组模型。并最终选定了3个模型以及一个用于呈现玩家当前最高分数的模型。

（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）

Developing Fruit Ninja And Jetpack Joyride For Windows 8

by Ryan Langley

With the recent release of Windows 8 for PCs and Tablets, Halfbrick have also released their two biggest titles on the platform as well, and I had a part in the design!

Every game platform has its quirks — Xbox Live Arcade has specific menu requirements, Android devices have the numerous resolutions and processors to deal with, but Windows 8 has some unique additions that differentiate it from the competition. These additions also require a good designer mind to work with, which is what I’ll be talking about in this article.

From a designer’s perspective Windows 8 was pretty cool to work with. These new additions had me think differently about how a game like Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride could work within Windows 8, and allowed us to explore some new styles for both of the games. Let’s explore those designs!

The Snap View

So for Windows 8 any application that uses the new Windows UI has a rule — they must support widescreen (16:9), full-screen (4:3) and snap view (1:4). On a tablet device users can use an app in both fullscreen and snap view at the same time, allowing for a new type of multi-tasking on a tablet.

This sort of thing is great for a lot of apps — It’ll work flawlessly for Twitter, Facebook and Messenger apps which already use smaller windows on a desktop, but for games? That requires some rethinking.

Fruit Ninja has always been a full screen game, it’s never had to work in such a small space before and normal gameplay just wouldn’t work out. For applications the snap view is for when you’ve put the application “on hold”, so to speak. It’s not your current focus. So what can Fruit Ninja be if it’s not in focus?

In the consumer preview version of Fruit Ninja we had the most boring example you could think of — a bouncing Fruit Ninja logo. Whoop-de-do, that’s not fun at all! But it was simple, we had nothing else at the time and we needed something fast to be in that version.

But we wanted to do better. With the current Windows 8 release date looming we could only budget out roughly a week to work on the snap view mode, so I began to start doing some mockups in Photoshop using Windows 8 screens. Other examples had been boring, or just what you’d expect — what could we do for Fruit Ninja?

What if the screen went through your Fruit Ninja statistics? We hadn’t really had much in terms of that in the game compared to out other title Jetpack Joyride, but it could be interesting. Maybe go through Sensei’s Fruit Facts? That’s a nicer “pause screen”, almost like an ever changing quote-a-day calendar. What else?

What do people play Fruit Ninja for? Sometimes it’s just to pass the time by — simple actions, to relief stress of their daily work life. What if we could harness that? What we ended coming up with is “Stress Relief” mode. Put Fruit Ninja for Windows 8 into snap view and you get this cool little extra. The game creates a carousel of Fruit for the player to play with, and they can just slice fruit at their leisure. No score, no achievements, just slice. “Grr, all this paperwork is making me mad! Gotta slice some fruit to calm myself down!” that sort of thing.

From initial mockup to implementation the whole concept worked as I had hoped. We had previously used a carousel for another special mode so we were able to use that — just slightly modifying it to include the games’ name on the backing. And it works great! It’s fun to just watch Fruit go up the screen and just slice a few every couple of minutes.

For Jetpack Joyride we wanted to keep within the game’s original ideals — single input for everything. Now a game like Jetpack Joyride deals with stat tracking better than Fruit Ninja has, but we also wanted to bring the same “simple but different” approach we did with Fruit Ninja.

After a few slightly overscoped ideas, including Barry escaping vertically from the laboratory and flying into space to witty one-liners, we decided to focus on not Barry for a change. Instead, we made the “break room”, where all the scientists get to walk around doing their scientific duties.

The simple gameplay addition was Flash, the robot dog that was added to the game in the original Gadgets update. Here Flash can run and jump after scientists, and clicking the mouse will make him bark and scare those in close proximity.

The Start Screen Tile

Another unique Windows 8 thing is the tile. Instead of just one icon in Fruit Ninja, you can have up to five — switching every so often to reveal information about your application.

Most cases for the tiles are fore more everyday applications — flipping through your mail, giving you details on the day’s weather, that sort of thing. For Fruit Ninja  we decided on four extra tiles which can tell you more about your current activity — your top score for Classic, Zen and Arcade modes pop through on the screen, and a Sensei’s Fruit Fact that can change with each restart of the app.

While Windows 8 has some templates for text in live tiles, they didn’t suit the messy look of Fruit Ninja very well. So instead we made the game use a large tile and implant the text directly onto it with our own fonts. And it looks way better — well worth the extra time.

For Jetpack we went a slightly different route — we made some scene mockups of the game in action with the ability to place some text behind it. For this we went for the three current missions available to the player. We made a bunch of mockups of different settings and placements for the text and what details would be available. We eventually settles on three, as well as an additional title for your current high score.

It was fun to come up with some neat little twists for some of our most popular titles. We also showed them off prominantly in our Windows 8 trailer! The majority of the work was thanks to Rich, Pete, Grant and Zac who all busted their arses to get it all up and working for the first day of Windows 8 being available! Amazing work, guys.(source:GAMASUTRA)