作者：Samuel Rantaeskola

过去我是一种叫做福乐球的瑞典运动的教练。而这些经历对于我后来变成制作人具有很大的帮助。之后我又开始琢磨着是否要重拾教练的行业。因为我想知道在制作过程中所学到的内容是否也能应用于体育运动中。

如果我是足球教练，我便会采取新的方法去发展游戏。我将在足球游戏中使用时间表。并且为了更好地阐述想法，我将简化某些条件。我们将假设从自己控球而开始比赛。我便是基于这种方法去计划第一个目标，并且在这种情况下我们只需要2名球员，即John和Pete。

soccerplan(from gamasutra)

只要John和Pete能理解并执行这一计划，我们的目标便能够实现。

但是事实上这却是一种愚蠢的做法，并且不能获得成功。在进入游戏几秒钟后事情便开始发生改变，而我们则不得不修改计划。而为了确保这种计划顺利执行，我们便需要清楚如何将其有效地传达给球员，让他们清楚下一步该做些什么。而因为我们拥有11个对手以及1个以上的反方教练，所以我们的计划很容易被打破。

没有一个正常的教练会将游戏分割成一些小任务，并在游戏过程中不断维护着自己的计划，要知道系统中总是包含着各种不确定性。这种方法便不可能在足球比赛中发挥作用。足球教练主要依靠于各种指示以及一些能够在不同情境下重复的简单策略。他们将基于球员所执行的框架并根据情境的改变而做出决策。通常情况下团队中都会有1或2名主要球员能够发挥自己的独特能力而有效地推动比赛的发展。

当计划创造一款足球游戏后，我们便需要履行一系列的标准，以下便是最重要的3大标准：

灵活性

计划必须能够反应我们对当前现实的认知。现实将会发生改变，而计划就必须具有可调节性，从而让我们不会被束缚在一些无用且不能改变的游戏计划中。

传达性

计划必须足够简单，让我们能够轻松地传达给团队中的其他成员。当现实发生改变时，我们也必须能够将计划中的改变传达给别的成员。

可理解性

团队成员需要理解为什么计划能够引导他们走向最佳结果。如果团队不能理解计划的目的，他们便不可能使用最佳判断力去适应不同的情境。

管理游戏开发成员与创造足球游戏具有很多共同点。这里存在具有各种技能的开发者团队，他们能够在各自的领域中做出决策。随着新游戏的出现，游戏领域将发生改变，而消费者也会倾向于不同领域。并且随着开发过程的推进，总是会出现一些极具创意的成员能够发觉一些新的发展方向。

如果你的方法或计划并不能满足上述的标准，你的团队将会遭遇破裂。更糟糕的是，如果团队成员不能理解计划的目的，他们所做出的决策将不具有任何意义。所以为了成功地创建一个团队，你就必须确保目标具有结构性，即使删除了某一“零部件”也不会彻底摧毁它。

明确一个清晰的目标以及一些能够影响计划的动力，我们便能够使用线性方法去制定一个有效的计划。但是当不确定性和利益相关者数量不断增加时，我们也需要确保这些策略能够反应这种变化。如此，我们便需要将传达计划作为一种策略，并训练团队成员能够在自己本责中积极地工作，而不再依赖于直接指令。

（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）

The Game Plan: 1 minute and 30 seconds into the game you should….

by Samuel Rantaeskola

In my past I’ve been coaching youngsters in a Swedish sport called floorball. A lot of my experiences from that time have been very useful in my role as a producer. Lately I’ve been toying with the thought of picking up coaching again. I’m curious to find out if there are any lessons learnt in producing that can be applied to sports.

If I choose to go for soccer coaching, I’ve been considering a new approach that might revolutionize the game. I’m going to apply scheduling on soccer games. To explain my idea I need to simplify the conditions. We could assume that we start the game with the ball in our possession. This is the way I would plan how to score the first goal, and in this case we only need 2 players, John and Pete.

The snapshot of reality at the start of the game tells me that this plan will succeed, as long as John and Pete understand and execute it.

Of course this is folly and has no chance of succeeding. Just a few seconds into the game things will have changed and the plan needs to be revised. For a plan like this to work it needs to communicable as well, I need a method on how to communicate the plan to the players so that they are aware of what to do next. We have eleven opponents and one or more coaches on the other side doing their best to make my plan fail.

No coach in their right mind would attempt to break down a game into small tasks, and attempt to maintain the plan during the game; the system contains too much uncertainty. Applying this method to soccer would not work. Soccer coaches rely on broad instructions, and simple repeatable strategies that can be used in different situations in a game. Within that framework the players operate, making decisions as the situation changes. It’s also quite common that there are one or two star players in the team as well that are operating quite freely, opening up opportunities with their unique ability to read the game.

When setting up a plan for a soccer game it needs to fulfill a number of criteria, three especially important are:

Flexible

The plan is the reflection of our current perception of reality. The reality will change and the plan needs to be easily adjustable, so that we are not locked into a game plan that is failing but can’t be changed.

Communicable

The plan must be simple enough that it’s possible to communicate it to the team. It must also be easy to communicate changes in the plan to the team as reality is changing.

Understandable

The team needs to be able to understand why the plan will lead to the best possible outcome. If the team doesn’t understand the purpose of the plan they will not be able to use their own best judgment to adapt to situations.

Game development has a lot in common with a soccer game. There is a skilled team of developers that are capable of making decisions within their area. Most likely the game field will be changing all the time as new games are coming out and consumer trends are shifting. There are also often a number of exceptionally creative people that will realize new paths as development moves along.

If the method and plan doesn’t meet the above criteria there is a single point of failure in the team. Even worse is that people’s decision making will be crippled, due to their limited understanding of the purpose. To build a successful team the goal must be to create a machinery that can run even if you remove a cog.

With a well-defined goal and few forces affecting the plan, a linear approach to planning might work. But, when uncertainty and number of stakeholders increases the chosen tactic should reflect that. In those cases we have to work on conveying the plan as a strategy, coach team members to works constructively within the boundaries rather than relying on direct instructions.(source:gamasutra)