作者：Stephanie Carmichael

文字冒险是某些电子游戏的初期形态。但自从《Hunt the Wumpus》和《Adventure》以来，文字冒险已经有了长足的进步。现在，文字冒险类型中幸存下来的就是视觉小说和游戏书—-两类非常小众的游戏，大多数人把它们与海量阅读联系起来。他们为这个想法感到不安，随后便开始探索《上古卷轴5：天际》了。

除了名称，这些游戏也并非全部关于文字。也许更应该把它们归类为交互小说。名称上的误解会影响销量，所以强调其多功能性和灵活性可能是决定该类游戏的未来能否成功的关键。

视觉小说的严峻形势

Xseed Games多多少少知道在美国发行视觉小说具有什么优势和挑战。

“与好书类似，当读者发挥自己的创意在头脑中补全书中的情节空隙时，（视觉小说）就可以把读者完全吸引到虚拟世界中。”Xseed和Marvelous U.S.A.的执行副总裁Ken Berry表示：“特别是在恐怖类型的视觉小说。日本的视觉小说尤其成功，给读者带来前所未有的恐怖体验。”

第一款本土化的恐怖游戏《尸体派对》于2011年发布，但它的续作《影之书》却没有那么成功。Berry认为那是因为续集列改变了视角，从玩角控制屏幕上的角色变成更加类似于传统的视觉小说—-直接的互动和玩家输入更少，玩家并不喜欢这样。

Corpse-Party(from fanpop)

低销售预测一定程度上使Xseed放弃本土化更多这种游戏，如《Anata wo Yurusanai》，其题目翻译成英文是“I will not forgive you。”（“你不可饶恕”）。

Berry提到：“那是个有趣的故事，分支剧情取决于玩家输入，传奇音乐人树植伸夫（游戏邦注：他是《最终幻想》系列的作曲人）负责该游戏的音乐。”发行商放弃它是因为翻译量大大超过Xseed的预计。

公司如何解决这些“西化”问题？

Berry解释道：“老实说，我真的不知道。日式漫画在日本的流行程度超过美式漫画在美国的流行程度。但两个国家都有用图像叙述故事的传统。日本借助数字技术进一步发展了漫画行业，但我认为没有多少欧美公司也这么做，所以也许这只是一个更倾向于那种叙述方式的问题。”

许多开发者在视觉小说中补充了动作和益智题的简单图片，以打破冗长的阅读过程；如Aksys的热门游戏《999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors》和Capcom的《Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney》系列。然而，这种做法也许对通常包含日式漫画桥段的视觉小说（如滥用高校背景和雌雄同体的角色等）帮助不大。除了冗长的文字，因为许多欧美玩家并不熟悉这些日式漫画的设定，这可能阻碍他们从这些游戏中发现乐趣。

未来的希望

一家名为Tin Man的不知名墨尔本工作室正在不顾一切地打破阅读与游戏之间的界限。

最近，该工作室在Android平台上（去年发布的iOS大获成功）发布了数字化“游戏书冒险”《Judge Dredd: Countdown Sector 106》，并且与位于圣地亚哥的Black Chicken工作室合作，在Kickstarter网站上成功获得《Holdfast》项目的融资。它的手机游戏《Trial of the Clone》改编自Zach Weiner（游戏邦注：此人是网络漫画《Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal》的作者）的作品， 加入了极客偶像Wil Wheaton（也就是《Star Trek: The Next Generation》中的Wesley Crusher）的配音。这是推广游戏的绝好例子，特别是在这个电子书籍正在改变我们与文字的互动方式的时代。

与视觉小说一样，游戏书冒险也不仅仅是阅读，Tin Man的数字版游戏书省略了许多传统的“选择你自己的冒险”的纸笔工作，将体验直接呈现在现代玩家面前。

Neil Rennison在创办Tin Man和制作游戏书引擎以前，就已经有很深入的想法。他成立了Fraction工作室，它曾推出成功的赛车游戏如《极品飞车》。“我对80年代的游戏书总是抱有特别的情素。”他解释之所以要转移工作焦点，就是因为他需要改变。“它们是第一种方便携带的游戏。在没有任天堂DS的假期旅行里，我带上许多游戏书、骰子和笔。”

他最喜欢的系列是《战斗幻想》。他第一次玩的是Ian Livingstone的《死亡地牢》。他透露道：“我们其实正在准备发行游戏书，并获得了版本。我们打算今年发行。这真的是个让人激动的时刻。”

Tin Man改编了其它《战斗幻想》系列的游戏书，如《僵尸之血》和《殿阎罗》，增加了书签、成就系统和其他特征。这些可能听起来像是老游戏的点缀，但Rennison提醒我们这些游戏和其他文字冒险游戏对整个游戏媒体产生的重大影响。

“奇怪的是，在现代电子游戏中，你要做的决定基本上与文字冒险游戏是一样的，只是没有写出来罢了。在前者中，主要是动作的形式，比如按哪个键，进入哪间3D房间。”

“即使文字冒险是一种很老的类型，但仍与现代的游戏设计原则息息相关。我甚至可以说，它们为现代游戏的运动设计打下坚实的基础。”

现在，游戏书正在从它们曾经启发过的游戏类型中借用元素。Kickstarter项目《Holdfast》，叙述了“矮人的复仇”，其融资结果大大超过原目标的2万美元。它的系统仿照了RPG，以新的形式借鉴了RPG类型。

吸引更广泛的受众，是个严峻的挑战，且只有一条出路。

迎接新时代

领导这场革命的不只是Tin Man。A Sharp于1999年推出“故事策略游戏”《龙城之王》，2011年的改进版的下载量超过30000。在新版本中，不仅增加了新互动场景和游戏中心的成就，还简化了玩法和解决了漏洞问题。用户体验更好了，比如玩家可以随时看到指南，增加了“牲畜”类，而不是羊和猪。

此外还有很多新内容，就像在视觉小说和游戏书冒险中一样。设计师David Dunham写道：“至少5年里不会出现随机重复的场景。”

那真是海量文字，但《龙城之王》首先是一款游戏。所以文字并不会阻碍开发者。

“事实上，阅读是一个巨大的挑战，因为显然，很多人都不喜欢阅读。但它在阅读和玩这两方面都没问题，因为它是一款游戏……可以帮助某些人克服阅读的障碍。”

为了克服这个障碍，必须对这个类型提出更高的要求。“在1986年的平装书中管用的东西不一定到了2013年还一样管用，我们得知道保留什么、吸收什么、改进什么。现在，有许多公司正在把游戏书做成应用和游戏，我认为我们的前进方向会稍有不同，我们想尝试新东西，看看能怎么开发这种游戏类型。”

不幸的是，与视觉小说相比，可能在Tin Man自己的游戏更容易达到目标，因为日本开发者也许不愿意为了迎合欧美玩家而改变自己的风格。

为了吸引更多玩家，Rennison的工作室甚至实验了商业模式，即在科幻游戏书冒险中提供部分免费章节，其余章节收费。但这个做法没有获得理想的效果。“我认为问题在于，我们的游戏太小众，而依靠IAP的免费模式需要庞大的玩家基础才能获得成功。”

再造玩家基础

培养玩家基础和优化游戏的方法之一是，想出经典的游戏书让玩家失望的地方是什么。Rennison指出：“显然，记录所有属性、道具和你在故事中遇到的一切事物是非常费时间的。Tin Man的游戏帮你监控一切。

“我们必须拿出一些吸引玩家的东西来”，如音乐、电影似的开场，以提高表现力。“显然，骰子是个大问题，我们使用完全的3D物理骰子代替游戏书的扔骰子，也就是，摇晃iPad、iPhone、Android手机或平板，在屏幕上模拟骰子弹跳。”

他还提议完全取消骰子的概念，并增加完全不同的东西。也就是尝试新机制，再看看玩家的反响。

在in Man即将推出的根据经典的《战斗幻想》游戏改编的《Forest of Doom》中，该工作室增加了能显示怪物和探索过的地点的地图。“小的时候，我们要花很多时间方格纸上标记这些东西。但现在我们只需要靠应用来做这些工作。”

美术设计和配音也可以使这些游戏更加出彩。例如，让Wheaton进行解说便大大提高了《Trial of the Clone》的知名度。“就营销来说，这样小小的细节确实可以让作品更加生动”，更有人气。

他承认Tin Man早期发布的某些游戏书冒险太难了，引入难度设置和书签系统大大缓和了这个问题。这些功能，包括实际上就是休闲阅读模式，使更多人容易上手。另外，成就系统打破了冗长的故事，使玩家获得成就感的同时也刺激他们更加深入地探索游戏。

毕竟，这些游戏有深度，可以重复玩，具备了许多游戏机的优点。

Rennison表示：“要让玩家接受文字冒险游戏的多样性和长度，同时保持游戏过程的乐趣，确实是很困难。人们必须具有继续探索的动机。”

用新的方式定义一种体验，可以给这种游戏类型找到新的受众群体。也许这就是拯救文字冒险游戏的办法。没有人说这类游戏永远都是小众的。

（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）

Not just digital books: How action and innovation are reviving text adventures

by Stephanie Carmichael

Text adventures were some of the earliest forms of video games, but we’ve come a long way since Hunt the Wumpus and Adventure. Some of today’s surviving pockets of the genre are visual novels and gamebooks — two very niche types of games that most people associate with tons of reading. They cringe at the idea and then go peruse libraries in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Despite their name, these games aren’t all about text. Interactive fiction is perhaps a better classification. That misconception can hurt sales, so manipulating the genre to emphasize its versatility and flexibility could be the key to a more successful future.

The grim state of visual novels

Xseed Games knows a little about the merits and challenges of publishing visual novels in the United States.

“Similar to a good book, [visual novels] can totally engross you within that world as your mind has to get creative to fill in the blanks on everything that’s happening,” Xseed and Marvelous U.S.A. executive vice president Ken Berry told GamesBeat. “This works especially well in the horror genre, something that the Japanese do very well because it’s what you can’t see that’s the most horrifying.”

The first localized Corpse Party horror game, which released in 2011, “greatly outperformed” its sequel, Book of Shadows. Berry speculates that because the series switched from a perspective where players control an onscreen avatar to one that resembles a more traditional visual novel — with less direct interaction and player input — gamers were less interested.

Low sales forecasts have sometimes prevented Xseed from localizing more of these games, such as with Anata wo Yurusanai, which translates to “I will not forgive you.”

“It had an interesting story, branching storylines depending on player input, and the legendary [Final Fantasy composer] Nobuo Uematsu himself was in charge of the game’s music,” said Berry. The publisher passed it over because the overwhelming amount of translation work well exceeded what Xseed predicted it would make off the game.

How can companies alleviate these Western-specific problems?

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows.

“I’m really not sure, to be honest,” said Berry. “Manga in Japan is more popular than their counterpart comic books in the U.S., but both cultures have a history of associating pictures and art to help tell a written story. As Japan embraced digital technology to take it a step further, I don’t think many companies tried to do the same in the West, so perhaps it’s just a matter of being more exposed to that kind of storytelling format.”

Many developers have supplemented simple pictures with action and puzzles, which can help break up long stretches of reading — such as in Aksys Games’ popular title 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors or Capcom’s Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series. However, it probably doesn’t help that visual novels often contain anime tropes (like the overused high school setting and blushing, androgynous characters) that can alienate many Western gamers and — in addition to the amount of reading — keep them from discovering what’s enjoyable about these titles.

Hope for the future

A little-known studio in Melbourne, Australia called Tin Man Games may have what it takes to breach the divide between reading and games.

Most recently, it released the digital “gamebook adventure” Judge Dredd: Countdown Sector 106 on Android (it hit iOS last year) and partnered with San Diego, Calif.-based Black Chicken Studios for the successful Kickstarter Holdfast. Its mobile game Trial of the Clone — by Zach Weiner, the author of the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal — featured the voice narration of geek-culture idol Wil Wheaton (aka Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation). That in particular is a great example of how to popularize the genre, especially in a time when e-books are changing our expectations of how we interact with text.

Like visual novels, gamebook adventures involve much more than reading, and Tin Man’s digital versions of traditional — and entirely new — gamebooks remove much of the pen-and-paper calculations of choose-your-own-adventures, streamlining them for modern audiences.

Neil Rennison didn’t always think small. Before he started Tin Man Games and created its gamebook engine, he founded Fraction Studios, which has worked on hit racing franchises like Need for Speed. “I’d always had a bit of a love affair for gamebooks in the ’80s,” he told GamesBeat, explaining that he shifted focus because he needed a change. “They were the first kind of portable gaming. There were no Nintendo DSes to take on your holiday trips, so instead I took piles of these gamebooks with dice and pencils.”

Some of his favorites growing up were the Fighting Fantasy series. His first was Ian Livingstone’s Deathtrap Dungeon. “We’re actually publishing that book,” said Rennison. “We got the rights to it. So we’ll be publishing that this year, which is very odd. It’s kind of a pinch-yourself moment, really.”

Tin Man has adapted other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks like Blood of the Zombies and House of Hell — adding bookmarks, achievements, and other features. These might sound like embellishments on a tired genre, but Rennison reminds us of the impact these games — and in turn, other text adventures — have had on the medium as a whole.

“The weird thing is that when you play a modern computer game these days, it’s essentially the same decisions that you’re having to make, just not in a written form,” he said. “They’re in more of an action form, where you’ve got to [decide] which button combination you’ve got to make or which 3D room you got into next.

“Even though it’s an old kind of genre, it’s still so relevant to today’s game design principles. I’d even go as far as to say they set some of the wheels in motion to modern game design.”

Now gamebooks are borrowing elements from the very games they inspired. The Kickstarter project Holdfast, which has surpassed its target funding goal of $20,000, tells a story of “dwarven vengeance.” Its system verges on more role-playing-game complexity, taking the genre in a new direction.

It’s a challenge and just one way that these games can rope in a wider audience.

Bringing the genre into a new age

Tin Man Games isn’t the only developer leading this revolution. A Sharp, the maker of 1999 “storytelling-strategy game” King of Dragon Pass, refined the title for iOS in 2011 and has since achieved more than 30,000 downloads. It not only added new interactive scenes and Game Center achievements, for example, but also simplified gameplay and squashed bugs. The user experience is far better, from a manual that players can access anytime to “livestock” instead of sheep and pigs.

But there’s still a lot to see, just like in visual novels and gamebook adventures. “No scene will randomly repeat for at least five game years,” wrote designer David Dunham.

That’s a lot of text, but King of Dragon Pass is, foremost, a game. That can work in a developer’s favor.

“The fact that you’re reading is a huge challenge because obviously, that’s a barrier for a lot of people,” said Rennison. “But it also can work both ways in that because it’s a game … that can break down the reading barrier for some people.”

It’s important to put new pressures on the genre to further overcome this obstacle. “What worked quite well in paperback form in 1986 doesn’t necessarily work so well in 2013, and it’s kind of knowing what to keep in and what to take out and what to evolve or move forward,” said Rennison. “And there are various different companies that are making gamebooks as apps and games at the moment, and I think we’re all pushing in slightly different directions to try out new things and see what we can do with the genre.”

That’s perhaps easier to do with Tin Man’s games, unfortunately, than with visual novels, whose Japanese developers might not want to change their style to appeal to Western audiences.

In an effort to reach more players, Rennison’s studio even experimented with business models by offering a science-fiction gamebook adventure with a few chapters available for free and the rest as a paid download. But that didn’t result in the traction they would have liked. “I think the problem is that we’re such a niche area that in order for freemium with in-app purchases to work, you need a large install base,” he said.

Reinventing the basics

Part of growing that base and making these games better is figuring out what people found frustrating about classic gamebooks. “Obviously, keeping record of all your stats and all your items and everything as you go about the story is quite time-consuming,” said Rennison. Tin Man’s games monitor everything for you.

“We need to put things in there that appeal to gamers,” he said — like music and cinematic openings, which improve the presentation. “And obviously, the dice is a big issue because you roll dice in gamebooks, and we needed a way of getting around that, so we have fully 3D physics dice. You actually shake your iPad or your iPhone or your Android phone or tablet, and the dice bounce around the screen.”

He also proposed the idea of removing the dice entirely and adding in something completely different. It’s all part of trying out new mechanics and seeing what players respond to.

In Tin Man’s upcoming Forest of Doom, based on the classic Fighting Fantasy gamebook, the studio added a map that shows monsters and previously visited locations. “A lot of the time, when we were kids, we’d map it out on a piece of graph paper,” said Rennison. “But it feels like it needs the app to actually do that mapping for you.”

Artwork and voice actors can make these games stand out more, too. Bringing in Wheaton as a narrator (a “happy accident”), for example, helped raise awareness for Trial of the Clone. “Any little thing like that that you add in, in marketing terms, really can bring something alive a bit more” and increase visibility, said Rennison.

He admitted that some of Tin Man’s early gamebook adventures were too hard; introducing difficulty settings and a bookmarking system has made a difference. These features, including what’s essentially a casual reading mode, make the apps accessible to more people. In addition, achievements break up the story length and help players achieve a sense of completion by encouraging them to explore a game more thoroughly.

After all, these games are deep and replayable, a desirable feature of many console titles.

“It’s difficult to try to get that spread of variety and length but also to make that fun,” said Rennison. “People have got to be compelled to want to keep going through it.”

Finding fresh ways to redefine an experience can bring a whole new community to a genre. It could be the answer to saving this one. No one said these games had to be niche forever.(source:venturebeat)