作者：John Doran

初级设计师经常向我询问如何优化自己的项目和设计。虽然我很愿意逐个向他们解释，但觉得最好还是花些时间列出我自认为对初入游戏设计领域的新手有所帮助的建议。其中有些建议看似常识，但就是有不少人在项目开工时很容易忽略这一点。本文的目标读者是游戏设计新人，但老手也可以从中找到一些可借鉴的经验。

1.不要害怕犯错/永不言弃

“只有那些敢于直面巨大失败的人才会获得巨大成就。”——Robert F. Kennedy

你不可能在一开始就做出完美的设计。我在设计游戏过程中就失败了无数次，而且这还不包括那些我没有制作出原型的游戏。但只有通过犯错，我们才能变得更强，并知道如何去做。此外，作为游戏设计师，我们还必须清楚并非人人都会喜欢你的设计，你要能够接受批评意见。我刚出道时，在这个领域栽了不少跟头。我得更加卖力工作才能完善自己。知道自己会将事情做得更好，就已经足够产生让你制作更多项目的动力了。

“你无法打败永不言弃之人。”——Babe Ruth

要进入游戏行业并不容易。由于经济及行业发展状况，这一领域的地位已经超过以往。但如果你真想成为设计师，就不能只是逐利而行。

2.善于利用时间

“时间=生命。因此，浪费时间就是在浪费生命，掌握时间就等于掌握生命。”——Alan Lakein

我说过很多次，优秀的设计师应该多花时间做事，但我也理解你的处境，知道有时候会发生什么情况。制定一份你的日程列表，按其重要性进行排序。这样你可以提醒自己需要去做哪些事。常为自己制定计划的人远比那些只在“最关键”时制定计划的人更容易获得成功。如果你还是在校学生，很显然你事先就知道课程安排。但如果你想成为游戏设计师，我相信你得自己区分事情的轻重缓急。

3.尽快和经常测试

“我们必须提升关卡3的图像”——Westwood College Online

在我看来，游戏设计师是玩家的支持者，其主要职责是制作出目标用户会喜欢的游戏，而游戏测试者则是设计师的最佳好友。他们代表普通人对你的游戏所作出的反应，所以你得认真对待他们的意见。他们将在你的游戏世界中进行探索，并找到那些你从来没有想过的东西。他们将提出修改建议，但要由你来决定是否采纳这些建议。有时候这是为了玩家考虑，有时候则是出于平衡游戏的需要。此外，开发过程中的剩余时间也会影响到这一点。例如，更改平台游戏中玩家的跳跃高度，可能就需要开发者制作新的关卡。最好在测试阶段，让游戏中的一切正常运行。

还有一点也很重要，那就是不要干预他们试玩游戏。多数设计师认为他们已经在游戏规则手册中说明了一切所需的内容，但通常情况下总会遗漏一些东西。在关卡设计中就要注意玩家所走的方向，看看游戏是否引导他们往正确的方向前进。游戏中的任何节点都不应该让玩家觉得自己很愚蠢。而制作一款并不完整的游戏则会让玩家觉得自己是在向一款半成品游戏砸钱。我就曾玩过那种你若严格遵循游戏规则，根本就无法真正获胜的游戏。

4.试玩新游戏并对其进行评价

“我们不会因变老而停止玩耍，但我们会因为停止玩耍而变老。”——George Bernard Shaw

如果你是个电影导演，你就会去看其他人导演的电影。同理，如果你是游戏设计师，也应该去玩他人设计的游戏。毕竟，你首先是因为热爱游戏而投身这一行业，不是吗？很多人常会忘记这一点。

我经常跟进当前的经典游戏，并试玩那些并非我通常接触的游戏题材。GameFly等服务让那些在校学生也能够只花一点钱，就玩遍所有最新游戏。而当你身处这一行业时，你就可以开始玩自己想玩的游戏，这毕竟是在以行动支持自己的行业。

在此我并不单指电子游戏领域。桌游、纸牌游戏，以及体育领域也有可能提供一些你此前从未想过的可行资源。

玩游戏还可以降低你重复制作已存在项目的风险。

5.人际关系

“获得成功的两大重要条件：第一，天时地利；第二，从事与之相关的事情。”——Ray Kroc

作为游戏设计师，你多数工作时间并非坐在案前。能够与他人进行顺畅的沟通是一个重要技能，如果你不具备这一技能，可能就得从头学起。

要融入你的行业。如果你已经走出校园，那就加入IGDA。在Twitter上关注其他设计师。若要找工作，那就在LinkedIn注册个帐号。最重要的是，尽量多参加行业会议。GDC是一个见到行业中其他人物的绝佳机会。如果资金困难，那就申请成为GDC志愿者。我认为CA社区是我所遇到的最棒的群体之一。

在建立人脉时，要记住给人留下深刻的印象。在公开场合一定要尽量表现出自己最好的一面。确保你看起来就像是最容易打交道的那种人。

6.同其他设计师交友

“生活部分是我们自己造成的，部分是由我们所选择的朋友造成的。”——Tennessee Williams

人人都认为自己想出了“下一个绝顶之作”的理念。有些设计师还会认为自己的理念很独特，认为最好将其藏在心里，害怕别人窃取了自己的想法。不幸的是，多数时候你“惊人的想法”总是存在许多基本问题。

最好找一群人来试玩你正在制作的游戏。还有比你的同行更适合执行这一任务的人吗？外行人的眼光可以让你找到一些明显的问题。而其他设计师则可让你知道你的游戏问题在哪，你该如何改进。而你的职责就是确定他们所说的哪些部分是可行的，并根据你的游戏进行调整。

设计师很乐于进行头脑风暴，并且能够提供你从未想过的见解。只要有机会就要去帮助其他设计师，这样你也能够获得他们的帮助。此外，还要记住保持联络，游戏行业是一个交集紧密的群体，要明白你可以向自己遇到的每个人取经，即使你看到的只是失败教训。

7.玩自己的游戏

“只有已经出局的人才会没有问题。”——Elbert Hubbard

我曾将此视为更适用于桌游的原则，但在我的设计师职业生涯中，也常遇到这种情况。玩赏自己的项目是你最重要的事情之一。毕竟，如果连你都不想玩自己的游戏，那一定是出了什么问题。

在创建你的项目理念时，要尽早创建原型，从而感受自己制作的东西是否真的具有趣味。现在还没有什么创建原型的秘方，但你可以运用此前从其他产品所学到的法则，并发挥自己的创意，以便看看方法是否可行。

在向自己的游戏群体展示作品之前，你自己就要经过足够的测试。毕竟，如果你的游戏群体并不喜欢你制作的东西，那么你就很难说服发行商接受你的项目。

8.开启项目前制定计划

“如果准备不当，那你就准备失败吧。”——Benjamin Franklin

虽然有些人就是讨厌计划，但撰写设计文档就是游戏设计师的一个重要工作环节。事实上，多数设计师的工作就是撰写文件和计划，而非执行项目。发行商希望一个项目是设计师深思熟虑的结果，并且你有证据去证明你确实经过了一个思考的过程。发行商是否资助你的项目，则取决于你的提案文档的质量，所以设计师必须尽己所能制作出色的文档。在项目提案通过之后，设计师还要为开发者和美术人员制作许多执行文件。

有一个不幸的事实就是，仅有少数人会去看大部分游戏设计文件。一页式设计文档或许是个应对策略，并在网站上描述更多细节，但在某些方面来说，这些文档的制作更有难度，因为你得将大量信息压缩成一种易消化的格式，以便人们真的花时间去看。但如果真的完成了，就会有人去看这种精简版文档，并为同你共事的人节省大量时间。

这并不是说最终结果就不会偏离你的原游戏设计文件。我大二时的游戏《Tim-E》的成品就同原来截然不同。但是，制定计划可以引导我们快速进行调整，并创造出我们能够完成的产品。

9.不要纠结于细节内容

“不行动会催生怀疑和恐惧，行动唤发自信和勇气。如果你想征服恐惧，就不要干坐在家里空想。要让自己忙碌充实起来。”——Dale Carnegie

大家都有许多可用于创造游戏的出色想法。作为游戏设计师你可以完成一个想法来源于自己和未来雇主/团队成员的产品。阻碍项目完成的因素之一就是纠结于细节内容。人们总是克制不了添加更多细节和复杂性的欲望，这通常又被称为“功能蔓延”。

在《Unreal》或《Hammer》中制作一个新关卡时，你常会有想完成自己正在制作的房间，然后再转向下一个房间这种念头；但这样会让你难以转向新内容，并且会拖延你的步伐。要知道，一个已经完成的简单产品也远胜于一个复杂的未完成游戏。当潜在雇主查看你作品集中的关卡时，他们会相信你并没有完成项目，而这会极大影响你的成功机率。

我目前创建关卡时是在为不同的关口创造内容。我完成一个关卡设计文件后才制作关卡，并在进入细节时进行测试。这可以保证你在开发初期就弄清楚自己的关卡究竟会多有趣。这可以助你抛弃那些不可行的内容，并集中于最佳内容，这些原则也适用于其他设计层面（游戏邦注：例如完善一个机制，在添加更多内容之前为其润色）。

10.跟进行业动态

“个人和国家都应该通晓天下事。”——Paul Harris

游戏行业是最具竞争性的领域之一。有许多拥有创意的人希望在此获得关注。那么你该如何从中脱颖而出呢？了解当前趋势和未来走向是一个关键。你可以通过互联网，访问无数网站了解自己想知道的情况。我每晚都要花一个小时跟进来自Kotaku、Destructoid、Gamasutra和VGCharts及其他网站的新闻。如果你是一个习惯看杂志的人，那么我推荐Edge以及Game Developer这两本优秀的游戏行业杂志。

11.在工作/学习之余培养一个爱好

“爱好只有在你没时间去做的时候才显得有趣。”——Leo Beenhakker

获得灵感的地方无处不在。每个人都有自己的独特经历，而这也正是他们如此特别的原因。拥有其他兴趣爱好可以丰富你的经历，你永远不知道不同的知识也会派上用场。例如，我在进入游戏设计领域之前，曾在电影行业工作，并编辑了数个不同的视频项目，所以我现在的项目一般都会比同行拥有更多电影元素。这并不一定会让我的游戏更棒，但却可以令其更具独特性。所以要探索那些让你更为独特的领域。

12.学无止境

“只要你不断学习，就一直都有希望。”——Bill Gates

作为人类，一定要有学习新事物的欲望。这可以让你更为充实，也更易于快速掌握情况。在游戏行业，这是一个很棒的优点。就当前趋势来看，行业技术每3年都会翻倍发展，并且没有减缓的迹象。这一领域将持续涌现所谓的“下一代重大事物”的新主机、创意和中间件。

要想处于行业前沿，就要持续学习新事物，并扩展自己的视野。这也正是为何我同时开发一些Unity个人项目，并通过许多方式扩展和巩固当前工具集的原因。（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）

12 Tips for Starting Game Designers

John Doran

Starting designers have often asked me what steps they should take in order to improve their projects and/or designs. A lot of the time it comes down to fundamental flaws that I see in a wide variety of projects. While I love giving one-on-one to help to every person that I can; I thought I would take some time out to make out a list of the things I wish I could have told myself when I first starting taking a career in game design seriously. I do this in the hopes that it may help anyone else who is just starting out. Some of these things may seem like common sense, but it is surprising how easy it is to forget things once you start working on projects. This paper is targeted towards newcomers to the game design field, but there may be little nuggets of wisdom that even a veteran may find.

1.Don’t be Afraid to Make Mistakes / Never Give Up

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly.”

-Robert F. Kennedy

When starting out it is impossible to get everything about a design perfect the first time you work on it. I have failed countless times while designing games and that is only counting the number of times I’ve actually prototyped something up to actually play. However, it is only by making mistakes that we are able to become better and know what not to do. It is also important to note that as a designer it must be important to know that not everyone will like what you do and you must be able to take criticism well. When I was starting out, I had a lot of trouble in this area. I had to work extremely hard to become better at it.  Knowing that you are going to be able to make your stuff better is more than enough incentive to keep making more projects.

“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.”

-Babe Ruth

It is hard to break into the game industry. This is more relevant now than before due to the economy and the state that it is in. However, if you seriously want to be a designer; you aren’t in it for the money.

2.“Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life.”

-Alan Lakein

I know I’ve talked a lot about things that a good designer should spend time doing, but I’ve been in your shoes and I know how things can be sometimes. Make a list of your priorities and place them in order of importance to you. That way you remind yourself just what it is that you want to do. People that set a plan for themselves are far more likely to succeed than someone who just “plans for the best”. If you are in school, it is obvious that your classes should come before these things. But if you want to be a game designer I’m sure that you would make certain things a priority.

3.Playtest Soon and Often

“ We need to tighten up the graphics on level 3”

- Westwood College Online

In my opinion a game designer is a player’s advocate that’s main responsibility is to make a game that your target audience will like and because of this playtesters are a designer’s best friend. They are the voice of what the normal person is going to react to your game and as such it is important that you take what they say seriously. They are also the people that are going to find and exploit anything they can get their hands on within your world and you will find things you never thought of possible in your game. They are going to suggest changes and it will be a your decision whether or not those changes are really worth having or not. There are times when for a player’s own good or for balance’s sake that things are the way they are. Also the time left in the dev cycle has a great impact on what can be done. For instance, changing a player’s jump height in a platformer game would require the levels to all be redone. At beta, chances are you are going to keep things the way they are.

It is also very important that you have people play your game without your input. Most designers believe that they have covered every possible thing in their rulebook, but it is almost guaranteed that something has been forgotten. In level design it is important to see what directions that players go in and if they are being guided in the correct way. At no point in a game should players feel stupid. Having games that are not complete is a sure way of making a player feel that they just wasted their money on an incomplete product. There have been times that I have played a game that had no way to actually win if you followed the rules included.

4.“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

– George Bernard Shaw

If you were a movie director, you would watch movies other than your own. It makes sense as well if you’re a game designer to play games that you did not work on. After all, the reason you are in this business is because you loved games in the first place, right? Yet it can be all too easy to forget that.

I personally try to keep up with current and classic releases while attempting to play games that are not within the genres I normally play. Services like GameFly make it a lot easier for someone on a college budget to still have the ability to play all of the latest games for a fraction of the cost of what they retail for. Then, once you’re in the industry full time you can start owning the games you want to play; after all, it’s important to support your industry.

I am not just referring to video games either. Our board game, card game, and sports brethren are just as, if not more, viable resources and with each you can see possibilities that you may not have thought about before.

Playing games also helps lower the risk of working on something that matches an existing project.

5.Network, Network, Network

“The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.”

– Ray Kroc

As a game designer, most of your time at work may very well be not at your desk. Being comfortable in talking to people is a key skill that if you don’t possess you may wish starting to work on. If you are interested, I have a list of books that I recommend on that subject in my resources section.

Be a part of your industry. If you are out of school, be a member of the IGDA. Follow other designers on twitter. When looking for a job, get an account on LinkedIn. Most importantly, attend conventions whenever you can. GDC is an excellent opportunity to meet people that are in the industry and that are also trying to break in as you are. If money is an issue, volunteering at GDC is another way to attend while working off your badge.  I must say myself that the CA community is one of the best groups of people that I’ve ever met.

While networking, it is important to remember that you are always making an impression of yourself. It is important to be your best as often as you can in public. Make sure that you present yourself as a person that you yourself would like to hang out with.

6.Other Designers are Your Friends

“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.” – Tennessee Williams

Everyone thinks that they have come up with the “next big thing”. Some designers also have the idea that their ideas are special and feel it’s a good idea to save their ideas because they are afraid that other people are going to take it. Sadly, chances are far greater that your “amazing idea” has fundamental problems with it.

It is a good idea to get a group of people to play what you work on. Who would be better than other people trying to do the same thing that you are? A fresh set of eyes looking at a problem
can help you find things that are obvious. Other designers are eager to let you know what is wrong with your game and what you should be doing to make it better. It is your job to be able to determine which parts if any of what they said is valid and make changes to your game accordingly.

Designers are also great to brainstorm with and can provide insight into things that you may never have thought of. Help out other designers whenever you get a chance, as most likely they will help you out sometime down the road. It is also very important to never burn any bridges. The game industry is a tight-knit group and it’s important to know that you can learn something from every person you meet even if what you learn is what not to do.

7.Play YOUR Games

“The man who has no problems is out of the game.”

-Elbert Hubbard

I’ve seen this as a problem far more on the board game side of things, but it is something I’ve seen way too often in my time as a designer. Enjoying your project is one of the most important things that you could possibly do. After all, if you don’t want to play your game then something is horribly wrong.

When building the concepts of your project, it is incredibly important to prototype as early as you can and get a feel if what you are working on is actually fun. As of now there is no secret formula to create it (and thankfully so because we would be out of a job) but you can apply principles that you have learned from other products, as well as your own creativity, to see if it works. You should playtest your game more than any other person before you set the game in front of your gaming group. After all, if your gaming group doesn’t like what you’re doing it is going to be hard to convince a publisher otherwise.

8.Plan Before Starting a Project

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. “

– Benjamin Franklin

Though some people seem to hate it, writing design documents are a large part of a game designer’s job. In fact, it may come as a surprise to some that most of a designer’s work will be in writing documents and plans instead of executing a project. Publishers like knowing that a project is well thought out and you have evidence to prove that you had a thought process behind what you are doing in a game. Whether a publisher is going to fund you or not is dependent on how well your pitch document is made, so it makes sense that a designer should do them as best as they can. After a game is green lit there are many other documents that need to be created for developers and artists as well highlighting what exactly how things should be before your next milestone.

The sad fact is that a majority of game design documents are only read by a handful of people. One Page Design Documents are a possible solution to that and are detailed elsewhere on the site, but in some ways these documents are more difficult to work on because you have to condense a lot of information into a digestible format that people will actually take the time to read. Once completed though, concise documents will be read and will save anyone working with you a lot of time.

That’s not to say that things will not change from your initial game design document. My sophomore game, Tim-E, was originally a much different game than it developed into. However, the
planning enabled us to get to the position that we were able to make changes quickly and create the product that we finished with.

9.Don’t get Trapped in the Details

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

-Dale Carnegie

Everyone has a lot of great ideas that can used to create games. Being a game designer, you can create a finished product that uses ideas from all sources including your own and your future employer/teammates. One of the things that can hinder the completion of a project if left unchecked is getting trapped in details. There is always a desire to add more detail and complexity to things you work on which will often be referred to as “feature creep”.

When creating a new level in Unreal or Hammer it is very tempting to finish the room that you are working on before moving to the next one; but it will be much harder to move on to new
things and slow you down. Regardless, a finished and simple product is far superior to a complex uncompleted game. When a potential employer looks at the level if included in your portfolio, they will believe that you do not complete projects and this can harm your chances dramatically.

I currently employ creating content in different passes when actually building levels. I first “orange box” a level after completing a level design document and begin playtesting it before going in passes with detail. This guarantees that you will have a much better idea of how fun your finished level will be in the early stages of the development. This can help you scrap anything that isn’t working and focus on the best bits. In addition when completing a pass the entire level will be at the same level of polish which can help immensely in finishing a piece.

These principles can also be applied to other aspects of design such as perfecting one mechanic and having it shine before trying to add as much content to a game as you can.

10.“Individuals and nations owe it to themselves and the world to become informed.”

-Paul Harris

The game industry is one of the most competitive industries. There are many people with creative minds that are trying to get noticed. What can make you stand out from the crowd? Knowing what trends that are going well and being able to know what is going on is key. With the Internet, there are numerous websites at your disposal to know anything you could possibly want to know. I spend an hour everyday catching up on the news from Kotaku, Destructoid, Gamasutra, and VGCharts with other sites getting visits periodically such as Board Game Geek. If you are more of a magazine person, Edge magazine is my favorite consumer magazine with Game Developer being a good source for industry specific needs.

11.Do Things Outside School or Work/Have a Hobby

“A hobby is only fun if you do not have time to do it”

-Leo Beenhakker

There is an entire world out there waiting to get ideas from. Each person is made up of his or her own experiences and it is that which makes them each so special. Having other hobbies broadens what you are experienced in and you never know when having different bits of knowledge can be useful. For example, I worked on film and edited several different video projects before I started game design so my projects typically have a lot more of a cinematic flair than those of my peers. This doesn’t make my games necessarily better, but it provides uniqueness. Exploit what makes you special and make it shine.

12.Never Stop Learning

“If you never stop learning, you will never stop seeing the possibilities.”

– Bill Gates

For people, having a desire to learn new things is very important. It keeps you well rounded, and makes it easier to pick up things quickly. In the game industry this is an excellent trait to have. If current trends are to be believed, technology doubles every 3 years and there are no signs of it slowing down anytime soon. There will always be new consoles, gimmicks, and middleware that will tout to be the “next big thing”.

Anyone that wants to stay ahead the industry must always be willing to learn new things and expand the horizons that are available to them. This is why I am currently working with Unity on some personal projects as well as expanding and reaffirming my current toolset in many different ways.（source：johnpdoran）