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阐述优秀游戏设计的10个简单原则

发布时间:2013-07-12 10:00:04 Tags:,,,,

作者:therpgfanatic

有些粉丝曾问我哪些东西是优秀游戏必不可少的元素?对此,我的答案就是这样的游戏一定得设计良好。所以我在这里列出了如何设计一款好游戏的10个简单原则:

1.所有游戏一开始都要有一个假设前提,主题或者焦点。所有游戏要有目标受众。不要设计一个没有任何中心理念的游戏系统,之后再插入一些文本,因为这样你只会得到一个同故事理念格格不入的系统,而这又会破坏玩家的沉浸感。所以一开始就要想好游戏理念,然后再针对该理念设计规则。

Rules_of_the_Game(from actioncoach.com)

Rules_of_the_Game(from actioncoach.com)

2.“鉴定和验证”设计的每个步骤。不断自问游戏的走向以及当前设计方向是否偏离正轨。自问游戏是否有趣,每添加一个新理念或机制,都要反复确认游戏经过这些调整后仍然会很有趣。要记住无论你做的是哪种游戏,都要让它具有娱乐性。如果游戏无法取悦其目标用户,那就说明它的设计很糟糕。

3.不要设计模仿虚拟世界的游戏规则。游戏并非虚拟世界,它们是社交活动,即使是单人游戏也要求玩家与AI互动。游戏从根本上说是一种让玩家掌握新规则,并运用这些规则克服挑战的活动。游戏规则会告诉玩家如何操作。不要设计那种令目标用户对游戏失去趣味的游戏机制。

4.不要执拗于任何游戏机制或理念。应该果断更改任何有损游戏玩法的理念或机制,以便令同其他游戏机制/理念相协调。如果某个理念不能与其他游戏设计协调,那就应该坚决摒弃。或者将其运用于其他游戏。

5.不要为目标用户提供过多选择。究竟何为“过多选择”要取决于你的目标用户是谁。很显然,战略角色扮演游戏在特定情况下为少儿用户所提供的选择远超过2D平台游戏。但任何人都可能患上“选择困难症”,这种情况发生时可能会导致玩家不敢轻易行动,或者考虑得太多。此外,游戏机制还应该令玩家知道如何行动。想想看,在MMORPG这种多人游戏中,你总不希望有人花了大半个小时决定要学习什么咒语,而让其他人在那里干等他做决定,之后才能展开公会突袭。总而言之,你为玩家提供选择越多,他们制定决策的时间也就越长。若要尊重你的目标用户,你就不能为他们提供过多不必要的选择,尤其是在他们并不了解多数选择将发生的后果之时。

6.要了解目标用户。许多游戏都是因为设计师不了解游戏的目标用户而崩溃。这从大量的游戏续集并不受该系列粉丝欢迎的现象中就可以看出端倪。此外,如果你没有玩过玩家所接触的同款游戏,你就无法了解自己的目标用户。如果你的目标用户喜欢的是奇幻角色扮演游戏,而你却从来没有玩过《魔兽世界》、《龙与地下城》或者《最终幻想》,那你就不要挑战这种游戏设计了。你知心朋友了解玩家的游戏体验,以及他们对这些体验的看法。更重要的是玩玩他们不喜欢的游戏,因为糟糕游戏中的设计败笔远比成功游戏更为明显。

7.如果你的游戏拥有大量故事情节,那就编写一个好故事。好故事就需要有玩家能够与之建立情感联系的角色。最失败的就是那种玩家不在意角色,以及角色对话的游戏故事。遇到这种故事,我通常会忽略过场动画和对话框,因为我并不是很在乎文本内容,故事文案和设计师并没有给予我关心角色的充分理由。这方面的典型就是《City of Heroes》,许多分配任务的NPC实际上是威力无边的英雄,但他们却让我这种超级菜鸟去打坏蛋,成天只是站在同一个地方发号施令。为什么我应该理会这种不会同我并肩作战,甚至只是为我指点迷津的懒虫?因为NPC就是被设计为任务分配者,所以玩家就会选择无视这些角色。

8.游戏不应该要球玩家阅读大量文本以便了解如何操作应该令玩家边玩边学。任何非直观性或者要求玩家通过论坛发布的贴子、网页寻找攻略的游戏机制,都是不可取的内容。毕竟大家玩游戏是为了放松,为了从工作或学习中解脱出来,而不是自找麻烦。

9.要听取玩家反馈意见,但要确保这些反馈是来自游戏的目标用户。如果你是基于漫画书制作游戏,就不要让那些不喜欢漫画的用户测试游戏,应该让那些对漫画有兴趣的人参与测试。如果你是制作MMORPG,就不要让很少玩此类游戏的人来测试,也不要让根本不玩这种游戏的人测试游戏。

10.制作好游戏。好游戏就是那种呈现积极挑战,并常让其开发者惊喜的作品。其中的关键就在于“积极挑战”,常让开发者受挫的游戏必定会让玩家抓狂,而令开发者无聊的游戏也一定会让玩家觉得无趣。(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

10 Simple Rules for Good Game Design

By therpgfanatic

Some fans have asked me what elements do I think is essential for a good game to have? Well, I think the answer to this question is that the game must be well designed. So I’ve put together a list of ten simple rules for how to design a good game, and this is the list I try to follow as a game designer.

1.      All games should have a premise, theme or focus determined from the start. All games should have a target audience. Don’t just design a game system without any central concept and then plug in some flavor text, because you will just end up with a system that is far removed from the story concept and that will break the suspension of disbelief in the player. They will try to understand why they have to, for example, fly through hoops in a Superman game (Superman 64). Come up with the concept of the game first and then design the rules around that concept.

2.      ‘Verify and Validate’ at every step of the design. Constantly ask yourself what the game is supposed to be about and if the current design is making that happen. Ask yourself if the game is fun, and every time you add a new idea or mechanic, double-check to make sure the game is still fun even with these changes. Remember that no matter what game you make, all games are entertainment. If a game fails to entertain its target audience then the game is badly designed.

3.      Do not design the rules of the game to simulate a virtual world. Games are not virtual worlds; they are social activities; even a single player game requires the player to socialize with artificial intelligence. Games are, fundamentally, about learning new rules and applying those rules to overcome challenges. Essentially, the rules of the game tell the players how to behave. Do not design the game mechanics to promote behavior that detracts from the game being fun and enjoyable for the target audience of that game.

4.      Kill your darlings. Do not fall in love with any game mechanic or idea. Any idea or mechanic that hurts the gameplay should be changed so it has synergy with all other game mechanics / ideas. If the idea cannot exist in harmony with the rest of the game design, it should be scrapped. Save it for a different game.

5.      Don’t overwhelm your target audience with too many choices. What is “too many choices” really depends on who your target audience is; obviously, a strategy roleplaying game should offer more choices in a given situation than a 2d platformer for young children. But everyone can be overwhelmed with choices, and when this happens it can result in a player being too afraid to do anything or trying to generalize too much. Again, game mechanics are supposed to lead players and tell them how to behave. When you are dealing with multiplayer games like MMORPG, you don’t want people to take half an hour doing something like trying to decide what spell to learn while everyone else is waiting on them to decide so the raid can continue. Look up “Paradox of choice” to learn more. The summarized version is that the more choices you offer a player, the longer it will take for them to make a decision. With respect to your target audience, don’t overwhelm the players with unnecessary choices, especially if most of the consequences of the choices aren’t fully explained to the player.

6.      Understand your target audience. A lot of games have crashed and burned simply because the designers didn’t understand what the target audience of the game wanted. This can be seen in the numerous game sequels which have been ill received by fans of the franchise. Also, you cannot understand your target audience if you haven’t played the same games they do; don’t design an online fantasy roleplaying game for people who like fantasy roleplaying games if you’ve never played World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons or Final Fantasy. You need to know what experiences the players have already had and how they felt about those experiences. It’s actually more important to play the games they disliked than the ones they liked, because the design flaws in bad games tend to be more obvious than in games which were successful.

7.      If your game is going to be plot heavy, then write a good story. A good story means characters the player will build an emotional attachment to. The biggest reason a story sucks in a game is because I the player don’t care what happens to the in-game characters, let alone what they have to say to me. I skip through cutscenes and skim dialogue boxes because I just don’t care about the flavor text because the writers and designers have failed to give me a reason to care about the characters. A perfect example is City of Heroes; many of the quest giving NPCs are supposedly really powerful heroes, yet here they are sending me, some superhero noob, to go fight villains and delivery messages while they stand in one spot all day. Why should I care about what those lazy bastards have to say when they aren’t even willing to fight alongside me or even pretend to act like a mentor? Because the NPCs were designed to hand out quests as if they were a quest pez dispenser that is how the players end up treating them.

8.      The game should not require the player to read numerous essays in order for them to learn how to play; the design of the game should teach players how to play while they are playing. Any game mechanic that is not intuitive and requires lengthy explanation from a forum post or a website page should NOT be part of the game, period. People play videogames to relax from work or school and not to do additional homework.

9.      Listen to player feedback, but make sure the feedback is coming from the target audience of your game. If you’re making a game based on a comic book, don’t ask people who don’t like comics to test the game; ask people who are passionate about comics to test the game. If you’re making a MMORPG, don’t ask people who rarely play MMORPGs to test it, and certainty don’t ask people who haven’t played many MMORPGs or don’t play MMORPGs often.

10.   Make a good game. A good game is a game that will positively challenge and occasionally surprise its own creators. The key words are, “positively challenge”; a game that frustrates its own creators will certainty frustrate the players, and a game that bores its own creators will bore the players.(source:giantbomb


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