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完成一款游戏需要掌握的15个诀窍

发布时间:2013-09-19 08:43:48 Tags:,,,,

作者:Derek Yu

当我在努力完成自己的游戏时,我也一直在思考如何完成整个项目。我注意到许多富有才能的开发者都不能有效地完成游戏。说实话,我自己也留下了许多未完成的游戏。我想每个人都会有这样的经历。并不是所有项目都能够一帆风顺。但是如果你自己不断退出某些具有发展潜力的游戏项目,你就需要好好思考为什么会这样了。

finishgame(from tumblr)

finishgame(from tumblr)

当看到一款游戏,漫画书还是电影,我们总是会有这样的感受:“我可以比这做得更好!它的评价过高了。”但是我们也必须退一步想想,他们投入了时间去完成这一项目,而我们却没有。在这方面他们至少胜过了我们,所以他们获得了认可而我们没有。如果你认为完成就像一种技能,而不只是过程中的一个步骤,你便会发现虽然自己能够做得更好,但是习惯和思维过程却阻碍了自己。

我不认为游戏创造存在一种准确的方式。这是一种创造性的努力,所以没有什么复杂和快速的规则等着我们去突破。但是作为拿这一问题与其他游戏开发者展开讨论的游戏开发者,我认为我们经常会掉进所谓的精神陷阱中,特别是在一开始。明确这些陷阱是完成任何工作的第一步。

以下是完成一款游戏需要掌握的15个诀窍:

1.选择一个具有潜能的理念

finishgame(from tumblr)

finishgame(from tumblr)

我发现有3种类型的游戏能够吸引我的注意:我希望创造的游戏,我希望自己已经创造出的游戏,以及我善于创造的游戏。

我希望创造的游戏是指过程本身就很有趣。可能是尝试机制本身就很有趣,或者存在我想要制作动画的角色。

我希望自己已经创造出的游戏是指,比起实现目标我对结果更感兴趣。也许这是一个“没有限制”的理念,或者只是一个简单的理念,没有执行乐趣。

我善于创造的游戏是指那些符合自己个性并且曾经创造过的游戏。也许你会自然受到某种游戏类型的吸引,你能够掌握整个节奏和流程。

我认为最有潜能(至少是关于完成)的理念是由这3种类别所组成,并满足“我有足够的时间和资源去做到这个”的要求。

2.真正开始创造游戏

写下理念并不是真正开始游戏创造。写下设计文件并不是真正开始游戏创造。组建团队并不是真正开始游戏创造。甚至创造图像或音乐也不是真正开始游戏创造。我们总是很容易混淆“准备开始创造游戏”与“开始创造游戏”。需要记得:一款游戏必须具有游戏性,而如果你不能创造出值得游戏的内容,这便不是一款游戏!

所以,即使你创造出了一个游戏引擎,这也不能算是开始创造游戏。

3.如果绝非必要请不要使用自己的技术

编写自己的引擎有利也有弊。但是你需要问自己,这是否绝对必要?如果现有的工具不能帮助你创造游戏,你是否应该自己创造工具?当然了,如果你想要编写自己的引擎,你可以按照自己的想法去落实。但说实话,你多长时间会将引擎带向游戏?你是否发现自己花在引擎上的时间多于游戏?

我是使用Game Maker去创造《洞穴探险》的最初版本,而这款“完成的”游戏也给予了我创造Xbox 360版本的机会。所以我并不认为使用游戏制作软件或其它简化工具有什么不合理的。最重要的还是游戏。

4.原型

这与第2点相辅相成:最初的原型包含你的一切设想。有时候你能够马上就发现这是一个糟糕的理念。有时候你会意外发现一个更棒的理念。不管怎样,我常会发现自己总是会等到开始创造某些内容时才知道该致力于什么。所以让我们创造原型吧!

5.确保核心机制是有趣的

明确核心机制具有游戏乐趣。执行最基本的互动应该是有趣的,因为这是玩家在游戏时接触得最多的。从根本上来看,你希望这一核心能够推动你的开发。这能帮助你在之后心更轻松地删除某部分游戏内容。

你有可能在之后发现某一机制比你最初设定的核心机制还有趣—-你就可以考虑创造新的核心机制!

6选择适当的合作伙伴(或者独自创作)

finishgame(from tumblr)

finishgame(from tumblr)

找到合适的游戏创造伙伴就像基于多种方式进行约会一样。你可能会认为最重要的便是技能:“我是程序员,这是美术人员。让我们创造这一内容!”但却并不是只有如此,你还需要考虑其它元素,如个性,经验,时间,共同利益等等。与恋爱关系一样,你肯定不希望看到其中的一方付出过多或过少。你可以通过一些较小的项目进行测试,因为如何合租伙伴在开发几个月或几年后突然退出,这对你将会是个巨大的打击。

关于拥有完成项目的另外一大好处便是,你的合作伙伴将知道你拥有哪些能力,并能够更舒适地与你合作。单凭一个理念我们总是很难去说服别人与自己合作,你需要考虑自己创造过多少理念(并且在理念开始执行前很难看到其真正价值)。真正的合作伙伴总是希望看到你所完成的游戏。所以请努力完成它们!

或者,你可以在网上寻找一些免费的图像和音乐,或者占位符(游戏邦注:在The Independent Gaming Source便有许多免费的图像和音乐)。如果需要的话你也可以使用ASCII。作为一名美术人员,我知道自己对于一个项目的贡献远比付出的还多,除了美术内容。如果你需要一名程序员,你可以考虑自己学习代码编写,或选择一些合适的游戏制作软件。

7.反复折磨是正常的——将其写进计划中

很多游戏制作其实很乏味无趣。这并不是在游戏,而是真正的工作。在某些时刻你会突然意识到,当自己在计划项目并创建原型时并未想到这些内容,如菜单,屏幕转换,保存和加载等等。”我一直在想象自己将要创造的这个世界,或者我想要尝试的机制。我并不认为自己将花费数周时间去创造垃圾般的功能菜单!“你会发现,适当地执行动画创造这样的工作会很有趣,但是当你意识到自己需要为100个不同角色进行设置时,这就会变成一个噩梦。

当你多次经历这种情况时,你将会意识到规划项目的重要性,如此你才不会将过多时间浪费在这些必然的困境中。你也会意识到许多这样无聊的内容正是促成游戏最终完成的必要元素。就像华丽的游戏屏幕能够让游戏看起来更加突出。

8.当成是真正的截止日期那样使用奖励,竞争和其它事件

当我和Alec致力于《Aquaria》时,Independent Games Festival的截止日期推动着我们做出有关方向的艰难决定,并更实际地着眼于规划。如果没有截止期限,我便不能完全保证自己是否能够完成创作!竞争也非常有帮助,因为截止日期非常真实,奖励也非常真实。同样地,它们还可以让你与志趣相投的社区维系起友好的关系。

9.抓紧进行

你应该开始致力于下一个关卡,下一个敌人等等内容。这不仅具有激发性,同时你也想要知道整体的游戏将如何展现出来。就像写作—-你并不想重新一句句地审视,所以你应该在继续创作前确保每个句子都是最完美的。明确一个大纲。

10.保持身心健康

当你开始专注于完成游戏时,你将很难去照顾好自己。说实话,如果不睡觉,不锻炼或不按时吃饭,这只会对你的游戏创造带来不利影响。这只会阻碍你发挥潜能并最终选择退出。怀疑自己的项目是自然的,但是沮丧或生病却是自己造成的。如果你的心理和生理都出现了问题,你又该如何去实现自己的理想项目!

11.停止对从头再来找借口

“我的代码一团糟。我也从中学到了许多。如果重新开始的话我可以做得更好且更快,这些便能够更快地创造出游戏了!”

finishgame(from tumblr)

finishgame(from tumblr)

不要再说了!这在每一个游戏开发过程的某一时刻可能是对的。你的代码可能会一团糟,你可能也会学到许多。但这却不是最佳情况。如果你真的从头开始,你便会发现自己又陷入与现在一样的境地。这是个非常可怕的陷阱。

让我说个笑话吧:一个人倾其一生创造了一个完美的游戏引擎,现在他需要做的只是按压按键,这样便能诞生一款完美的游戏了。但事实上他却从未完成游戏!并未存在这样的引擎或游戏。

如果糟糕的组织会阻碍你前进,你可以回头做出一些改变。如果最终作品虽然存在瑕疵但是能够运行,请勇敢地按下它!

12.留给下一款游戏

如果在开发过程中你突然想出一个非常棒的新理念,你是否应该重新修改游戏?你应该将其留到下一款游戏!这并不是你创造的最后一刻游戏。

13.删减

你已经落后于计划了。你拥有所有的这些理念,但是在你执行到一半时它们可能已经征服火星了。

不过这对你来说也是有帮助的。因为你需要为此决定什么对游戏才是真正重要的,你需要删除哪些内容。实际上,如果我们都拥有无限的资源和时间,我们便会反复创造出一些蹩脚的内容。正是有限的时间和资源推动着我们最终创造出更严谨的游戏。

如果你一直围绕着一些有趣的核心理念创造游戏,你就需要不断地进行删减,直到到达核心的边缘。许多内容可能是你根本就不要的皮毛。更糟糕的是,它们可能会阻止你发现游戏的亮点。

14.如果你决定退出,请缩小规模而不是扩大

有时候,的确需要放弃了。也许是因为根本就没有完成的方法,或者你所面对的一切实在糟到即使删除也无济于事。也许其他团队成员早已退出了。我希望这里所写的能够帮助人们避免这种可能性,但也许你刚刚从这样的项目中走出来。

如果实在无回天之力了,你至少需要确保缩小下一个项目的规模。因为你很容易将眼光放得更高,甚至在你的项目越来越难以完成之时。“我的技能一直在提高着。我正在从失败中获得学习”是个很常见的借口。但我认为这也是为何将完成当成是一种技能如此重要的原因。

所以请一定放低眼光。举个例子来说吧,比起从4x空间模拟跳到你的4x空间模拟,你应该尝试着专注于较小的空间模拟元素而创造出一款真正优秀的游戏。如果你并不能完成创造,你可以尝试像《行星游戏》这样的内容。它们所需要付出的努力甚至远远超过你的想象。

15.最后的10%

有人说最后的10%其实是真正的90%,这的确具有真实性。我们可能需要投入较长的时间去琢磨这些细节。当然,也许你能在一周时间内编写出一个克星的战斗系统,但是确保它足够出色且足够复杂(没有漏洞)则需要花费数个月的时间。真正的真相是,你在做真正的最后冲刺之前可能会进行多次的“最后冲刺”。

尽管最后10%的工作较让人痛苦,但我也发现这在开发过程中是个让人满足的时期。因为如果你能够投入合理的时间,那么所有的一切可能会“有效地组合在一起”,并能将一些混乱的理念和内容整合成游戏的精神食量。

这都是关于细节

最后便是发行了!

你发行了游戏!恭喜你取得了成功。你将获得的利益包括:自信的上升,完成项目的声誉,对于游戏创造整体过程的理解。不过最棒的还是你拥有一款能让别人游戏的出色游戏!我喜欢玩游戏,就像我喜欢创造游戏一样。

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

Finishing a Game

By Derek Yu

As I work towards completing my own game, I’ve been thinking a lot about finishing projects in general. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of talented developers out there that have trouble finishing games. Truthfully, I’ve left a long trail of unfinished games in my wake… I think everyone has. Not every project is going to pan out, for whatever reason. But if you find yourself consistently backing out of game projects that have a lot of potential, it could be worth taking a step back and examining why this happens.

We’ve all had that feeling about at least one game, comic book, movie, etc., that comes out: “Gee, I could do better than this! This is overrated.” But it’s important to take a step back and realize that, hey, they put in the time to finish a project and I haven’t. That’s at least one thing they might be better than me at, and it’s probably why they have the recognition I don’t! If you treat finishing like a skill, rather than simply a step in the process, you can acknowledge not only that it’s something you can get better at, but also what habits and thought processes get in your way.

I don’t believe that there’s a right way to make games. It’s a creative endeavor, so there are no hard and fast rules that can’t be broken at some point. But as a game developer who has discussed this problem with other game developers, I feel like there are some mental traps that we all fall into at some point, especially when we’re starting out. Being aware of these traps is a great first step towards finishing something. (Between you and me, codifying these ideas is partly my way of staying on top of them, too!)

So without further ado, here is a list of 15 tips for finishing a game:

1. CHOOSE AN IDEA WITH POTENTIAL

I’ve found that there are three types of games that pique my interest: games I want to make, games I want to have made, and games I’m good at making.

Games I want to make are games where the process itself seems really fun. Maybe the mechanic seems really fun to experiment with, or maybe there’s a character I really want to animate.

Games I want to have made are games where I’m more interested in the result than in getting there. Maybe it’s a “no-limits” concept (“OMG, GTA meets Final Fantasy meets Starcraft meets…”) or just a neat idea that’s not necessarily any fun to implement.

Games I’m good at making are games that are suited to my personality and which I have experience in making. Perhaps there’s a certain genre that you naturally gravitate towards and which you understand the rhythm and flow of very well.

In my opinion, the ideas with the most potential (to be finished, at least) fall into all three categories and also satisfy the requirement “I have the time and resources to actually make this”.

2. ACTUALLY START THE DAMN GAME

Writing your idea down is not starting the damn game. Writing a design document is not starting the damn game. Assembling a team is not starting the damn game. Even doing graphics or music is not starting the damn game. It’s easy to confuse “preparing to start the damn game” with “starting the damn game”. Just remember: a damn game can be played, and if you have not created something that can be played, it’s not a damn game!

So dammit, even creating a game engine is not necessarily starting the damn game. Which brings me to the next tip…

3. DON’T ROLL YOUR OWN TECH IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO

There are pros and cons to writing your own engine. But ask yourself, do you really have to? Is what you want to do impossible to do with what’s already out there or would you be reinventing the wheel? Of course, if you write your own engine you can make it just perfect the way you like it. But be honest, how often do you ever get past the engine to the game itself? Do you find yourself making game engines more often than you do games?

I made the original version of Spelunky in Game Maker, and it’s that “finished” game that eventually gave me the opportunity to work on an Xbox 360 version. So don’t ever feel that game-making software or other simplified tools are somehow illegitimate. The important thing is the game.

Link: The Independent Gaming Forums Technical Forums

4. PROTOTYPE

This goes with #2: prototype first with whatever you have available. Sometimes you find out right off the bat that it’s a bad idea. Sometimes you stumble upon an even BETTER idea. Either way, I usually find it difficult to figure out what I want to commit to until I actually start making something. So make something!

5. MAKE SURE THE CORE MECHANICS ARE FUN

Find core mechanics that are just fun to play around with. It should be fun to execute the most basic interactions, because that’s what players will be doing the most when they play your game. Ultimately, you want this core to drive your development. This will make it a lot easier for you later on when you have to cut out parts of the game (#13) – you’ll always have this core to fall back to.

It’s possible, while prototyping, that you discover a mechanic that’s MORE fun than what you originally thought the core mechanic was – consider making that the new core mechanic!

6. CHOOSE GOOD PARTNERS (OR WORK ALONE AS LONG AS YOU CAN)

Finding a good game-making partner is like dating in a lot of ways. You may think that all that matters is skill: “Oh cool, I’m a programmer, and this guy’s an artist… let’s DO THIS!” But no, there are other things to consider, like personality, experience, timing, and mutual interest. Like a romantic relationship, you don’t want to be in a position where either you or the other person is far less dedicated. Test each other out a bit with some smaller projects, because it can really be devastating when a key person drops out after months or years of development.

Another great thing about having finished projects is that your partners will know what you’re capable of and will feel more comfortable working with you. It’s hard to convince anyone experienced to work with you on an idea alone, considering how few ideas actually see the light of day (and how hard it is to see the value in some ideas until they’ve been executed). Good partners will want to see your finished games. So finish them!

Alternatively, find free graphics and music to use online, at least as placeholders (at The Independent Gaming Source we had a competition in which a lot of free art and music was created). Use ASCII if you have to. As an artist, I know I’d much rather contribute to a project that is already done but just missing art. And if you need a coder… consider learning to code yourself (if I can do it, you can, too!) or picking up some game-making software (see #3).

7. GRIND IS NORMAL – FACTOR IT INTO YOUR PLAN

A lot of game-making is tedious and downright unfun. It’s not play, it’s work (and this is why you should choke out ANYONE when they joke about you “playing games all day”). At some point you’ll suddenly realize that there’s all this stuff you never thought about when you were planning your project and prototyping – stuff like menus, screen transitions, saving and loading, etc. “Shoot! I was imagining this amazing world I was going to create, or this fun mechanic I was going to experiment with… I didn’t think I’d be spending weeks making functional menus that don’t look like crap!” Or, you know, there’s stuff that’s fun in small doses, like animating characters, that becomes nightmarish when you realize you’ve set yourself up for 100 different characters.

Once you go through it a couple of times, you’ll realize how important it is to scale your project so that you don’t spend too much time in this inevitable quagmire (“too much time” being however long it takes before you quit). You’ll also realize that a lot of this boring stuff is what makes the game feel complete! A nice title screen, for example, does wonders to make a game feel legitimate.

8. USE AWARDS, COMPETITIONS, AND OTHER EVENTS AS REAL DEADLINES

When Alec and I were working on Aquaria, the Independent Games Festival submission deadline forced us to make hard decisions about the direction we were taking and it also forced us to look at our schedule more realistically. Had we not had that deadline, I’m not entirely certain we would have finished! Competitions are great to participate in because the deadlines are very real and because the rewards (recognition, awards, possibly money) are very real. Also, they can give you a way to connect with a community of like-minded people.

Links: Independent Games Festival, Ludum Dare

9. PUSH FORWARD

Feeling stuck? Push forward. Start working on the next level, the next enemy, the next whatever. Not only is it helpful for motivational purposes, but you want to get a sense for how your whole game will play out. Just like writing – you don’t want to go through it sentence by sentence, making sure every sentence is perfect before you move on. Get an outline down.

10. TAKE CARE OF YOUR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH

It can be surprisingly hard to take care of yourself when you’re focused on finishing a game. But honestly, you’re only doing your game-making a disservice by not sleeping, exercising, or eating right. At best, you’re preventing yourself from working at your full potential and making it more likely that you’ll quit. Having some doubt about your project is perfectly natural, but getting depression or falling into illness is not. It’s amazing how much you can not want to work on your dream project when your mind and body feels like crap!

11. STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR STARTING OVER

“My code’s a mess. And I’ve learned so much already. If I started over I could do it a lot better and faster, and then the rest of the game will go a lot faster, too!”

STOP. NO. This is true at some point during every game’s development. Your code will always be a mess. You will have learned a lot. It will never be perfect. And if you start all over, you’ll find yourself in the exact same situation when you get to this point again. It’s a terrible trap to think like this.

Here’s a joke: a man spends his entire life working on a game engine so perfect that all he has to do is press one button and the perfect game will come out of it. Actually, it’s not much of a joke, because the punchline is that he never finishes it! No such engine or game exists.

If bad organization is really slowing you down, go back and do some surgery on it so that you feel better. If it works but it’s a bit hacky, then be brave and press on!

12. SAVE IT FOR THE NEXT GAME

So partway through development you have this great new idea that’s going to blow everyone’s mind, but you’ll have to redo your whole game to implement it? Save it for the next game! Right? This won’t be the last game you ever make, hopefully. Save it for the next one… but finish this one first!

13. CUT. IT. OUT.

Oh shit, you’re way behind schedule. You have all these ideas but they’ll colonize Mars before you have a chance to implement half of them. Oh woe is you… BUT WAIT!

Well, that’s great, actually! Because now you’re forced to decide what is really important to your game, and what you could cut. The fact is, if we all had unlimited resources and unlimited time, we’d all make the same crappy, meandering everything game and there’d be no reason to play at all. It’s our limited resources and time that forces us to make tight games that feel like they have a purpose.

If you’ve been building upon some core concepts that are provably fun, just keep cutting until you get to the very edge of that core. Everything else is probably just fluff you could do without. Or worse, it’s fluff that’s preventing people from seeing the best parts of your game.

14. IF YOU DO QUIT, SCALE DOWN, NOT UP

Okay, sometimes it is time to call it quits. Maybe there’s just no way you’ll ever finish, and what you have is too big a mess to cut anything out. Maybe the rest of your team has quit already. My hope in writing this list is to help people avoid this possibility, but hey, maybe you’re just coming off of such a project. And sometimes… shit just happens.

If there’s no salvaging it, at least make sure that you scale down your next project. It’s easy to set your sights higher and higher, even as your projects become less and less finished. “My SKILLS are improving! I’m learning from my failure,” is a common excuse. But I think this is why it’s important to treat finishing as a skill, too.

So go back down, down, down, down to a point where you may even find it somewhat beneath you. For example, instead of jumping from your 4x space sim to your 4x space sim IN 3D, try making a great game that focuses on one small element of space sims. And if you can’t finish that, try something more like Asteroids. It’s very possible that it’ll still end up being a bigger struggle than you thought (and/or more fun to make than you thought)!

15. THE LAST 10 PERCENT

They say the last 10 percent is really 90 percent, and there is truth to this. It’s the details that end up taking a long time. Sure, maybe you coded a competent combat system in a week… but making it great and making it complex (and bug-free)… these things can take months. The honest truth is that you’ll probably do a “final lap” sprint many times before you get to the real final lap.

If this sounds discouraging, it shouldn’t. While the last 10 percent is harrowing, I’ve also found that is an enormously satisfying time in the development. Because more often than not, stuff really does seem to “just come together” at the end if you’ve been spending your time properly, and turning a jumble of mish-mashed ideas and content into sweet gaming manna is a magical feeling.

It’s all about the details.

AND FINALLY… RELEASE!

Holy crap, you released a game! Congratulations, you just leveled up, big time. Benefits include: increased confidence, a reputation for being able to complete projects, and an understanding of the entire process of game creation! The best part, though, is that you have a nice little game that I can play and enjoy! And I do like playing games, almost as much as I enjoy making them.(source:tumblr)


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