作者：Rob Lockhart

很多人都应该知道，我是弹球戏这类型电子游戏的忠实粉丝。最近我有幸在Emporium Arcade Bar体验了下Twilight Zone机，并且我想要在此与你们分享如何将弹球戏设计更好地应用于游戏设计体验中。

随着时间的发展，弹球戏的规则似乎变得越来越模糊。在一些比赛中，控制球的精确技能是最重要的测试元素，所以设置较长的事件链条去提高点数值是有意义的。但是在休闲游戏中，规则通常更加复杂。

Twilight Zone Playfield（from gamasutra）

我总结了大多数弹球戏玩家所关心的三件事：

1.游戏的长度

2.玩具

3.游戏模式

显然游戏长度是休闲弹球戏玩家在每次游戏过程是否获得良好游戏体验的重要元素。你玩的时间越长，你便越有可能激活某些特殊内容，你将不得不随机撞击某些内容而获取点数。相反地，如果你一直遇到死球，你便会大大受挫。

玩具是游戏领域中最吸引人的东西。有时候，它们会闪烁着光芒，轻轻摇荡着或者发出一些声音，甚至同时具有这三个特征。当玩家激活一个玩具时，他们将获得奖励，而不管他们平常呈现出怎样的点数奖励。有时候，玩家还会遇到一些有趣的游戏结果，就像我最喜欢的Jurassic Park机便带有这样的结果。

可能最鼓励人，也是人们最关心的应该是激活不同游戏模式。使用柱塞和脚蹼向上拍球是标准的游戏模式，但基于不同的体验分解乐趣才是核心游戏原则。想想《吃豆人》中的能量芯块，这将让玩家在狩猎与猎者之间转变着，或者《火箭飞人》中特殊的装置能够加速输入。但弹球戏存在的问题是，除了资深玩家外，普通玩家几乎看不到这些内容。获得多个球或进入迷你游戏领域通常都会要求玩家先执行一序列困难的行动。

你可以将弹球戏机当成是一款大型游戏的一部分，而你从弹球戏中获得了最大的乐趣体验。如果从上文看来点数具有任何价值，它们就需要跨越不同游戏机进行标准化设置，否则将总是存在“54万点数好不好？”这样的问题。除了具有竞争性的游戏外，点数对游戏并不会起太大作用。

以下是关于这些问题的解决方法：

1.我不认为应该删除点数，我不知道它们是否能够跨越不同游戏而趋于标准化。我认为它们是特别行动的结果。如果在点数具有奖励性的地方呈现点数的话便是有意义的。

2.激活玩具和模式应该更加直接，尽管无需变得较简单。例如，让球在斜坡中向上滚动可能非常复杂，特别是当其前方还存在下降目标时。下降目标是阻拦玩家进程的一种直观方式。这很复杂，只要玩家能够理解触动一个特殊事件的步骤便可。

3.如果可能的话延伸平均游戏时间。我知道这是街机业务，弹球戏的利润越来越糟糕，但是当Donkey Kong游戏机给予挽救更多时间时，他们便也愿意投入更多时间于游戏中。

4.让它成为优质时间。人们需要马上感受到强大的能力，并且也有一些弹球戏有效地做到了这点。我注意到《Bride of Pin-Bot》（游戏邦注：Python Anghelo和John Trudeau于1991年设计的一款弹球戏）让一些新玩家也能够轻松地挑战一些斜坡并移动目标，同时也呈现给那些资深玩家更具挑战性的内容。你可以通过撞击一个斜坡而获得巨大的成就感。但是其它游戏却让玩家觉得很愚蠢（如我因为其它原因很喜欢的一款游戏《黑洞》）。如果游戏领域中间有一个巨大且空旷的领域，或者有很多固定目标只是将球弹向玻璃，玩家便会觉得很无聊。我很高兴看到现在弹球戏中的内容，我也希望本篇文章能够帮助弹球戏设计师花费更多时间去为这部分玩家作考虑—-只是因为看到弹球戏机而玩游戏（而不是因为喜欢）的休闲玩家或街机玩家。

这些内容也同样适用于其它游戏体验。我希望所有类型的硬核游戏将考虑玩家可能会徘徊着想要寻找几分钟的休闲娱乐。硬核玩家不一定总是要玩COD，但是玩COD会让我们变成硬核玩家。也许引人注目的电子游戏会为了接近更多用户而避开部分用户。但是弹球戏却并未拥有这样的优势。

（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）

Casual Pinball

by Rob Lockhart

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of the genre of electromechanical games known as Pinball.  I got a chance to spend some time with the Twilight Zone machine over at Emporium Arcade Bar recently, and I want to share some thoughts about pinball design which might apply more broadly to game design experiences.

Over time, it seems, pinball rules have become more and more obscure.  In tournaments where precise control of the ball is the skill most tested, it makes sense to have long chains of events which result in increasing point values.  But in casual play, the rules often seem overcomplicated.  Here is the rule sheet for the Twilight Zone machine I was playing.  Check out this video where the rules of Bally’s ‘Frontier’ machine are explained.

I’ve come to the conclusion that most pinball players care about three things:

1.Length of play

2.Toys

3.Play Modes

Length of play is an obvious way that a casual pinball player can feel good about a session.  The longer you play, the more chance you feel have of activating something special, and you can’t help but accrue points just by hitting things randomly.  Conversely, when the ball goes down the drain and out of play, that’s a very punishing feeling.

Toys are the interesting things sticking out of the playfield.  Sometimes they flash or jiggle or make noises, or all three!  When a toy is activated, it’s very rewarding, regardless of the point bonus they often represent.  Sometimes they have interesting gameplay consequences, as in one of my favorite machines of all time, Jurassic Park.
Probably the most rewarding thing — and what people care about the most — is activating different modes of play.  It’s accepted that shooting the ball up the field with the plunger and flippers is the standard mode of play, but breaking up the fun with different kinds of experience is a core gameplay principle.  Think about the power-pellets in Pac-Man, which switches the player from the hunted to the hunter, or the special contraptions in Jetpack Joyride which change up the input.  The problem in pinball is, outside of expert play, these things are far too rare.  Getting a multiball or a mini-playfield often requires unlocking that experience by performing a sequence of difficult actions.

You can even think about a pinball machine as just one part of a larger game, which is getting the most enjoyment out of the pinball available to you.  If points are to have any value in that context, they need to be standardized across machines, otherwise the question will always be “is 540,000 points good?”  Outside of competitive play, everything is made up and the points don’t matter.

I don’t like to point out a problem without offering some solutions, so here they are:

1.I DON’T think that points should be eliminated, and I’m skeptical that they’ll ever be standardized across games.  I do think they should be clear consequences of specific actions, pointed out with something other than a playfield light, which are so easy to ignore amongst all the other flashing whatsits.  It would be great if points could be displayed over the place where the points were awarded, perhaps by projecting onto the playfield glass?

2.Activating toys and modes should be more straightforward, though not necessarily less difficult.  For example, getting the ball up a narrow ramp can be very difficult, especially if there are drop targets in front of it.  Drop targets (panels which drop below the playfield when hit by the ball) are a very intuitive, straightforward way of barring progress.  It can be difficult, as long as the player understands the steps needed to trigger a special event WITHOUT READING.

3.Extend the average playtime, if possible.  I know this is the arcade business, and that the margins on pinball are the worst they’ve ever been, but when the Donkey Kong machine right next door gives the player more playtime, that’s where they’ll put their quarter.

4.Make it quality time.  People need to feel powerful and competent right away, and there are some pinball games that already do this.  Bride of Pin-Bot, I’ve noticed, makes some ramps and moving targets really accessible to new players, and saves others for the advanced (or lucky) ones.  Just the fact that you can hit a ramp reliably feels like a huge accomplishment.  Other games (such as a favorite of mine for other reasons, Black Hole) make the player feel stupid.  If there is a big empty area in the center of the playfield, or a lot of stationary targets that just bounce the ball up into the glass, they’re gonna have a bad time.
I’m really excited about what’s happening in pinball right now, and I hope that this article will cause pinball designers to spend a little more time thinking about this segment of players — the casual barroom or arcade player, who plays pinball because it’s there, not because he loves the flippers the way we do.

That goes for other game experiences, too.  I wish that hardcore games of all types would consider the players that might wander in looking for a few minutes amusement.  Being a hardcore gamer should not be a prerequisite for playing COD, but playing COD should make me want to become a hardcore gamer.  And maybe that’s OK.  Maybe high-profile videogames can afford to turn away users by the millions because there are still millions more.  Pinball, however, definitely does not have that privilege.(source:gamasutra)