游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

育碧如何将策略游戏团队变成AAA工作室

发布时间:2014-07-24 17:09:45 Tags:,,,,

作者:Christian Nutt

2008年,育碧从Vivendi手中收购了Massive Entertainment;那时候,这是一家备受赞誉的PC实时策略游戏开发商。所以很快便被育碧所注意到。

在公开即将发行的游戏《Tom Clancy’s The Division》之前,它已经在《刺客信条启示录》和《孤岛惊魂3》中做出了贡献。

AAA级游戏需要一支巨大的团队;而育碧的策略是在不同工作室中分配游戏的开发任务——特别是在《刺客信条》系列。(游戏邦注:根据Kotaku,共有10家工作室正致力于《刺客信条:大革命》中。)

Gamasutra与Massive的管理总监David Polfeldt谈论了他们在《The Division》的开发中扮演着首席工作室的角色,以及游戏开发是如何在世界上最大的AAA级游戏制造过程中发挥作用。

学习

Polfeldt告诉我们,育碧收购Massive便是带着让我们负责《Clancy》的目的。问题在于这是一家硬核PC RTS工作室;Massive拥有设计技能,但却没有制作风格。所以解决方法是什么?通过与育碧蒙特利尔工作室合作而按照育碧的AAA级游戏开发方式进行。

它在《刺客信条:启示录》中扮演的角色并不重要,但Polfeldt说道:“对于《孤岛惊魂3》,我们几乎参与了所有内容,但主要还是关于多人游戏和合作模式。”他将此描述为一种“紧密协作。”

他说道:“基于某种方式,你可以说这便是结果。这对于我们来说就像大学一般。对于我而言,这是最棒的长期策略。因为你获得了一些具有最佳状态的优秀工作室并让它们能够与其它工作室合作,推动它们不断成长,分享彼此的技术,然后在几年过去后,其它工作室也会成为最出色的工作室之一——因为它们已经学会了如何制作AAA级游戏。”

他希望:“我们能够将这样的经验应用到自己的游戏中,同时也希望能够将此与其他人进行分享。”

这同样也为制作添加了灵活性;Massive内部也在开发一个《The Division》的同伴应用,但首个原型是与育碧魁北克工作室共同开发的。

育碧工作室Red Storm(游戏邦注:总部位于北卡罗来纳州)和Reflections(位于英国纽卡斯尔)同样也与Massive展开合作,Polfeldt说道:“他们拥有游戏的某些部分,而我们也希望他们能够拥有这些部分,并真正感受到对这些内容的自主权。”

Police_station_shoot_out_web(from gamasutra)

Police_station_shoot_out_web(from gamasutra)

成为首席工作室意味着什么?

Massive是《The Division》的首席工作室。而这意味着什么呢?Polfeldt说道:“你将能够领导其它工作室。但这并不是关于外包。它们具有很大的差别。”

Polfeldt表示他是从询问其它工作室“你真正感兴趣的是什么?说实话,你认为自己哪里比我们优秀?因为这边是我们需要你在这个项目中所负责的任务。你想要拥有什么?”等问题而开始。

就像对于Red Storm,答案便是枪支—-因为他们了解《Clancy》,并且因为其位于北卡罗来纳州,这让他们能更轻松地接近总部位于瑞典的Massive所触及不到的武器。Polfeldt说道:“所以他们便负责创造枪支以及所有相关的音频。这是他们会觉得妥当且自主的领域,并会因为自己所负责的任务感到自豪。”

Polfeldt承认首席工作室和辅助工作室间存在“某种紧张感”,尽管他将这种紧张感描述为是“有益健康的”。

“我认为越来越困难的是,对于每一家工作室而言,他们都会想领导项目或拥有项目。就像在与蒙特利尔分部负责《孤岛惊魂3》时我们也有这样的想法。”

Polfeldt说道:“这需要我们投入更多的注意力,如此才能避免情况不受控制。”同时,领导野心也是推动Massive开始致力于Snowdrop引擎(《The Division》的核心)的元素。

育碧管理者鼓励这样的试验。Polfeldt说道:“我们确信自己需要创造那样的引擎。在另外一家公司,他们可能只会说,‘你知道,你并不需要开发一个游戏引擎。这只是在浪费时间和金钱。’”

“但当我们来到育碧并说道,‘我们真的需要这么做。因为我们认为自己擅于这一代的主机。’而管理层的回应是,‘好的。这对于你们来说似乎很重要。你们看起来很清楚自己该做什么。那好,就花些时间和人力去做看看吧。我们拭目以待。’”

育碧并未让Massive失去控制——当他们完成某些工作时便会进行评估。Polfeldt说道:“因为你允许我们进行试验,所以就要着眼于我们到底能够做些什么。”

“但起点总要符合一个非常有效的方法。这就像生活一样,而我们并不能止步于那里。应该让人们不断进行探索。”

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

How Ubisoft taught a strategy game studio to be a AAA shooter studio

By Christian Nutt

Ubisoft acquired Massive Entertainment from Vivendi in 2008; at the time, it was an acclaimed PC real-time strategy developer. The studio soon slipped under the radar.

It turns out that prior to announcing its upcoming game, Tom Clancy’s The Division, it contributed to the development of Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Far Cry 3.

Triple-A games require huge teams; Ubisoft’s strategy has been to split development of its games — in particular the Assassin’s Creed series — across studios. (Kotaku reports that 10 studios are working on Assassin’s Creed Unity.)

Gamasutra spoke to Massive’s managing director, David Polfeldt, about taking on a lead studio role in development on The Division, and how game development works in the world’s largest triple-A hit machine.

Going to school

Polfeldt tells Gamasutra that Ubisoft acquired Massive with an eye to turning it loose on the Clancy franchise. The problem, so to speak, was that it was a hardcore PC RTS studio; Massive had the design skill, but not the production style. The solution? School the studio in doing triple-A development the Ubisoft way by having it collaborate with Ubisoft Montreal.

It played a smaller role in Assassin’s Creed Revelations but for “Far Cry 3, we were involved in everything, really, but mostly on multiplayer and co-op,” Polfeldt says. He describes it as an “intense collaboration.”

“In a way, you could say, we’re a result of that. … It was really like a university for us,” he says. “To me, it’s clearly the best long-term strategy. Because you take some really good studios that happen to be in top form and you allow them to work with other studios and make them grow, share their technology, and then a couple of years down the line, the other studio is one of the top studios — because they’ve learned the world of triple-A.”

“Now we can apply that experience to our own game and, hopefully, share that with others,” he hopes.

It also adds flexibility to production; there’s a companion app for The Division that’s being developed by Massive in-house, but the first prototype was developed with Ubisoft Quebec.

Ubisoft studios Red Storm (based in North Carolina) and Reflections (in Newcastle, England) are also collaborating with Massive — “They own a couple of parts of the game, and we want them to own them and really feel autonomous with those things,” Polfeldt says.

What does it mean to be a lead studio?

Massive is the lead studio on The Division. What does that mean? “You’re expected to lead the other studios. But it’s not outsourcing. It’s very different,” says Polfeldt.

Polfeldt says that he began by asking the other studios “What are you really passionate about? And, be blunt, where do you think you’re better than us? Because that’s what we want you to do on this project. What would you like to own?”

In the case of Red Storm, that was guns — because of its Clancy expertise and its location, in North Carolina, which allows easier access to weapons unavailable to Sweden-based Massive. “So they build them, they do all of the audio with them. It’s just an area where they feel super comfortable, and autonomous, and proud about what they do,” says Polfeldt.

There is “a kind of tension” between the lead and support studios, however, Polfeldt admits, though he describes it as “healthy.”

“Where I think it becomes more difficult is that there is, in every studio, there is an ambition to lead a project or own a project. … We certainly had that with Montreal on Far Cry 3.”

“It does require a bit of attention so it doesn’t spin out of control,” Polfeldt says. At the same time, the ambition to lead is what caused Massive to begin work on the Snowdrop engine — which forms the core of The Division — while it was working on Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry 3.

Ubisoft management encouraged this experimentation — within boundaries. “We were so convinced we needed to make that engine,” Polfeldt says. “At another company, they could have said, ‘You know, you don’t have to develop a game engine. That’s just a waste of time and money.’”

“Ubisoft, we come in and say, ‘We really, really need to do this. Because we think we can excel on this generation of consoles.’” Management’s response? “Okay. It seems important to you. You seem to have a very clear idea what to do. Okay, fine. Put a bit of time, put a bit of people on that, and let’s see.”

Ubisoft didn’t let Massive run wild — there was a reckoning when some work had been done. “At some point you need to prove, ‘Look at what we can do because you allowed us to experiment,’” Polfeldt says.

“But the starting point is always met with a very positive approach. It seems to be live, or seems to have a fever, or something is going on there, there’s good energy? Don’t stop that at that moment. Let people explore that.”

For more from Polfeldt, and his studio’s desire to step beyond the confines of the shooter genre, you can read Gamasutra’s earlier interview.(source:gamasutra)

 


上一篇:

下一篇: