作者：James Batchelor

1月的时候我们与Karolis Mikalauskas聊了他在游戏开发领域的第一次冒险。

之前作为图像作家的Mikalauskas曾经在好莱坞参与了多部大片的制作（包括一些科幻电影），他也为自己的第一款游戏《Dream Dodger》组织了一次成功的Kickstarter活动。这是一款无尽奔跑游戏，玩家在游戏中扮演的是一个渴望逃离老人院的老人角色。

上一次他与我们分享了自己是如何组建团队并为完整开发做准备。而现在随着《Dream Dodger》的准备就绪，我们将再次听Mikalauskas谈谈他从自己的实践中获得了怎样的经验教训。

Karolis Mikalauskas(from develop-online)

自从我们上次交谈以来你们所进行的最大开发是什么？

将所有理念和图像资产组合在一起。我们是逐渐从原型过度到一款完整的AAA级手机游戏，在这里你能够打开各种角色，包括溜旱冰的女孩，玩滑板的男孩，超级英雄女孩，僵尸和机器人。每个角色都拥有6种不同的皮肤可供选择，并且所有角色都拥有各自的游戏内部动画。

我们在主菜单添加了一家由绿巫婆运营的当铺。玩家可以在这里卖掉自己所收集的容器去换取能够用于购买可以保护自己的大猩猩的金子。我们同样也整合了Facebook，如此玩家便可以在排行榜上与朋友展开竞争。

你从游戏开发中学到的最重要的东西是什么？

事先计划非常重要。一开始我们清楚自己想要的游戏的外观与感觉，但我们却从未花时间在纸上详细写下这些内容。从而导致我们在之后遇到种种问题并需要进行多次返工。这是我绝对不会忘记的教训。

还有一点便是质量。为了获得进入过度饱和的市场的机会，你的游戏中的所有内容便需要达到世界级的标准。

你们所面临的最大挑战是什么，你们又是如何克服这样的挑战？

最大挑战便是创造这样一款无止尽的游戏，并需要整合像应用内部购买，排行榜与Facebook等第三方资产。克服这些挑战并不是些什么有趣的事，但我却还是喜欢迎接挑战。我们花了很多时间进行研究，并最终克服了这些挑战。我觉得这甚至可以与解决10个爱因斯坦的谜题相匹敌。作为团队中唯一的开发者，我并不能使事情变得更简单。

如果从头再来的话你会做出什么不同的决定？如果你开发的是其它游戏的话你又会采取什么不同的做法？

如果从头再来的话我会聚集所有同事并进行几天甚至几周的头脑风暴讨论，直到我们制定好一份详细的计划。接下来我会使用这些信息去创造一份游戏设计文件并更多地关注于角色概念艺术，确保我们在转向3D建模前能够明确所有角度。

你是否计划开发更多游戏？你们拥有怎样的计划？

我当然希望开发更多游戏。而现在我们的专注点是让《Dream Dogder》能够站稳脚跟并不断提供更新内容去留住玩家的注意，同时我们也会逐渐开始全新项目。我已经拥有一些理念了，但还不是很具体。然而对于我们的下一款游戏，我们想要尝试一些更具互动性的内容，并让玩家能够探索一个精致的游戏世界。

这趟数字之旅充满各种未知。我也因此见识了各种不同的游戏制作元素。在过去两年半时间里我学到了许多，甚至远超于我之前所学到的内容。而如果没有我们团队成员的话所有的这一切都是不可能实现的。我真的非常感谢他们。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Lessons learned moving from movies to mobile games

By James Batchelor

Back in January, we spoke to Karolis Mikalauskas about his first venture into games development.

Previously a graphics specialist in Hollywood working on multiple blockbusters – including some of the Marvel films – he launched a successful Kickstarter for his debut title, Dream Dodger. This endless runner puts players in the role of an old man dreaming of escaping from his retirement home.

Last time, we spoke about how he was gathering a team and preparing for full development. With Dream Dodger now available, we caught up with Mikalauskas to find out what he has learned from the experience.

What has been the biggest development since we last spoke?
Putting all the ideas and art assets together. We literally went from a prototype to a fully finished triple-A mobile game where you can unlock various characters like rollerskater girl, skateboarder boy, superhero girl, zombie and robot. Each character has five to six different skins to pick from and all of their in-game animations are unique to their character.

We added a pawn shop to the main menu, which is run by the Green Witch. A player can sell their collected canisters to her in return for gold which can be used to buy gorillas that you can ride on for protection, for example. We also integrated Facebook so players can compete against their friends in one of the leaderboards.

What has been the most important thing you’ve learned about games development?

Planning things in advance is crucial. When we first started we had an overall idea of how we want the game to look and feel but we never took the time to put it all on paper in detail. That caused us a lot of issues down the road so we had to redo a huge amount of work. I definitely won’t forget that.

Another thing worth mentioning is quality. To be able to have a chance at breaking into this over saturated market everything in your game has to be world class.

What were the biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Making the game endless and incorporating third-party assets such as in-app purchases, leaderboards and Facebook. Overcoming them wasn’t fun and games at all but I do like a challenge. Long hours spent researching – followed by sleepless nights, headaches and talking to myself in code out loud – cracked the case. I could only compare it to solving ten Einstein’s riddles at once. Me being the only developer on the team didn’t make things easier either.

What would you have done differently if you were to start over? What will you do differently if you develop another game?

If I was to start over I would gather all my colleagues and brainstorm for days or even weeks if need be, until we have a clear and detailed plan ahead of us. Next I would use that information to create a game design document and pay more attention to character concept art by making sure that we have all angles drawn out before moving on to 3D modeling.

Do you have plans to develop more games? What have you got planned?

I definitely have plans to create more games. Currently we are focused on getting Dream Dodger off its feet and providing frequent updates to keep players interested but once we will be comfortable with starting a new project, I won’t hesitate. I have some ideas but nothing too concrete yet. However, for our next game I would like to make something very interactive and allow players to explore a beautifully crafted world.

This digital journey has been absolutely unbelievable. It has opened my eyes to so many different aspects of game production. I learned a lot over the last two and a half years, possibly more than I have ever before. All of this wouldn’t have been possible without my artists though. I would like to thank my entire team. Special thanks to Andrew Phillips.（source：develop-online)