作者：Josh Bycer

玩电子游戏的一个重要部分便是让玩家能够清楚游戏设计是如何运行的。关于该呈现给玩家多少信息总是存在许多争议；这种情况在围绕着玩家选择所创造的策略或RPG游戏中更加显著。在本文中我们将着眼于什么情况下开发者过于隐藏信息以及何时必须将信息呈现在玩家面前。

Darkest-Dungeon(from gamasutra)

捉迷藏式设计：

游戏设计是关于创造能够测试玩家对于游戏理解力的规则和机制系统。那些最优秀的游戏往往都具有隐藏的深度，即让玩家能够深入挖掘机制去寻找更有趣的内容。实际上，我所喜欢的许多游戏都带有深度，如《未知敌人》，《美妙世界》，《著名探险家》等等。

话虽如此，明确该呈现给玩家多少游戏机制和根本规则始终都是件困难的事。如果你一下子揭示了所有内容或过多内容，玩家可能每次游戏便都清楚最佳选择是什么。而如果你揭示的内容过少，玩家将在不够了解游戏的前提下被迫做出各种选择；如此玩家将不清楚自己的选择是否会影响到游戏结果并且这也将提高游戏的学习曲线。

而行动游戏或基于技能的游戏便很少遇到这样的问题，因为玩家可以通过角色看到游戏对于他们所做出的选择的反应。就像当我们看着马里奥行动时我们并不需要了解他的准确跳起高度和奔跑速度。但在较抽象的设计中，即规则和系统都处于后端的游戏里，许多开发者都会避免向玩家呈现游戏的运行。

JRPG游戏便是这种趋势中一个让人讨厌的例子。我已经数不清在我玩过的JRPG中有多少游戏虽然提供了各种数据和数字但却未告诉玩家它们到底代表什么。

在某些情况中，只有抽象数字也就足够了：如果我从10次攻击进化到20次攻击，这自然便意味着我的攻击力得到了提高。但如果游戏隐藏了更多需要理解的机制或决策，玩家便只能想办法去获取游戏如何运行的信息了。

很早前我便谈论过这一内容，即当游戏是围绕着一个策略指南进行创造，或者开发者隐藏了游戏信息希望通过出售指南去告诉玩家游戏的发展。

这里存在的另一个要点是，你可能拥有需要玩家通过心算能力想出游戏想要告诉自己的内容的信息。在我看来《暗黑地牢》便拥有这样的问题，即关于游戏计算抵抗检查点方面。这一例子也能将我们引向何时该向玩家揭示幕后之人。

决策制定vs决策决定：

在我看来如果信息能够帮助玩家做出选择，但却不会推动游戏的发展，那么游戏就必须将其呈现给玩家。继续以《暗黑地牢》为例，如果游戏准确告诉我触发机会是基于枯萎技能或流血技能，这便是在帮助我做出决定。这与只是告诉玩家每次该瞄准怎样的敌人是不同的，因为在后面这种情况中玩家将不能再做出决定。

还有一个例子是来自《末日疯人地》。在这款游戏中当你看着敌人移动时你便能够注意到他们的攻击范围。这一信息并不会告诉你如何游戏，但却能够影响你做出决定，即关于如何在游戏回合中移动角色。《未知敌人2》和《未知敌人2》中也使用了同样的思维过程，即开发者会呈现给玩家击中敌人几率的影响。

还有一点是，如果你每次隐藏的同是同样的信息，玩家便需要游戏时记住它们。让我们举个例子来说，在《监狱建筑师》中，为了让厨师更好地管理自己的厨房，这里存在有关炊具和冰箱的准确比例。

这种情况在每次你玩游戏时都是不变的，对于玩家来说这也是一种常识。当某种情况每次出现都不变时，我就不知道为什么还需要隐藏这一信息了；当我们在讨论围绕着基于最优化的常识时，这便不再是一种选择。

而作为一个反例，暴雪便选择了一个正确的方向并只是告诉玩家多少工人需要去开采天然气和晶体。

你并不需要去揭示可能减少选择或抹去玩家想法的信息。告诉玩家“如果你做X，那就会发生Y”与“你应该做X，因为Y是最佳选择”是截然不同的。

如果你不想揭示机制和系统的细节，你便可以使用一些抽象数字去指代某些内容。比起呈现给玩家做决定的完整数学公式，你可以只是呈现一些抽象数字以及计算结果，就像《暗黑地牢》所做的那样。

平衡细节：

优秀的游戏设计师总是能够轻松呈现给玩家他们需要的一切内容；不需要他们去寻找信息，不会因为各种琐碎的细节压得他们喘不来气，游戏设计师将创造一个有效的UI去做到这些。即游戏设计师将通过游戏测试去了解该提供给玩家怎样的信息。

如果你在游戏论坛上看到许多有关特定机制或规则且需要你的专家回答的内容，这便代表你需要在游戏中适当揭示这些内容。

如果越少人需要到游戏外部寻找如何游戏的答案，那就说明你的游戏设计和UI越优秀。

我之前曾经说过，并且我想再次强调的是，任何一款游戏都不应该花几个小时的时间于揭示游戏基本内容的教程中，不管这款游戏是什么类型或有多复杂。

（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）

Transparency in Mechanics and Game Design

by Josh Bycer

An important part about playing a video game is letting the player figure things out and learning how the game design works. There is always a constant struggle between showing too much or too little information for the player; even more so in strategy or RPG games built around player choice. For today’s post, we’re going to look at when developers hide their information a little too much and when it’s important to just reveal it to the world.

Hide and Seek Design:

Game design is all about creating systems of rules and mechanics that will test the player’s understanding of the game. Some of the best games ever made were those with hidden depth to them; allowing players to dig into the mechanics to find greatness. In fact, many of my favorite games have that depth to them: XCOM, The World Ends with You, Renowned Explorers and so on.

With that said, figuring out how much of the game’s mechanics and underlining rules to reveal to the player is always difficult. If you reveal everything or too much, then the player will always know the best option every time and the game basically plays itself. If you reveal too little, then the player is forced to make decisions without having the proper knowledge; making it impossible to figure out if their choices had an impact and increasing the learning curve.

Action or skill-based games don’t have this problem as much, because the player can see how the game reacts to their choices through the character itself. We don’t need to know Mario’s exact jumping height and running speed when we can see it in action and remember it. But in abstracted design where there are rules and systems on the back-end, many developers hide or simply don’t tell the player how the game works.

JRPGs are a very annoying example of this trend. I can’t count the number of JRPGs I’ve played where the game gives you all kinds of stats and numbers, but don’t give the player any idea of what they mean.

In some cases, simply having the abstracted number is enough: If I went from 10 attack to 20 attack, then naturally that means I’m doing more damage. But when you have mechanics or decisions that require an understanding of the game hidden, then the player is left to seek information elsewhere as to how the game is supposed to work.

I’ve talked about this a very long time ago when games are built around a strategy guide, or the developer hides information with the explicit purpose to sell the guides so that players know what’s going on.

Another point is if you have information that requires the player to do mental calculations on their own in order to parse out what the game is telling you. Darkest Dungeon has this issue in my opinion with how the game calculates resistant checks. That example is also a good springboard into talking about when to reveal the man behind the curtain to the player.

Decision Making vs. Decision Deciding:

In my opinion, if information is going to help the player make a choice, but not play the game for them, then it should be revealed to the player. With the Darkest Dungeon example, if the game tells me exactly what the to-proc chance is on blight or bleed skills, that’s going to give me information that’s going to help me make a decision. It would be a different story if the game simply just highlights the enemy they should target each time, because then the decision making is removed from the player.

One example from Skyshine’s Bedlam was something that I actually suggested to the developers. The point was showing the enemy’s attack range as you’re viewing their movement. This information doesn’t tell me how to play the game, but infers on my decision of where to move my characters during a turn. The same thought process can be seen in XCOM 1 and 2 and how the developers show the player what impacts the to-hit chance on the enemy.

Another point is if you have information hidden that is the same every time and the player needs to remember it when they play. Here’s a good example: In Prison Architect, there is an exact ratio of cookers to fridges to chefs in relation to serving tables in order to properly manage your kitchens.

This is the same every time you play and is common knowledge by the expert players and the Prison Architect Wiki. There is no reason why that information should be hidden if it’s the same thing every time; it’s not a choice when we’re talking about common knowledge built around optimization.

As a counter example, with later updates, Blizzard went in the right direction and now simply tells the player about how many workers should be mining gas and crystals.

You don’t want to reveal information that’s going to reduce the number of choices or remove player thinking from the game. There is a big difference between telling the player: “If you do X, then Y will happen,” vs. “You should do X, because Y is the best option.”

If you don’t want to reveal the exact details of the mechanics and systems, you can use abstracted numbers to help illustrate what’s going on; which is what I talked about in my post on Abstraction in Game Design. Instead of showing the player an entire mathematic formula to determine damage, you can simply show the abstracted figures and the result of the calculation; which is what Darkest Dungeon does.

Again, the player is kept away from the low level numbers and formulas, but is still given the information they need to understand what’s going on and to make an informed decision.

Balancing Details:

A great game designer is able to present everything that the player needs at their fingertips; no hunting for information, not overwhelming them with trivial details and building an effective UI that does it all. This is where play testing can also come in handy for knowing what information to reveal to the player.

If you’re seeing constant messages on your forums regarding people asking about a specific mechanic or rule that your experts are answering, then that would be a good candidate for simply revealing in game.

The less someone has to look outside your game for answers on how to play it, the better the game’s design and UI are.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say again, there is no game that should require hours of let’s plays and tutorials in order to figure out the basics, regardless of the complexity or genre. In an upcoming post, I’ll be returning to the use of abstraction and how designers can use certain techniques to make their games easier to learn.（source：Gamasutra）