作者：Matthew Handrahan

Nathan Drake努力摆脱过去让人上瘾的刺激冒险成为了《神秘海域4》的核心内容，并且根据其创意总监Neil Druckmann所说的，这就像是艺术般的生活模拟。

uncharted 4(from gamesindustry)

在接受《滚石》杂志的全新采访中，Druckmann表示“激情与安定”的核心主题推动着游戏开发产业中的许多人加班加点地工作着。

他说道：“我们是因为想要基于某种方式影响并触动到某些人才加入这一产业。这也是我们即使面对不好的结果仍选择努力工作的原因。所以在这款游戏中我真的很想要去寻找答案。虽然我们将行动冒险故事作为游戏背景，但这其实暗指着我们对于生活的追求。”

Naughty Dog致力于探索这样的理念的行为是值得钦佩的。当我们在努力迎合更大的用户群体，并出现一些与现有产品相同的结果时，我们很容易做出妥协。而对于《神秘海域4》，Naughty Dog忽视了有关游戏节奏的负面反馈，反而更多地基于创造“乐趣”是游戏开发最终结果的假设中。

Druckmann解释道：“我们将‘乐趣’这一词从重点测试中删除了。这是一个会勒住我们脖子的奇怪的词。你是如何看待《神秘海域4》一开始的潜水序列？你觉得有趣吗？这里真的没有任何挑战。这里存在一种可感知的危险，即关于氧气，但其实这只是一种奇怪的叙述问题。你并不会真正消耗掉所有氧气的。“

“但这一关卡也真的很重要，它能够展示出Nate的生活有多平凡。如果要进行1至5的评级的话它可能是分数最低的关卡。但我们也并未打算去改变它。”

将问题“你认为这一关卡多有趣？”改为“从整体上看，你会如何为这一关卡评级？”有可能直接改变测试分数。因为Nathan Drake不想再浪费生命去追求更高的冒险和混乱的行动，所以Naughty Dog需要创造一种能够表现出他个人奋斗的体验。

Druckmann在将《神秘海域2》中的喜马拉雅村序列作为关键时刻时说道：“对于我们来说这也是工作室的发展。我认为我们会越来越有信心去使用我们的媒介创造出这些关键时刻。”

然而随着Nathan Drake去摸索游戏过程的同时，他要想变得更加成熟就必须做出一定的牺牲。Druckmann非常清楚对于特别玩家来说，根据他们的不同看法，Naughty Dog在《美国末日》和《神秘海域4》中所摸索的创作方向有可能过多，也有可能过少。

“我的意思是我们清楚我们会失去部分人。我知道现在在NeoGAF上有人在抱怨这款游戏的开始阶段。因为我已经看过这样的抱怨。他们讨厌游戏缓慢的节奏。在他们获得枪支并开始射击前他们并不认为这是一款真正的游戏。”

“对于他们来说这样的内容才是游戏。我并不认为失去这些玩家会有什么不妥。我也希望会有那些喜欢更加明确的节奏的玩家能够取代他们。”

（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）

Uncharted 4 was inspired by the industry’s struggle against crunch

By Matthew Handrahan

Nathan Drake’s struggle to leave the addictive thrill of his past adventures behind is at the core of Uncharted 4, and according to creative director Neil Druckmann, it was a case of art imitating life.

In a new and very detailed interview with Rolling Stone, Druckmann said that the central theme of “passion versus settling down” was a reflection of the drive that leads so many people working in game development to crunch.

“We’ve all joined this industry with the hope of affecting people, touching them in some way. Which is why we work so hard, sometimes to destructive outcomes,” he said. “So in this game, I really wanted to explore that. To kind of use the pulp action-adventure story as a backdrop, but it’s all kind of a metaphor for our life’s pursuit.”

Naughty Dog’s commitment to exploring the idea is admirable. Compromises are often made when chasing a large audience, leading to a certain homogeneity in the finished products. With Uncharted 4, Naughty Dog actually ignored negative feedback on the game’s more deliberately paced sections, most of which was made on the assumption that creating “fun” is the ultimate goal of game development.

“We took [the word "fun"] off our focus tests,” Druckmann explained. “It was just a weird word that people were getting hung up on. How do you rate the dive sequence at the beginning of Uncharted 4? Is that fun? There’s no real challenge. There is a perceived threat, where they talk about oxygen, but that’s just weird narrative fluff. You can’t really run out of oxygen.

“But that level is important, to set up how mundane Nate’s life is. Just rating it on its own, one through five, that was constantly the lowest-rated level. But it kind of had to be. We’re not going to change that.”

Simply changing the question from “How fun did you find this level?” to “Overall, how would you rate this level?” led to an immediate improvement in the test scores. Nathan Drake no longer wanted a life spent only in the pursuit of high adventure and chaotic action, so Naughty Dog needed to create an experience that mirrored his personal struggle.

“To us, it’s an evolution of the studio,” Druckmann said, pointing to the Himalayan village sequence in Uncharted 2 as a pivotal moment. “I guess it’s getting more and more confident in using our medium to have these downbeat moments.”

However, as Nathan Drake learns over the course of the game, maturity demands a measure of sacrifice. Druckmann is clear-eyed about the fact that, for certain players, the creative direction Naughty Dog has explored in The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 will be too much – or too little, depending on your point of view.

“I guess what I meant is that I know we’re going to lose some people. I know there are people on NeoGAF right now complaining about the beginning of this game. Because I read some. They hate how slow it is. They don’t believe it’s really a game until you get to the end of the auction and you get your gun and you start shooting at people.

“That, to them, is the game. I’m OK if we lose some of those people. Hopefully they’re replaced with other people who are intrigued by the more conscious pacing.”

There’s a great deal more in Rolling Stone’s interview, which also lists a number of intriguing sections that didn’t make the final cut.（source：gamesindustry）