作者：Bari Silvestre

在创造并发行了《杀死马里奥》后，以及在我开始创造下一款游戏前我拥有较长的一段过渡期。我先尝试着创造了一些较小的游戏，然后便受到了来自游戏《下井大战》的启发。我总是希望能够创造一款基于纵向模式的平台游戏。我同时也尝试并很喜欢《The Meteor Cometh》的控制。所以我便觉得创造一款塔防爬升游戏应该还不错。于是我便使用了一个全新引擎并创建了一个蛮有趣的游戏原型。而现在结果怎样呢？

tower fortress(from gamasutra)

在完成了原型创造并执行了图像后我该做什么？以下便是几周时间里推动着我致力于这一游戏内容的思想过程。

在过去几周里我因为《Tower Fortress》的创造陷入了僵局。即自从我觉得游戏并不像我所想象中的那样有效运行时我便停止了内容创造。人们该如何继续玩游戏以及有什么理由继续玩游戏呢？这款游戏主要是受到《下井大战》的启发，但是拥有重载计时器的无限弹药并不适合这里。玩家可以在此慢慢爬升并去杀死敌人，等待重载并再次执行这一过程。因为我觉得这样的内容很无聊所以我不得不回到之前的过程中，从长远角度看待游戏的话我需要重新去设计它。该怎么做才能让玩家持续游戏呢？

feedback(from gamasutra)

首先我在Twitter上询问了人们如何才能确保玩家长时间待在一款游戏中。其中一个评论者表示，这与为什么玩家要购买游戏是不同的。视觉效果会让玩家想要拥有一款游戏。而我已经拥有来自Mike Studios所创造的出色的像素图像。但到底怎样才能让玩家持续游戏呢？

这便是关于怎样的挑战能将他们长时间留在游戏中。即可能是与多玩家功能的竞争或者游戏中拥有让他们希望与朋友分享的升级奖励，再或者是他们受到了像关卡设计，狡猾的敌人和巧妙的陷阱等游戏内容的吸引。

因为现在我已经明确了游戏的方向，即想要将其做得更具挑战性，所以我便致力于创造那些将在游戏中执行的内容。

首先我较早寻求了一些反馈。我认识一些擅长创造基于升级的行动游戏的开发者。所以我便联系了他们。我所联系的第一个开发者给予了我非常深入细致的分析。他认为在游戏中交换武器是无用的。因为我一直深陷于来自《下井大战》的灵感以至于我完全忘记应该创造出属于自己的游戏。于是我便做出了调整。也就是现在的游戏拥有着有限的升级道具，同时最基本的道具虽然是无限的但其实并没有多大用处。这能够有效解决玩家得到自己并不喜欢的武器的问题。而经过修改，现在所有武器都能够让玩家感到满意了，因为它们不仅拥有更多弹药且总是强于最基本的武器。

为了获得更多有关游戏的反馈，我觉得应该将游戏呈现在公众面前。同时我也希望游戏能够因此提高曝光度。所以我尽可能地在更多平台上创造自己的开发日记。开发商同时也是发行商的Tinybuild便发布过一篇有关如何做到这点的文章：http://www.develop-online.net/analysis/crowd-control-how-to-get-your-game-noticed/0223011

当我开始创造开发日记时，人们马上便注意到游戏太暗了所以导致玩家很难看清楚它的视觉内容，如此便导致他们那大屏幕手机也没什么优势了。同时，根据来自开发者的多数反馈，因为有限的能见度导致游戏节奏变得相当缓慢。所以我马上就修改了游戏中的亮度（即使我已经基于这些内容执行了一些升级）。

自从我开始写开发日记以来，TouchArcade等媒体便注意到我的游戏，还有些发行商表示想要提供帮助。而这一切都让我士气大增你是否曾经在致力于自己的游戏时对这一切努力是否能得到回报感到质疑？而这也是为什么在开发期间对外公开游戏能够带给你很大帮助的原因。这不仅能够带给你有价值的反馈，同时也能让你获得一些启发并因此做的更好。

devlog(from gamasutra)

让我们再回到游戏开发中。当我在玩游戏时候我还注意到一些非常难对付的敌人，即火焰喷射器和钻孔。于是我便重新考虑创造一些较容易杀死但同时也很狡猾的全新敌人。而前面那两个敌人则会出现在较后面的关卡中。我所添加的两个新敌人是苍蝇和蜘蛛。

现在游戏的第一个区域便拥有一个统一的主题了。我甚至想着要不要添加社交关联性到游戏中从而让每个塔防区域能够代表人类的不同经济状态。

在游戏中蜘蛛是一种垂直陷阱，而苍蝇则会基于水平曲线移动并穿越平台。这便呈现了一种有趣的设置，即就好像苍蝇能够加速并攻击你，从而推动你开始移动。苍蝇同时也会隐藏在平台后面的子弹中。而蜘蛛会让你觉得周边的环境很可怕，从而让你的移动变得小心翼翼。所以你需要观察四周以避开这些攻击者。

我还决定在游戏最后呈现4个boss，而不是只有1个boss，即每个区域各有1个boss。以下便是第1个区域的boss蜘蛛王！当然我也非常欢迎你们和我分享有关其它区域boss的建议。

现在我还需要添加一些内容去完善关卡并设置那些我已经设计好并写好代码的敌人角色。

这便是我的内容设计过程！

你们将能在今年9月的东京游戏展以及11月的釜山G-Star上看到《Tower Fortress》！

（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）

Designing Game Content and Scrapping What Doesn’t Work

by Bari Silvestre

After creating and releasing Kill the Plumber, there was a long gap before I have thought of what to create next. I did a lot of smaller games on the side until I was really inspired by the game Downwell. I have always wanted to create platformers in portrait mode so I thought of doing one as well. I also played and liked the controls for The Meteor Cometh. So I thought a tower climbing game could work. I used a new engine and develop a prototype and it was fun! But now what?

What goes on after the prototype has been done and art is implemented? Here’s the thought process that has kept me working on game content for weeks.

I have been on stalemate for the past few weeks in creating Tower Fortress. I have since stopped producing content since there was a feeling that the game may not be played as much as I envision it. How and why would people keep on playing my game? The game is inspired by Downwell obviously and the infinite ammo with reload timer wont work here. You can even slowly climb up and kill one enemy at a time, wait to reload and do it again. I find it boring so I needed to step back, look at the bigger picture and redesign the game. What should be done so player will continue playing it?

Well first, I put up a twitter poll asking what keeps players going for a game. It is different from why players would buy games, as a commenter in the poll said. Visuals make players want to have the game. I already have the incredible pixel art graphics by Mike Studios (He also developed the stunning Dungeon Souls). But what keeps them playing the game?

It is what challenges them that keeps them playing the game. Either by being competitive with a multiplayer feature or getting aesthetic upgrades that will want them to brag to their friends, or something else in the game like level design, engaging enemies and tricky traps.

Since I now have a direction for the game, which is to make it more challenging, I worked on what to implement in the game.

First I asked for early feedback. I know developers who are best at action games with upgrades (I honestly don’t know what genre it is, but you usually shoot things, buy things and play as an upgraded character). So I contacted them. The first one I contacted replied and gave me intensive analysis. He’s right, swapping weapons in this game won’t work. I have been obsessed in the inspiration from Downwell I forget to make this game my own. So I changed it. The game now has limited ammo for the upgrades while the basic one is weak but has infinite ammo. This solves the problem of depowering or getting the weapon you don’t like. Now each weapon feels better because it has more ammunition and is ALWAYS better than the basic weapon.

To get more feedback in the look of the game, I knew it is time to show what’s all about to the public. I also want to get it noticed. I created a devlog in as many places as I can. Developer and publisher Tinybuild published an article how. http://www.develop-online.net/analysis/crowd-control-how-to-get-your-game-noticed/0223011

When I started the devlog, people immediately noticed the darkness in the game prevents players to see more of its visual content, making their mobile phone’s big screen unutillized. Also, from the extensive feedback I got above from fellow developer, the limited visibility makes pace of the game very slow. I scrapped the darkness immediately even if I have already implemented a number of upgrades based on them. I increased the alpha of the darkness to maintain the lighting effect.

Since I have started devlog, TouchArcade and other press noticed it and several publishers inquired to offer their help. Now this boosted my morale hundredfold. Have you ever had the feeling when working on your game and you never know if all this hardwork pays off? This is why getting the word out for your game really helps a lot during development. Not only will you get valuable feedback you have been blinded to see, but when you get some traction you will be inspired to do more and better. http://toucharcade.com/2016/08/16/tower-fortress-upcoming/

Back to the development of the game. I also noticed while playing the game, I grunt at seeing the tougher enemies flamethrower and drill carriers. I went back and thought of new easier to kill but trickier enemies. The previous two would work in later levels and it will make sense too. I added two new enemies, flies and spiders.

The first area now has a unifying theme, creepers! Frogs, bats, spiders, flies and more! I even thought of adding social relevance to the game where each area of the tower represents the economic status of humans. Deep!

Spiders serve as vertical traps while flies move in horizontal curve and also pass through platforms. These lead to interesting setups like flies look like they will speed up and attack you initiating you to move. Flies also get to hide from your bullets behind platforms so it is nice touch. The spiders now give the surrounding a terrifying feel for every move you make. You need to look in all directions to see if the course is clear and how will you approach these attackers.

I have also decided to implement not just one boss at the end but 4 bosses, one for each area! Here is the first area boss, the Spider King! We would love to hear your suggestions for the other areas’ bosses! Maybe you will see them get pixel art rendition and fight them in the game!

Now I just have to add content in adding more levels and placing these enemies I have already designed and programmed.

And that’s how I approach content design!

Tower Fortress will be showcased in Tokyo Game Show 2016 this coming September and G-Star in Busan, South Korea by November!（source：Gamasutra）