作者：Stanislav Costiuc

在任何创造性行业中（或者说在任何行业或工艺中），很多人在特定时刻总是会对自己的创造产生怀疑，认为那只是一种衍生内容，不具有创造性，不够优秀，别人已经看过它了，必须去创造一些全新的内容才行等等。有时候当我出现这种想法时，我也发现其他人同样拥有这样的想法。我猜这是因为我们都想要在我们所身处的领域中留下印记才会出现的本能反应吧。即我们希望在某些技术或设计领域中创造某种突破或发展。虽然这顶多只能算是汪洋大海中的一波涟漪。

但一些大突破的出现并非只是因为理念，概念或人才（尽管这也是非常重要的元素）。同时也包含像时机，环境以及最纯粹的运气。然而当有些知名游戏出现时，或某一特定设计领域中出现一些全新趋势时，便会有人觉得“我本来也能够想出这一想法的，为什么我没这么做呢？”，或者“我也是这么想的为什么我没早一步做到呢？”

关于这点我想说说自己的想法。你必须努力去争取这样的荣耀。但即使你未想出任何全新理念的话也没关系。“全新”是一个关系词，而每一个理念只是任何已经存在的内容或知识或观察结果的结合物，所以世界上并不存在真正“全新”的东西。

让我们以一款游戏为例。我想将其描述为带有汽车的足球比赛。这里有两支团队，每支团队拥有五辆汽车，他们将在一个较大的足球场上比赛，主要目标便是将一颗巨大的金属球射进对手的球门。当一支团队的所有汽车都被摧毁时比赛便算结束。不可避免的玩家有可能遭遇轮胎和燃油量表到达0的情况并因此导致自己的汽车爆炸。

在每场比赛之前，你可以选择每个团队成员的角色。即包括像前锋（负责射门），杀手锏（专注于破坏对手的汽车），拦网队员（专注于保护杀手锏），侧卫（专注于拦球）以及守门员（看守球门）等角色。

在比赛期间，任意时刻都会有许多情况出现在比赛场上并可能帮助或阻碍到你的行进。你可以去争取奖励去修复汽车的轮胎或填充燃料。也存在一些可能提升速度或放慢速度的元素。有时候会出现一个覆冰区导致你很难正常驾驶。而最让人兴奋的时候便是“多球”时刻，及在有限时间内金属球将被同时复制成四个。

所以现在当我提到“带有汽车的足球比赛”时，你最先想到的可能是《火箭联盟》或更早前的游戏《Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars》。虽然你可能会因为我所提到的汽车角色，燃料，轮胎，“多球”机制等感到稍许的困惑。

这是因为我根本不是在说《火箭联盟》。相反的我说的是一款来自1990年名为《狂野飞轮》的游戏。

那是早《火箭联盟》30年便已经诞生的游戏，那时候的媒体称其为“绝无仅有”。

但千万别误会我，在我眼里《火箭联盟》也是一款让人惊艳的游戏，我个人也很喜欢它，但我只是想指出在它之前便已经有人想出与之相似的概念了。当我还是孩子的时候我便玩过无数次《狂野飞轮》。实际上有很长一段时间我一直想着去创造这款游戏的精神续作。当然那是在我发现《火箭联盟》之前。

最终《狂野飞轮》并未变成像《火箭联盟》那么受欢迎，或者成为九十年代初期具有影响力的游戏。甚至大多数人都不知道这款游戏，我甚至觉得创造了《火箭联盟》的人也不一定知道这款游戏。

而尽管拥有相似的游戏理念，这两款游戏在风格，氛围，游戏玩法等方面仍拥有许多不同点。虽然作为前者，《狂野飞轮》并未因此更受欢迎，而作为后者的《火箭联盟》也并未受到阻碍并最终成为2015年最受瞩目的游戏中。

尽管还有许多像销量，曝光度，回报率，粉丝社区等值的考虑的元素，但当提到创造性作品本身时，你的专注点应该是创造出能够提供优秀体验的内容—-不管这是否包含了来自其它游戏中的现有元素或者整体概念是借鉴别人的或者是已经存在的内容。毕竟在这里质量才是最重要的。

最终，《狂野飞轮》和《火箭联盟》都因为在不同时期呈现出优秀的游戏体验而在我和其他玩家心中留下了深刻印象。它们也都是不可取代的优秀作品。

（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）

Your idea may not be new, and that’s OK

by Stanislav Costiuc

In any creative line of work (or, to be fair, any line of work or craft) a lot of people at certain moments in time can experience doubt about their output – that it’s derivative, not original, not good enough, people have already seen it, need to create something new. There were times when I have gone through this, I’ve seen other people experience this as well. I guess it’s only natural because we all want to leave a mark in the field we dedicate our careers to. A breakthrough, advancement in technology or design, something big. A ripple in the ocean.

But big breakthroughs happen not just because of ideas, concept or talent (though that certainly matters). There’s also all the other factors like timing, circumstances, and just simple pure luck. And yet, when some popular game appears, or some new trend in a particular design detail, or things like that, there are people who feel, ‘I could’ve thought of this, why didn’t I?’, and in some cases, ‘I did think about this, why couldn’t I push it further?!’

And regarding the matter, I want to say this. You should keep pushing to stride for greatness. That’s how you get better at your craft. But it’s ok if you don’t come up with anything new. ‘New’ is very relative, every concept is just a combination of things or knowledge or observations that already exist, there’s nothing really new in the world.

Let me tell you about one game. I would describe it as soccer with cars. There are two teams, five cars each, playing on a large soccer field with the main goal of blasting a large metal ball into the gate of the enemy team. The match ends, however, when all cars of one team are destroyed (after which the final score is compared). This is inevitable at some point, as you have tire and fuel gauges which, when reach 0, make your car go boom.

Before every match, you can select the formation and roles of every team member. There’s Striker (who’s the person responsible for making the goal), Killer (focuses on destroying other cars), Blocker (focuses on protecting Striker), Flanker (focuses on getting the ball to the opponent’s side), and Gatekeeper (protects your gates).

During the match, at random points there are many things happening on the arena itself that can either help or hinder you. There’s bonuses you can get that repair your tires and refill fuel. There’s some that increase speed or really slow you down. Sometimes an ice area appears that makes it really hard to steer. The most hectic one probably is ‘multi-ball’, when for a limited amount of time the metal ball gets cloned into four.

Now, chances are high, that when I mentioned ‘soccer with cars’, the first thing you thought about was Rocket League, or its a bit more obscure predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars. Except you’d be very confused when I’d start mentioning things like car roles, fuel and tire gauges, multi-ball.

That’s because I’m not talking about Rocket League at all. But rather about a game from 1990 called Wild Wheels.

That’s three decades before Psyonix’s games, which the media calls “bizarre, unique and never have been done before”.

Don’t get me wrong, Rocket League is amazing and I love it, but I just want to point out, how a similar concept has been done long ago before it. I’ve played tons of Wild Wheels when I was a kid. In fact, for the longest time, one of the concepts I wanted to eventually make was a spiritual successor to it. That is, before I found out about Rocket League (and SARPBC respectively).

Wild Wheels didn’t become as popular as Rocket League, or one of the games that defined the early nineties. Most people don’t know about it, I don’t think even people who have made Rocket League know about it (at least, judging by interviews).

Despite the similar general concepts, the two games still have many differences and their own style, mood, and gameplay specifics. And being first/earlier didn’t help Wild Wheels to blast into popularity, while being second/later didn’t hinder Rocket League’s rise to be one of the biggest breakthrough games released in 2015.

While there are things to consider like sales, visibility, getting the money invested back and building up a community of dedicated fans, when it comes to the creative output itself your focus should be on providing great experience, even if there are a lot of borrowed/existing elements from other games or if the whole concept is borrowed/existing. It’s quality that matters.

Ultimately, both Wild Wheels and Rocket League have left a mark on me and other players by providing great gaming experience at different points in time. Both titles matter. And that’s a very nice thought, I think.（source：gamasutra）