作者：Karin E Skoog

Golden Moose Studios刚成立几个月，趁着新年到来之际，我觉得是时候开启我们博客中的独立游戏开发日记部分了。

到目前为止我们在Golden Moose Studios都做了什么？

我和Manne在2016年夏末创建了这家工作室。我们执行了许多不同的工作：

与公司成立相关文书

这并不是一个简单的任务。我们的很多独立开发者朋友都表示他们将50%的时间用于与游戏开发无关的工作中。

我猜到我们将把许多时间花费在与业务相关的任务中，但是我却并未意识到我们到底需要花费多少时间于文书，与律师的讨论等等工作中。

这包括：

在加州的注册

在当地城市的注册

注册名字从而让我们可以使用Golden Moose Studios去执行业务（而不是Golden Moose Studios，LLC这个法律意义上的全称）

在加州的就业发展局注册从而让我们能够给予雇员超过100美元的薪资

与雇员和公司结构/所有权相关的各种文书

决定如何处理保密协议以及所有权文件转让从而在我们对外招人时能够从法律上保护自己

整理银行文书并明确Manne是否能出现在公司的银行账户中，因为他不是美国公民（这既需要与银行进行讨论也要与我们的律师和政府进行交流）

转换电子邮件服务器，即意味着我们最初的电子邮件将不能再用

事情一桩接一桩。所有的这些事都非常重要，但是它们却会分散掉我们所需要的开发时间。

社交媒体渠道和我们的网站

我们想要修正网站上的许多内容并添加其它元素。

决定在我们的游戏原型中包含什么内容并制定实现这一目标的计划与预算

尽管我们清楚在最终游戏中想要整合什么内容，我们还是花了些时间去决定我们想在原型中呈现的内容。

我不止一次重新修改了原型的提纲。最初我创造了一份标准设计文件，即包含了关键事件，位置和游戏设计，而现在当我们回首之前会发现，最终的提纲与最初的原型理念没有太大偏移。

但是在那时候我意识到我们只暗示了想要添加的情感元素而并未深入研究去呈现游戏的核心内容。

所以我便又一次重新开始，这一次我更多地专注于情感核心并使用不同元素去支持这点（游戏邦注：如特效，摄像机角度等等。）

组建我们的核心团队

包含编写招聘内容并通过社交媒体进行发布（游戏邦注：如在Reddit，LinkeIn，Twitter，Facebook等其它和游戏开发相关的网站）。

我们需要花时间于整个面试过程—-包括审核申请表格和作品集，安排时间进行面试，并注意一些额外细节。

其它活动

Manne同时也创建了一份文件去分享有关我们游戏的资源，并且他也创造了一份备份脚本，以防一些意外事件的发生，

我们还需要参与logo的创造以及带有我们全新logo的公司名片和衣服的制作。我们也已经收到一些想要在自己的衣服上添加我们logo的请求了。

创造故事

因为我们的游戏是故事驱动型，所以我们需要为游戏的发展方向创造一个有效的故事基础。

我们联系了前Pixar的故事作家（参与了《玩具总动员》和《海底总动员》的制作）。在他的帮助下我们明确了故事和角色的方向。说真的能够和拥有强大电影故事背景的人共事真的很棒。

与资深游戏设计师见面

到目前为止我们已经见了来自AAA级领域以及独立领域的一些资深游戏设计师并告诉了他们我们的游戏方向，同时也讨论了业务/市场营销策略。他们给予的建议都非常宝贵，并让我们更加确定了概念的可行性。

当你身处于独立游戏领域时，你经常会在准备向全世界公开自己的游戏时还未曾收到过任何外部反馈。尽管我们并不需要额外去见其他开发者，但是我们最好能够尽早明确我们的原型想要遵循的方向。

开始游戏开发！

这便包含系统编程，关卡设计，以及我们将在游戏中贯穿使用的游戏资产的创造。

为什么开发原型需要花费这么长时间？

我们并非将其当成标准的“证实它可行的”原型。我们是使用这些前期制作时间去明确我们需要面对的问题并明确游戏的发展方向。

例如创造一个更有活力的移动系统。

这意味着原型应该能够向我们的潜在投资者呈现最终游戏的样子。

留给他们一些可想象的特殊功能（但是也有可能最终功能与他们所期待的有所不同）

简单描述游戏发展方便，不要浪费时间去探索主要机制（这也能留给投资者一些想象空间）

到目前为止我们做了什么？

角色和游戏世界的最初概念图。我们希望可以与你们分享这些内容，但似乎要等到真正公布游戏后才能这么做了！

角色和故事创造与迭代—-我们与前Pixar故事作家进行合作去创造角色，游戏世界以及整个游戏故事。

一些3D建模。

最初审查不同的动画集。

最初审查音乐。

编程和设计迭代—-游戏开发需要反复修改！

下一步是什么呢？

我们的目标是在2017年末完成一个可游戏的原型并将其呈现在潜在投资者面前。我们是自己掏钱创造原型。而在获得一个能够真正反应最终游戏的原型前我们还有许多事要做。

在明年年初我们将与一位环境美术师合作明确游戏的美术风格并将其带到原型中（这意味着我们将添加3D对象，灯光，阴影等等内容让游戏看起来更加“真实”。）

（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）

IndieDev Diary: Starting Golden Moose Studios & Creating a Story-Driven Prototype

by Karin E Skoog

It’s a few months into the formation of Golden Moose Studios, and with the start of the new year approaching, now seems as good a time as ever to begin the IndieDev Diary section of our blog!

What Have We Been Doing at Golden Moose Studios?

Manne and I started the studio at the end of summer 2016. This involved many different components:

Paperwork related to company formation.

This was no simple task. A lot of my indie developer friends spoke previously about 50% or more of their time consumed with non-game development type work.

I assumed a large portion of time would be spent on business-related tasks, but I didn’t realize to what extent my time would be consumed with straight up paperwork, lawyer discussions, etc.!

This included:

Registration with the state of California

Registration with the city

Registration for a fictitious name so we could do business as Golden Moose Studios (rather than as Golden Moose Studios, LLC – our full, legal name)

Registering with California’s Employment Development Department so we could legally pay employees over $100

Misc. paperwork related to employees and company structure/ownership

Deciding how to handle NDAs and transfer of ownership documents so that when we hired externally, both the contractor and our company were legally protected (DoContract.com works well for this)

Sorting out bank paperwork and figuring out if it was possible to get Manne on the company’s bank account, given that he isn’t a US citizen (This required discussion with not only our bank but also our lawyer and the government.)

Switching e-mail servers, which meant some of our initial e-mails were lost to the great abyss

It goes on and on. Let’s just say, I’m glad this part of starting the company is over! All of this is important to do, but it definitely took away from development time.

Social media channels and our website.

Fairly straightforward. There’s more on the website we’d like to fix and other elements we’d like to add, but it works.

Deciding what to include in our game’s prototype and creating a roadmap and budget to get there.

While we know what we want to incorporate in the final game, it took a while to nail down exactly what we wanted to show in the prototype.

I redid the outline for our prototype more than once. Initially, I created a standard design document, with a walkthrough of key events, places, and game design, and looking back, the final outline hasn’t deviated much from our initial ideas for the prototype.

There came a point however, where I realized I was only hinting at the emotional elements we wanted to incorporate. I hadn’t delved deep enough yet to demonstrate the heart of the game.

I started over, this time focusing on the emotional core and pushing different elements to support this (effects, camera angles, etc.).

Assembling our core team.

This involved writing jobs posts and submitting them across social media (Reddit, art-specific pages, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, other sites/groups specific to game development).

It is time consuming to go through the entire interview process – reviewing applications and portfolios, scheduling and holding interviews, and sorting through additional details.

Other misc. activities

Manne also set up a file sharing repository for our game and worked on a backup script, just in case the game exploded into a million pieces (all right, games don’t actually explode in that sense…but if files became corrupt or something else happened, we would still have a working version of the game).

We also oversaw logo creation and ordered business cards and company shirts with our new logo. We already received requests from some of you who want to order your own shirts with our logo!

(Once we find a good merchandise company for this, we’ll be sure to add some merchandise to our site. If you have any recommendations, let us know!)

Working out the story.

Since our game is story-driven, we needed to develop a solid narrative foundation for the direction our game is heading.

We reached out to a former Pixar story writer (Toy Story, Finding Nemo). With his help, we are developing our vision for the story and characters. It has been both enlightening and interesting to work with someone who has such a strong narrative background in movies!

Meeting with experienced game designers.

So far, we met with a few veteran game designers from both the AAA and indie space to talk through our vision for our game and discuss business/marketing strategy. The advice we received was invaluable, and it confirmed we are indeed onto something with our concept!

When you’re in the indie space, it’s easy to work entirely in a bubble without receiving any external feedback until you’re ready to announce your game to the world. While we didn’t need to take this extra step in meeting with other developers, it was a good step to take early on and helped identify the direction we wanted to take with our prototype.

(On a side note, if you know of any veteran game designers who might be interested in serving as a mentor/consultant on a story-driven game, please let us know at info@goldenmoosestudios.com! We are looking for someone to work with in the long term.)

Starting on game development!

This included systems programming, level design, and creating prefabs for game assets we will use throughout the game.

Why does it take so long to develop a prototype?

Well, we aren’t treating this as a standard, “just-prove-it-works” prototype. We are using this pre-production time to sort out issues we would otherwise need to work out down the road (physics, etc.), as well as to demonstrate our vision for the game.

An example of this is creating a more robust movement system (instead of generic movement that could be finished in less than a day).

This means that the prototype will more closely show potential investors how the final game will look, rather than…

leaving certain features to their imaginations (and running the risk of these features turning out differently than they might expect) or

simply demonstrating our vision for the game, while not taking the time to explore main mechanics (which could leave potential investors wondering whether or not we can actually pull off the mechanics we have in mind).

What Has Been Done to Date?

Initial concept art for the characters and world. We wish we could share some of these with you, but we’ll have to wait until later on, when we announce the game!

Characters & story work and iteration – We worked closely with a former Pixar story writer (prior works include Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc.) to further develop our characters, the world/lore, and overall story for our game.

Some 3D models.

A first pass at different animation sets.

A first pass at unique music.

Programming & design iteration – Game development requires a lot of rework!

What is Next?

Our goal is to have a playable prototype later in 2017 to show potential investors. We are using our own funds to create the prototype (and pay freelancers!). We still have plenty of work to do before we’re at a point where the prototype reflects our vision for the final game.

After the start of the new year, we will work with an environment artist to dig deeper into the artstyle for the game and reflect that within the prototype. (This means taking a grey-boxed level and adding 3D objects, lighting, shaders, etc. to make the game “come to life” artistically.)（source：gamasutra）