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开放世界游戏中的原路返回问题或直接传送问题分析

发布时间:2017-03-28 10:50:11 Tags:,,

本文原作者:Ketan Kulkarni 译者:ciel chen

开放型世界游戏是我最喜欢的游戏类型之一。我一有机会就喜欢聊聊RPG类型游戏。开放型世界游戏总能挖掘出人类想要探索和发现新事物的本能。就是这种好气息驱使着我们想要越界去了解更多关于外星人的知识。

这个情况对凡是有涉及“开放型世界”内容的游戏都适用。探索游戏的主要构成部分就是探索。我们知道不同的游戏有截然不同的世界构建方式,这也让玩家看到的游戏面貌大不相同。

这些开放型世界大多都有着秘密的地下城和洞穴等待着玩家的探索,这点也就是我们今天这篇文章要讲的主要内容。游戏设计者花了大工夫来构建高水平迷宫,让玩家能够在整个游戏过程中能有流连忘返,身临其境。但是有时我们对适合实现这种效果的方法有些疑惑。

Problem(from gamasutra.com)

Problem(from gamasutra.com)

几个礼拜之前刮起了一阵怀旧风,我那时在玩《波斯王子:武者之心》,真是段棒极了的旧时光。如果你玩过那款游戏,你就知道游戏里有很多隐藏在地图里提高生命上限的物品,你可以通过一些秘密通道来找到它们。在游戏里寻找这些提高生命上限的物品的过程中,我感觉到这个过程就很能说明这个问题。我们暂且称之为“原路返回”问题。

让我们来想象这样一个场景来更好地理解这个问题:

当你在玩一个游戏的时候,你有时要探索一些神秘的洞穴。这些洞穴充满了迷宫隧道,你可以通过解决周围的挑战来解锁某个洞穴。你需要解开这些谜题然后走到道路尽头。你在路途中甚至会碰到一些小怪在守卫这些洞穴,然后你就得开始杀怪,这个过程中你要进行各种操作,直到你到达这条路的尽头为止。听起来好像蛮有趣的吼?

目的:

这可以是随便的什么。比如说你想要拿到一套防御超高的装备、攻击超高的剑或者其他什么要收集的东西比如一袋钱或者提高生命上限的药水啊之类的,没错,该死的这里可以是任何东西。

很多人会喜欢这种玩法因为他们喜欢探索以及解开各种谜题,因为他们觉得这是他们的强项。

好吧,现在你成功到达道路尽头了,你的目的也达成了。现在问题就从这里开始了。现在目标达成了,路也走到尽头了,你之前所做的一切探索行动到这里也没有可以继续的了。所以你该把之前走过的路再从头到尾走一遍,然后回到探险的主路段上去了。这个部分真的是非常相当以及极其的无聊,我个人觉得玩家在这里很容易就失去了游戏动力,而且这在游戏节奏方面也存在消极影响。

大多数情况下,这种洞穴、地下城或者任何地下隧道的探索都不是游戏的主线内容,不过就是个支线任务而已。所以这意味着玩家要偏离他们的故事主线来进行这些探索。如果这个洞穴之类的的迷宫很小,返程也就还好,但是如果去的路程真的很长那可如何是好?玩家就不得不从死胡同再原路返回到他开始这段支线探索的起点(意味着怪还要重新打一遍),回程中的一切很明显都跟去程相同,没什么有趣的。

Assassin’s Creed 2(from gamasutra.com)

Assassin’s Creed 2(from gamasutra.com)

游戏要如何解决这个问题:

这里拿《波斯王子:武者之心》举个例子,当我们必须要拿到增加生命上限的物品的时候,会看到我们为此经历的一系列障碍——我们避开了所有的机关和陷阱,最后到达了终点并获得了这件物品。接着我们就真的除了原路返回没有别的事可以做了。所有我们经历过的陷阱都神奇地消失了,我们得回到这个探索插曲的起点处。幸好通常这个游戏给的距离都不会太长。但是这种情景肯定影响了整个游戏的节奏感。

我们来看看别的游戏是怎么解决这个问题的:

你会在《刺客信条2》中看到类似的情况。当我们在地下墓穴的时候,我们会面对各种动作益智挑战。当你最终达到了你的目标并且与之交互时,一个秘密之门会打开。

在这里你会看到游戏是如何解决回程问题的。就在我们获得了我们要收集的物品时,一个秘密之门会打开,它会直接把我们送到外面的世界,然后我们就可以继续我们的冒险。

就我们考虑的问题,这是目前为止还不错的方法,虽然不错,不过这会让人产生一种缺失感,一种不完整的感觉。这种感觉产生的原因我有想过——可能是因为我们没有再看到过那个入口的大门了,就像一个循环有了缺口——所以有了这种不完整的游戏体验感。这点我还会进一步说明的,但是我们先再看看其他更好的返程方式。

我认为恰当的解决方案应该是《巫师2:刺客之王》里面的那样。

如果你玩过的话,你一定记得在矮人小镇,完成过一个叫做“Vergen矿山”的任务。

让我给你看看地图让你对此有个清晰的概念。

Witcher 2: Assassins of the King(from gamasutra.com)

Witcher 2: Assassins of the King(from gamasutra.com)

你看到的地图上所有红色的叉叉都是一条条死胡同。这个地图很大,玩家必须走过很远的距离才能走到头,然后再返程。

我不会在这里解释这个任务怎么做。我说这个的重点是:一旦我们把这个矿山里的所有任务完成了以后,不夸张地说,这个地图会变得空空如也——所有的怪都被被消灭了,所有物品都收集来了。现在我们要做的就是回到刚开始的入口。

在这里,游戏给了我们选择:可以再游历一遍这个地区或者可以嗖地传送到入口处。这个解决办法是挺不错。如果你喜欢探索,游戏给你这个自由,如果你不喜欢,那就直接传送到外面!这个方法真的挺好的,它给了玩家一种独立自主权。

尽管这里第三个游戏的返程选择似乎更佳,但我觉得我们的设计者还能够做到更好。如果我们仔细观察这个矿山的地图,我们会注意到这个地形非常地圆。那现在他们要做的就是把东西按照这个圆的形状进行循环回路放置。用这个方法,玩家从入口开始,到最后结束在同一个入口。这样这就让玩家有了游戏的完整体验感。

我相信关于这个问题将来还会有更好的方法。就让我来好好对此做些解释,就拿我们的日常生活举例好了。比如说我们的目标是做些日常琐事。

我们打开我们的家门,来到了外面的世界,下班以后回到家——这个过程就能给人以完整的感觉。

现在再想象一下另外一个场景,当你完成了手头的所有事情以后,不过现在你是要从市场开始,你进了门,然后最后出来的时候发现自己出现在邻居家门口!这会让你有完整的感觉吗?

这个问题其实很容易解决,不过一些游戏却没能够做到。解决的方法是很多,但考虑到游戏场景设计,游戏设计者必须为此做出大量的迭代直到结果给人以恰当的印象为止。要知道一个灵巧的关卡设计、机智的物件摆放点还有其他很多因素都能有解决这个问题的神奇功效。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao
The “empty retreat” problem in Open world games!!
by Ketan Kulkarni on 03/24/17 09:50:00 am
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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
Open world adventures are one of my favorite game types. I like talking about RPGs whenever I get a chance. Open world games always tap into essence of human tendency of exploration and discovery of new things. The curiosity drives and makes us push the bounds and keep getting more knowledge of what is alien.

This case is also true with the games having “open world” world element in them. Exploration is the main ingredient of many of spices we see in adventure games. Different games we see have radical approaches of constructing a world which in turn changes a face of the game which is presented to player.

Most of these open world games contain secret dungeons and caves to be explored, which brings us to the point of what this article is about. The designers put a lot of effort in making a good level which will be gripping and engaging throughout the session of gameplay. But there is sometimes a problem in proper approach of the implementation.

Couple of weeks before nostalgia kicked in and I was playing Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, the great old times. If you have played the game, you will know there are hidden life upgrades in this game which you can get through a secret passage to upgrade your health. That time while playing typically these life upgrade levels I felt like addressing this problem. This issue can be called as problem of “empty retreat”.

To know this better let’s consider a scenario:

You are playing a game in which you happen to exploring the mystical caves. These caves are full of puzzle paths, which unlock if you solve the environmental challenges presented to you. You have to solve these tricky puzzles and make your way to end. While on your way, you even meet lot of minions guarding these caves. You have to hack and slash, full action packed and make the way till you reach the dead end. Seems pretty interesting till here, right?

Purpose:

Now this can be anything. Say you are going to get a hard rugged armor and a sword with high damage points or any other collectible like chest of money or may be a health upgrade, damn it can be anything.

Most people will play it for the love of exploration and/or solving these interesting puzzles as it is their forte.

Okay, you now successfully reach the dead end, and your goal is met. The problem typically starts from here. The action packed adventure you had till now, is there until you reach the objective which is getting to end where it is not further explorable. When you reach there, you now have to traverse all the way back to carry on your adventure. This is really very very boring and I personally feel players may simply lose the grip of engagement. This also will have a negative impact on pacing of the gameplay.

Many times, this exploring a cave, a dungeon or any underground tunnels does not come under the main story mission, but just a side quest. So this means players have to explore this leaving their normal route of story progression. If this cave or whatever is small, backtracking is fine but what if it is really long way? Player has to return back from the dead end point where everything (meaning minions and all) is cleared and nothing interesting to be done or solved on the way back.

How do games solve this problem:

Here in case of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, when we have to get health upgrade, observe how we go through the series of obstacles by dodging all the blades and traps. After we finally reach the end and get it, we just have to pretty much traverse back with nothing really left to do. All the traps magically disappear and we have to go back to the point where we started. Typically in this game, the distance fortunately is not too much to travel. But if it were the case, it would surely have taken toll on the pacing of game.

Let’s see how other games provide solution to this problem:

You will see similar situation in the Assassin’s Creed 2 game. When we visit the catacombs, we get challenged by series of action puzzle. Ones when you finally reach your goal and interact it, a secret door opens.

Observe here how game tries to solve the problem of backtracking. As soon as we get the collectible, a secret door opens, which directly shoots us to outside world where we can further continue our adventure.

This is fine as far as solution to our problem is concerned, it is kind of good but there is a feeling of missing out something. This doesn’t really give the sense of completion, or we can say reduces it by 30%. This I think may happen because we don’t see the entry door again. We exit from the different portal, hence have a loop missing here, which leads to feeling of reduced sense of completion. I will further explain this but first let’s see another better option.

The apt solution in my opinion is provided by the game Witcher 2: Assassins of the King.

If you’ve played it, you’ll definitely remember this mission “The mines of Vergen” in the dwarf’s town.

Let me show you the map to have a clear idea about it.

All the red crosses you see in map are the dead ends. The area is pretty big and player has to cover lot of distance going in and then traversing back.

I won’t explain the mission here. My point here is, ones we are done with the mission inside these mines, we are pretty much left with nothing, literally. All the monsters slashed, all collectibles collected. Now all we have to do is traverse back to the door.

Here the game gives us the option to either traverse the area, or just poof back to the entrance. This is a good way to deal the problem. If you like to explore, the game gives you freedom to do so. If not, simply fast travel out! This seems a good way as the level of independence to player is more here.

Though the third option is the better in approaching this problem, I feel designers still could have done it better. If we observe the map of the mines carefully, we can notice that this level is pretty much circular. Now all they had to do is arrange the events in such a way that it loops around circularly. In this way, player starts at the gates, and eventually ends at same gate. Thus it gives a proper sense of completion.

This I believe could have been more better solution than present. To explain it properly, let’s take our daily life example. Our goal here is to run some errands.

We open the door of our home, step into outside world, get the job done and get back to home. This gives us a sense of completion.

Now consider a scenario where after your job is done, poof, u disappear from market and emerge directly in home where you started. How does it feel?

Now consider another scenario where you are done with what needs to be done, but now, from market, you get in the door and end up appearing in neighbor’s home! Does it give feel of completion?

This problem is very easy to solve yet some games still fail to address it. There are many ways it can be approached. But taking into mind the scenarios of the game, designers need iterate a lot until it gives an apt impression of closure. A clever level design, wise placement of events in the world and many other factors can work as charm and solve the issue.

I hope you enjoyed the read. Please let me know your take on this. Thank you very much for reading.

This is a repost from my personal blog. If you like what you read, please read my other blog articles.

Until then see you next time.(source:gamasutra.com


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