原文作者： Bryant Francis 译者：Megan Shieh

极速通关，简称：速通（Speedrun）现在非常流行，相关的直播和视频在Twitch和Youtube上点击率也很高，但从某种程度上看，它一直都很受欢迎。

“极速通关”这种玩法有着悠久的历史，但到了2016年，它的意义不再只是“少数游戏高手争取在竞速排名中占有一席之地”，它演变成为了一种许多人都喜欢的游戏风格，也是很多新兴社区的基石。玩家们为了获得高分并尽快通关而相互竞争，但他们也会制定战略，相互交流并组织活动，而观众们则在观看超高游戏技艺的同时享受其中的乐趣和刺激感。

那么如果有开发者想要打造一款适合极速通关的游戏他们应该怎么做呢？为此，我们与游戏开发人员Derek Yu、Thomas Happ、 David D’Angelo 和 Ryan Clark进行了交谈，他们参与开发的游戏都频繁地出现在这类活动中。

提早接触速通玩家

如果你正在开发一款你认为速通玩家会喜欢的游戏，那为什么不让他们成为你的首批测试员之一呢？David D’Angelo是《铲子骑士（Shovel Knight）》的开发者之一，他解释说，让速通玩家优先测试你的游戏会给你带来一些明显的优势。

Shovel Knight（from gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com）

D‘Angelo说：“WayForward工作室制作了很多款游戏，而我们也时常看到速通玩家玩这些游戏，然后我就想‘如果能够得到这些人给的反馈该有多好’。”

“我们的速通测试玩家可以在很短的时间内掌握玩这款游戏所需的技能，然后以比游戏开发者或正常测试者更快的速度发现其中的bug和平台设计中的缺陷。”拿《铲子骑士》这款平台动作游戏来说，速通玩家们发现了跳跃平台在一个空间中移动的时机存在缺陷，并指出他们有时无法以完美地方式跳过一个空隙，因为在他们轻松地铲除了前面的障碍以后，后面的平台却还没有准备好。

速通玩家依赖的就是能够以尽可能快的速度穿过某个空间，而在《铲子骑士》的某些关卡中，玩家根本没办法极速通关，因为D’Angelo和他的团队时常要决定哪些关卡需要改进流程，而哪些关卡就是故意要很难。

据D‘Angelo说，如果速通玩家选择回到主菜单并重新载入关卡，而不是直面一个障碍，那他们十有八九是已经找到游戏的破绽了。

比如说游戏中的“wandering encounters（随机遭遇事件）”——根据电脑编程，敌人会随机出现在地图上，他们出现的时间和地点都不容易预测。

D’Angelo和他的团队观察到，速通玩家会退出关卡，然后再次载入，而不是直面随机出现的敌人。“我们觉得这种玩法超级无聊，看着你玩的人也会觉得无聊，所以我们定下了一个规矩：如果你以特定的速度在闯关的话，wandering encounters就不会出现。”

自己带领速通社区！

至于Ryan Clark的《节奏地牢（Crypt of the Necrodancer）》，在游戏的早期试用阶段就已经有速通玩家在挑战这款游戏了，Clark本人也开始和自己刚建立起的游戏社区一起创造速通记录，并亲自为早期试用版的速通联赛做解说。

这种早期的速通挑战可以协助开发者做一些重大的设计决定，此外Clark指出，这个社区成为了一个特定粉丝群的延伸基础，即便是游戏正式推出之后，这些粉丝也不会离开，因为他们有一个由一群《节奏地牢》狂热者（包括开发者）举办的速通竞赛活动——“CONDOR全球速通竞赛”。

Clark自己也发现极速通关，尤其是对程序生成的游戏而言，是测试Bug和游戏设计的一种绝佳方案。他说：“我自己也很喜欢玩速通，每次我都会以尽可能快的速度去测试某个元素，因为我很享受这种玩法。”

从速通玩家的视角去审视你的游戏

通过对早期测试版的速通玩家的观察，Clark也对他们也有了更深入的理解。

在平台游戏或任何普通动作游戏中，速通玩家都是那种会避开多数支线任务或隐藏目标的玩家，因此他们会拥有最低的生命值并且想要造成最大程度的伤害。慢慢地，为这些玩家设计功能的过程成为了一种练习，开发者可以从中认识到游戏中的哪些系统最适合速通玩家。

Clark说：“当速通玩家拿到游戏中的道具时，他们时常会感到失望。”比如游戏中的“金币武器”和“血武器”（游戏邦注：金币武器可以用来赚更多金币，而血武器则可以用来补血），这两样都是速通玩家不需要的东西，所以他们会跟Clark说，这些东西有些令人失望了。
为此Clark改写了这些物品，让它们在某些特定情况下造成更大程度的伤害——降落在一堆金币上以后，金币武器会造成最大程度的伤害；而当玩家的生命值达到最低值的时候，血武器会造成最大程度的伤害。他说：“如果你愿意冒很大的风险，而且不介意时刻处于死亡的边缘，那你就可以玩得很快。为了提高极速通关的可能性和适用性，我们对一些类似的物品做出了大量修改。”

这一概念同样适用于Thomas Happ的《公理边缘（Axiom Verge）》。通过观看速通玩家的挑战并为他们现场解说，Happ发现，他原本认为不会构成什么威胁的敌人可能会变成很大障碍，因为有些速通玩家从来都不会捡起任何隐藏的血包。他说：“测试这点的方式是，虽然不像速通玩家那么迅速，但我会假装自己是速通玩家，然后快速地游玩游戏，观察这些东西是如何影响他们的，这样可以帮助开发者了解在没有强化道具的情况下，哪些敌人最难打败。”

用神秘的知识和隐藏的秘密来装饰你的游戏

在速通界流行的所有游戏中，因为隐藏的深度和知识所以最臭名昭著的游戏要属Derek Yu的《洞穴探险（Spelunky）》。其程序生成的世界十分复杂，以至于有些玩家花费了数年的时间来寻找隐藏关卡和游戏的最深处。

Yu对这个程序生成的世界感到非常骄傲，因为它在多年来一直维持着游戏的趣味性，但他也坚信，深藏的机制秘密可以为游戏提供长期价值。他说：“我学到的一件事是，无论你如何隐藏，人们迟早都会找到这些秘密。所以如果我愿意的话，会毫不犹豫地把东西埋得很深！”

这么做可以让玩家为了极速通关而制定出一套策略。通过在游戏系统中尽可能深入地隐藏捷径、物品组合和能量助推器（有时是程序随机生成的），你可以创造出这样的场景：玩家不断地探索和研究你的游戏，甚至在相互竞争的同时彼此分享知识。

Clark说，在制作《铲子骑士》的时候，一个程序生成的错误导致了一个秘密策略的诞生。他解释道：“在第一关的几个房间中，出口总是在下方或右手边，或者向下然后往右，我本没打算这么做的，只是在编程的时候犯了错误，结果玩家们发现如果房间是以这种方式连接的话，出口往往是向下然后往右走。”

他说：“你可以在第一关中推算出出口在哪里，这是一个意外。但在第二/第三/第四关中，我试着故意这么做。我会观察速通玩家们试着去测试这些东西，当他们真的找到出口的时候会有一种[我做到了！]的感觉，这时他们的自我成就感会爆棚，因为他们通过直觉发现了开发者的某种设计套路。”

Clark说，这种时候，解说员就会加入到行动中，他们会观察速通玩家使用的策略并对接下来可能发生的事情作出预测，这样整个过程对速通玩家和观众来说都更加有趣。

接受错误并将其转化为机制

有一个不可忽略的事实：大多数情况下，速通就是打破游戏规则并利用开发者无意间犯的错误作为捷径。

开发人员有能力修补这些bug。但是，如果一个小故障或漏洞吸引了成千上万的玩家加入到你的游戏中来，那又何必去修复它呢？

本文采访的所有开发人员都对bug的问题表达了相同的观点：只有当它干扰了正常玩家的游玩时才去修复它。Happ说，有几个bug让他感到很头大。“在《公理边缘》中，玩家可以在某些特定区域使用钩爪来加速，也可以开通捷径，但我总担心他们会去到一个自己出不来的地方…当初在开发游戏的时候，这类设计决定往往会让我陷入困境。”

Yu说，《洞穴探险》里面有个bug，这个bug变得非常重要以至于他别无选择只能把它变成一个特性。“游戏中有一尊巨大的阎王像（地狱关的大BOSS），玩家可以打破它的头。这本是一个漏洞，但是这个动作对于许多速通和通关挑战（包括把阎王变成茄子的“solo eggplant run”）而言都至关重要，因此我们修改了画面，让阎王的头看起来像是真的被打破了。”

然而D’Angelo认为，也不是所有省时的bug都必须留在游戏中。“有时候，让速通玩家像正常玩家一样游玩也是蛮酷的，这样的话整个过程看起来才会精彩。”

Happ说，当玩家们找到并利用游戏中的小故障的时候，他并不介意，有时候玩家们会找到一些他根本没有想过的东西，这个时候他就会想“我的游戏是可以极速通关的！”

6)很明显，但却很容易被忽略的一个小窍门

如果你想要在游戏中加入一个简单的、能够帮助速通玩家的东西，可以考虑“通关计时器”。Clark，Happ和Yu都讨论了在游戏中加入一个通关计时器的好处，Yu甚至还专门为速通玩家加入了一个新的HUD元素。（游戏邦注：HUD指的是平视显示器，《洞穴探险》中的HUD可以选择普通模式或专业模式，后者比前者多了计时器，可以帮你更好的应对极速通关。）

总结：

基本上，支持速通玩家就是在不干扰普通玩家的情况下，帮助那些技能超高、反应能力超高的玩家达到越来越快的速度和越来越短的时间。在设计的过程中时刻记住这一点可以帮助你想出很好的方案。

尽早让速通玩家接触游戏，研究他们所采用的游玩风格；在游戏中建立秘密，让他们去挖掘；当他们想出办法绕过你精心设计的挑战时，要心存感激。做到这一切之后，谁知道呢？说不定你的作品会成为下一个轰动速通界的游戏，届时大家都会抢着在你的游戏中创纪录。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Speedrunning is extremely popular now, as popular streams and videos on Twitch, Youtube, and at events like Games Done Quick readily attest. But in a way, it’s always been popular.
Record-setting runs on games like The Legend of Zelda or Double Dragon are as old as consoles and arcades themselves, and games like Metroid famously rewarded fast playthroughs with specialized endings.

But in 2016, speedrunning isn’t just about handful of elite players jockeying for position in the record books. It’s a style of play that many enjoy, and it’s the cornerstone of many burgeoning communities. Players compete with each other for high scores and fast run-throughs, but they’re also developing strategies, socializing, and organizing around these specialized playthroughs, all while audiences watch for the joy and thrill of crazily high-skilled gameplay.

So if you’re developing a game with speedrunners in mind, what are some of the best practices for your development cycle? We talked to developers Derek Yu, Thomas Happ, David D’Angelo and Ryan Clark, whose games all make frequent appearances at speedrunning events, to learn some of their observations after watching players blaze through their game.

1) Involve Speedrunners Early

If you’re making a game you think will be of special interest to speedrunners, why not make them some of your first playtesters? David D’Angelo, a developer on Shovel Knight, explains that having speedrunners test your game out first gives you some clear advantages.

Says D’Angelo, “We had made a bunch of games together at Wayforward and we kept seeing speedrunners play our games, and we said ‘I wish we had that feedback before we shipped out a game.’ D’Angelo says their new speedrunning friends automatically climb the skill curve of a game and begin hitting the flow interruptions of a given level much  faster than they or normal testers would, whether it’s a bug or just a flaw in platforming design.

In one Shovel Knight example, speedrunners found flaws in D’Angelo’s timing for moving platforms in a room, sometimes pointing out there was literally no perfect way to move through a space, since platforms wouldn’t be ready after they easily cleared some earlier obstacle.

Since speedrunners rely on the ability to move as quickly as possible through a given space, there was no way to ‘cheat’ some of Shovel Knight’s levels, and D’Angelo and his team had to make regular calls as to which levels needed a flow improvement, and which ones were intentionally difficult.

One quick sign that a speedrunner has found a big flaw in your game, according to  D’Angelo, is if they reset to the main menu and load back in rather than face an obstacle.

One example of this arose with the game’s wandering encounters–enemies who were programmed to randomly appear on the map with no easy predictability.

D’Angelo and his team saw that speedrunners would load back out, then back in, rather then deal with a randomly spawning enemy. “We thought ‘that’s really boring to play, and really boring to watch.’ So we put in a rule: if you’re beating the game at a certain speed, the wandering encounters don’t show up any more.”

2) Spearhead the Speedrunning Community Yourself!

For Ryan Clark’s Crypt of the Necrodancer, speedrunning started as soon as the game hit Early Access. Clark himself began making record-breaking runs on the game with his newfound community and commentating on Early Access speedrunning tournaments.

Though this early speedrunning would contribute to some major design decisions, Clark indicates that this community outreach was the foundation for a specific fanbase that would stick around with his game after it officially launched, as the “Balls of Steel” tournament series gave way to the CONDOR speedrunning league. (Crypt Of the Necrodancer Online Racing).

And Clark himself just finds that speedrunning, especially for a procedurally generated game, is a good way to test his own bugs and design. “I enjoy speedrunning games myself,” he says. “Whenever I was testing something, I was going as fast as I could because I enjoyed that.”

3) Accommodate Low-Power Playthroughs

Clark’s biggest lesson from watching those Early Access speedrunners was one about how to define a speedrunner as a player type.

In a platformer or any general action game, a speedrunner is going to be the sort of player who avoids most sidequests or hidden objectives, and will therefore have the lowest amount of health and desire o deal the highest amount of damage. Designing features for those players becomes an exercise in learning what systems in your game will work best for them.

“There were a bunch of items in the game speedrunners were disappointed to get,” says Clark. These items were Necrodancer’s gold weapons and blood weapons—which respectively rewarded players with gold and health, the two things speedrunners don’t need—and they quickly told Clark they were disappointing items.

Clark changed the items not so they’d deal more damage, but that they’d deal more damage in specific circumstances.

Gold weapons will do maximum damage after landing on a pile of gold, and blood weapons will do maximum damage while the player is sitting at the lowest possible health they can have. “If you’re willing to play very risky, and be on the edge of death at all times, you can go super fast,” he says. “We made a bunch of changes to items and things like that to make as many as possible be speedrun as possible.”

This same concept applied to Thomas Happ’s work on Axiom Verge. While watching speedrunners play his game, and commentating on a few sessions, Happ says he realized enemies that he’d considered to be minor obstacles could become major ones in the face of those players who never picked up any hidden health packs. “The way you test that is to go through the game with an underpowered build, not to be as fast as a speedrunner but to see how it affects them,” Happ says. “This will help you understand exactly where an enemy is much harder if  you don’t have your power-ups.”

4) Festoon Your Game With Arcane Knowledge and Hidden Secrets

Of all the games popular in the speedrunning community, the one most infamous for its hidden depths and incomplete knowledge may be Derek Yu’s Spelunky. It’s procedural generation proved to be so complex that players literally spent years finding hidden levels and searching the furthest depths of the game.

Yu takes pride in his game’s procedural generation for helping keep it fun over the years, but he also firmly believes that deeply hidden mechanical secrets can help provide long-term value. “One thing I’ve learned is that a secret can never be hidden so well that someone won’t figure it out much sooner than you anticipated,” he says. “I won’t hesitate to bury something deep if I feel like it!”

This helps create systems where players begin to adopt different strategies for accomplishing their run. By burying shortcuts, object combinations, and power boosts as deep in the game’s system as you can, (sometimes through random generation), you can create scenarios where players endlessly research and dig through your game, sharing knowledge with each other even as they constantly compete.

In Necrodancer, Clark says that a mistake in his procedural generation led to the creation of a valuable secret startegy. “In Zone 1, the exit’s always down, or to the right, or down and to the right,” Clark explains. ”I didn’t intend to do that, I screwed up the programming and players figured out if rooms are connected like this, it’s probably down and to the right.”

“With that first zone, it was an accident that you could tell where the exit was,” he says. “In the 2nd/3rd/4th zones, I tried to make it do them more on purpose. I’ve watched people try to test these things out, and it feels like a eureka moment for them when they do figure it out and feel really awesome about themselves because they just intuited something about the game.”
Clark says moments like this will see speedrun commentators join in on the action, as they observe player strategies and make predictions about what might happen, helping make a playthorugh more entertaining for runner and spectaors simultaneously.

5) Embrace Mistakes…and Turn Them Into Mechanics

There’s one inescapable fact about speedrunning: Most of the time, speedrunning is about breaking the  game and making use of flaws that developers never intended to serve as shortcuts.
Developers have the ability to patch away these bugs. But if a glitch or an exploit draws thousands more players to your game—how do you decide what’s a ‘bug’ and what’s a feature?

All of the developers interviewed for this piece made the same point about  bugs: only fix it if it interferes with non-speedrunning play. Happ says he has agonized over certain bugs. “You could grapple in a certain place, and you could swing through the wall, and I was worried about players getting into a location they couldn’t get out of,” says Happ. “That was the kind of decision that left me on the fence.”

Yu says that while watching players play Spelunky, one bug proved so essential he had no choice but to turn it into a feature. “We legitimized one exploit that let you break the Moai head with a ball and chain,” he says. ”It was critical to a number of speed and challenge runs (including the infamous solo eggplant run). We changed the sprite to make it look like it was actually broken.”

D’Angelo, however, believes a degree of moderation is needed when debating whether to keep major time-saving bugs in the game. “It’s cool for speedrunners to play a game in a way that a real person plays it, because that’s what makes it look awesome.” he says.

“But when it’s finding glitches, and things that are very bizzare, those are cool to see in a separate run. Encouraging the main way to play the game to not be those is what we’re trying to solve for.”

Happ has seen players glitch past large portions of his game, and he’s fine with it. It’s a trope in classic side-scrollers like Metroid and Castlevania, and he even felt a sense of relief when he watched a speedrunner break Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for Koji Igarashi during a stream for the Bloodstained Kickstarter. “I was thinking ‘Wow, is my game gonna have that? Did I build my game in the right way so people will find things to break I didn’t even think of?’

“It turns out they did,” he says. “When I had that verification, I went ‘my game is speedrunnable.’”

6) A Tip So Obvious That It’s Easy To Overlook

If you’re looking for one simple thing to help speedrunners with your game—just add a run-tracking clock. Clark, Happ and Yu all discussed the benefits of an in-game clock to help track runs, and Yu even went so far as to add new HUD elements specialized for speedrunners.

Ultimately, supporting speedrunners is about helping high-skill, high-reflex players achieve faster and faster times without interfering with average players. Keeping that in mind may be the best way to inform your design process.

Involve speedrunners early, consider the type of playstyle they adopt, build in secrets for them to uncover, and be grateful when they find exploits that bypass some of your carefullly designed challenges. Do all of this and who knows? Your game may be the next speedrunning sensation that players are fighting to set records on. （Source: gamasutra.com  ）