開發者談遊戲設計師和玩家消費者之間的鴻溝

本文原作者：Josh Bycer 譯者：ciel chen

隨著Kickstarter與crowdfunding這兩家眾籌網的興起，遊戲開發趨勢又再次崛起了。如今消費者終於能如願以償地看到一款遊戲從其模型到完整發行版本的整個開發歷程。在這樣的情況下，消費者對遊戲開發有了細微的了解后卻產生了非常大的影響，這也引起了一個有趣的爭議——消費者對遊戲開發應該了解到什麼程度合適？

「香腸是如何製作出來的」：

遊戲開發對於很多消費者來時始終是個迷；甚至對於第一次在遊戲行業的工作人員來說也是如此——它就是屬於那種如果你沒親自去做就真的一竅不通的東西。這使得那些沒有遊戲開發方面知識的記者媒體很難去報道遊戲，而對於開發者們來說，要向他們解釋怎麼做成的遊戲也很艱難。

我在近幾年和開發者進行了交流，我發現對於他們來說就算是向消費者傳達遊戲範圍都很艱難。那當一個飽受期盼的遊戲模式不得不被刪減會帶來什麼後果？你可以跟數以千計的人們解釋清楚阻止他們群起暴動嗎？

monkey_island._special_edition(from gamebuy)

我們慢慢地看到有消費者開始對遊戲設計多少有一些相關的了解了，這要有賴於這些消費者通過搶先體驗觀看到遊戲的發展歷程或者他們觀看了遊戲設計相關的視頻。然而，這有一個陷阱——你的消費者會開始覺得他們比設計者懂得多而且覺得自己有資格對遊戲特色指指點點。

搶先體驗和眾籌使得消費者能看到遊戲設計的幕後

曾經有個臭名昭著的案列——有人大言不慚地說多角色競技遊戲應該只用一禮拜來開發。如果只是因為某款遊戲做到了某事，這不意味著這件事對於另一款遊戲來說也可以做得到。

這裡就可以引出今天這篇文章中要講的一個大問題了：一個人對遊戲開發應該了解到什麼程度才能很好地享受遊戲？

做遊戲和玩遊戲：

電子遊戲深受廣泛群眾的喜愛。我們遊戲的玩家範圍從孩子到業餘休閑玩家，甚至到那些會為自己最喜歡的遊戲寫增強修訂程序的專業玩家。不過如果你只是想盡情地玩像《暗黑破壞神3》或者《Cookie Clicker》這類遊戲的時候你是不需要去懂這些遊戲的程序系統工作原理的。

而也因為這樣，其實沒有必要讓那些主流遊戲網站對遊戲設計或者遊戲行業這個話題進行報道。幾個禮拜以前曾經有過對《地平線：空之黎明》中投影剔除技術的一些小小爭議——這方面知識對於遊戲設計師來說是常識，但對於普通玩家來說卻不怎麼熟悉。

不過這還是反映了部分問題的：要去哪才能真正學習到有關遊戲開發的知識？幾個禮拜以前我們進行過討論——有關電子遊戲新聞的一些問題；以及對於主流網站願意花更多的時間報道每日新聞而不是設計作品的問題。事實上大部分主流網站沒有時間和資源來致力於遊戲產業這部分內容，而且對於讀者對於遊戲開發了解的願望是否強烈還是個問題呢。

在最後，我們討論了關於要對遊戲設計了解有多深才能享受玩遊戲的過程的問題；這其實就跟你想盡情地賽車但卻不需要去把造車當成營生一個道理。還有另外一個點，就是你根本就沒法知道你所面對說話人的知識基礎怎樣。

消費者的知識基礎處在什麼程度的都有

舉個例子，我曾經跟會玩遊戲或者對遊戲行業有一定了解的人聊過天，他們卻不知道什麼是《Undertale》遊戲或者the Humble Bundle是什麼。

對於正在閱讀這篇文章的你來說，我知道這可能會有些令人震驚，但是在遊戲產業里確實存在普通玩家和狂熱支持者之間巨大的差異。對於有的只是把遊戲當消遣，偶爾瀏覽一個兩個主流遊戲網站的人來說，他們會去讀程序生成設計有關的文章嗎？

事實上，我們接下來馬上要做一個小測試——你可能知道也可能不知道這個測試，不過我在網上交叉郵寄了很多我的作品給各個遊戲網站想藉此宣傳《Game-Wisdom》。接下來的部分在每個遊戲網站上都會不一樣，而我想看到的就是你對遊戲設計有多深的了解。那麼開始吧：

想讓遊戲通過付費手段定輸贏則需要哪些主要的決定因素呢？

小知識，大影響：

電子遊戲已經不再是小眾產業，它已經成為一個市值數十億美元的產業了。然而，在遊戲製作和創作的大部分過程仍舊是個迷。我個人覺得關於遊戲領域和遊戲設計流程的文章與討論還應該要有更多。隨著設計者設計工作越發地透明化，這給消費者的理解能力終將會是件好事。

如果你想讓消費者明白電子遊戲的製作需要什麼，那麼我就需要給他們提供學慣用的必要信息。當然了，我們需要注意的是，並不是每個人都會想得到或者用到這些知識的，不過這沒關係，重點是至少要讓人想了解學習的時候不至於無處可尋。

如果你希望下一代能有更多的遊戲設計師，那麼我們就不應該再隱藏這些有關信息。

本文由遊戲邦編譯，轉載請註明來源，或諮詢微信zhengjintiao

The rise of kickstarter and crowdfunding has had the impact of pulling back the curtain on game development. Consumers now have a chance to actively watch a game go from a prototype to a full release. With that said, a little knowledge can go a long way, and presents an interesting debate on how much should consumers know about making games.

game development

How the Sausage Gets Made:

Game Development for a lot of consumers is still a mystery; even for people working on their first game. It』s one of those things that you don』t really know about it until you start doing it. This makes it very difficult for journalists to cover games who have no experience on the dev side, and hard for developers to explain what goes into a title.

Speaking to developers over the last few years, what can be near impossible to do is to convey the scope of a game to the consumers. What happens when a promised game mode has to be cut? Can you explain that to thousands of people without them wanting to riot?

We are starting to see consumers who are at least somewhat knowledgeable about design, thanks to watching a game grow through early access or watching videos on the subject. However, this comes with a catch — You have consumers who think they know better than the designers and feel entitled to demand features.

Early Access and crowd-funding have allowed consumers to see behind the curtain

There was the infamous case last year of someone claiming that multiplayer should only take a week to develop. Just because one game does X, doesn』t mean that the same can be done with other games.

That takes us to the big question for today』s post: How much should someone know about game development to enjoy video games?

Making and Playing Games:

Video Games can be appreciated by a wide audience. Our audience ranges from kids and casual players, to experts who may even mod their favorite games. You don』t need to understand how a progression system works in order to enjoy a game like Diablo 3 or Cookie Clicker.

And because of that, it』s not a necessity to cover game design or industry topics on major sites. A few weeks ago, there was the slight hubbub over frustum culling with Horizon Zero Dawn– Common knowledge for designers, but not so well-known for the general market.

But this represents part of the problem: Where can someone go to actually learn about game development? We talked about the issues with video game journalism a few weeks ago and how major sites spend more time on news of the day rather than design pieces.

Most major sites don』t have the time or resources to dedicate to this part of the game industry. There still is the issue of how much would an audience want to learn about game development.

In the last section, we talked about how you don』t need to understand game design in order to enjoy games; just like you don』t need to build cars for a living to enjoy racing. Another point is that there is no way to know the knowledge base of the people you』re talking to.

The knowledge base of consumers is all over the place

As an example, I』ve talked to people who play games or know about the industry, but have no idea what Undertale or the Humble Bundle were.

For you reading this right now, I know that may be a shock, but there is a big difference between the general and enthusiast sides of the game industry. For someone who just plays games casually and visits one of the major sites, would they want to read an article about procedurally generated design?

In fact, we』re going to have a little test right now, and yes, I』m talking to you. You may or not may not know this, but I do crosspost my pieces to various game sites on the Internet to help spread awareness for Game-Wisdom. This next part is going to be different on each site, and I want to see how knowledgeable you are about game design. Here we go:

What are the main factors that determine if a game is pay to win or not?

A Little Knowledge Goes a Long Way:

Video games are no longer a niche genre, but a multi-billion dollar industry. And yet, so much of what goes into making and working on games is still a mystery. I personally think that there should be more articles and discussion on the industry and the design process. With designers being more transparent about working on games, giving consumers the ability to understand will ultimately be a benefit.

If you want the consumer to understand what it takes to make a video game, then we need to provide the necessary information for them to learn. Of course we need to mention that not everyone is going to want or use this knowledge, but that』s okay; the point is that it』s out there.（source： ）