设计师张超越
Foreword by James Burns:
詹姆斯·伯恩斯的 前言 ：
Greetings! I rarely add a foreword for any of our articles, but I felt compelled to add one in this case. If you read Super Jump Magazine regularly, you know that Josh Bycer regularly produces fascinating and insightful pieces on game design. This article is no different. The original title was “The Art of Presenting Gameplay”, which I’ve changed to “Elevating Design Beyond Gameplay”.
问候！ 我很少为我们的任何文章添加一个前言，但在这种情况下，我不得不添加一个前言。 如果您定期阅读《超级跳跃》杂志，您就会知道Josh Bycer会定期制作出有趣而有见地的游戏设计作品。 这篇文章没什么不同。 最初的标题是“呈现游戏性的艺术”，我现在改为“提升游戏性之外的设计”。
I mention this here because a running theme really struck me while editing this piece — the whole need for this conversation has, by definition, only arisen in fairly recent times. During the days of Super Mario Bros., for example, presenting very “raw” gameplay with only the loosest context for what you were actually doing (and why) was more than sufficient. In fact, I’d argue that for its day, Super Mario Bros. went to remarkable lengths to “elevate its design beyond gameplay” by adding small — but meaningful — details that contextualised the action.
我之所以在此提及，是因为在编辑本文时确实遇到了一个奔跑的主题，按照定义，对话的全部需求只是在相当近期才出现的。 在超级马里奥兄弟的日子 ，例如，呈现非常“原始”，只有最宽松的背景下的游戏为你实际上在做(为什么)是什么绰绰有余。 实际上，我认为在这一天，超级马里奥兄弟( Super Mario Bros.) 竭尽全力地通过添加一些小而有意义的细节来“将其设计超越游戏玩法”，从而使动作与环境融为一体。
Today, video games are a mass-market entertainment medium as well as an art form unto themselves. And although game mechanics — gameplay — is still the fundamental particle that defines all video games, it is increasingly the case that gamers expect some form of contextualisation that brings together game mechanics and game aesthetics (by which I am referring specifically to audiovisual components).
如今，视频游戏已成为大众市场的娱乐媒体，同时也是一种艺术形式。 尽管游戏机制(游戏玩法)仍然是定义所有视频游戏的基本要素，但越来越多的游戏玩家期望某种形式的情境化将游戏机制和游戏美学融合在一起(我专门指的是视听组件)。
So, I mention this simply as a reflection — not so much on Josh’s individual piece here, but on the broader context in which it exists. That Josh assumes this contextualisation is a requirement of modern games — or at least an increasingly-desirable element — is itself an interesting sign of just how far the medium has come. Anyway, I’ll quit rambling, and let Josh get on with it. Enjoy.
因此，我只是以反思的方式提及它-与其说是乔什在这里的个人作品，不如说是它存在的更广泛的背景。 乔希认为这种情境化是现代游戏的必要条件，或者至少是一种越来越受欢迎的元素，这本身就说明了媒体的发展方向是一个有趣的迹象。 无论如何，我将不再涉猎，而让乔什继续前进。 请享用。
什么是介绍？ (What is presentation?)
Let’s start with the fundamentals. When I talk about presenting a game to a player, I would always start by breaking the concept down into two important components: gameplay and aesthetics. Gameplay mechanics and loops are the fundamental elements that ultimately determine how the game experience is going to be judged. Aesthetics (audiovisual design) is still important, though, and it plays a significant role in terms of the overall experience.
让我们从基础开始。 当我谈到向玩家介绍游戏时，我总是将概念分解为两个重要组成部分： 游戏性和美学性 。 游戏玩法的机制和循环是最终决定如何评估游戏体验的基本要素。 但是，美学(视听设计)仍然很重要，并且在整体体验方面发挥着重要作用。
It is insufficient, however, to draw a bright line between these two components. Many developers, for example, can understandably focus on gameplay mechanics for a long period of time without considering aesthetics at all — this is especially true during the early prototyping phase of development (which makes sense, given that the bulk of your time early on is likely to be spent ensuring you have a solid gameplay concept before you start adding audiovisual flair).
然而，在这两个组件之间划清界限是不够的。 例如，许多开发人员可以在很长一段时间内专注于游戏机制，而完全不考虑美观性，这是可以理解的。在开发的早期原型开发阶段尤其如此(这很有意义，因为您花了大量的时间在开发初期)。在开始添加视听风格之前，可能会花费大量时间来确保您拥有扎实的游戏概念)。
Remember, though, that you might have refined your gameplay mechanics to a very fine degree and you might be satisfied with this, but it’s important to consider how you’re going to draw players in. It’s very easy to either downplay the importance of aesthetics in the process or (and I’ll get to this in more detail shortly), neglect to appropriately connect gameplay and aesthetic design in meaningful ways.
不过请记住，您可能已经很好地完善了游戏玩法，并且对此感到满意，但是考虑如何吸引玩家很重要。很容易低估美学的重要性在这个过程中或 (和我会得到这个更详细不久)，忽视适当地连接的游戏，以有意义的方式美学设计。
建立在骨头上 (Building on bones)
This is where it really makes sense to start talking about “presentation” more broadly. The presentation of a title goes well beyond solid gameplay mechanics or even incredible visuals. History and context plays a role here; developers have, especially over the last decade, gained access to more powerful game engines and tools at cheaper prices than ever before. Making a game look semi-professional these days is much easier than it used to be.
在这里开始更广泛地讨论“演示”确实有意义。 标题的呈现远远超出了坚实的游戏机制甚至令人难以置信的视觉效果。 历史和背景在这里起着作用。 尤其是在过去的十年中，开发人员已经以前所未有的低廉价格获得了更强大的游戏引擎和工具。 现在，让游戏看起来像半职业游戏比以前容易得多。
It’s tempting to think that this is where the conversation on aesthetics and overall presentation ends. But I want to go further. Just because your game possesses solid art direction, amazing audiovisual design, and fantastic gameplay, doesn’t mean you’re remotely done in terms of presentation.
诱人的是，这是关于美学和整体表现的对话的结束。 但我想走得更远。 仅仅因为您的游戏拥有坚实的艺术指导，出色的视听设计和出色的游戏玩法，并不意味着您在呈现方面就遥不可及。
The next step here is to consider the overall journey the player will take through your game, and the ways in which different gameplay experiences connect to each other; not just in a rudimentary way (e.g. like a level select option), but in a meaningfully contextual way. How many games, for example, have you played that consist of a series of totally disconnected challenges? How many of those games did you see through to the end?
下一步是考虑玩家在游戏中所经历的整个旅程，以及不同的游戏体验相互联系的方式； 不仅以基本方式(例如，级别选择选项)，而且以有意义的上下文方式。 例如，您玩了多少场比赛，其中包含一系列完全不相关的挑战？ 您到底看过哪些游戏？
I’ve played countless platformers, puzzle, and strategy titles that are simply a series of levels or challenges with nothing more to them. There’s an absence of meaningful or interesting connective tissue between these isolated levels. I’d argue that if there’s absolutely no sense of connection between various game systems, the game tends to feel barebones and sterile to the player: this is true even if your game has a great look and feel in general. When this happens, it can become difficult to care about continuing through the experience — well, unless you’re the most hardened superfan.
我玩过无数的平台游戏，谜题和策略类游戏，这些仅仅是一系列级别或挑战而已，对他们来说无非。 这些孤立的水平之间没有有意义或有趣的结缔组织。 我认为，如果各种游戏系统之间完全没有联系，那么游戏往往会给玩家带来准系统和无礼的感觉：即使您的游戏总体上具有出色的外观和感觉，也是如此。 发生这种情况时，可能很难去关心是否继续体验-好吧，除非您是最坚强的超级粉丝。
Now that I’ve pointed out the problem, I can hear you asking: “how do I improve the presentation of my game?” Let’s explore some possible answers. Everything I’m going to discuss from here on has a single goal: creating the sense for the player that the game is more than just the sum of its parts.
现在，我已经指出了问题，我可以听到您的询问：“如何改善游戏的显示方式？” 让我们探讨一些可能的答案。 从现在开始，我将要讨论的所有内容都有一个目标：使玩家感觉到游戏不仅仅是其各个部分的总和。
情境化的游戏玩法和审美体系 (Contextualising gameplay and aesthetic systems)
Let’s start with something fairly obvious: story. In some ways, it’s the easiest thing to start with, but also the toughest to nail. There are, of course, some games that focus on storytelling over gameplay — visual novels and so-called “walking simulators” are to prominent examples where story is the primary motivation to play. In these cases, story becomes the connecting thread that permeates the entire experience from beginning to end. But this is the exception for most games.
让我们从一个显而易见的东西开始：故事。 在某些方面，这是最简单的开始，但也是最难确定的。 当然，有些游戏着重讲故事，而不是玩游戏-视觉小说和所谓的“步行模拟器”就是讲故事的主要动力。 在这些情况下，故事成为贯穿整个体验的连接线。 但这是大多数游戏的例外。
Many games leverage their stories to provide a fairly simple background to gameplay. And, in many cases, story is almost entirely forgotten once the game itself gets going (that is, story “bookends” the experience but doesn’t provide a “spine” to underpin the journey at every stage). There are plenty of action-based titles where you could arguably rearrange every level in the game (other than the beginning and ending), and it wouldn’t really matter from a story point of view. Think, for a moment, about how many games have padded out the experience with levels that have no connection to the story, or where random and unrelated secondary elements are forced on the player without reasonable context (e.g. stealth elements in action games).
许多游戏利用他们的故事来提供相当简单的游戏背景。 而且，在许多情况下，一旦游戏本身开始运行，故事几乎就完全被遗忘了(也就是说，故事“书挡”了用户的体验，但并没有为每个阶段的旅程提供支撑)。 有很多基于动作的游戏，可以说您可以重新排列游戏中的每个关卡(除了开始和结束之外)，从故事的角度来看，这并不重要。 想一想，有多少游戏填补了与故事无关的关卡，或者在没有合理背景的情况下将随机和无关的次要元素强加给了玩家(例如动作游戏中的隐身元素)。
A fairly simple way to counter this — and to improve your game’s overall presentation — is to build connections between stages. Perhaps the oldest and simplest example of this is to establish a “world map” that actually shows the player moving from area to area. Although this might sound simple, it’s an effective way to add substantial context to the action relatively inexpensively. One simple comparison to illustrate the point here could be made between the games City of Brass and Hades. Both titles are action roguelikes where the player moves from one area to the next. When I move to a new area in City of Brass, I simply see text on the screen that says “Now entering X”. In Hades, however, my movement from one area to the next is actually depicted on a map of Hades. This not only visually conveys a sense of progression, but it displays the broader context of my journey (i.e. where I’ve come from and where I’m going).
解决这个问题并改善游戏整体效果的一种相当简单的方法是在各个阶段之间建立联系。 也许最古老，最简单的例子是建立一个“世界地图”，该地图实际上显示了玩家从一个区域移动到另一个区域。 尽管这听起来很简单，但这是一种相对便宜地为操作添加实质性上下文的有效方法。 一个简单的比较，这里说明了这一点可以在游戏的黄铜之城和地狱之间进行。 这两个标题都是动作类流氓，玩家从一个区域移动到另一个区域。 当我移至黄铜城的新区域时，我仅在屏幕上看到显示“现在输入X”的文本。 但是，在Hades中，我从一个区域到另一个区域的移动实际上是在Hades地图上描绘的。 这不仅在视觉上传达了一种进步的感觉，而且还显示了我旅途的更广阔的背景(即我来自哪里以及要去哪里)。
This concept has actually found its way into numerous genres, too. Fighting games are a great example of a genre that, despite being so heavily focused on game mechanics, has still found ways to better-contextualise the action through great presentation. The obvious stand-outs here are titles like Mortal Kombat 11 and Injustice 2 by NetherRealm Studios. In both cases, these games feature rich stories with full cutscenes and voice acting, which are also peppered between battles to continually reinforce contextual threads.
实际上，该概念也已进入多种流派。 格斗游戏是这类游戏的一个很好的例子。尽管格斗游戏专注于游戏机制，但仍然找到了通过精彩展示更好地将动作背景化的方法。 NetherRealm Studios的作品如《真人快打11》和《 不公正2》 ，在这里显而易见。 在这两种情况下，这些游戏均具有丰富的故事，并具有完整的过场动画和配音，并且在战斗之间也不断使用，以不断增强上下文线索。
There are other ways to think about these contextual threads, too. It’s not just about the threads that hold different levels/isolated chunks of gameplay together. Consider the games that open with a static menu that immediately jumps into the game at the press of a button (without any sense of player onboarding). And what about “game over”, when the player just returns to the opening splash screen like nothing happened? These design patterns are holdovers from the days of arcade and early console games — here, play occurs in a vacuum and is routinely wiped between sessions.
还有其他方式可以考虑这些上下文线程。 不仅仅是将不同级别/隔离的游戏玩法组合在一起的线程。 考虑使用静态菜单打开的游戏，只需按一下按钮即可立即跳入游戏(无需任何玩家参与)。 那么，当玩家什么也没有发生返回到初始闪屏时，“游戏结束”呢？ 这些设计模式是街机游戏和早期主机游戏时代的延续-在这里，游戏是在真空中进行的，通常在会话之间被擦除。
Games can be made to feel bigger, broader, and more expansive when a sense of weight or connection is introduced.
引入重量感或联系感时，可使游戏感觉更大，更广泛，更扩展。
Another major shift in presentation over recent years has occurred in the puzzle genre, where there has been a greater adoption of story or “world” around the puzzles. I’ve played many puzzle games that just exist as dozens or hundreds of unconnected screens. But when you look at recent games like Manifold Garden or The Talos Principle, you’ll see an entire world for the player to explore outside the individual puzzles. These spaces are interesting on their own terms, but if you think about it, they are an even richer and more engaging take on the world map concept — you’re still moving from puzzle to puzzle, but the way the journey is presented (the way gameplay and audiovisual design is thoughtfully connected and contextualised) makes a huge difference.
近年来，呈现方式的另一个重大转变发生在拼图类型中，在拼图中故事或“世界”得到了更多的采用。 我玩过许多益智游戏，它们只是成百上千个未连接的屏幕而已。 但是，当您查看如Manifold Garden或The Talos Principle这样的最新游戏时，您会看到整个世界供玩家探索各个谜题之外。 这些空间本身就很有趣，但是如果您考虑一下，它们是世界地图概念上更丰富，更引人入胜的方式-您仍在困惑中解脱，但是旅程的呈现方式(游戏玩法和视听设计之间的联系和情境化的方式产生了巨大的变化。
It’s worth considering, too, that it’s possible to overlay additional frameworks and structures on top of core gameplay systems to further enhance the presentation.
同样值得考虑的是，有可能在核心游戏系统之上叠加其他框架和结构，以进一步增强呈现效果。
There’s a big onboarding component to this (a topic I wrote about just recently), but there’s also the question of maintaining the player’s context in the experience consistently across multiple play sessions. You could perhaps also think of this as adding a persistence layer to an otherwise nonpersistent experience. This tends to involve tracking progress across sessions — it might be as simple as having a world map, including a high score list, achievement pages, trophies, and more.
这是一个很大的入职组成部分( 我最近写过这个话题 )，但是还有一个问题，就是要在多个游戏会话中始终保持玩家的上下文环境。 您也许还可以认为这是在其他非持久性体验中添加了持久层。 这往往涉及跨会话跟踪进度-它可能就像拥有一张世界地图一样简单，包括高分列表，成就页面，奖杯等等。
大于总和 (Greater than the sum)
Everything I’ve discussed here is all about making a game feel greater than the sum of its parts. I believe this is very much in line with the changing — and growing — expectations of players. What this really means for developers is figuring out how to add value to your game in ways that are high-value and low-cost. It’s very easy to see time and budget balloon in an escalating race to add unnecessary scope, after all.
我在这里讨论的所有内容都是关于使游戏的感觉大于其各个部分的总和。 我相信这与玩家不断变化的期望越来越吻合。 对于开发人员而言，这的真正含义是想出如何以高价值和低成本的方式为您的游戏增加价值。 毕竟，在不断升级的竞赛中很容易看到时间和预算膨胀，以增加不必要的范围。
Of course, some of the things I’ve discussed here could definitely become quite expensive, while others are more about how you frame the content you have. Before I wrap up, I want to leave you with a question: can you think of any truly great examples of games that elevated their design beyond gameplay? What about any not-so-great examples that caused you to lose interest in the game?
当然，我在这里讨论的某些事情肯定会变得非常昂贵，而另一些则更多地是关于如何构造内容的。 在结束之前，我想提一个问题：您能想到让游戏设计超出游戏玩法的任何真正出色的游戏示例吗？ 那些使您对游戏失去兴趣的不那么出色的例子呢？
If you enjoy my work and like talking game design, the Game-Wisdom Discord is open to everyone.
如果您喜欢我的工作并且喜欢谈论游戏设计，那么 Game-Wisdom Discord 对所有人开放。
翻译自: https://medium.com/super-jump/elevating-design-beyond-gameplay-38bf76c26f41
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