[英]Scott Rogers：不會寫劇本的導演不是個好的遊戲設計師（圖靈訪談）

Scott Rogers 自發現做遊戲設計師更有意思以後，就下海了，開始了16年之久（而且還在繼續）的電子遊戲製作生涯。他參與設計了許多非常成功的遊戲：《吃豆人世界》、《魔界英雄記》系列、《戰神》、《描繪生命》系列以及《暗黑血統》等。Scott現在是迪士尼的一位創意師(imagineer)，他覺得自己積累的所有知識，都是為這個工作做的準備。他曾任THQ旗下的創意經理。他和可愛的老婆及同樣可愛的兩個孩子住在洛杉磯附近，離核爆範圍不太遠。同他一家一起居住的還有不盡其數的遊戲手辦。

iTuring: What do you think is the most important element in a game’s success?

Scott: There are many factors that can contribute to a game’s success. Ease of play, attractive graphics, subject matter, social interaction and more. However, I believe the most important element to a game’s success is that when a player watches the game being played, it looks like something they too would like to play. Game Designer Tim Schaefer attributes this to “wish fulfillment” – when the player gets to be something they can’t in real life; be powerful, be smart, be rich, be magical, or perform an activity they couldn’t do in real life, like Link smashing every pot in sight. If I smashed every pot I saw in the world, I would be arrested! In other words, the game has to look as fun to play as it is to play. Some games immediately look fun to the player and some games don’t. For example, when I first heard about Angry Birds and saw the cute bird characters, I thought that they looked appealing, but they did not entice me to play the game. Only until I saw someone else playing the game did I want to play the game because it looked fun. A game needs to look as fun as it is to play.

iTuring: Some independent developers make small games with big success, but some elaborately made games phenomenon in game industry?

Scott: I am not sure if I understand your question, but I think you are asking “Why are some small games big successes while some big games are not?” Today’s gaming market is very different than it was ten years ago. Back when I started making games in the 90’s, games had to be long, involved and take a long time to play. That is what gamers wanted to play because that was the type of game experience that was available to them. But now that social and mobile games are much more popular, the model has flipped on its head. Now that players can play games anywhere and at any time, players want games that do not take up so much time to play. Many player feel like they do not have time to play a long involved RPG or story-driven game that are found on consoles but they do have time to play a short game on their phone or drop in for a short period of time on a MMORPG or social game. Fortunately, I believe there are still plenty of people who enjoy long games. It is like comparing a book to a movie. We can enjoy both even though they take up different amounts of time to experience.

iTuring: How does a game design newbie evolve into a guru? Are there certain levels that they have to get through?

Scott: Yes, you have to fight your way through several levels and then defeat the boss! I am joking. While I do not know if I qualify as a guru, I can tell you how I found myself writing books about video game design. I had been working as a video game designer for many years and had been gaining lots of experience making games. Each year, I would attend the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and listen to lectures about game design. One year, I felt I wasn’t learning anything new from the lectures I attended. It made me very discouraged as I wanted to hear something new and useful, so I could grow as a game designer. I decided to “put my money where my mouth was” and present my own lecture on game design. I was very well received and I was asked to write my own book about game design (this is the book you have hopefully read!) – so the levels to get through to becoming a game guru is this: 1) Gain experience by making games. 2) Share that experience with others, do not keep it to yourself. 3) Eventually lots of people will ask you for advice. As long as you do not give them bad advice, you will evolve into a guru!

iTuring: A game may come out as a well-designed and popular game, after some time, it will be copied by many others. How does a game maintain its position in the market and proceed with the second and the third ones?

Scott: Rather than being angry about having your game copied, you should be proud. Somebody thought your game was so successful that they made their own version of it! However, I can understand where this may cause annoyance as clones can cause some confusion in the marketplace and take away customers. In order to maintain your lead in the market, I suggest the following: 1) Make sure people know you were the original. People will stick with a game because it is the “authentic” version. Many people view clones as inferior and will avoid them just because of that fact. 2) Improve your game. An advantage you have as the developer of the original game is that you know what works and what doesn’t in your game. It will be easier and quicker for you to expand and improve your game before the competition does. 3) Expand your world. Players love the world you created, so keep creating deeper content for them. If you make your game world a place they want to stay, then they have no reason to go elsewhere. It’s only when things aren’t fresh that players start to migrate away. 4) Communicate with your audience. In this era of social interaction, you cannot afford to ignore your audience. Let them participate with the game-creating process. Let them make their own content or interact with the developers and suggest new content (but in a limited capacity, you as the designers should still be making the important decisions). 5) Keep your eye on what your competitor is cloning. They might discover a gameplay feature that will improve your own game. I believe that original game designs are few and far between, most game designers are the result of a designer being inspired by other games and that inspiration is filtered through the lens of the game designer’s perspective resulting in a totally new thing.

iTuring: Would you like to adopt Valve’s Cabal mode into the brainstorming of the projects?

Scott: I have made games both using a dedicated design team and using cabals. For those of you unfamiliar with Valve’s Cabal process, they have no designated “lead game designer” instead the design team is composed engineers, animators, level designers and writers who create the game one issue at a time. As mobile game teams are often quite small, design by cabal is a necessity. I think that many game developers make their games this way, they just don’t make a big deal out of it. As someone who started out making films, I believe in “everyone helping however they can.” Collaboration is necessary to making games and great ideas can come from anyone on the team, not just a designer. I like working with collaborators because coming up with everything on your own can be really hard! That said, games designed by committee can often feel undefined and I think it helps to have a “benign dictator” guiding the overall vision of the game. Reply to message

iTuring: Is mobile game a different genre? What’s the major difference between mobile games and PC games?

Scott: I wouldn’t call a mobile games a different genre, but there are genres of games that have become very popular on mobile devices. These are games like gesture games (Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope), endless runners (Temple Run, Jetpack Joyride), games that use accelerometers (Doodle Jump, Tilt to Live), Augmented Reality games (Desktop Tower Defense, Star Wars Falcon Gunner) and games that use GPS (Zombies, Run!, Parallel Kingdom) to name a few. Notice what all of these games have in common? It isn’t the game’s genre, or its length or art or story or subject matter, but the how the player interfaces with the game. For mobile games, you need to design your game specifically for its unique controls be it the touch screen, the accelerometer or the camera. Determine the game’s “primary action” – this is the main action that the player will be using to play the game. For example, Fruit Ninja uses a swipe that imitates swinging a sword for every control in the game. Once the player learns how to do that one move, no other controls are needed. Since a player can play a mobile game anywhere, you need to take into account that a player will play it anywhere, even outside where viewing conditions are less than optimal. But this is true to any game system. A PC game is designed differently than a console game than a mobile game. Start with what system the player is going to be playing your game on and guide the design from there.

iTuring: In game industry, do you think there is still opportunities for independent developers? How do you think an individual game developer or a very small team(less than 3 people) can succeed in the industry?

Scott: Absolutely! At least here in the west, now is the best time for independent developers. When I was first making games, you needed a huge team, lots of equipment, an office and a publisher. Now you can make a game with a friend or two using free tools in your own home! It's an exciting time for young developers. The entire game industry has shifted so that smaller developers can be just as successful (if not more) as a big publisher. The mobile game market has made the industry hungry for games that can be quickly created - a perfect environment for small agile teams. Just look at the following small team success stories: Mojang (Minecraft), Team Meat (Super Meat Boy), Number None (Braid), Imangi Studios (Temple Run) - all small teams (usually not bigger than two or three developers) - just make the vey best game you can and perhaps you too can be a success!

iTuring: As computing power of mobile devices grow stronger every year, mobile games are no doubt to become more and more crucial in the industry. Do you expect that mobile games would have a revolutionary development in the future? If so what direction would it take?

Scott: They've already become crucial! As of 2012, 44 percent of mobile device owners played games on their devices. As there are 7 billion people that own mobile devices, that makes it the most successful gaming platform in history! But it's not just the number of users that makes mobile devices revolutionary, think about how touch and tilt controls have created or popularized new genres of games - endless runners, drawing games, match three games.... and what about Augmented Reality and GPS based games? I think that mobile games are just going to expand in depth, complexity and innovation as more and more developers play with the platform. The games will just get more complex as the mobile devices get more memory and more storage space. What new advances in mobile devices will create new opportunities for gameplay? Biometrics? 3D holographic display? Screenless displays? Whatever the future brings, people will want games for it!

iTuring: As more and more games turn in to movies, and some teleplays also incorporate elements of games? Do you think there is any resemblance between a good game designer and a film director?

Scott: Absolutely. There are many similarities between a game designer and a film director. You need to know how to tell a story. You need to know how to use lighting and sound and edits and action and set design to help tell that story. You need to know where to place and how to move a camera in a variety of different ways. You need to know how to create big dramatic action scenes and fight scenes that make sense to the viewer. Not only does a video game designer need to know how to do these things, but they need to be able to do all of these things while letting the player do just about whatever they want. They need to know how to create action scenes that the player doesn’t miss because they are looking in the wrong direction. The need to know how to choreograph a fight scene where the player can do perform any fighting move they want. I have yet to see a film director successfully translate a game experience into a movie, so maybe the video game designer is a better story teller?

iTuring: Would you consider take some jobs other than game designer, such as scriptwriter or director of cartoon films?

Scott: While I did go to college for screenwriting and I have always been interested in directing animation, the great thing about making games is that I have had opportunities to do both while still working as a game designer. I have written the scripts for video game cutscenes and in-game dialogue. I have storyboarded cutscenes, directed cinematic teams and even got to direct the voice actors including super-stars like Tom Kenny, Nolan North, Frank Welker and Clancy Brown. That’s the great thing about games, I can be a designer and a film director and a scriptwriter and a voice director and more all at once!

iTuring: What subjects do you think a good game designer should take time to learn? What books would you recommend your readers to read next?

Scott: Everything! Designer Jesse Schell says a well-rounded game designer understands animation, anthropology, architecture, brainstorming, business, cinematography, communication, creative writing, economics, engineering, history, management, mathematics, music, psychology, public speaking, sound design, technical writing and visual arts. It’s a pretty accurate list. You also need to play lots of games – both good and bad, especially bad games. You will learn more from playing a bad game than a good one. You will learn what not to do and hopefully it will spark your imagination on how to make it good. Study whatever you are passionate about. I love Disneyland, haunted houses, comic books and archeology and have tried to include these elements into games whenever I can. You can incorporate your own interests into your game design and make it unique.

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