游戏关卡设计10个原则编辑本段回目录
Dan Taylor从事游戏不下15年，曾供职于SCEE、EA、Rockstar和Ubisoft。现在他是Square Enix Montreal的资深关卡设计师，目前正在参与制作该公司的另一款《杀手》游戏。Taylor在2013年的游戏开发者大会上提出设计好关卡的10个原则。以下是我从他的演讲中归纳出来的要点。
1、有趣的探索路径
在流畅有趣的游戏体验中，玩家应该始终明确自己要往哪走。使用视觉语言如光照和图形可以达到这个目标。《镜之边缘》就是一个典例。这款游戏用显眼的红色物品暗示玩家逃生路径。但是，直观的路径与有趣的路径是不同的。不要把前进路径表现得太明显；《现代战争2》的Favela关卡就相当成功，因为它与游戏中的其他场景太不同了——封闭、曲折的迷宫和紧张的节奏完美结合。混乱的效果非常好。
Mirror’s Edge(from www.5442.com)
2、不依赖文字讲述剧情
一段精彩的文字表述就像中场休息——休息得太久，就会破坏剧情的连贯性；休息得太短，玩家又会感到无趣。应该使用事件背景或环境——通过环境讲述故事的艺术，来丰富叙述细节，而不是一字一句地表述。《生化奇兵》称得上是这方面的典范。
3、告诉玩家要做什么，但不透露怎么做
保持引导的简明清析，提供多条路线。《天际》的黑暗兄弟会任务就是一个榜样。在游戏中，玩家知道要做什么任务，但游戏从来不会告诉他们如何完成。一切都取决于玩家自己——不应该惩罚玩家的即兴表现。
4、让玩家学习
Taylor推荐阅读Raph Koster的《A Theory Of Fun》，以便深入理解这个原则。Koster认为人类天生喜欢记忆和破解模式，所以你的游戏应该不断提供新的模式供玩家分析和解决。《塞尔达传说》系列是这个原则的经典案例。在该系列中，各座地下城就是一个大教程：先为玩家提供新道具，然后教会玩家如何使用新道具，最后在BOSS战中测试玩家的掌握情况。通常来说，游戏的BOSS战会同时考察玩家在游戏中学习到的若干种技能。
5、出其不意
Taylor指出，Bethesda公司在设计游戏时采用了一种特殊的游戏循环——学习、玩、挑战、惊喜。保持新鲜感，不要落入俗套，避免“过山车式”的游戏节奏——也就是，在游戏过程中，以稳定的节奏加入高潮和低谷，这会导致玩家轻易预测到后面的情况。乐趣产生于不确定性中。在《死亡空间2》的Ishimura关卡中，玩家重返游戏第一部中出现的恐怖幽灵船，却在约15分钟时意外遭遇外星人袭击。游戏就是以这种方式提升玩家的紧张感。
Dead Space 2(from edge-online)
Taylor补充道，游戏设计师不但必须寻找惊喜，还要保证惊喜发挥作用。游戏设计师有责任消除风险，当你发现一些可能有风险的东西时，你应该尽早测试它。
6、让玩家感到自己的强大
现实生活太糟糕了——所以玩家要靠游戏暂时逃离现实，去做他们在现实世界中无法做的事。在大多数游戏中，玩家会想做坏事，如《红色兵团》（虽然地形机制崩坏了）和《声名狼藉》（游戏邦注：玩家活动和后果平衡得很好）就是让玩家觉得自己强大的好例子。
7、难度分级
Taylor认为在游戏开始前选择难度设置的概念，存在大问题。“武断的选择会完全改变玩家在游戏中的体验”。相反地，应该关注风险/奖励之间的平衡。Taylor指出《火爆狂飙》系列是这个概念的杰作，走捷径的玩家会得到奖励，并且捷径已经用亮黄色的障碍物表示出来了——这体现了该系列对视觉语言的把握。《火爆狂飙》系列不存在难度选项，因为玩家自己会做出自己的选择。
《耻辱》采用了难度分级的办法，即将难度分为容易、一般和困难三个级别。它为不同风格和倾向的玩家提供了多种路线，大大增加游戏的待重玩价值——是高明有效的关卡设计。
8、重复价值
Taylor认为模块化设计是提高游戏设计价值的好办法。游戏设计存在的一个问题是，一旦玩家完成一个任务，他们就不再返回那个任务区，除非有其他动机，或与当前任务有关。双向设计可以避免设计师的成果昙花一现。例如，在《光晕》系列中，玩家在任务的前半部分要抵达某个地点，返回时虽然又经过该地区，但武器不同或者环境有所修改。非线性设计应该用隐蔽的目标鼓励玩家探索——不要使用分散的可收集物品，就像《光晕》中的头骨、《战争机器》中的齿轮或《刺客信条》中的羽毛。
9、唤起情绪性反应
Taylor指出，电子游戏可以从建筑理论中借鉴许多想法来唤起玩家的情绪性反应。对空间产生的共鸣反应也很重要。当游戏如《古墓丽影》的场景从狭窄、幽闭的走道变成宽广开阔的房间时，Crystal Dynamics的设计其实唤起了玩家对自由的渴望。关卡的垂直设计会使玩家感到困扰，但是将丰厚的奖品放在障碍的顶端，反而会激起玩家的希望。Taylor倾向于在游戏设计中采用逆向操作法，即先决定他想唤起玩家的什么情绪，再考虑使用什么策略可以达到目的。
10、由机制驱动
电子游戏是靠交互活动推进的，所以应该将关卡设计当作“玩法运载系统”。也就是说，让美工、关卡设计师和程序员合作达到共同的目标——跨学科交流是成功的关键。Taylor指出，《骇客任务：人类革命》和《蝙蝠侠：阿卡姆之城》使用和重复使用或修改游戏的核心机制，达到三个目标：做出游戏变体、保持玩家的沉浸感、最重要的是显示各款游戏的机制。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，作者：Neil Long）
GDC 2013: 10 principles for good level design
by Neil Long
Dan Taylor has been in the game industry for over 15 years, and has worked at major SCEE, EA, Rockstar and Ubisoft studios. He is now senior level designer at Square Enix Montreal, and is working on Square’s next-gen Hitman game. His GDC 2013 talk outlined his ten principles for good game design – here are the tips we took away from the talk.
1. Good level design is fun to navigate
For a smooth and enjoyable experience the player should always know where to go. This can be achieved through the use of visual language like light and geometry. Mirror’s Edge is a strong example of this as the red parts of the scenery offer the most obvious route. But there is a difference between intuitive to navigate and fun to navigate. Don’t make navigation too clear; Modern Warfare 2’s Favela stage succeeds because it is so different to the others in the game – a tight, twisty maze with a really good sense of dramatic tension. Confusion is cool.
2. Good level design does not rely on words to tell the story
A good piece of communication is like a broken circle – make that break too big and the payer won’t bridge the gap. Make it too small and it’s too easy and the player gets bored. Use mise-en-scene – the art of telling the story through the environment – to add detail to your narrative without being completely explicit. The master of this implicit language is Bioshock, naturally.
3. Good level design always tells the player what to do, but never how to do it
Keep your guidance concise and clear, and make sure you provide multiple paths. A good example of these more nebulous kinds of objectives are the Skyrim Dark Brotherhood missions, in that the player knows what to do, but the game never tells them exactly how to approach their tasks. It is up to them – It’s important not to punish the player for improvisation.
4. Good level design constantly teaches the player
Taylor recommends Raph Koster’s A Theory Of Fun for a deeper exploration of this principle (and many others touched upon here). Essentially Koster says that the human mind enjoys storing and decoding patterns, so your game should always be giving the player new patterns to analyse and resolve. The best example of this principle is any game in the Zelda series. Each dungeon is one massive tutorial, in that it gives you a new item, teaches you how to use it and finally tests your mastery of that weapon in the boss battle. Often, the game’s final boss will test several, if not all, of the weapons skills you’ve learned throughout the game.
5. Good level design is surprising
Bethesda game uses a specific play loop in creating their games – learn, play, challenge, surprise, says Taylor. Keep everything fresh by not falling into a routine, and avoid the ‘rollercoaster method’ of game pacing – that is, a steady overall increase in play intensity with large peaks and troughs along the way. It’s too predictable. Fun is created by uncertainty; the Ishimura stage in Dead Space 2 revisits the eerily silent ship from the first game and holds back the expected alien onslaught for around 15 minutes. It generates a great sense of tension and surprise this way.
Game designers must seek to surprise, but be sure it works, added Taylor. It is the game designers’ responsibility to mitigate that risk. It’s absolutely crucial that if you’ve got anything risky, you grey-box it and test it as soon as possible.
6. Good level design empowers the player
Real life sucks, says Taylor – videogames are about escapism and should allow players to do things they can’t in real life. In most games, players want to be badasses, and games like Red Faction Guerilla, (through its destructible terrain mechanic) and InFamous (with its balance between player action and consequence), are good examples of how to make the player feel powerful.
7. Good level design is easy, medium and hard
Taylor has a big problem with the whole concept of choosing a difficulty setting before the game even begins. “It’s an arbitrary choice which will completely change the players’ experience with the game,” he said. Instead, focus on the risk/reward balance. The Burnout games are the kings of this concept, said Taylor, as through taking trickier shortcuts the player is rewarded and they are neatly marked out by bright yellow barricades – a strong example of the series’ visual language. There’s no difficulty select in Burnout because players can essentially select their own.
An alternative way of stage design being easy, medium and hard is the more layered approach within Dishonored. It offers multiple paths for various player styles and aptitudes, all the while extending replayability – smart and efficient stage design.
8. Good level design is efficient
Modular design is your friend for efficient game design, says Taylor. One problem with game design is that once the player completes a task, they’ll rarely revisit that part of the game world unless they are incentivised, or it is built into the mission design. Consider bi-directional play so that all of your artists’ work doesn’t flash by, never to be seen again. In the Halo series, for example, there are several stages in which the first half of the mission is about reaching a destination using one style of play, before returning back through the same area with different weapons or modified circumstances. Non-linear design should give the player implicit objectives which encourage exploration – don’t pad it out with scattered collectibles, like the Skulls in Halo, Cogs in Gears Of War and Feathers in Assassin’s Creed.
9. Good level design creates emotion
There are plenty of ideas in architectural theory which can be used in videogames to create certain emotional responses, says Taylor. Spatial empathy is important, too. When games like Tomb Raider switch from narrow, claustrophobic corridors out to a large open spaces, Crystal Dynamics is creating a sense of liberation in the player. Adding verticality to stage design can help prompt a sense of persecution, and a feeling of hope can be evoked by placing a large reward at the top of an in-game obstacle. Taylor tends to work backwards here, in that he uses the emotion he wants to prompt in the player as the starting point for the stage design, before thinking about the techniques he can use to enable that.
10. Good level design is driven by mechanics
Videogames are driven by interaction, says Taylor, so stage design should be considered as a ‘gameplay delivery system’. That means bringing together artists, stage designers and programmers to work towards the same goal – interdisciplinary communication is vital for success, added Taylor, suggesting that games like Deus Ex Human Revolution and Batman: Arkham City use and re-use or modify the game’s core mechanics to achieve variation, keep the player engaged and most of all, showcase each game’s mechanics.(source: edge-online)
