写一个一级棒的游戏策划书.doc

译文写一个一级棒的策划书 2007-04-0621:56:40 大中小 Creating a Great Design Document写一个一级棒的策划书必须拿出一个产品。在这种压力下，我的头都快被屏幕射线击碎了。如果这时有一个老铜灯里面钻出来的神魔，要我说出三个愿望，那我一点也不会犹豫地说：我要Ive got to get product out. In the panic and dizziness, my head smashes against the CRT and next thing I know this genie whiffs up out of a virtual bronze-texture-mapped lamp and offers me three wishes. Without missing a beat, I answer, I need.一队天才的、高超的、敢拼命的工程师和艺术家，彼此密切配合。（还得有一个非常懂事的妻子）（快客说: me too ,sir !）。足够的钱和时间，可以随便用。一个一流的设计文档。A great team of talented, skilled, and dedicated engineers and artists (including a very understanding wife) with strong interpersonal skills.Enough time and money to allow for a mess-up or two.A first class design document.以前，一个程序（或美工）做一个游戏的时候，自己干自己的，没必要编策划，现在不同了。Once upon a time, when coding a game involved one programmer (and maybe an artist) with a take-it-as-you-go budget and a loose deadline, documentation didnt need to be taken so seriously. You knew what you wanted to make and you made it. If there were a few major changes along the way, the only one to complain was you. Nowadays, a thorough and readable document can mean the difference between a swift descent to budgetless Hell and a smooth ride to shrinked-wrapped Nirvana.How the System Works系统是怎样工作的大部分游戏要经过三个开发阶段：灵感、纸、和苦行。Most games go through three development stages, from concept to design to production. Think of them as flash, paper, and grind.在第一阶段，纸有两个用处-记下你的创意，免得你往了。还有做为一个工具，向可以帮你把游戏市场化的人，提供参考。这个时候最好有个小演示，可以验证和修改你的想法。In the first stage, the concept paper acts both as a letter to yourself - setting out your goals clearly so you wont lose sight of them - and as a sales tool for whomever takes the product to market down the road. Sometimes, this stage involves a working mini-prototype as well, which gives you a chance to experiment and revise your ideas.下中间的阶段就是去吵架（快客说：对，我们现在就在吵架。），和美工、和动画、和音乐、和程序，去吵。把东西整出来，找到一个途径组织和落实你的想法。The intermediate stage of design involves a lot of discussions with artists, animators, musicians, and engineers - trying things out, and finding ways to organize and set down your ideas.最后的阶段，制片过来实施计划。这时，有组织能力的策划可以做团队的中心，但是多数情况下-特别是大公司，策划成了旁观的顾问。In the final stage, production management is often left up to some expert in moving trains and tracks without major collisions. The original designer may be an integral part of the team, but in many cases - especially in large companies - the designer ends up as a kind of outside consultant.毫无疑问，策划书是一个项目的原型，对今后的小贝贝的成长有极大的影响力。至于你-策划师（快客：这是说阵雨），就算你兼任项目经理，也别以为你已经控制了整个局势。一个复杂的项目涉及到很多天才少年，有能力的程序和美工都有自己的想法（快客：嘿嘿，你怎么知道的这么清楚？）你想搞一匹马，美工肯定给你画一头独角兽，到程序哪里，独角兽肯定会变成一头高清晰度的骆驼。（快客：嘿嘿）好的策划书，必须保证每个人做出一样的东西。让所有的人对你的精神都能吃透。就像一个爵士乐队指挥，把所有人的想法拢到一起，做出明星级的表演。Without question, the design document is where the original parent of the project exercises the most influence on how this little baby is going to grow up. Even if you, the designer, have decided to double as project manager, dont delude yourself into thinking that you hold all the reins. A complex project involves many talented people. Skilled programmers and artists tend to have minds of their own. While you intend to create a horse, the artist may be envisioning a unicorn and the programmer a highly efficient camel. A good document ensures that you are all planning to make the same thing. A great document ensures you all have the same feel for the inner soul of this thing. Think of it as a big band jazz score - it puts everybodys mind in the same place, even when theres still plenty of room for the stars to improvise.你的策划是现实与你的思想之间的桥梁，必须保证你想的，在现实中有依据，还有你最后得到的东西，是你心里想的东西。Your document is a sort of intermediary between your mind and the real world. It ensures that what you have in mind is something that the real world is able to handle, and that what you end up with will be what you originally had in mind.最后，记住一句谚语：艺术在于细节。（快客：下面一句不懂。）Finally, remember the adage to which any salty gamer will attest: Great art is in the details. Brilliant details flow naturally from the general gestalt as though they were present in that first flash of inspiration. But once you get into the hands-on implementation, its easy to lose that spark.The Challenge挑战Prototyping parts of the project yourself is definitely a good idea - make whatever rough sketches you can. But again, its those details that count. The more details your imagination can hold, the greater a masterpiece your work will be.做一个精彩的游戏，本身就很精彩。最好的想法往往在最后的交稿期的一分钟出现（Working from a document has a flip side, as well. Developing an exciting game has to be exciting. Some of the best parts of many projects were discovered in the heat of last-minute deadline panic. True, the pressures of time and cost budgeting dont allow for perpetual reiteration of concept, but you simply cannot expect a killer game to come out of dry, predictable work. The challenge is to create a design document that will allow your project to tolerate surprise adaptations without losing the integrity of its original direction and scope.Table 1. The three stages of documentation.策划的三个步骤Contents Purpose1. Concept Paper Genre;一般概念阶段目标顾客、说明、特征、市场情况投资和时间表。定义游戏的概念、范围、价值和可行性。（快客：这个就是现在我们要搞的东西）target audience; description; most compelling features; market information; cost and time to develop. It defines the concept, scope, worthiness and feasibility; sells the idea to your client, publisher, employer, and venture capitalist.2. Design Document设计文档阶段说明项目所有的细节，所有组成部分的实现方法。Description of the body and soul of the entire project, with all the details, and the method by which each element will be implemented. It ensures that what is produced is what you want to produce.3. Production Documents产品文档阶段时间表（甘特图、PERT图等等）任务、预算、技术 。 Time-management charts (Gantt, PERT, and so on); task database; budget spreadsheet; technical specifications; Q/A database. It implements the design document on time and within budget.Ten Points for a Successful Design Document好策划十要点1. DESCRIBE NOT JUST THE BODY, BUT THE SOUL.说明身体、更要说明灵魂（创意优先）。如果做游戏仅仅是一个简单的I/O系统-比如写代码并预言它如何运行，-那么你可以凑合一个干巴巴的、描述性的东西。但实际情况是：开发活动是很多人，很多有创造力的人，一起做的，每个人都有他的思想，都想在任何他们做过的事情上打下印迹。 If game development was just an automated input/output issue - something like writing code and being able to predict how its going to work - you could get by with a dry, descriptive document. The reality is that development is done by people, many of them creative people, who have their own minds; most will want to leave a stamp of that mind on everything they do.可能会是这样：你拿一个说明给美工，和他讨论怎么做。你找程序给他看说明。小组的每个人都对你说的任何东西点头。（快客：啊，真的？）It works like this: You provide specs to the artists and discuss with them what to do. You then visit the programmers and go over their specs. Both groups nod to everything you say.当晚半夜两点，当C星在西方升起，正出在“中年心理危机”的程序（快客：谁？我？）开始想：“怎么？就做这么个破程序了此一生？这是我妈妈希望我做的？为什么？我也可以向某人一样策划，比他还棒。”想着，手里还打着键盘。That night, around 2AM, just as the constellation of C+ is rising in the west, the programmer reaches a mid-life crisis and begins to think, What, a geek programmer the rest of my life? Is this what my mother expected from me? Why, I can design a game just as well as anybody else! And the hands keep typing code.同时，美工刚刚在他机器前醒过来，因为等一个非常费时的3D渲染，他刚才睡着了。（快客：佩雷斯将来可能就这样。）不清楚他是否还在做梦，也许已经醒了，在艺术想像的旷野和现实的梦境中，混沌着一切。惊奇的造物以从未想像的方式凝结了。Around the same time, the artist has just woken up before his machine, having fallen into a deep stupor while waiting for a complex 3D rendering to finish. Unsure and not really caring whether hes dreaming or is actually getting paid for all this, immersed in that wild world of artistic genius where fantasy and reality blend as one, the phosphors come together in ways previously unimagined - certainly not by you.第二天，你的马变成了一个有两个峰的骆驼。对有思想的人，灌输是没有用的，你还要激励。By the next morning, your horse has become a unicorn with two humps. With creative people, instructing is not good enough. You need to inspire.在设计中，不要满足与你对所有美学和细节的说明。费点时间说明游戏应该传达的感觉，每个部分后面应该表达的目标。以及所有你能描述的，游戏的各方面的精神。In your design document, dont satisfy yourself with a detailed description of every article and nuance. Take time to describe the feel that the game should have, the purpose behind each element, the experience each user will have, and any other aspects of the games soul you can envision and describe.例如：设计了一个枪手，你想在实际操练前，让你的玩家练练。所以你在这里降低了难度。你得向每个团队里面的人解释为什么这些东西在这儿、为什么这些东西这样运行。到你的团队的人不看你的“纸”也清楚的时候，你兴许可以期待出来的东西与你想的近似或者-更好。For example, say youre designing a shooter. You want to train your players to deal with certain challenges before they actually meet them, so you place less lethal mini-challenges a few steps in advance. Youre going to have to explain that to everybody on the development team, so theyll understand why certain things are where they are and why they work the way they do. That way, even if (read: when) your team toys with and mangles your ideas as they exist on paper, you can still harbor hopes that the outcome will have the same or similar overall effect. Or maybe even better.2. MAKE IT READABLE.注意可读性，整齐漂亮。 Go ahead, provide your people with full pages of 10-point, sans serif, 80-characters-per-line text, and demand that they read it. You may want to bundle Advil in the package - for those who actually take the pains to obey orders.I try to follow at least some of the guidelines of good page layout.Plenty of white spaceSerif font for body textBold headersSpaces between paragraphsShort lines of textDirect the eye towards important materialUse a hierarchical, 2D format (see what I wrote abo