Kate Edwards談提升遊戲世界真實性的6個技巧

原作者：Marie Dealessandri 譯者：Willow Wu

在遊戲行業，大家所理解的文化化是指爲某種特定文化量身打造遊戲，不僅僅侷限於語言。國際遊戲開發者協會（IGDA）前任理事，同時也是諮詢公司Geogrify的創始人Kate Edwards認爲文化化還能發揮更大的作用，她在上週的Plan B Project活動中發表了一篇題爲“利用文文化創造更好的遊戲世界”的演講，其中就強調了這一點。

在她的演講中，有很大一部分內容都是在解釋爲什麼文化化與本地化一樣重要，以及如何處理敏感主題，從而讓你的遊戲觸及更多觀衆。然而，關於如何更好地構建遊戲世界，她也給出了一些有用的建議。

“作爲遊戲開發者，我們創造的世界很多都極其複雜，”Edwards說。“比如《上古卷軸5：天際》，環境非常逼真，細節滿滿，然而劇情設定是一個奇幻世界。或者《光環》，故事確實是發生在地球上，但是在時間設定在遙遠的未來。遊戲包含了很多科幻元素，呈現出了創作者想象中的未來世界。甚至像《任天堂大亂鬥》這樣的遊戲也有世界設定、環境和敘事。

“還有《俠盜獵車手5》這樣的遊戲，我稱它爲超真實的世界。這裏幾乎就是洛杉磯，但又不完全是洛杉磯。它叫洛聖都，但是開發者們很出色地重現了洛杉磯的生活氛圍，將它作爲洛聖都的基礎。”

所有這些遊戲都有一個共同之處：開發者利用了特定的技能來讓玩家相信除了眼前的這一切，遊戲宇宙應該是更加宏大的。

理解遊戲世界構建的關鍵

遊戲背景設定、複雜程度還有構造框架，這些是遊戲世界構建的關鍵，也是你最先應該思考的問題。

“一邊是真實世界，一邊是虛構世界，當然這中間還有一個相當廣闊的重疊區域，”Edwards說。“這從來都不是黑白分明的。你可以看到有些遊戲從裏到外都是虛構的，這是敘事本身的需求，另外還有些遊戲則是基於全真實設定，但時代可能不同或者稍有改動。

“如果你把遊戲設定在一個真實世界中，沿用真實的地理環境、文化和歷史，那麼你所需遵循的是另一套不同的規則。從文化化的角度來說，這是尤爲關鍵的。”

Edwards強調她所講的是打造一個非常真實、令人信服的世界（例如哈利·波特宇宙、魔戒宇宙），不要跟遊戲的寫實性混淆。

“寫實是一種設計決策——團隊想要遊戲看起來有多逼真。真實化是遊戲敘事目標和體驗目標的緊密結合。遊戲背後的故事是什麼？玩家要在遊戲中究竟要做什麼？這是你需要思考的一個最基礎的問題——你的真實化目標是什麼。真實化目標基本上就決定了你實際需要創造多少內容，這一點真的很重要。”

你可以使用一些結構化的工具來真實化你的世界，並讓你的遊戲設定變得更具有說服力，讓人覺得它歸屬於一個更大的宇宙——即使這個宇宙從未完整地呈現在玩家眼前。

通過主題層提升完整性

在創造世界的時候，你可以利用主題層（thematic layers）讓世界更加完整。Edwards指出，以下清單可以包含更多層次的細節，這要取決於你所構建的宇宙類型。

·氣候和天氣

·地理

·生態

·角色分佈特徵(物種、年齡、性別、種族)

·文化特徵（語言、歷史、符號學）

·文化系統（信仰、政治、經濟、交通運輸）

但是，要注意這些主題層的使用方法——他們需要通過一種合理的方式跟敘事結合。

“在《塞爾達傳說:曠野之息》中，天氣會直接影響遊戲玩法，”Edwards說。“你在羣山環繞的環境中跑來跑去，有時會被雷電擊中，有時會被凍住。開發團隊決定要在遊戲中加入天氣系統，這其實是很合理的，因爲這能對敘事和遊戲體驗造成直接影響。我看過另外一些遊戲，它們也有天氣系統，但完全是個擺設，不存在實際影響。只是爲了調節一下氣氛。

“雖然問題不大，不過我的忠告是要想清楚你需要什麼樣的主題層來讓遊戲世界變得更加真實——這也是我提出的層級方法的原因。大多數遊戲都會需要一些真實的地理環境，比如地形地貌，但也許你並不需要。

“所以，你必須認真思考，爲了遊戲的體驗和敘事，遊戲世界的最基本結構應該是什麼樣的。如果你走到了這一步，你就可以思考是否要增加額外的層次來提升視覺效果、增加環境的吸引力，但在滿足最基本的真實化需求之前，我不會去考慮這些。”

依賴地圖和語言

你可能覺得這個建議很普通，但是地圖和語言確實是讓遊戲世界具備真實感的關鍵部分。

“我認爲我們之中的大多數人都是從JRR Tolkien那裏獲得靈感的，”Edwards說。“他在構建《魔戒》世界時利用了自己出色的語言創造能力創造出了精靈語、矮人語，然後他以此爲核心，發展出相關的文化，讓這個虛構世界充滿生機。”

《模擬人生》也是一個語言促使遊戲世界變得更加真實的優秀例子，Simlish就是原創語言。雖然它聽上去有點像是在胡亂叨叨，但其實是有邏輯的，TechRadar上的這篇文章（https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/simlish-how-an-improv-game-turned-into-the-most-recognisable-language-in-gaming）就做了詳細介紹。正是這一切讓玩家感覺自己的角色是宏大宇宙中的一部分。

這並不是說你每開發一個新遊戲就要創造一門新的語言，但是你可以通過使用一種特定的表達方式、方言或者口音來創造一種歸屬感。Tolkien通過地圖來呈現遊戲的環境地理，進一步增強了這種歸屬感，這也是奇幻小說中常見的一種手法。

“奇幻小說經常會出現地圖，通常是爲了增強虛擬世界的真實感。我們對地圖的反應是很真實的，把它們看成是一種在實際探索和研究中使用的工具。所以對很多作者來說，創造地圖就等於是在告訴玩家‘我去過這個地方，你們即將看到的故事基本上就是我在那裏的所見所聞。’

“這種使用地圖的方式往往會讓人產生一種真實感——如果沒有地圖來呈現這個世界或者相關的背景知識，你是不會有這種感覺的，這很有趣。”

創造文化元素

遊戲世界真實感的另一個來源就是文化元素， Edwards表示這本質上就是一個“編東西”的過程。

“概念設計階段已經過去了，現在團隊中的各位創意人員準備着大刀闊斧。但在這個階段經常會出現的情況是人們創作過頭和/或他們不加思考地設計環境，把各種東西都扔進去——實物、符號、旗幟。他們只是把這個世界打扮得漂漂亮亮，讓它看起來很有生活氣息。”

然而，如果你想讓你的遊戲世界更有一體化、真實的感覺，那麼你需要認真思考一下該怎麼進行填充。

“對待創意不能偷懶，” Edwards說道。“你創造東西應該是帶有目的的，而不是僅僅因爲這個東西你會做。所以，當你創造出一個東西，打算把它扔進遊戲世界裏時，你需要思考一下它爲什麼要出現在環境中？有什麼意義？它跟敘事、還有其它正在發展的東西有什麼關聯？並不是所有東西都必須與玩家有直接關係，但它被創造仍應該是有原因的，而不是因爲你試圖快速完成某個主管給你的任務清單。”

她還指出團隊中的應該有人去向設計師們提出這些問題。

“應該有人問他們：它有什麼意義？爲什麼要把它放在這？你的想法是什麼？並不是說要你質疑每一件事，我想表達的是，有時候有這種meta方面的質疑可以起到幫助作用，不僅是讓創作者們退一步審視他們的創造，也是讓他們在之後的創作中提醒自己。”

確保邏輯的一致性

你不僅要確保文化元素對遊戲世界是有意義的，這所有的一切都要跟這個宇宙的設定保持一致。

“我們擁有一套邏輯規則，這個世界中的所有東西都要遵循它，” Edwards說。“爲什麼這很重要？因爲即使是在Tolkien宇宙中，他很大程度上還是沿用了現實世界的規則——比如重力、地形地貌學以及水文學。就算他往敘事裏添加新的東西——比如說魔法，魔法的施展方式還是保持了邏輯上的一致性。只有特定的人才能使用魔法，並且只能在特定的時間、特定動機下使用這種能力。

“這些就是規則，不管你的遊戲是奇幻類還是獵奇類，遊戲中的東西都應該跟邏輯規則保持在同一棵樹上。我們要確保在創作的時候，無論是我們的敘事意圖、體驗，還是遊戲內容，都不存在矛盾之處。”

Edwards以2005年Rare開發的遊戲Kameo爲例進行講解，這是個完全虛構的宇宙，與我們的世界毫無關係，但遊戲中出現了不少類似於基督教十字架的符號。當Edwards詢問說它們有什麼意義時，設計師說這是墳墓標記。

“有意思的是，Kameo宇宙中是不存在基督教的，那爲什麼遊戲中的人還會使用木製十字架？這一點都說不通啊。那時，設計師給我的回答是：‘不然我還能怎麼標？’我就說設計個符合Kameo宇宙設定的墳墓標記如何？”

暗示複雜系統

爲了暗示你遊戲世界的系統複雜性，你需要在角色、地點和建築之間創造聯繫，你可以在不完整刻畫宇宙的情況下讓玩家瞭解這些知識。

“很多遊戲敘事都是利用這種方法來製造出遊戲世界的宏大之感，”Edwards說。“有些東西你不必介紹得很全面或者深入探討，但你必須創造聯繫。這樣一來你就可以在不用實際創造龐大宇宙的情況下製造出這種氛圍。”

你只需要讓玩家跟遊戲中涉及到背景設定的某本書或者物品互動。Edwards拿《光環》做實例講解：在戰鬥過程中讓玩家瞭解設定概念。

“你在這個場景中跑來跑去，可以看見這些先行者（遊戲中的一個外星種族）留下的建築——我記得當時有很多人都覺得這個環狀建築的故事非常感興趣。它爲什麼會在這裏？這些人都是誰？從遊戲的主線敘事中，你很難了解到先行者到底是誰，這個環狀建築發生過什麼事，但是遊戲中有一種名爲終端機的東西，玩家跟它們互動就會彈出一個屏幕，告訴你一些關於這個世界的背景知識。

“所以只需要這一個動作：點擊，玩家就能獲得背景資料，遊戲世界的敘事格局突然之間就變大了。你不需要設計一個全新的關卡，不需要額外設計一些角色，你只需要創造一個小窗戶，讓玩家窺到更廣闊宇宙的一片風景。”

本文由遊戲邦編譯，轉載請註明來源，或諮詢微信zhengjintiao

Culturalisation is mostly known as the process of tailoring your game for a specific culture, beyond language translation. But it can do much more, as former IGDA director and Geogrify founder Kate Edwards highlighted in her Plan B Project talk last week, ‘Building better worlds through game culturalisation’.

A lot of her presentation was dedicated to the reasons why culturalisation matters as much as localisation, and how to navigate sensitive themes so your game can reach a wider audience. However, it also contained useful advice on improving your approach to building game worlds.

“A lot of the worlds that we make as game developers are very complex,” Edwards said. “Take something like Skyrim, which is very detailed, very realistic and yet it takes place in a completely fictional universe. Or things like Halo, which actually takes place in our universe but in the far future. It involves a lot of science fiction elements and imagining things the way they might be at the time. Even something like Super Smash Bros still has a world, still has an environment, still has a narrative.

“[There are also] games like Grand Theft Auto 5 and this is the kind of world that I would call hyperreal. So it’s almost Los Angeles but it’s not quite Los Angeles. It’s Los Santos, but they did such a remarkable job of recreating the vibe of LA as the basis for their world building.”

All these games have something in common: they use certain tricks to make the player believe that there is a larger universe beyond what they can see in the game.

Understanding the core aspects of world building

Setting the context of your game, thinking about its complexity and the structure of its world, are all key aspects to world building, and the first questions you should ask yourself.

“We’ve got the real world and we’ve got fictional worlds, and then of course we have this broad zone of overlap in between,” Edwards said. “It is never black and white. You often have games that are purely fictional because the narrative demands it, and you’ve got others that are completely in the real world, but they might be in a different time or somewhere in the middle.

“This is important because it does matter in terms of culturalisation decisions. If you’re setting your game in the real world and using real geography with real culture and history, you have a different set of rules you have to follow.”

Edwards is talking about the realisation of your world — not to be mistaken with the realism of your game, she pointed out.

“Realism is a design decision — how realistic they want [the game] to look. Realisation is the combination of the narrative goals of your game and its experience goals. So what’s the story behind the game and what is the player actually doing in your game? That’s the most basic level to define; what your realisation goals are. The realisation goals basically set out how much of the world you actually need to make, and that’s really important.”

From there, there are structural tools you can use for realising your world and making your game’s setting believable, by making it feel like it belongs to a larger universe, even when that larger world is never seen.

Build world familiarity with thematic layers

There are thematic layers that you can use when creating a world that will make it feel more complete. Edwards pointed out that this list could include many more levels of details, depending on the type of universe you’re building.

·Climatology and atmosphere

·Geophysics

·Biosphere

·Demographics (species, genders, ages, ethnicities)

·Cultural identities (language, history/lore, symbology)

·Cultural systems (faith, politics, economy, transportation)

However, be careful about how you use these layers — ideally, they need to add to the narrative in a meaningful way.

“A game like Breath of the Wild, the climate system is directly impacting the gameplay,” Edwards said. “You’re running around in the mountains, you get zapped with lightning, you freeze. When they decided to put a weather system in the game, it actually made sense because it all has a direct impact on the narrative and on the experience. Now, I’ve seen other games where they built a weather system, but it really doesn’t do anything. It’s just there for atmospheric purposes.

“Now, that’s okay, but my warning to you, and the reason I bring up the layer approach, is to think very carefully about what layers you need to realise the game. I would recommend you start with that. Most games are going to need some kind of actual geography like landforms, but maybe not [yours].

“So you have to think very hard about what exactly [is] the most minimal version of the world to serve the experience and narrative goals [of your game]. And then, if you at least get that far, then you can make decisions [about] whether or not you want to add additional layers that might enhance the visuals, that might enhance the environmental appeal, but I would not go there until you’ve actually at least satisfied the most basic realisation needs.”

Rely on maps and languages

This may sound like common sense, but maps and languages are both crucial steps to making a world feel alive.

“I think the inspiration for a lot of us came from JRR Tolkien,” Edwards said. “What he did in his world building process [was] using his core strength, which was language. And so he was able to create languages like Elvish and Dwarfish, and he used [them] as a basis for creating a culture around that language, which then populated this world.”

A great example of a game language that led to a realised world is Simlish, the language invented for The Sims. While it may sound like gibberish there’s actually some logic to it, which you can read about in this excellent article on TechRadar. It all participates in making the player feel like their character is part of a wider world.

No one is expecting you to create a new language every time you develop a game, but you can achieve a sense of belonging to a culture by using specific expressions, dialects or accents. Tolkien also enhanced this feeling by creating geography in his world by using a map, which is a common trope in fantasy.

“There’s a lot of maps that get created for fantasy works and it’s often the author’s way of solidifying the reality of the world that they created. We respond to maps as being factual, we see them as being something like an artifact of actual exploration and research. So for a lot of authors, when they create a map, it’s their way of saying: I was there, I went to this place, and now the story that you’re going to read is basically the story that I saw first-hand when I was there.

“It’s an interesting notion, and using maps in that way often gives a certain sense of reality that you would not get if you didn’t have the map there to illustrate the world and the context of the world.”

Build cultural evidence

Cultural evidence is another strong tool to create a fully-realised world, and it’s essentially the process of “making stuff,” Edwards explained.

“You’re past the concept phase and now you’re basically letting loose all the fantastic creative people on your team. But what happens often during this phase is that people over-create and/or they just build environments and throw all kinds of stuff in there — objects, symbols, banners. They just dress up the world and make it look lived in.”

However, if you want your game’s world to be cohesive and well realised, you need to think carefully about how it’s populated.

“Don’t be lazy with creativity,” Edwards continued. “Don’t just create stuff because you can. You need to always create with a purpose. So when you’re creating an object and throwing it in the environment you need to think: Why is this going into the environment? What does it mean? What relevance does it have to the narrative and all the other things that are going on? Not everything always has to have a direct relationship to the player, but it still should be created with a purpose, not just kind of thrown in there because you’re trying to rush down a checklist that some manager gave you.”

She also pointed out that someone in the team should always ask artists those challenging questions.

“Somebody should ask: what does that mean? Where did that come from? What was your inspiration? Now you don’t have to question everything, but I’m saying sometimes having that meta level of question really helps, not only the creators to step back from what they did and think about what they actually created, but also to catch things that may be potentially problematic later on.”

Ensure logical consistency

Not only should the cultural evidence you’re building make sense for the universe you’re creating, but everything should be logically consistent with the design of the world.

“We have logical rules that exist and they apply to everything that’s within the world,” Edwards said. “Why is this important? Because, even within Tolkien’s universe for example, much of his universe is built on real world rules — rules of gravity, geomorphology, hydrology. Even when he adds things into his narrative, like magic for example, the way that magic is used has to have a sense of logical consistency. Only certain people can [use magic] and only at certain times do they evoke that power for certain reasons.

“Those are rules. If you have something in a game, whether it’s something fantasy or bizarre or whatever, it still should be rooted in some kind of logical rule. We want to make sure that when we’re creating things there’s not a contradiction either between the narrative intent that we have and the narrative experience, or the content that’s in the world.”

Edwards took the example of Kameo, a 2005 game developed by Rare that she worked on. This completely fictional universe that has nothing to do with our world featured symbols that resembled Christian crosses. When Edwards questioned what they were supposed to be, the artist said they were grave markers.

“That’s interesting because there’s no Christianity in this universe of Kameo, so why would they be using wooden crosses? That doesn’t make any sense. At the time, the answer I got from the artist was: ‘What else would I use?’ And I’m like: maybe create a grave marker that fits the narrative of the Kameo universe?”

Imply complex systems

In order to imply complex systems in your world, you need to create connections between characters, locations, architecture — you need to imply lore, without necessarily building it.

“This is a concept that a lot of narratives use to basically convey the sense of a much larger world,” Edwards said. “You can mention something without having to fully explain it or to go into depth about it, but you’ve made a connection. And to make that connection is all you need to do so you can convey a much bigger sense of a universe without actually building that universe. ”

All it takes is an interaction with a book or an object in-game that explains some lore for instance. Edwards took the example of Halo: Combat Evolved to explain the concept.

“You’re running around in this environment, and you’re seeing this really interesting architecture that was made by the Forerunners [an alien species in Halo]– I remember in that original game a lot of us were really fascinated by the story behind this ring. Why does it exist and who are these people? The core narrative the game gives very little evidence about who the Forerunners are and what happened on this ring, but the game [had] these things called the terminals, and if you interact with them, up would pop a screen and it would give you a whole sense of backstory as to what was going on in this world.

“So just by doing that one thing, one point of interaction, you click on it, you read something, all of a sudden you’ve expanded the narrative of the world. You didn’t have to build a whole other level, you didn’t have to build a whole bunch of other characters, you basically were able to open a little window into a broader narrative around the universe you created.”

（source: gamesindustry.biz ）

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