PAX West 2016: 我们和 sU 游戏开发者聊了聊

访谈背景

在 PAX West 2016 会展，我们遇到了 sU 游戏及其开发者 Guillaume Bouckaert。sU 游戏是一个极简风格的平台游戏，如其介绍所说，“An endless platformer where the score is a puzzle，find meaning in an environment that‘s ever-changing.”

sU

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Guillaume Bouckaert

嗨，能否简单介绍一下你们的团队呢？参加PAX West有何体会？
我们的团队目前其实只有我。游戏设计，美工，编程，都是我自己负责的。游戏配乐方面我找了个帮手，但除此以外我是单枪匹马的工作状态。这个游戏我陆陆续续做了有一年之久，期间还搬了一次家，在加拿大蒙特利尔呆了一段时间，不过现在我又搬回布鲁塞尔了。PAX West会展真的是很棒，这是我第一次参加，我非常享受它。在会展中遇到的玩家们也非常喜欢这个游戏，我也收获了许多有价值的用户建议。
你为什么想要成为一个游戏开发者？在制作游戏的时候遇到哪些挑战？
我想成为游戏开发者，因为游戏是世界上最适合自我表达的媒介形式。和其它媒介形式相比，它充满了新奇和惊喜，你可以在其中创造出前所未有的新鲜事物。

我在制作游戏过程中遇到的最大挑战仍然是，我是一个单人的团队，无论遇到任何困难，代码也好，设计也好，美术也好，都得自己一个人解决问题。

你目前为止最喜爱的游戏有哪些？
Portal 2 绝对是我最喜欢的。

此外我还有一些其它超级心水的游戏：Braid，Limbo，Monument Valley，Another World，Gravity Bone，Thirty Flights of Loving.

游戏 sU 的风格非常清新和简约。这种风格的形成受到了哪些影响呢？
游戏之所以选择了极简风格，依然是由单人开发性质决定的。

因为我需要独自完成所有的美术设计，我得选择一种让自己感到自在的风格。这种风格同时也需要和游戏本身的形式相符合。

游戏的音乐让我想起 Monument Valley 的音乐，两者有什么联系吗？
音乐在这个游戏中的作用，在于提升游戏本身的优雅和诗意。

所以不能算是受Monument Valley的影响，但是我确实是希望它能触发类似的情感体验。

请问游戏里采用了什么物理引擎？游戏主人公的围巾飘扬的效果非常流畅优美。
虽然游戏主要采用的是 Unity，这些游戏特效却是定制化的。我没有用 Unity 里的任何物理引擎特效。包括游戏里的碰撞特效，都是如此。我虽然很喜爱 Unity，但是项目里的一些重要部分如特效等等，我还是选择自己来设计实现。
sU 游戏里有什么是你想要实现，但还没有完成的？
游戏仍在收尾阶段，目前最需要改进的是游戏的叙事和谜题的设计部分。

同时也需要增加一些不同关卡的变化。在正式发布之前还是有不少需要改进的地方呢。

sU 游戏开发的过程中有没有什么趣事和我们分享？
这个游戏其实开始于一场游戏开发比赛。

在我辞职离开上一家游戏公司的当天晚上，我和同事们参加了一个小型的游戏开发比赛。这个游戏的原型就是你今天看到的 sU 游戏。

开发 sU 的过程中，你遇到的最大挑战是什么？
我开始的时候只有一些基本的 Unity 的知识（参加各种游戏比赛所得），但是实际开发 sU 的时候我必须得学习很多关于它的高阶知识。此外，就是独立开发者们所面临的共同问题，比如如何平衡收入支出，时间，压力，以及个人的成功欲望。
对未来的游戏你有什么计划吗？有没有特别感兴趣的游戏类型？
尽管我很喜欢平台类游戏（Platformers），但我应该会在 sU 之后尝试一下其它的游戏类型。有两大类我想要挑战的类型：第一人称射击游戏（FPS）和实时战略游戏（RTS）。这两种类型各有不同的设计方面的挑战，我很想一试身手。
采访的最后，可不可以和读者分享一张游戏工作室的图片呢？
因为我总是在家工作，而又总是在搬家，所以没有固定的办公场所。

不过我有几张PAX会展的照片和大家分享。

English Version

Tell us a little bit about your team. (such as which city is it based? how many people are working on this project? how long have your team been working on it? How do you like the PAX event so far?)

The team is actually just me: I work on everything from the design to the art to the programming. I have somebody helping me out for the music and the sounds but apart from that I work alone. I’ve been working on the game on and off for about a year and half.

I’ve moved a little during that time. I lived in Montreal for a time, but I’m now back in Brussels.

PAX West has been awesome. It was my first time attending a PAX event, and I loved it. People have really liked the game too, and I’ve got a lot of great feedback from it all.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a game developer? What are the ups and downs being an indie game developer?
I wanted to be a game developer because it’s the best medium in the world to express yourself. And also because it’s relatively fresh compared to other mediums: you can invent totally new things (a little less than before, but still).

The ups and downs, well, they’re linked to the fact that you work alone on your game: whenever you might get stuck on something (be it code, design, art or anything in-between), well, you’re alone to deal with it.

What are your favorite games by far?
Portal 2 is one of my favorites, but then I also have a few indie-darling very high up on my list:

Braid, Limbo, Monument Valley, Another World and Gravity Bone/Thirty Flights of Loving.

The art style of the sU game is very refreshing, elegant and simplistic, what are the influences you get from other sources that turned into the current style?
The decision of going with a minimalist art style actually stems from the fact that I work alone. Since I have to do all the art, I had to find a style I was comfortable with. But it also had to make sense for what I wanted to do with the game.
The music style sounds a little bit like “Monument Valley”’s music, did you get any influence from that?
For the music, the goal was more to create something that would highlight the elegant and poetic nature of the game.

So it wasn’t really an influence, more a case of trying to evoke similar things.

What physics engine did you use for the physics effect? The way the scarf floating in the air looks very smooth and beautiful.
While the game uses Unity, the effects are custom-made. I don’t use any of the physics feature of Unity for the game. Same thing for all the collisions in the game. While I love Unity, I prefer to do things my way for the very important parts of a project.
What are the things you wanted the sU-game to have, but not there yet?
I’m still finalizing the game, and at this point it’s mostly the story and the puzzles that need work. Also adding a bit more variety in the levels. A lot of stuffs still need to be worked on for the game’s release.
Any interesting/fun stories you met while developing the sU-game?
The game actually started out in a game-jam: the day I quit my job at my old video game company, we did a small game jam with colleagues during the night. I ended up making what was the very first prototype of sU.
What are the biggest challenges that you met since building this game?
I had a basic knowledge of Unity when I started (I had used it for numerous game jams before), but I had to amp that knowledge a little bit for sU.

Otherwise it’s the usual challenges of all indies: balancing your finances with time, stress and your personal ambitions.

What are your plans for your future games? Any type/genre or stories you are particularly interested in?
While I love platformers, I think that after sU I would like to work on another genre. There are two I would love to tackle and try my hand at in the coming years: FPS and RTS. They each come with a different set of design challenges that I would love to solve.
Would you like to share a nice photo of your game studio with our readers?
Well, I’m working at home most of the time, and home keeps changing.
So I don't really have an office to share with you.
But I have a few pictures from PAX that I can share.

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