《通关！游戏设计之道》中英翻译

开通了个公众号 偶尔翻译一些游戏的玩意

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按键开始！

If You Are Anything Like Me . . .. . . YOU READ THE first page of a book before you buy it.

如果你像我一样，在购买一本书之前先看看第一页

I find that if I like the first page, I’ll probably like the whole thing. 

如果我觉得第一页很不错，那么我大概会喜欢整本书

I have noticed that many books have an exciting excerpt on the first page in order to grab the reader’s interest, such as:

我注意到许多书在第一页都会有令人兴奋的片段，以吸引读者的兴趣，比如：

The skeleton dragon grabbed the helicopter with bony talons and shook it so hard that Jack’s teeth rattled.

 骷髅巨龙用全是骨头的爪子抓住直升机，剧烈地摇晃着，让杰克的牙齿格格作响。

Evelyn fought at the controls, attempting any maneuver that would free the copter from beast’s unyielding clutches. 

伊夫林拼命操作飞机，试图进行机动使直升机摆脱巨兽的魔爪。

“Hang on!” she screamed over the engine’s tortured whine. “We’re going down!” 

“坚持住！”她在引擎痛苦的嗡嗡声中尖叫道，“我们要坠落了！”

The world whirled around and around as the copter and dragon performed a death waltz. 

世界在直升机和龙的死亡华尔兹中不停地旋转着。

Jack didn’t remember the copter slamming hard into the skyscraper or the crash or the dragon’s bones raining down or being thrown from the wreckage—until Evelyn shook him into consciousness. 

杰克没有记得直升机猛烈地撞向摩天大楼、坠毁、龙骨碎片像雨一样落下，还有他自己被从残骸中抛出来 ——直到伊夫琳摇醒他，让他重新清醒过来。

“Jack! Jack!” she said. “We need to move. Now!” “What’s the hurry, Sis? That dragon’s toast.” Then his eyes finally focused. 

"杰克！杰克！" 她说道。"我们得走了，现在！""这么着急，姐？那条龙已经烧焦了。" 他的眼睛终于能看清了。

On the cemetery gate. On the crooked gravestones. 

看清墓园的大门。看清那些歪斜的墓碑上。

On the zombies pulling themselves from the dirt. Jack thought, “Nuts. I should have never opened that book.”
看到从土地中爬出的僵尸。杰克心想：“妈蛋，我不应该打开那本书。”

Not that I would ever resort to such cheap tactics in this book. 

---我并不会在这本书用这种低级的手法

I have also noticed that some books try to gain respectability by publishing a positive quote from an industry professional or famous person on their first page:

我还发现到一些书在第一页上刊登来自行业专业人士或名人的正面评价，以获得respect。

I learned more from reading the first page of the second edition of Level Up! The Book of Great Video Game Design than I learned from working for 25 years in the video game industry!     （A very famous game designer）

从《通关，游戏设计之道》第二版的第一页上我学到的知识比我在游戏行业工作了25年学到的还要多！（一位非常著名的游戏设计师）

------No doubt you are smart enough to have realized that this isn’t a real quote, because there isn’t a very famous game designer. 

不用想你也知道这不是真的名言，因为没有什么特别著名的游戏设计师

Unless you count Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario. Drat! I should have translated the quote into Japanese!

除非你把宫本茂算进去，创造马里奥的那家伙，该死，我应该把刚才的名言翻译成日语！

You obviously don’t need someone else to tell you how to make up your mind. Just by picking up this book, I can tell you are a discriminating reader. 

很显然，你不需要别人告诉你如何做决定。光是选择读这本书，我就可以看出你是一个有眼光的读者。

I can also tell you are seeking the straight truth on the creation of video games. This book will teach you the who, what, where and, most importantly, how to design video games. 

我还可以告诉你，你正在寻求制作游戏的真相，这本书会教给你什么人做游戏，做什么游戏，在哪做游戏，最重要的是，如何制作游戏。

If you have an interest in arcade games, boss fights, chili, deadly traps, ergonomics, fun, giant hydras, haunted mansions, islands and alleys, jumps, killer bunnies, leitmotifs, Mexican pizza, non-player characters, one-sheet designs, pitch sessions, quests, robotic chickens, smart bombs, the triangle of weirdness, un- fun, violence, whack-a-mole, XXX, Y-axis and zombies, then this is the book for you.

如果你对街机游戏、Boss 战、辣椒、致命陷阱、人体工程学、有趣的东西、巨型九头蛇、闹鬼的豪宅、岛屿和小巷、跳跃玩法、致命兔子、主题游戏、墨西哥比萨、无角色游戏、单页设计、投球比赛、任务、机器鸡、智能炸弹、奇怪三角形、不好的东西、暴力、打地鼠、XXX、Y 轴和僵尸有兴趣的话，那么这本书就是为你而写的。

Before we start, keep in mind that there are many ways to approach game design. 

在我们开始之前，请记住游戏设计有很多种方法，方式。

All of them are valid, as long as they can communicate the designer’s ideas.

只要能够传达设计师的想法，所有方法都是有效的。

The tricks and techniques found in this second edition of Level Up! are MY WAYS of creating game design.

这本第二版书中的技巧和技术是我自己的游戏设计的方式。

Another quick reminder: when I say “I designed a game,” this is an oversimplification. 

再次提醒一下：当我说“设计了一个游戏”时，这只是一种过于简化的说法。

Video games are created by many, many, many talented people (you’ll be introduced to them shortly) and to give the impression that I did all the work myself is not only incorrect but egotistical.

游戏是由许许多多的才华横溢的人共同创作的（你很快就会认识到他们），给人留下我独自完成所有工作的印象不仅是错误的，而且是自大的。

（It’s a small industry. No one can afford to make enemies! Be a nice, hardworking person and you’ll go far. ）

这是一个小圈子。没有人能负担得起树立敌人！做一个友善、努力工作的人，你会走得很远。

There is no “I” in team.

团队中是没有小“我”的

（Ironically, there is a “me.”）

具有讽刺意味的是，其实是有一个“我”的存在。

The majority of the games I’ve helped design were single player action games, so many of the examples found in this edition of Level Up! are skewed towards that perspective.

我参与设计的大部分游戏都是单人动作游戏，因此，在这一版的《通关!》中，很多例子都倾向于这个角度。

It’s just the way I think. But I have also found that most of the gameplay concepts are transferable to many different genres of games. 

这只是我思考问题的方式。但我也发现，大多数游戏玩法概念可以适用于许多不同类型的游戏。

It won’t be too hard for you to translate my advice to your own game, no matter what the genre.

无论是什么类型的游戏，你都可以很容易地将我的建议应用到你自己的游戏中。

Another thing before we get started. If you are looking for a single chapter about gameplay, don’t bother. Because EVERY chapter in this book is about gameplay. 

在我们开始之前，还有一件事。如果你只是想找某一章关于游戏玩法的内容，那就不必费心了。因为这本书的每一章都涉及游戏玩法。

You should be thinking about gameplay all the time and how things affect the player, even when designing passive elements like cutscenes, monetization models, and pause screens.

你应该时刻考虑游戏玩法以及各个元素对玩家的影响，即使在设计像过场动画、货币化模式和暂停界面等被动元素时也是如此。

Since you have made it this far, I may as well start by actually telling you the bad news first. 

既然你已经坚持到这一步，我不妨先给你传达坏消息。

Making video games is very hard work.

制作游戏是件非常艰苦的工作。

（I once had an employer who would walk the halls of our office muttering how “video games are a haaaard business.” I used to laugh at him back then, but I don’t any more. He was right.）

（我曾经有一个老板，他会在办公室里走来走去，嘟囔着“做游戏真的很难”。当时我会嘲笑他，但现在我不再这样了。他是对的。）

I have worked in video games for over 20 years and on games that have sold millions of copies.

我在视频游戏行业工作了20多年，参与过销售量达数百万份的游戏。

But in that time, I have learned that making video games is also the best job in the world. It can be thrilling, frustrating, rewarding, nerve-wracking, hectic, boring, vomit-inducing, and just plain fun.

然而在这段时间里，我也学到了制作视频游戏是世界上最棒的工作。它可以令人兴奋、沮丧、有回报、令人头疼的、忙碌、无聊、令人作呕，还有它那单纯的快乐。

No, You Can’t Have My Job. Over the course of my career, I came up with some Clever Ideas and learned some Universal Truths. For your convenience, I have added these at the end of each “level.”

不，你还不能得到我这份工作。在我职业生涯的过程中，我想出了一些聪明的点子并学到了一些普遍的真理。为了方便起见，我在每个“关卡”的末尾都添加了它们。

I also learned a couple of very important things. You can tell they are very important because they are written in all uppercase letters. The first very important thing I learned was:

我还学到了一些非常重要的事情。你可以看出它们非常重要，因为它们是用大写字母写出来的。我学到的第一个非常重要的事情是：

GAME DESIGNERS HAVE MORE FUN

游戏设计师拥有更多快乐

I know this, because my first job in the video game industry was as an artist.

我知道这一点，因为我在游戏行业的第一份工作是美术

（Actually we were called “pixel pushers” and “sprite monkeys,” neither of which, despite how cute those terms sound, were ever meant as a compliment.）

（事实上，我们被称为“像素贴子”和“精灵猴子”，尽管这些术语听起来很可爱，但它们从来都不是称赞的意思。）

 Back in those 16-bit days, video game artists drew images with pixels.

回到那个16位时代，游戏美术使用像素绘制图像。

There are several great 16-bit artists, like Paul Robertson and the teams that made the Metal Slug and classic Capcom fighting games;

有一些很棒的16位艺术家，比如保罗·罗伯逊（Paul Robertson）和制作《合金弹头》和经典卡普空格斗游戏的团队；

but for me, drawing pictures out of pixels is like drawing with bathroom tiles. Here is what a drawing I made out of pixels looks like:

但对我来说，用像素绘制图画就像用浴室瓷砖绘画一样。这是我用像素绘制的图画的样子：

Anyway, as I was “pushing pixels” I heard the sound of raucous laughter coming from the group of cubicles next to mine. 

总之，当我在“贴像素”时，我听到了从我旁边的小隔间里传来的喧闹笑声。

I peered over the wall to see a bunch of video game designers yukking it up and have a good ol’ time.

我探头看去，看到一群游戏设计师嘻嘻哈哈地玩得很开心。

For the record, I was not having a good ol’ time pushing pixels. I realized, “Those game designers are having more fun than I am! Making video games should be fun! I want to have fun! I want to become a game designer too!”

值得一提的是，当时我在“贴像素”时并不开心。我意识到，“那些游戏设计师比我更开心！制作游戏应该是有趣的！我也想要享受乐趣！我也想成为一名游戏设计师！

And so I did. I eventually worked my way up the ladder to become a game designer. After I became a real game designer, I learned the second very important thing:

于是我就这样做了。我最终逐步晋升成为一名游戏设计师。在成为一名真正的游戏设计师之后，我学到了第二个非常重要的事情：

NO ONE ON YOUR TEAM WANTS TO READ YOUR DESIGN DOCUMENT

你的团队没人愿意阅读你的设计文档。

This is a horrible thing to discover, but it is something every game designer needs to hear. 

这是一个可怕的发现，但每个游戏设计师都需要听说这个。

Here I was, a brand new game designer with brand new game designs ready to go, and no one wanted to read any of them! 

当我成为一名新的游戏设计师，并准备好推出全新的游戏设计时，却没有人愿意看任何一个！

What was I to do? In order to solve this problem and get my colleagues to read my design documents, I started drawing them as cartoons.

我该怎么办？为了解决这个问题并让我的同事们阅读我的设计文档，我开始将它们绘制成漫画。

And guess what? It worked. They conveyed the ideas I wanted to get across to my teammates. And I’ve been designing games this way ever since, many of which have gone on to become top-selling titles.

你猜怎么着？这起作用了。它们传达了我想要向队友传达的想法。从那以后，我一直以这种方式设计游戏，其中许多游戏成为了畅销作品。

That is why you will find many cartoons, so you will continue reading and understand the ideas presented. If you do, then you can apply them to your own design and become a great designer, too.

这就是为什么你会看到很多漫画，这样你可以继续阅读并理解所呈现的思想。如果你能做到这一点，那么你也可以将其应用到自己的设计中，成为一名优秀的设计师。

Who Is This Book For? 

Why you, of course. Provided you are one of the following people.

这本书是为谁写的，当然是你啦！只要你是以下人群之一

A working video games professional. 

产业的游戏从业人员

There are lots of books about video game design, but most of them are full of THEORY, which I have never found very helpful while making a game. 

虽然有很多关于游戏设计的书籍，但其中大多数都充满了理论，而我在实际制作游戏时并没有发现它们特别有帮助。

Don’t get me wrong, theory is great when you are at a game developers conference or one of those wine and cheese affairs we game designers always find ourselves at. 

不要误解，理论在参加游戏开发者会议或那些我们游戏设计师常常参加的葡萄酒和奶酪派对上非常有用。

But when I am working on a game, with my sleeves rolled up and blood splattered all over the walls,I need practical nuts n’ bolts advice on how to solve any problems I may encounter.

但当我全身心地投入到制作游戏中，袖子卷起来，墙上血迹斑斑时，我需要实用的方法和建议来解决可能遇到的问题。

（Figurative blood. To my knowledge, no one has died from making a video game.）

（比喻中的血迹。据我所知，没有人因制作游戏而丧命。）

I mention this because I assume that some of you reading this second edition of Level Up! will be experienced video game professionals.

我提到这个是因为我觉得阅读这本《通关》第二版有一些人是有经验的游戏行业专业人士。

I hope you find the techniques and tips in this book useful in your day-to-day work. Not that this book doesn’t have uses for beginners.

我希望你们在日常工作中用到在本书找到的技巧和提示。当然，这并不表示这本书对于初学者没用。

I’m talking about you, future video game designers. 

我在说你呢！未来的游戏设计师

Remember, one page ago when I told you I was a pixel pusher? There was a point to that story, which is I was just like you. Maybe you’re also an artist who is tired of hearing the game designers laughing it up over in the other office.

还记得吗，就在一页之前，我告诉过你们我曾经是一个贴图师吗？这个故事是有意义的，就是我曾经和你们一样。也许你也是一个美术，厌倦了听到游戏设计师在另一个办公室里哈哈大笑。

Or a programmer who knows he can design a better enemy encounter than the knuck- lehead currently doing it on your game. 

或者你是一个程序员，你知道你自己可以在你们的游戏中设计一个比现在那个傻子设计的更好的敌人战斗。

Or maybe you are a tester who wants to move up in the world, but you don’t know how to do it. When I wanted to become a video game designer, there weren’t any books on the subject. 

又或者你是一个测试员，想在职场中有所提升，但不知道该如何做。当我想成为一名游戏设计师的时候，没有任何关于这个的书籍。

We had to learn everything from other game designers. I was lucky to have a mentor and an opportunity to work as a game designer. 

我们必须从其他游戏设计师那里学到一切。我很幸运有一位导师和一个作为游戏设计师工作的机会。

If you don’t have either of these things, don’t fret. Read this book; I will be your mentor. All you need to do is follow my advice, be prepared, and take advantage of the opportunity when it finally arrives.

如果你没有这些，不要担心。阅读这本书，我会成为你的导师。你需要做的就是遵循我的建议，做好准备，并在机会到来时抓住它。

This book is also great for students of video game design. Back when I started making games, I didn’t take any classes on video game design—because they didn’t exist! 

这本书对于游戏设计的学生来说也非常好。当我开始制作游戏时，我没有参加任何关于游戏设计的课程，因为那时还没有这样的课程！

I just made stuff up as I went along! And I made a lot of mistakes. This is why I wrote this book: so you can learn from all my mistakes before they become your mistakes too.

我只是随着经验的积累逐步摸索！我犯了很多错误。这就是为什么我写这本书的原因：让你们在犯错之前能够从我所犯的错误中学习。这样你们就能避免重蹈我的覆辙。

Finally, this book is for anyone who loves video games. I love video games. I love to play them. I love to make them and I love to read about making them. 

最后，这本书适合所有热爱视频游戏的人。我热爱视频游戏。我喜欢玩游戏，喜欢制作游戏，也喜欢阅读关于制作游戏的内容。

If you want to make video games, then you must love them too. Ironically, I know several people who work in video games that freely admit they do not like to play video games. 

如果你想制作视频游戏，那你也一定热爱它们。讽刺的是，我认识几个在游戏行业工作的人都坦言他们并不喜欢玩游戏。

That does not make any sense to me. Why would you work in video games if you do not love video games?

我无法理解这样的想法。如果你不喜欢视频游戏，为什么还要从事这个行业呢？

They are fools. They should just step aside and let someone who loves video games make video games. Someone like you.

他们是愚蠢的。他们应该站一边去，让那些爱游戏的人做游戏。就像你一样。

Why a Second Edition?

为什么出版第二版

When I first wrote Level Up! The Guide to Great Level Design back in 2009, the gaming industry was a different place. 

当我在2009年首次撰写《通关！游戏设计之道》时，当时的游戏行业的情况完全不同。

Consoles were the undisputed kings, motion controls had just hit the scene, social gaming on Facebook was still becoming a thing, and the app store had just launched the year before.

游戏主机仍然是无可争议的王者，动作的控制刚刚出现在游戏界，社交游戏在Facebook上才刚刚兴起，而应用商店则是在前一年才刚刚推出。

Things move very fast in the gaming industry. No one was anticipating the popularity of mobile gaming, the importance of monetizaton, or the explosion of the indy gaming market. 

在游戏行业中，发展是非常迅速的。没有人预料到移动游戏的流行，Monetizaton（盈利模式）的重要性，或者独立游戏市场的爆炸。

Looking over the first edition, I realized many topics needed to added, content needed to be updated, references modified, concepts re-explored. 

回顾第一版时，我意识到许多主题需要添加，内容需要更新，引用需要修改，概念需要重新探讨

I hope that you find that this updated edition provides enough new information to warrant a second purchase for returning readers or a first for new ones.

我希望你会发现这个更新版提供了足够的新信息，值得老读者再次购买，或者对新读者来说也值得首次购买。

At the very least, make sure to try the new chili recipe.

最后的最后，至少请尝试一下新的辣椒食谱。（作者自己的理论）