Making puzzles for my indie magnet game

你好，我是马克
Hi, my name's Mark

我正在开发一款有关磁铁的游戏
and I am making a video game about magnets.

我在本系列的上期视频中曾说过
So in the last episode of this series I said that

我的下一个目标是为这部游戏制作些正经内容
my next goal was to work on some actual content for this game:

也就是为解谜游戏设计谜题
the puzzles for this puzzle adventure.

在此之前，我做的谜题都只能算成是测试用的原型关卡
All of the stuff I've made so far has just been test levels and prototype stages,

一旦我大幅改动了游戏的代码，它们都只能被丢进垃圾桶中
stuff that ultimately ends up getting thrown away when I change the code too much.

但为了向着「完成」前进
But in the spirit of 'finish the game',

是时候让自己沉下心来，认真工作
it's time to knuckle down and really get to work

将那些会被作为最终版本推出的关卡做出来了
on the content that should - hopefully - end up in the final game.

我为自己设的挑战，是在 2023 年 1 月制作 30 个谜题关卡
So my challenge for January 2023 was to make 30 individual puzzle chambers.

那结果如何呢?
How did I get on?

好奇的话，就接着看吧
Well stick around to find out.

开发之旅

于是在 1 月 2 日
So on January 2nd,

我端着一大杯茶，带着雄心壮志充满自信的坐在了 Unity 前，开始想
I sat down in front of Unity with a big mug of tea and a great deal of determination and went

「好嘞，谜题时间!」
"all right! Puzzles.

「谜题……」
Puzzles...

「谜…题…」
puzzles".

惊了，为谜题思考设计居然是如此困难的一件事啊
Man! Turns out it's really hard to just come up with ideas for puzzles.

我在此前开发这部游戏时做个几个不错的谜题
I've made a few good ones during the development of this game

但说实话，它们都算是无源而生的灵光一闪
but they honestly feel like flukes that came about at random.

而要说真的去设计它们，而且一次 30 个
The thought of doing that on demand, 30 times in a row:

我真不清楚该怎么搞
I'm not sure how to do that.

于是在开始的时候，这个挑战完成的进度相当之慢
And so in the beginning, progress on this challenge was pretty slow.

并非一事无成，但无疑是寸步难行
I made a few levels but it was like pulling teeth.

这让我继续制作这个游戏的干劲被大幅削减
And this really shot my motivation for working on the game.

每天我连几个小时的时间都坐不住，就会感到万分的无聊和疲惫
I could only do it for a couple hours a day before getting completely bored and burnt out.

照这个效率，我绝对无法完成开始的目标
And so at this rate I simply wasn't going to meet the goal.

于是我开始打退堂鼓，催眠自己已经在这部游戏上花费了足够多的精力
Now I did start to think that maybe I was just done with this game after working on it for so long.

已经有一年时间过去了
It's been well over a year now,

更别说在此前，我刚在去年底停止开发了 4 个月
plus I just took a massive four month break at the end of last year.

但不行
But no.

这么说吧，偶尔在我面对某个谜题的设计绞尽脑汁的时候
You see, sometimes when I was bashing my head against one of these puzzles

我会意识到自己应该要制作某种全新的机制 :
I realised that I needed to make some kind of new mechanic:

新的按钮、开关、门、亦或方块，诸如此类
a new button, or switch, or a door, or block, or whatever.

于是我开始绘制素材
And so I would do the artwork

然后为其编写代码
and then write the code

然后测试、修 BUG
and then test and debug

制作引擎调试工具
and make tools in Unity

—— 恍惚间，我过去做游戏的快乐回来了!
- and suddenly it was like game development used to be!

我变得超级专注，废寝忘食的将精力投入面前的问题
I could just hyper focus on the problem for hours and hours at the time

整个人沉浸到甚至忘记了时间和休息
without even realising that I haven't had lunch today.

但接着我回到关卡设计
But then I go back to level design

进度的推进又变得缓慢和折磨
and it was slow and difficult and tedious.

随后我意识到，这两种工作的类型从底层逻辑上就是完全不一样的
But I realised that there was a fundamental difference between these two modes of working.

这样说吧，在我开发一个游戏机制时
You see, when I was working on a game mechanic

我的行动是基于某种目标出发的:
it would always begin with some kind of goal:

比如「我需要做个机器人可以左右推动的方块」
like I need to make a block that the robot can push left and right.

然后，我便开始着手实现目标
And then I can work towards that goal.

但在设计关卡的时候
But when I'm making a level,

我唯一能有的目标就是「整个好活」
the only goal I have is "make an interesting puzzle",

这可太模糊不清了
which is pretty ambiguous.

更强的流程公式应该能让这事更容易
What I could really do with is a bit more structure.

于是，我开始寻找能够帮自己更好创作谜题的资料
So I looked for resources to help me come up with ideas for puzzles

读到了帕特里克·特雷纳的一篇绝佳文章
and came across this great post by Patrick Traynor,

他是去年优秀游戏《帕特里克的套箱》的作者
creator of last year's wonderful game Patrick's Parabox:

这是一部超难的、元递归推箱子解谜神作
a sort of mind-bending, meta-level recursive Sokoban gem.

也是我 2022 年最佳创新游戏的那期视频中，荣誉提名的获选者
It was one of the honourable mentions in my video on the most innovative game of 2022.

非常好游戏
It's a great game.

总之，这篇文章为设计谜题灵感提供了大量很好的意见
Anyway, this post has loads of great advice on coming up with ideas for puzzles

而其中有一个，格外的让我喜欢
but there was one thing that really stuck out to me.

我是这样做的:
so here's what I did.

我为游戏中的每个机制都分别截了张图
I took screenshots of all of the mechanics in my game:

比如有磁铁
that's the magnets,

还有电钻
the drill bit,

单向阻拦平台
the one-way platform,

还有电磁铁
the electromagnet,

激光，诸如此类
the laser, and so on.

然后，我将它们放置于表格的顶端
And then I put them along the top of a table.

然后把同样的内容复制一份，再竖过来放在表格的一侧
I took those same mechanics again and put them along the side of the table

接着删掉了重复的部分
and got rid of all the duplicates.

这导出了一个矩阵图
This left me with a matrix,

其中的每个单元，都是两个游戏机制的交汇点
where every cell is at the intersection of two game mechanics.

首先就比如这个，是「电磁铁」与「钻头」的交汇之处
This one, for example, is at the intersection of the electromagnet and the drill.

因此，我需要将这两个游戏机制拿出来，放进引擎的某个空房间
I would then take those two game mechanics and put them into an empty room in Unity,

附带其他杂七杂八的东西
alongside some other bits and bobs

比如游戏主角
like the character,

磁铁队伍的其中一员
maybe one of the magnets,

一些按钮、地砖之类的东西
some buttons, some floor tiles, whatever.

然后，我便开始把玩、试验它们的组合
And then I just start playing around, experimenting,

单纯的只需要摆弄游戏系统
just kind of messing with the system,

然后找出那些多个机制间有趣的交互、或是有意思的化学反应即可
and looking for interesting interactions, or interesting consequences of these two mechanics.

就比如说
Like, for example,

如果钻头在电磁光束的下方，那么我的小磁铁就会被挡住
if the drill bit is over the electromagnetic beam then my little magnet gets stuck.

接着如果你再将钻头收起
And then if you retract the drill bit,

假若磁铁位于钻头顶端，它会很快避开钻头前进
if you are near the tip the magnet will quickly shoot up and escape,

但若它位于钻头的尾部，这种避开会很晚才发生
but if it's on the other side of the drill bit it will take much longer.

而这个小觉悟点、小技巧 ——
And so this little realisation, this little trick:

很适合作为谜题的解法使用
that can be the solution to the puzzle.

这便是玩家要动脑搞明白的点
That is what the player has to figure out.

于是我终于能够回头，真正开始制作关卡了
And then I can essentially work backwards to create a level

谜题的唯一解法，就是刚刚总结的技巧
where the only way to solve it is to do that one thing.

如果我就此再加上些修饰的机制，就有了个正经关卡
And so if I just add a few more mechanics, like so, here we get a level

你需要用钻头将磁铁挡住片刻，使其阻断射线的时机延后
where you have to trap the magnet underneath the drill bit, away from the tip,

从而为自己争取时间，在磁铁避开钻头前冲刺
so you have enough time to get here before the magnet escapes

从而在恰当时机通过这两扇门
and makes these two doors switch places.

这谜题好像还真不错!
That's not a bad little puzzle!

看看谜题矩阵上还有什么?
What else is on the puzzle matrix?

电磁铁加上激光束……
Electromagnet plus laser beam...

好像还行
okay not bad.

方块配上钻头……就像这样
Block Plus drill bit... quite like that.

激光加上带轮方块……有点东西
Laser plus wheelie block... yeah pretty good.

突然之间，谜题设计似乎没那么难了
Suddenly, puzzle design wasn't so difficult anymore

而我的干劲，也重新回来了
and my motivation was coming back.

我将这一切着重归功于谜题矩阵:
I put this largely down to the puzzle matrix:

它能够给予我些许提示
it's all about giving me that prompt,

给我一个想法
giving me a suggestion,

给我一个上手的起点
giving me a jumping off point.

它是种能帮助我寻找灵感的流程公式
Just some kind of structure to help me find ideas.

当然了，事情并非完全顺利
Now of course it didn't always work.

并非每个组合都能导向好的谜题
Not every combination leads to good puzzles

有时进度也依然会推进的困难而缓慢
and sometimes progress was still difficult and slow.

但总体上，这让谜题设计变容易了太多
But overall this made puzzle design so, so much easier,

而且随着我设计更多谜题，难度一降再降
and it got easier with every puzzle I made.

我将这归结于几个原因
I put that down to a few things.

首先，我的谜题设计能力确实成长了
One is that I just got better at puzzle design.

当你将某件工作一遍遍重复时，自然能够总结出各种窍门和技巧
I learned the tips and techniques that you get when you do something over and over again,

这和锻炼肌肉差不多
and it's like building a muscle.

比方说，我开始意识到
So, for example, I started to see

玩家可以同时执行的行动数量这一要素背后潜藏的意义和重要性
the importance of the number of actions the player has available to them at any one time.

如果数量太多，谜题就会变得复杂而令人费解
If it's too many, the puzzle can feel confusing and overwhelming.

但如果太少
But if it's too few

那玩家们便可以干脆只关注眼前之事
then the player can just do the thing that's in front of them,

一遍遍排列组合，直到暴力硬解
over and over again, until they solve the puzzle

—— 全程无需思考
... without actually solving it.

我还回顾了自己那期谜题设计的视频
I also thought back to my video on puzzle design

视频中，我说过「好的谜题应该先把玩家引至某种错误的假设」
where I talked about luring the player into making a wrong assumption about the puzzle,

「从而让他们困惑，并迫使他们广泛思考，得出真正的解法」
so they get a bit stuck, and then have to think in a lateral way to find the real solution.

于是我尝试将这点也用在了自己的部分谜题上
So I tried to incorporate that into some of my puzzles as well.

谜题设计变简单的另一原因，则是因为我手上能够使用的机制增加了
Puzzle design also got easier because I boosted the number of mechanics I had available to me.

正如前面所说
As I said before,

大部分谜题的核心，就在于迫使玩家执行特定的操作技巧
so much of puzzle design is about forcing the player to do one very specific thing,

因此你需要切断其他路线，从而避免让他们以更容易的方式完成谜题
so you need to cut off other routes that would allow them to finish the puzzle in a much easier way,

否则这谜题会失去自身意义
and render the whole thing pointless.

这通常会最终引出一些全新的机制
That usually comes down to some kind of mechanic

比如能阻挡玩家，却任由磁铁通过的激光射线
like a laser beam that can block the player but not the magnet,

亦或者会破坏磁铁却不阻碍玩家的射线
or a beam that can block the magnet but not the player,

又或是需要被持续按住才能生效的按钮
a button that you have to hold down for it to operate,

或者还有一扇每次通过都会切换某个开关的门
or a door that operates a switch every time you go through it.

每次当我为了解决谜题设计中的某个问题时而制作新机制时
Every time I made one of these to solve some kind of problem in my puzzle design,

我都会将它放进我的工具箱，用于轻松解决未来的其他类似情况
I would then have it in my toolbox to solve that same problem, much faster, in the future.

我还调整了我的一些旧机制
I also swapped some of my mechanics

让它们得以更适合在谜题矩阵中与其他机制碰撞组合
for ones that would be more open to combinations in the puzzle matrix.

比如说，这个翻转拉杆挺有意思
For example, this flippy lever is pretty cool

但我将它变成了巨大的旋转叶片
but I swapped it for a big spinning fan blade

它的上限更高些……这也能当个谜题!
which can do things like this... that could be a puzzle!

最后，让谜题设计变得简单的又一原因是
And the final thing that helped make puzzle design easier

我在工具的开发上投入了更多时间
was investing even more time into my tools.

比如此前，如果我想将按钮与某个机制绑定
Like, before, if I wanted to wire a button up to a mechanic

我要执行很多操作
it would take many clicks

在按钮的启动和关闭触发器上分别绑定对应的执行函数
to assign the right function to both the on and off triggers for the button.

于是我整个重写了功能
So I rewrote the whole thing

现在只需要一次点击，便能完成整个过程
and now that whole thing can be done with a single click.

设计谜题的过程充满了摆弄把玩、实验测试、和迭代修改
So much of this process is about playing around and experimenting and iterating,

为此我希望自己编辑关卡的过程可以尽可能流畅轻松
so I want it to be as friction free as possible for me to edit these levels.

于是，借助了谜题矩阵
So between the puzzle matrix,

还有新的窍门和技巧
and the tips and techniques,

以及新增的游戏机制
and the added game mechanics,

加上改进的关卡设计工具
and the improved level design tools,

我成功的为这部游戏制作了大量的新关卡
I was able to make a whole bunch of levels for this game.

每次新关卡落成，我都会为 Keynote 的谜题册新增一页
And each time, I would create a slide in my puzzle bible in Apple's Keynote.

每页幻灯片中，我都会记录下该谜题所使用的机制
On each slide I would jot down which mechanics I used in that puzzle,

从而轻松的编排关卡顺序
so then I could easily reorder the stages

以得出一个逐渐为玩家引出新机制，循序渐进的游戏推进流程
to have a nice progression of slowly introducing the player to the different game mechanics.

我还想在排序时把谜题难度也考虑进去
Eventually I'll also want to do this for difficulty as well,

但这要先等游玩测试完成
but that will come after play testing.

总之当我回头审视谜题册时
And then when I looked at the puzzle bible

我能明显的看出那些进度跳跃不连贯的地方
I could see places where the progression just kind of jumped,

比如在第一个谜题中
so like the first puzzle I have

我为玩家提供了红色方块、电磁铁、以及这些触碰式按钮
introduces the player to the red block, the electro magnet, and these touch buttons.

然后第二个谜题新增了蓝色方块
Then the second puzzle adds blue blocks.

然后第三个谜题则新增了钻头和带钩铰链
And then the third puzzle adds the drill bit and the winch.

但随后，第四个谜题引入了橙色按钮、绿色按钮、激光射线、移动平台
But then the fourth puzzle adds orange buttons, green buttons, laser beams, and moving platforms

—— 我说停停，这东西也太多了
- woah, that's way too much stuff! Slow down!

但我可以把这个空隙看作是容纳更多谜题的空间
But I could see this gap as fertile ground for making more puzzles,

从而再一次得到非常明确的目标
and again with a really clear goal this time of

也就是「帮助玩家，在抵达第四关之前理解所需的新机制」
introducing the player to the mechanics that they would need for that fourth level.

于是谜题册中的这些空隙，反而为关卡的数量添了把火
And so each gap in the puzzle bible would add even more levels to the total.

最终，我完成「1 月 30 关」的目标了吗?
And so did I meet my goal to make 30 levels in January?

并没有!
Not quite!

我只做了 26 个，就被迫停下去剪视频了
I got about 26 before I had to stop and make this video.

毕竟我的主业还是油管上做视频的
I am still running a YouTube channel, after all.

但我真心为自己的进度骄傲，也为这部游戏的开发兴奋
But I am really proud of my progress and I'm really excited for the game now,

尤其是我还大量改进了它的视觉效果
especially after I overhauled some more of the visuals.

我觉得它真的开始向一部正经的游戏靠拢了
I think it's starting to look like a proper, bona fide video game.

总之，短短几周时间里
And so in the space of a few weeks

我从厌倦、想要抹除自己的游戏，想躲进塞尔维亚的山洞中
I went from hating my game and wanting to delete it and go live in a cave in Serbia

变得对这部游戏的前景感到异常兴奋
to being really excited about this game coming out.

而且在整个开发之旅中，这是我第一次
And for the first time - the first time this entire process,

感觉自己看得到头了
I feel like I can see the end.

迄今为止，我始终感觉自己仿佛在浓雾中攀岩一座高峰
So far it's been like climbing a mountain where the peak is obscured by fog,

但上个月，我感到云雾散开、山顶在前
but in January I felt like I could finally see the summit.

我能看到距离游戏完成，还有哪些工作没做
I can see the road map I need to follow to get this game done.

我需要制作大量新的关卡
I need to make a bunch more levels;

我需要给出某种叙事、剧情、过场演出之类的东西
I need to do some kind of narrative, story, cut scenes, something;

我需要制作一个选关菜单
I gotta make a level select screen,

我需要制作音乐
I've got to do music,

也需要在发布前，完成大量的打磨和 BUG 修理
and I've got to do the general polish and bug fixing and release.

这需要大量工作完成，还要数月去打磨
That's a huge amount of work still, many many months,

但最起码这是一条明确的方向
but it does at least feel like a road map.

它让我觉得只要照着做下去，就能将游戏完成
It does feel like something I can follow to get this game done.

但总之下一步是这些关卡的测试
But the next step is play testing these levels,

确保它们玩起来确实不错
making sure they're actually any good.

我认为解谜与其他游戏类型的开发有所不同
Puzzles, more than anything else in game development, I feel,

对创作者来说，它们的质量和难度都更加难以明确把握
are something where the creator just cannot gauge their quality or difficulty.

因此，我需要将它们做成一个 DEMO
So I need to bundle them together into a demo

并发放出去供大家测试
and give them out to people to play.

我的最初受众是家人和朋友
That will start with family and friends

但随后它会进入 GMTK 的 Discord 付费群聊
but then it will go on the GMTK Discord for Patrons.

如果你不想错过，就别忘了关注「与马克一起开发」频道
Make sure you're in the Developing with Mark thread if you want to have a play.

总之，就这样了，感谢你的观看，也感谢你的耐心
That's all for now, thank you for watching, thank you for your patience,

运气好的话，我们三月见!
and I'll see you - hopefully - in March!