很多孩子,特別是男孩,非常喜歡玩電子遊戲。偶然玩玩當然沒有問題,但有些孩子卻非常上癮,玩的沒日沒夜的,甚至因此而荒廢學習。家長老師對這樣的孩子都是相當頭痛的。有一種方法對他們卻常常有奇效:那就是想辦法將孩子的興趣從玩遊戲引向遊戲編程。
白露為霜注: 這是小女兒小寶在高一時寫的一篇有關電子遊戲的文章(參閱原文), 當時她13歲。對於喜歡藝術和喜歡工程的孩子來說,電子遊戲開發行業是不錯的職業選擇。
電子遊戲是怎樣打造成的?
這是一個高科技的時代。每個新版的蘋果「愛瘋」(iPhone)都是在熱切期待中到來。大人孩子排隊幾個小時,有時甚至露宿在外,為了是得到一款最新的任天堂Wii或者索尼的PlayStation 3。但在觸動按鈕和Xbox 360控制器誘人的光澤後面,興旺的電子遊戲產業到底發生了些什麼呢?儘管電子遊戲早已進入千家萬戶,主流社會中真正了解其幕後故事的人並不多。
今年夏天,作為一個暑期計劃(summer program)的一部分, 我有機會探訪電腦和視頻遊戲巨頭藝電公司(Electronic Arts 或 EA),大開眼界。位居加州矽谷的藝電公司是世界上最大的第三方遊戲開發商,生產出一些非常流行的電子遊戲,比如「模擬人生」(Sims) 和它所有的衍生版。「模擬人生」是一款以生活為基礎的模擬遊戲,讓玩家能完全掌控一個家庭,一家服裝店,甚至是一座城市。藝電也幾乎壟斷了與體育有關的遊戲,產品中有名的如:「One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird」和「Need for Speed」(極品飛車)等。EA的視頻遊戲還包括「指環王」和「哈利·波特」系列等。
從外表上看,藝電公司在加州紅木城佔地巨大的總部同其他高科技公司沒什麼兩樣。但仔細觀察,藝電卻是個完全不同的地方:公司里擺滿了幾乎每一個可以想象的到的電子遊戲。公司員工在休息時跳起「Dance Dance Revolution」,從超高科技的自動售貨機里買飲料,在「研究室」(又名「遊戲室」)里放鬆一下,或者乾脆在公司大堂里玩起電子遊戲。當然對電游的設計者來說這並不僅僅是遊戲和玩樂。電玩的設計,繪圖,編程並不是象玩遊戲那樣輕鬆和有趣。當然,我並非否認電子遊戲變得越來越有挑戰性,只是玩家們並不需要找出代碼中的錯誤。
在早期的日子裡電子遊戲常常是由單個人開發的。例如,有名的「俄羅斯方塊」(Tetris),一個在20世紀80年很代流行的下降拼塊遊戲,最初的設計和編程是由俄羅斯科學家阿列克謝·帕基特諾夫(Alexey Pajitnov) 在他的業餘時間完成的。但那樣日子早已一去不復返了。現代電腦和電子遊戲有著複雜的故事情節,數以百計的人物,超炫的三維建模,高清的圖像和超快速的行動。其結果是,電子遊戲的創建需要投入大量的人力和物力。開發一個人們所喜愛的遊戲需要由藝術家,技術藝術家(Technical Artists),設計師,程序員和測試人員組成的「軍隊」的通力合作。
藝術家是那些繪製遊戲中每一個場景的背景和字元的人。這可是一項艱巨而瑣碎的工作。
技術藝術家的作用,按維基百科的說法是:「在藝術家和程序員之間架起一座橋樑。」作為一個技術藝術家需要有相當不錯的編程知識以及良好的藝術技巧。
游戲的設計師負責規劃劇情故事線,製造矛盾,增加戲劇性,儘力使遊戲具有趣味性和參與性。
程序員的作用不言自明。他們負責遊戲的編碼工作,最有可能使用的是C++語言(我可以從經驗告訴你,這是一個相當棘手和可怕的語言)。
最後還有遊戲測試人員(QA)。這可是許多孩子的終極夢想的工作:他們可以整天玩電子游戲,還可以拿到報酬,真是太好了。測試人員報告遊戲的問題,並提供反饋,幫助程序員,設計師們改進遊戲。
如果你沒去藝電的專賣店的話探訪之旅就是不完整的。這是一家在公司內的商店,在那裡你可以按折扣價購買EA遊戲。我抓起了幾個「模擬人生」添加到我有限的遊戲收藏。每個十元。告訴那些非遊戲玩家,這是一個非常好的價錢!
藝電公司看上去像是一個有吸引力的工作的地方。所以不難預料,我暑假計劃里的同學現在都想去EA工作。的確是這樣,藝電是一個少有的將藝術性和創造力與工程才能真正融為一體的地方。雖然為了最後期限趕工可能會壓力很大,但無論是從薪水還是從就業前景來看電子遊戲行業是很有吸引力的。在過去的十年裡,電玩的技術水平飛速演進,行業的前景無可估量。在藝電公司這樣的地方工作,為你提供了觀賞互動娛樂的未來的前排座椅。
The Art of Making Video Games
This is the age of technology. This is the time when the arrival of the Apple iPhone is eagerly anticipated; kids and adults alike wait for hours in line, sometimes even camping out in order to get a Nintendo Wii or a Sony PlayStation 3. But beyond the pushing of buttons and the pretty shininess of the Xbox 360 console, what really happens in the booming video game industry? Despite the wild popularity of video games, few people in mainstream society really know what goes on behind the scenes.
This summer, I had an opportunity to visit computer and video game giant Electronic Arts (www.ea.com/home.jsp) as part of a summer program. Silicon Valley based Electronic Arts is the world』s biggest third-party game developer, churning out some popular games such as the Sims and all their expansions. The Sims are wildly successful life-based games, as they allow the player to have a complete control of a family, a clothing store, or even a city. Electronic Arts also has a virtual monopoly on sports-related games, producing some notable ones like 「One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird」 and 「Need for Speed」. EA also made the video games for 「the Lord of The Rings」 and 「Harry Potter」 series.
EA』s campus in Redwood city, California, is huge, and stocked with pretty much every video game imaginable. Employees taking breaks play 「Dance Dance Revolution」, get drinks out of the super-high tech vending machine, laze around in the 「research room」 (a.k.a. the game room), or play video games in the lobby. But all is not fun and games for video game designers. Designing, drawing, and programming the game is hardly as easy or fun as playing it. Not that I am insinuating that games are not getting more and more challenging. It』s just that the player hardly has to fix bugs in the code.
In the early days, games were often developed by single person. For example, 「Tetris」, a popular falling-blocks game in 1980s, was originally designed and programmed by Russian scientist Alexey Pajitnov at his spare time. But those days are long gone. Modern computer and video games have complicated story lines, hundreds of characters, sophisticated 3-D modeling, Hi-Def quality graphics and super fast actions. As a result, making a video game nowadays requires a tremendous amount of manpower. It takes an army of artists, technical artists, designers, programmers and testers, to say the least, to create a game.
Artists are the ones that take care of drawing the background and characters for each scene, a painstaking job.
Technical Artists, says Wikipedia, 「bridge the gap between artists and programmers.」 Being a technical artist requires a fairly good knowledge of programming as well as good artistic skill.
Game designers plot the story lines, create conflicts, add drama and try their best to make the game interesting and engaging.
Programmers are self-explanatory; they are the ones responsible for the coding of the game, most likely in C++ (which, I can tell you from experience, is an exceedingly tricky and awful language).
Being video game testers, on the other hand, is an ultimate dream job for many kids because they get paid to play video games all day long. Testers report bugs and provide feedback so programmers can improve the game.
No trip to EA is complete without paying a visit to the EA shop – an on-site store where you can buy games at a discount price. I snatched up a few Sims to add to my limited game collection at $10 each. For your non-gamer, it is a really good deal!
Electronic Arts seems like a fun place to work. Not surprisingly, now everyone in my summer program wants to work for EA. Indeed, it is a rare place where artistry and creativity truly fuse with engineering prowess. While working towards a deadline may be stress inducing, the video game industry has loads to offer, from handsome pay to a rewarding career. With technology quickly evolving the way that it does in this decade, there is no limit to what may come. Working at a place like Electronic Arts gives you a front row seat to the future of interactive entertainment.
EA Sports
EA Sports
Need for speed
Need for speed
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