Making a game is not easy. Quite the contrary; it’s an incredibly difficult and daunting task. Game development typically takes teams of people, thousands of hours worth of labor, and hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars.

制作 游戲并不容易。 恰恰相反; 這是一項艱巨而艱巨的任務。 游戲開發通常 需要團隊成員 ， 數千小時的勞動價值 以及 數十萬(甚至數百萬美元)的資金 。

Potential developers spend years in school, build their portfolios, and start at the bottom just to have a chance to be on these elite programming teams. Not everyone has access to these resources, however. Some individuals want to create their dream without corporate interference, some want to develop because they’re passionate about the medium, some want to throw their hat in the ring to content with the big hitters, and others just want to have a hobby and enhance their skills. Several of the biggest names in the industry were developed by one person: Braid, Papers, Please, Spelunky, Stardew Valley, Undertale, and of course, Minecraft. These juggernauts were all created without being syndicated by big business, lines of code being written in the comfort of bedrooms and home offices, with free time being dedicated to these individual’s craft.

潛在的開發人員會在學校里度過數年，建立自己的產品組合，并從最底層開始，只是有機會加入這些精英編程團隊。 但是，并非所有人都可以使用這些資源。 有些人想在沒有公司干預的情況下實現夢想，有些人因為對媒體充滿熱情而希望發展，有些人想與大手筆打成一片，另一些人只是想擁有一種愛好并增強自己他們的技能。 該行業中的幾位知名人士都是由一個人開發的 ： 辮子 ， 造紙 ，請 ， Spelunky ， Stardew Valley ， Undertale ，當然還有Minecraft 。 這些主宰者都是在沒有大型企業聯合的情況下創建的，將代碼行編寫在舒適的臥室和家庭辦公室中，空閑時間專用于這些人的手藝。

I was able to sit down with an indie developer and ask a few questions pertaining to the difficulties and revelations of developing a game on your own, as well as discuss a little bit about the game he’s making and what inspired him to do so. His name is Arsalan Nadeem, and this is what he had to say about lending his own voice to the gaming development scene.

我能夠與一個獨立開發人員坐下來，并提出一些與自己開發游戲的困難和啟示有關的問題，并討論了自己制作的游戲以及激發他這樣做的一些原因。 他的名字叫Arsalan Nadeem ，這是他在將自己的聲音借給游戲開發領域時不得不說的。

什么是Mistral Hearts？ (What is Mistral Hearts?)

SUPERJUMPHi Arsalan! Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to answer some questions for me.

SUPERJUMP您好Arsalan！ 非常感謝您抽出寶貴時間為我回答一些問題。

ARSALANYeah, no problem! Thank you as well for taking the time to interview me.

ARSALAN是的，沒問題！ 也感謝您抽出寶貴的時間采訪我。

SUPERJUMPTell me a little bit about your game!

SUPERJUMP告訴我一些您的游戲！

ARSALANMistral Hearts is a board game style RPG. Think Mario Party meets Dragon Quest. You and up to three other players take turns moving around a board map in which you will solve quests, fight monsters, and progress the story until either you win or lose the campaign. There’s a lot more to it than that but that’s the basic idea.

ARSALAN Mistral Hearts是一款棋盤游戲風格的RPG。 認為馬里奧派對遇見了勇者斗惡龍 。 您和其他三位玩家輪流在棋盤地圖上移動，在該地圖上您可以解決任務，與怪物戰斗并發展故事，直到贏得或失敗競選為止。 不僅限于此，這是基本概念。

SUPERJUMPWhat gave you the idea to make an RPG and how long have you been thinking about making a game like this?

SUPERJUMP是什么讓您產生了RPG的想法，以及您考慮制作這種游戲多久了？

ARSALAN[Mistral Hearts] was initially an idea I had for a tabletop board game. But as I expanded on the ideas in it, I realized it would be too unwieldy as an actual tabletop game and would be more interesting as a video game. That way the computer can handle all the fiddly calculations and bookkeeping. As for how long, I started working on it a few months after I started thinking about the game seriously, which was over two years now.

ARSALAN [ Mistral Hearts ]最初是我制作桌面棋盤游戲的想法。 但是當我擴展其中的想法時，我意識到它對于實際的桌面游戲來說太笨拙了，而作為電子游戲會更有趣。 這樣計算機就可以處理所有繁瑣的計算和簿記。 至于多長時間，在我開始認真思考游戲的幾個月后，我開始著手研究，這已經兩年多了。

SUPERJUMPDo you have a coding/programming background?

SUPERJUMP您有編碼/編程背景嗎？

ARSALANNot professionally, no. I just learned coding through necessity. I used to make games on RPG Maker, where coding isn’t really required. But eventually, as my ambitions for what I wanted to implement expanded, I had to learn Ruby, which was the programming language for RPG Maker. Learning Ruby was a slow and painful process for me, but once I had that down, I learning other languages a lot faster. I still wouldn’t call myself a professional programmer by any means though.

ARSALAN不是專業人士，不。 我只是通過必要學習了編碼。 我以前是在RPG Maker上制作游戲的，實際上并不需要編碼。 但是最終，隨著我對要實現的目標的野心擴大，我不得不學習Ruby，這是RPG Maker的編程語言。 學習Ruby對我來說是一個緩慢而痛苦的過程，但是一旦我失望了，學習其他語言的速度就會大大提高。 我仍然不會以任何方式稱自己為專業程序員。

引擎蓋下 (Under the hood)

SUPERJUMPWhat is your favorite aspect of the development process?

SUPERJUMP您最喜歡開發過程的哪個方面？

ARSALANI like the actual design aspect of it. As in, coming up with mechanics that go well together or provide an interesting challenge for the player.

ARSALAN我喜歡它的實際設計方面。 在這種情況下，提出可以配合使用的機制或為玩家帶來有趣的挑戰。

SUPERJUMPWhat is your least favorite aspect of the development process?

SUPERJUMP在開發過程中最不喜歡的方面是什么？

ARSALANThose long stretches of time where you need to just make a ton of art assets. Things like textures for buildings and roads, stuff like that. Initially it’s all fun and exciting but — especially if you’re working on a large project — the excitement gives way to a sense of “do I really need to make like 20 more of these?” haha.

阿爾薩蘭你需要只是做一噸的藝術資產的這些時間很長一段。 諸如建筑物和道路的紋理之類的東西。 最初，這一切都充滿樂趣和刺激，但是-特別是如果您正在從事一個大型項目-興奮讓位于一種感覺，“我真的需要再制作20多個嗎？” 哈哈。

SUPERJUMPWhat made you decide to make a game completely on your own?

SUPERJUMP是什么讓您決定完全自己制作游戲？

ARSALANIt’s not that I specifically want to make games on my own, but it’s just how I’ve always made games, aside from small collaborations here and there. I’m definitely open to working in a team for a full project in the future, but as of now I’ve been content for this to be a solo endeavor.

ARSALAN不是我特別想自己制作游戲，除了在這里和那里的小型協作之外，這就是我一直制作游戲的方式。 我肯定會在將來為一個完整的項目而在團隊中工作，但截至目前，我一直對此感到滿意，因為這是一項單獨的工作。

SUPERJUMPWhat resources do you use? Unity, Unreal, etc?

SUPERJUMP您使用什么資源？ Unity，虛幻等？

ARSALANFor this project I’m using Unity as the game engine. [I also use] Blender and Photoshop mainly for the art assets, as well as Microsoft Visual Studio as the IDE for coding.

ARSALAN對于這個項目，我使用Unity作為游戲引擎。 [我也使用] Blender和Photoshop主要用于藝術品，以及Microsoft Visual Studio作為用于編碼的IDE。

SUPERJUMPDo you do your own character/3D modeling? How did you learn how to use the software?

SUPERJUMP您是否進行自己的角色/ 3D建模？ 您如何學習如何使用該軟件的？

ARSALANYes, and mainly through watching and following a ton of tutorials online through the years. Nowadays, you can learn pretty much anything online. Sure, it’s not as comprehensive as getting a formal education on it, but you can still get by, especially since in game design you need to know quite a wide variety of things. Not only that but there are tons of free art assets available to indie developers online. Sites like CGTrader and Turbosquid have a ton of 3d models you can use and tweak to get what you need. Unity and Unreal also have a lot of good assets on their respective stores as well.

ARSALAN是的， 多年來主要是通過在線觀看和跟蹤大量教程。 如今，您幾乎可以在線學習任何東西。 當然，它不像接受正式教育那樣全面，但是您仍然可以通過，尤其是在游戲設計中，您需要了解各種各樣的知識。 不僅如此，在線開發者還可以使用大量免費藝術資產。 CGTrader和Turbosquid等網站擁有大量3D模型，您可以使用它們并進行調整以獲取所需的東西。 Unity和Unreal在各自的商店中也有很多不錯的資產。

SUPERJUMPWhat got you into creating games?

SUPERJUMP是什么讓您制作游戲？

ARSALANPlaying a lot of video games and going “this is a great game but I also wish it did this other thing. And that other thing.” And so on, until getting the urge to just make a game myself. I imagine it’s the same for a lot of indie devs.

ARSALAN玩了很多電子游戲，然后說：“這是一款很棒的游戲，但我也希望它能做到這一點。 還有那件事。” 依此類推，直到有自己制作游戲的沖動。 我想對于很多獨立開發者來說都是一樣的。

SUPERJUMPIs this the first game you’ve attempted to release?

SUPERJUMP這是您嘗試發行的第一款游戲嗎？

ARSALANIt’ll be the first one I release commercially. Mostly I’ve made games for friends on RPG Maker, nothing too amazing but I’ve learned a lot doing it.

ARSALAN這將是我第一個商業發行的產品。 大多數情況下，我是在RPG Maker上為朋友制作的游戲，沒什么太神奇的，但是我學到了很多。

SUPERJUMPWhat’s the most difficult aspect of making a game?

SUPERJUMP制作游戲最困難的方面是什么？

ARSALANAside from specific technical problems that arise, the main one for me has been maintaining scope. You need to be able to realize what you can and can’t realistically do. I think this is a common pitfall that a lot of us indie devs fall into. You can have the greatest ideas in the world but it’s not going to matter if your game never comes out.

ARSALAN除了出現特定的技術問題外，對我來說主要的問題是保持范圍。 您需要能夠意識到您實際可以做的事情和不能做的事情。 我認為這是我們許多獨立開發者都陷入的普遍陷阱。 您可以擁有世界上最偉大的想法，但是，如果您的游戲從未問世，那將無關緊要。

SUPERJUMPWhat was your biggest blunder or set back while making the game, and how did you overcome it?

SUPERJUMP在制作游戲時最大的失誤或挫折是什么？您如何克服它？

ARSALANI would say implementing online functionality was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome for this project, as it’s not something I had much experience in doing. Thankfully, due to the help of some knowledgeable friends, and lots of online help, I was able to get it working. It’s still something I’m wary of when playtesting and will definitely need some fine tuning in the future.

ARSALAN我想說，實現在線功能是我在該項目中必須克服的最大障礙，因為我沒有很多經驗。 值得慶幸的是，由于一些知識淵博的朋友的幫助以及大量的在線幫助，我得以使它運行起來。 在進行游戲測試時，我仍然對此保持警惕，將來肯定需要進行一些微調。

SUPERJUMPHow does a team of one person handle things like quality control, bug fixes, etc?

SUPERJUMP一個人的團隊如何處理質量控制，錯誤修復等問題？

ARSALANBy pestering anyone you can to test play your game and giving you feedback. Since you can’t exactly hire a QA team as an indie dev, you just have to find other means. There are lots of communities online for game devs with members that will test play your game if you test play theirs. There’s also many discord servers you can join to help with things like this.

通過纏擾任何您可以測試的人玩您的游戲并提供反饋。 由于您無法完全聘請質量檢查團隊作為獨立開發者，因此您只需要尋找其他方法即可。 有很多在線游戲開發人員社區，如果您測試游戲開發者的成員，他們會測試您的游戲。 您還可以加入許多不和諧的服務器來幫助解決此類問題。

SUPERJUMPHow do you handle deadlines? Do you keep yourself on a strict schedule, or do you sort of just go with the flow?

SUPERJUMP您如何處理截止日期？ 您是否按照嚴格的時間表進行工作，還是只是順其自然？

ARSALANI think some sort of deadline/ scheduling is vital to gauge your progress and to make sure you aren’t falling behind on what you need to be doing. That being said, I find it difficult to stick to a strict schedule because game design is such an iterative process that it’s hard to map out months in advance exactly what I’ll be doing.

ARSALAN我認為某種截止日期/時間表對于評估您的進度并確保您不會落后于需要做的事情至關重要。 話雖這么說，我發現很難堅持嚴格的時間表，因為游戲設計是一個反復的過程，因此很難提前幾個月就準確地規劃出我要做的事情。

創作過程 (The creative process)

SUPERJUMPYou told me you handle all of the writing for the game as well as all the coding, do you have a system for that, as in is everything already mapped out and you go from there or are you writing more as more ideas pop in your head?

SUPERJUMP您告訴我您要處理游戲的所有寫作以及所有編碼，您是否有相應的系統，例如是否已經規劃好一切，然后從那里去，還是隨著更多創意的涌現而寫作？你的腦袋？

ARSALANThe broad strokes of the plot, characters, and quest design are mapped out, but I leave things kind of open until I actually sit down and write them.

ARSALAN繪制了劇情，角色和任務設計的大筆畫，但是直到我真正坐下來寫這些東西之前，我還是保持開放的態度。

SUPERJUMPWhere did you learn to write cohesive stories?

SUPERJUMP您從哪里學到寫有凝聚力的故事？

ARSALANI’ve always been fond of writing stories. Besides game design, it’s my favorite part of the process. I think writing stories is something you just naturally get better at the more you write. Reading is also essential to getting better at storytelling.

阿爾薩蘭我一直喜歡寫故事的。 除了游戲設計，這是我最喜歡的過程。 我認為寫故事是你自然而然地會隨著寫得越多而變得更好。 閱讀對于提高講故事能力也至關重要。

SUPERJUMPDid you have any difficulty in knowing where the story was going to go next?

SUPERJUMP您是否有困難知道接下來的故事？

ARSALANYeah, especially since I like games that take player choice into account, it can be difficult planning out exactly how far you want the story to branch out. There’s always a balance to be made between having meaningful choices and maintaining a realistic scope for the project.

ARSALAN是的，尤其是因為我喜歡將玩家選擇考慮在內的游戲，因此很難準確地計劃出故事的延伸范圍。 在做出有意義的選擇與保持項目的實際范圍之間始終要保持平衡。

SUPERJUMPDid you finish the entire story and then start with the development, or was it kind of a joint effort?

SUPERJUMP您是否完成了整個故事，然后從開發開始，還是某種共同的努力？

ARSALANFor this, the story definitely came after the general mechanics and idea for the game. As much as I like stories, I think for games, it’s a better idea to start with a good set of mechanics first. [This is] just my personal preference though.

阿爾薩蘭為此，故事絕對是一般力學和想法賽后傳來。 盡管我喜歡故事，但我認為對于游戲而言，最好先從一組良好的機制開始。 [這]不過是我個人的喜好。

給創作者的建議和首選平臺 (Advice for creators, and preferred platform)

SUPERJUMPDo you have any advice for someone starting out in development, or considering making a game by themselves like you have?

SUPERJUMP您是否對剛開始開發的人有任何建議，或者考慮像自己一樣自行制作游戲？

ARSALANI think you should definitely work on something that interests you. You don’t have to start with a 2D platformer as your first project if you’re not interested in them. That being said, maintaining scope is very important. For the first few projects I recommend doing basically short game demos that show off a few mechanics or game levels. That way you get used to the flow of making games before you start on an actual full project.

ARSALAN，我認為您絕對應該致力于自己感興趣的事情。 如果您對2D平臺開發人員不感興趣，則不必將其作為第一個項目。 話雖如此，保持范圍非常重要。 對于前幾個項目，我建議基本上做一些簡短的游戲演示，以演示一些技巧或游戲水平。 這樣，您就可以在開始實際的完整項目之前就習慣了制作游戲的流程。

SUPERJUMPHow long until the game comes out?

SUPERJUMP游戲要等多久才能發布？

ARSALANI’m predicting a year, but you can never predict what life will throw at you, so there’s definitely a possibility that it will take longer.

ARSALAN我要預測一年，但是您永遠無法預測會給您帶來什么樣的生活，因此肯定有可能需要更長的時間。

SUPERJUMPOk, last question. Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, or PC? If you HAD to play only one for the rest of time.

SUPERJUMP好，最后一個問題。 Xbox，PlayStation，Nintendo還是PC？ 如果您在余下的時間只玩一次。

ARSALANAs much as I love my Switch, I’m going to have to go for PC for sure.

ARSALAN盡管我非常喜歡Switch，但我肯定會不得不購買PC。

SUPERJUMPWell, thank you so much for giving me your time and answering these questions, Arsalan! I’m really excited to get a better peek at your game the closer it gets to release.

SUPERJUMP好，非常感謝您給我的時間來回答這些問題，Arsalan！ 我很高興能在發布時越近越好窺見您的游戲。

ARSALANIt was my pleasure! Thank you for taking the time to interview me Jared.

阿薩蘭這是我的榮幸！ 感謝您抽出寶貴時間采訪我賈里德。

Keep an eye out for Mistral Hearts, hopefully releasing sometime next year!

請密切注意《 迷霧之心》 ，希望明年發布！

Hello everyone! Thank you for reading! Arsalan is a really nice guy and he’s working really hard on this game, and I hope you continue to check it out! He’s currently setting up a website and I will add a link to it once it’s finished.

大家好！ 感謝您的閱讀！ Arsalan是一個非常好的人，他在這個游戲上一直在努力工作，我希望您繼續檢查一下！ 他目前正在建立一個網站，一旦完成，我會為其添加一個鏈接。

Jared McCarty

賈里德·麥卡蒂(Jared McCarty)