研发日记 《星球大战OL》剧作家美术流程大揭秘

《星球大战：旧共和国》(Star Wars™: The Old Republic™)的剧本编写已经完成。最后一句台词也已经被记录在案并翻译成多种语言。接下来只剩下修改与润色工作。但是，在BioWare公司里，作家的工作并不仅仅是撰写文本。我叫Ian Ryan，是《旧共和国》中的剧本作家之一。接下来，我将向大家介绍BioWare公司的作家们在剧本完成之后很长一段时间内不断改进剧情表现方法的多种方式。
《旧共和国》中有不下17颗行星。每颗行星都由丰富的剧情确定了基本概念。随后，天才的设计师们据此创建了游戏世界。然后，美工团队倾注心血，为这些世界赋予了生命。然而，随着游戏中最后一批部件的安置到位，某些区域却无法完美表现出将要发生的剧情：有些地方本该是饱经战争摧残，却表现得一片祥和;另外一些区域明明是住宅区，却没有邻里之间的亲切感……
作为剧本作者，我们熟悉剧情以及它将呈现出的世界。以这些知识为基础，我们开始根据剧情，为每颗行星的艺术风貌提供反馈。当其他小组继续为了完成《旧共和国》而不懈努力之时，剧本作家们已经开始登录游戏，进行试玩。这虽然是一项艰巨的任务，但总需要有人去完成。我们审视游戏中的艺术风格，留下注解并提出能够突显某个区域中的游戏氛围、系统功能与剧情内容的建议，例如：如果在一片战火肆虐的战场上出现了一座小酒馆(目前我们还没真正发现这种情况……)，剧作家们就要确保这种错误得到了修正。
为了具体说明我们的美术审查过程，我们需要前往行星Nar Shaddaa。银河中没有第二个地方能如此显著地表现出现代、魔幻与犯罪风格。通常，某个街角就同时具备以上三种特性。作家们在为这个世界撰写剧情时获得了巨大的乐趣。在那里，金钱与权力互相利用，它们还与银河中的罪犯们进行交易，钻法律的空子。但是，当剧本完成之后，我们回到了Nar Shaddaa 行星上那些纷繁复杂的街巷中，开始了美术风格的审查工作。
如果Nar Shaddaa是赫特(Hutt)版的70年代拉斯维加斯，那Promenade娱乐区就相当于奢华至极的Vegas Strip酒店。第一版的Promenade 虽然已经让人印象深刻，但是气势不够，无法展现出赫特族那令人炫目的奢华品味，在那里发生随机派对的几率更是接近于零。以下就是旧版的Nar Shaddaa行星中Promenade娱乐区的概念图：

旧版Promenade娱乐区的概念图
发现了这个问题之后，作家团队要求美工们将Promenade区的炫丽与奇幻指数提升100个等级。首席概念美工Arnie Jorgensen爽快地接受了这一挑战。而以下截图就是修改后的结果：

修改后的Promenade娱乐区的概念图
现在才比较像样嘛!光柱来回摆动，昂贵的古董排列成行。你没看错，画面中就是一座镀金的赫特雕像，正矗立于淫邪的狂欢派对的中央。仔细观察后你还会发现，画面中处处点缀着闪闪发光的宝石。这才像是适合会见朋友并计划下一步冒险方案的地方。
回复该发言

多亏了作家们的注解与天才的美工团队，玩家才能在访问Nar Shaddaa时赞叹新Promenade 区域那厚颜无耻的奢华无度。这个层面上的转变使得游戏世界栩栩如生，也为那些耗费巨额财富并在镀金的赫特像的阴影中进行交易的人们提供了一个极为相衬的家园。
为了说明另一个作家审核美工的例子，我们将前往无暇的科瑞利安大都会——首都宝冠城(Coronet City)。如果Nar Shaddaa 只能算是华而不实，那宝冠城绝对是显赫的象征。
当共和国玩家首次到达科瑞利亚(Corellia)行星时，他们将沉醉于各种银河飞船建造厂中。因为达科瑞利亚是银河中最大的飞船制造厂的所在之地。作家团队原本打算将这个区域作为需要建造大型飞船舰队的大规模行动的舞台。不幸的是，由于作家们没有明确指出将在此处建造飞船。于是，该区域被设计成了办公楼林立的市中心。

飞船制造厂
幸运的是，银河飞船建造厂得到了彻底的改建。按照剧作家美术审核的要求，Ryan Dening创作了一张巨幅概念图。后来，游戏世界美工小组以此为基础，完美呈现出剧本中的效果。通过下图玩家们可以看出标准的城市街区是如何转变为大型飞船建造厂的。而共和国中一艘艘光辉灿烂的大型飞船也将在这里诞生。

飞船制造厂
那么，剧作家在剧本完成后究竟做了哪些工作?我们试玩并修缮了游戏世界，尽力推敲每个细节并通过这些审查，使游戏世界能更好地衬托出剧情。而这是在撰写附加内容、创建并丰富了成千上万名《旧共和国》中的游戏人物之后对游戏未来的首次展望。
不过，在BioWare公司中，每位设计师都是一位作家。而剧作家只是用文字进行自己的工作。但是，我们的工作却不仅如此。我们了解游戏中的宇宙，熟悉剧情。而我们会用这些知识帮助其他团队将上百万个不同的部件整合成一个统一的世界。在《星球大战：旧共和国》那浩瀚且富饶的银河中，这项工作虽然艰巨，却同样回报颇丰。
文/Ian Ryan 译/81813
原稿如下：
The Post-Writing Polish Process
Writing is complete on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. The last lines of dialogue are off for recording and translation; only pickups and polish remain. But at BioWare, a writer’s job doesn’t stop at the written word. I’m Ian Ryan, a Writer on The Old Republic, and I’m going to show you some of the many ways a BioWare writer continues to shape our game’s stories long after the writing is finished.
回复该发言

There are no less than seventeen planets in The Old Republic. Each one was conceptualized with a rich story, built by our talented world designers then lovingly brought to life by our art team. However as the game’s final pieces fall into place, some areas don’t perfectly reflect the stories that take place within them: a field is peaceful when it should be battle-scarred, or a residential district lacks the feel of a neighborhood.
As writers, we know the stories and the worlds they play out in. Armed with that knowledge, we set out to provide feedback on each planet’s art as it relates to story. While other teams continue working hard to finish The Old Republic, the writers log in to play the game. A tough life, but someone has to do it. We begin our art passes, giving notes and suggestions to highlight the mood, function and story content of particular areas. For instance, if a luxurious cantina was built in the middle of a devastated warzone (not that we’ve seen that so far...) the writers would ensure that got changed.
For a glitzy example of one of our art passes, let’s go to Nar Shaddaa. Nowhere else in the galaxy is flash, glam and crime so prominently displayed - and often on the same street corner. The writing team had great fun in building stories for a world where the rich and privileged rub shoulders and strike deals with the galaxy’s criminal underbelly.
回复该发言

But when the writing was over, we returned to the lavishly seedy streets of Nar Shaddaa to complete our art passes.
If Nar Shaddaa is the Hutt version of 1970s Las Vegas, the Promenade represents the grand extravagance of the Vegas Strip. The first incarnation of the Promenade was impressive but subtle, a far cry from the glitzy and exorbitant tastes of the Hutts. The risk of a spontaneous party breaking out was slim to none. Here’s an image of the ‘old’ Nar Shaddaa Promenade:
After reviewing this, the writing team asked the artists to kick up the Promenade’s glitz and glam levels a few hundred notches. Lead Concept Artist Arnie Jorgensen responded to the challenge and the result speaks for itself:
Now that’s more like it! Lights pulse at every turn, expensive boutiques line the walls and yes - that’s a golden statue of a Hutt taking center stage amidst the debauched revelry. Look closely and you may find even more gems. Now it looks like the kind of place you’d go to meet friends and plan your next adventure.
Thanks to the writer’s notes and our talented art teams, you will be able to marvel at this new Promenade in all its brazen brilliance when you visit Nar Shaddaa. Transformations of this level bring the world to life and provide a worthy home for those who spend fortunes and do business in the shadow of that gilded Hutt.
回复该发言

For another example of a writer’s art pass, we’ll go to the polished streets of Coronet City: the Corellian metropolis that is as glorious as Nar Shaddaa is gaudy.
When Republic players first arrive on Corellia, they emerge into the Blastfield Shipyards. Corellia is home to the galaxy’s largest ship builders, and this area was originally envisioned by the writing team to fully display the large-scale operation required to build a fleet of capital ships. Unfortunately because we never explicitly said ships were constructed here, the area was originally built to resemble a downtown block of office buildings.
Luckily the Blastfield Shipyards received a full renovation. Acting on the writer’s art pass, Ryan Dening created a great piece of concept art that was then perfectly realized by the world art team. See the below images for a look at how the Blastfield Shipyards transform from a standard city block to a massive construction site where the Republic’s glorious capital ships are born.
So, what do writers do when the writing is finished? We play and scour the game, polishing everything we can and then compiling these art passes to help the game world reflect the stories. That’s on top of writing additional content, creating and dressing the thousands upon thousands of characters living in The Old Republic and looking, for the first time, to the future.
回复该发言

But at BioWare, every designer is a storyteller. Writers begin the process with words, only our jobs don’t stop there. We know the universe, we know the stories and with that knowledge we help the rest of the team create a cohesive whole out of millions of different parts. In a galaxy as rich and massive as the one in Star Wars: The Old Republic, that task is as colossal as it is rewarding.
Ian Ryan
Writer
回复该发言