我如何利用开源设计自己的卡牌游戏
开源 游戏

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> 开源并不仅仅指的是软件。开源是一种文化现象，自然也适合桌面游戏。
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![](/data/attachment/album/202205/06/094320k8uug3i84pg8u0w2.jpg "Deck of playing cards")


我喜欢优秀的游戏，尤其是桌游，因为桌游的很多特性都和开源相同。在现实生活中，当你和朋友围坐在桌旁一起玩卡牌游戏时，作为一个团队，你们可以一起决定小丑牌是不是万能的。还有，你们可以随意地决定当出了小丑牌后，手上有 Ace 牌的人的要不要舍弃 Ace 牌，或者出了方块皇后以后，每个人是不是都要把手上的牌传给右手边的人。换句话说，你们可以随心所欲地重新制定规则，因为游戏不过是参与者们一致认同的条件集合罢了。对我来说，更棒的是你可以发明自己的游戏，而不用破坏别人的游戏规则。有时候，我会作为一个业余爱好者来开发桌游。因为我喜欢把自己的爱好结合起来，所以我倾向于只使用开源和开放的文化资源来设计游戏。


首先，游戏有大致有两个关键特征，风格和机制，理解这一点非常重要。游戏风格指的是游戏的故事或者主题，游戏机制指的是游戏的规则和条件。这两者并不总是完全脱离的，举个例子，在设计一款以赛车为主题的游戏时，自然而然就会要求玩家迅速完成动作。然而，风格和机制通常是被分开对待的，所以我们完全可以为了好玩就去创造一款使用标准扑克牌，却以太空羊驼为主题的游戏。


### 开源美术


如果你去过现代艺术博物馆，你可能会发现自己站在一幅纯蓝色的画布前，无意中听到有人说起老话:“见鬼，这我也能做！”。但事实是，艺术是一项艰巨的工作。创作赏心悦目的艺术品需要付出大量的思考、时间、信心和技巧。这也意味着艺术是你在设计游戏时中最难采购的部分之一。


我有一些“技巧”来解决这个典型难题。


#### 1、寻找同类素材


现在有很多免费、开放的艺术作品，而且大部分质量上佳。问题在于，游戏通常需要不止一件作品。如果你正在设计一款纸牌游戏，你大概至少需要四到六个不同的元素（假设你的纸牌遵循塔罗牌风格），有可能还需要更多。如果你花足够多的时间在这上面，你可以在 [OpenGameArt.org](https://opensource.com/article/21/12/opengameart.org/)、[FreeSVG.org](http://freesvg.org)、[ArtStation.com](http://artstation.com)、[DeviantArt.com](http://deviantart.com) 等网站上找到<ruby> <a href="https://opensource.com/article/20/1/what-creative-commons">  知识共享和公共领域 </a> <rt>  Creative Commons and Public Domain </rt></ruby>的艺术作品。


如果你使用的网站没有专门搜索<ruby> 知识共享 <rt>  Creative Commons </rt></ruby>的功能，输入以下文字到任何搜索引擎当中，`"This work is licensed under a Creative Commons"` 或 `"本工作处于知识共享许可协议之下"`（引号很重要，不要把它们漏了），并用搜索引擎要求的语法，以便将搜索限制到一个具体的站点当中（举个例子，`site:deviantart.com`）。


一旦你有了一个可供挑选素材的艺术库，那就去辨别这些作品的主题，并根据主题分类。两个不同的人拍摄的机器人的照片可能看起来一点都不像，但它们的主题都是机器人。如果提供给你足够多机器人相关的美术素材，你可以围绕机器人这个主题构建你的游戏风格。


#### 2、委托创作知识共享艺术


你可以雇艺术家来为你定制艺术作品。我与使用开源绘画程序（如 [Krita](https://opensource.com/article/21/12/krita-digital-paint) 和 Mypaint）的艺术家一起合作。同时，作为合同的一部分，我规定艺术作品必须在<ruby> 知识共享署名-相同方式许可证 <rt>  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike </rt></ruby>（CC BY-SA）下授权。迄今为止，只有一位艺术家因为许可证的限制拒绝了我的提议，并且大多数人都很高兴自己的美术作品有可能有更大的生命力，而不仅仅是作为业余爱好者自己发行的游戏的一部分。


#### 3、创作自己的艺术


就像现代艺术馆之旅展示的那样，艺术是一个非常灵活的词。我发现只要我给自己设定一个目标，也就是我需要为一款游戏创造多少纸牌或令牌，我便能够从 Linux 上的丰富图像创造工具中选择一种去创作。这并不需要什么高难度的东西。就像现代艺术一样，你可以用蓝色和黄色的条纹，或者红色和白色的圆点花纹，或者绿色和紫色的锯齿线来涂一张卡片，只要你能把它们画出来，那么除了你以外，其他人永远不会知道你暗地里把它们当做仙宫里的贵族和小姐。想想看，通过运用图形应用程序，描摹日常物品的照片，重组经典的扑克花色和塔罗牌主题等一系列方式，你可以创造出的简单作品吧。


### 版面设计


我用 [Inkscape](https://opensource.com/article/21/12/linux-draw-inkscape)、Scribus 或者 [GIMP](https://opensource.com/content/cheat-sheet-gimp) 来进行版面设计，这取决与我有什么素材以及我追求的设计方式是什么。


对于卡牌，我发现简单的版面设计很容易实现，看上去也更好，纯色比渐变色更容易印刷，还有，直观的图像是最棒的。


![layout in Inkscape](/data/attachment/album/202205/06/094324rsy65cw3nb8c5wby.jpg "Layout in Inkscape")


（Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0）


我在一个单独的 Inkscape 文件中为我最新的游戏做了版面设计，这个游戏只使用了来自 [OpenGameArt.com](http://OpenGameArt.com) 上三四个不同艺术家的九张图片。在有着更大的美工集，更好的卡牌多样性的游戏中，我会在游戏中的每一种卡片的文件中为它们设计版面。


在为你的游戏素材做任何版面设计之前，要先了解你的目标输出是什么。如果你打算在家里打印游戏，那就做一些计算，搞清楚默认的纸张大小（有些是 US Letter，或者是 A4）可以容纳多少卡牌、令牌或卡片。如果你使用 [TheGameCrafter](https://www.thegamecrafter.com/) 之类的桌游打印机打印，请下载好模板文件。


![printed cards](/data/attachment/album/202205/06/094324vpv999hj0994twdu.jpg "Printed cards")


（Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0）


### 游戏机制


游戏机制是游戏中最重要的部分。它们使一款游戏成为游戏。开发游戏规则并不一定是一个正式的过程。你可以一时兴起地创造了一款游戏，可以拿一个现有的游戏重组它的规则，直到它和原来不同，可以修改一款你不喜欢的游戏，也可以将两款不同的游戏组合在一起。从简单容易的地方做起，拿索引卡，标准扑克牌，或塔罗牌去试着模拟你的想象中游戏是如何工作的。你可以自己尝试早期的游戏创意，但最终，让朋友来帮忙是找出意外故障和进行优化的好方法。


经常测试游戏。与不同类型的玩家一起玩游戏，并听取他们的反馈。你的游戏可能会激发许多玩家去创造新的规则和想法，因此要将关于 *哪些搞砸了* 的反馈与关于 *哪些可以做修改* 的反馈分开。你不一定要去真的实施这些反馈意见，只需迭代你的想法，但还是要仔细考虑错误报告。


一旦确定了你想要让你的规则如何运作，就把它们写下来，让它们 [简短且容易解析](https://opensource.com/life/16/11/software-documentation-tabletop-gaming)。你定的规则不必说服玩家去玩这款游戏，不必向他们解释策略，你也不必允许玩家重新设置规则，只要告诉玩家为了让游戏玩起来，他们应该采取的步骤就可以了。


最重要的是，考虑一下，将你的规则开源。分享经验是游戏的一切，这其中也应该包括规则。知识共享或<ruby> 开放游戏许可证 <rt>  Open Gaming License </rt></ruby>的规则集合允许其他玩家在你的作品上进行迭代、混合和构建。你永远不会知道，有人可能会因此想出一个你更喜欢的游戏变体！


### 开源游戏


开源不仅仅指的是软件。开源是一种文化现象，自然也适合桌面游戏。花几个晚上的时间来尝试制作游戏。如果你是新手，那就从一些简单的开始，比如下面的这个空白卡牌游戏：


1. 找来一些朋友。
2. 给每个人几张空白的索引卡，告诉他们在每张卡片上写一条规则。规则可以是任何东西（“如果你穿着红色衣服，你就赢了”或“第一个站起来的人赢”等等）。
3. 在你自己的索引卡片上，写上 “和”、“但是”、“但是不要”、“而且不要”、“除了”，以及其他的条件短语。
4. 洗牌并将牌发给所有玩家。
5. 每个玩家轮到的时候出一张牌。
6. 最终目标是获胜，但是玩家可以通过出 “和”、“但是”、“或者” 卡片来修改决定胜负的条件。


这是一个有趣的聚会游戏，同时是一份很好的介绍，告诉你如何像游戏设计者一样思考，它帮助你认识到什么适合作为游戏机制，什么不适合。


还有，当然的，这是开源的。


（题图片由 [MorningbirdPhoto](https://pixabay.com/zh/users/morningbirdphoto-129488/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=529586) 在 [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/zh/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=529586) 上发布 ）




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via: <https://opensource.com/article/21/12/open-source-card-game>


作者：[Seth Kenlon](https://opensource.com/users/seth) 选题：[lujun9972](https://github.com/lujun9972) 译者：[hadisi1993](https://github.com/hadisi1993) 校对：[wxy](https://github.com/wxy)


本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出


OK
I love a good game, and I particularly enjoy tabletop games because they have many of the same traits that open source has. When you're playing a card game in real life with friends sitting around a table, you can as a group decide that Jokers are wild. Alternately, you could arbitrarily decide that should a Joker come into play, anyone holding an Ace must discard that Ace. Or when a Queen of Diamonds comes into play, everyone must pass their hand to the player on their right. In other words, you can reprogram the rules on a whim because a game is nothing but a mutually agreed-upon set of conditions. To me, what's even better is that you can invent your own games instead of hacking the rules of somebody else's game. From time to time, I do this as a hobbyist, and because I like to combine my hobbies, I tend to design games with only open source and open culture resources.

First of all, it's important to understand that there are, broadly, two facets of a game: *flavor* and *mechanics*. The flavor is the story and theme of the game. The mechanics of a game are the rules and the condition of play. The two aren't always completely separate from one another, and there's an elegance to designing a game themed around race cars, for instance, with rules that demand players to perform actions very quickly. However, the flavor and mechanics are just as often treated separately, and it's entirely reasonable to invent a game that *could* be played with a standard deck of poker cards, but that's themed around space llamas, just for the fun of it.

## Open source artwork


If you've ever gone to a museum of modern art, you've probably found yourself standing in front of a canvas painted solid blue and overheard somebody utter this time-honored phrase: "Heck, I could make that!" But the truth is, artwork is hard work. Making art that's pleasing to the eye takes a lot of thought, time, confidence, and skill, so it makes sense that the art is one of the most difficult things to procure for a game you're designing.

I have a few "hacks" on dealing with this classic snag.

### 1. Find common ground

There's free and open art out there, and a lot of it is very good. The problem is that games usually need more than one art piece. If you're designing a card game, you probably need at least four or six distinct elements (assuming your cards follow the foundations laid out by the Tarot deck) and possibly more. If you spend enough time on it, you can find [Creative Commons and Public Domain](https://opensource.com/article/20/1/what-creative-commons) artwork online on sites like [OpenGameArt.org](https://opensource.com/opengameart.org/), [FreeSVG.org](http://freesvg.org), [ArtStation.com](http://artstation.com), [DeviantArt.com](http://deviantart.com), and many others.

If the site you're using doesn't have a Creative Commons search, enter the following words into any search engine, "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons" (the quotes are important, so don't leave those off) and whatever syntax your favorite search engine uses to limit the search to just one site (for example, **site:deviantart.com**).

Once you have a pool of art to choose from, sort the art that you've found by identifying common themes in the artwork. Two pictures of robots by two different people might look nothing alike, but they're still both robots. Provided you have enough robot-themed art, you can structure the flavor of your game around robots.

### 2. Commission Creative Commons art

You can hire artists to make custom art for you. I work with artists who use open source paint programs like [Krita](https://opensource.com/article/21/12/krita-digital-paint) and Mypaint, and as part of the contract, I specify that the art must be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike (CC BY-SA) license. I've only ever had one artist decline the offer because of the license restriction, and most are happy for their artwork to have a potentially larger life than just as part of a hobbyist's self-published game.

### 3. Make your own

As a trip to the museum of modern art reveals, art is a very flexible term. I've found that as long as I give myself a goal of how many cards or tokens for a game I need to create, I can usually produce something with one of the many graphical creative tools available on Linux. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just like modern art, you can paint a card with blue and yellow stripes, another with red and white polka-dots, another with green and purple zig-zags, and nobody but you will ever know that you secretly meant for them to be the lords and ladies of the fairy court, except that you don't know how to draw those. Think about all the simple things you can create in a graphics application, or by tracing photographs of everyday objects, or by remixing classic Poker suits, or Tarot themes, and so on.

## Layout

I use [Inkscape](https://opensource.com/article/21/12/linux-draw-inkscape), Scribus, or [GIMP](https://opensource.com/content/cheat-sheet-gimp) for layout, depending on what my assets are and what manner of design I'm after.

For cards, I find that a simple layout is easy to do and look at, solid colors tend to print better than gradients, and intuitive iconography is best.

![Layout in Inkscape layout in Inkscape](https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/inkscape-layout.jpg)

(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

I did the layout in a single Inkscape file for my latest game, which uses just nine images from three or four different artists on OpenGameArt.com. I design the layout of each card in its own file for games with a more extensive set of art and card variety.

Know your target output before you do any layout for your game assets. If you're going to print your game at home, then do the math and figure out how many cards or tokens or tiles you can fit on your default paper size (US Letter for some, A4 for everybody else). If you're printing with a game printer like [TheGameCrafter](https://www.thegamecrafter.com/), download the template files.

![Printed cards printed cards](https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/cards-printed_0.jpg)

(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

## Mechanics

Game mechanics are the most important part of a game. They're what makes the game a game. Developing rules for a game doesn't have to be a formal process. You can come up with a game on a whim, or take a game that exists and remix its rules until it's something different, fix a game that just doesn't work for you, or mash two different games together. Start simple, using index cards, standard playing cards, or a Tarot deck to mock up how you think your game will work. You can play early game ideas by yourself, but eventually, getting a friend to help is a great way to introduce surprise glitches and optimizations.

Playtest often. Play your game with a diverse set of players, and listen to their feedback. Your game might inspire many players to invent new rules and ideas, so separate feedback about what's *broken* from feedback about what *could be different*. You don't have to implement feedback that just iterates your idea, but give careful thoughts to the bug reports.

Once you've decided how you want your rules to work, write them down to make them [short and easy to parse](https://opensource.com/life/16/11/software-documentation-tabletop-gaming). Your rules don't have to convince players to play the game, you don't have to explain the strategy to them, nor do you need to give permission to players to remix the rules. Just tell the players the sequence of steps they need to take in order to make the game work.

Most importantly, consider making your rules open source. Gaming is all about shared experiences, and that ought to include the rules. A Creative Commons or Open Game License ruleset allows other gamers to iterate, remix, and build upon your work. You never know, somebody might come up with a variant that you enjoy more than your own!

## Open source gaming

Open source isn't just about software. It's a cultural phenomenon, a natural fit for tabletop games. Take a few evenings to experiment with creating a game. If you're new to it, start with something simple, like this blank card activity:

- Gather up some friends.
- Give each person a few blank index cards, and tell them to write a rule on each card. The rule can be anything ("If you're wearing something red, you win" or "The first person to stand up wins," and so on.)
- On your own index cards, write
*and*,*but*,*or*,*but not*,*and not*,*except*, and other conditional phrases. - Shuffle your deck and deal the cards to all players.
- Each player may play one card per turn.
- The goal is to win, but players may play the
*and*,*but*, and*or*cards to modify the conditions of what determines the winner.

It's a fun party game and a nice introduction to thinking like a game designer because it helps you recognize what tends to work as a game mechanic and what doesn't.

And, of course, it's open source.

## Comments are closed.