视讯游戏报告：守望先锋

守望先锋是一款暴雪娱乐于2016年推出的多人在线第一人称射击游戏。游戏内玩家被分为两队，每队六人，在十余张地图上扮演数十名英雄互相合作、对抗，并完成不同模式下的胜利目标。该游戏是暴雪娱乐近20年来的首个全新IP， 也是暴雪尝试的首款第一人称射击游戏。该游戏制作组来自于暴雪搁浅的次世代MMO项目”泰坦“，守望先锋在该项目遗留的Origin引擎上进行改进，并沿袭了泰坦项目的部分艺术风格及设计理念。

尽管暴雪拥有庞大的项目组和负责各方面事务的工作团队，但暴雪从第一代多人在线对抗游戏：魔兽争霸开始，就一直沿袭着从一而终的设计思想。从多达数百页的《暴雪的艺术》一书中，我们可以将暴雪的艺术核心归纳为五个方面：可读性，夸张的比例，有深度的故事，浸入感以及艺术性。

可读性意味着艺术作为游戏最直观的表达方式，需要将游戏的创意以最“可读”的方式展现出来，而表现的方式不仅包括人物的模型，更包括场景的设计，光影与色调，以及音乐音效。例如《星际争霸》中互相对立的种族：虫族与神族，就采用了截然不同的艺术风格。虫族的美术风格取材于节肢动物和人类头骨的X光片，并加入深海鱼类常见的倒刺与外骨骼以展现野性，贪婪和邪恶的种族特点；而神族则利用镭射，全息投影与折跃等视觉效果塑造出该种族的科技感，并利用反重力的移动方式，无嘴的面部与森严的阶层关系塑造出该种族冷漠而自负的性格。守望先锋中也是如此，世界观中反派角色均带有侵略性的面纹与纹身，并用较暗的色盘、尖刺与獠牙凸显他们的侵略性，而正面角色则拥有更柔和的外形轮廓和更明亮的色彩搭配。

暴雪的游戏中也同样大量利用了夸张的比例。男性角色充满张力的肌肉，兽人以反常角度突出的獠牙，未来人族不符合人体比例的装甲等等，这种夸张的比例可以很好的塑造出“英雄角色”的力量感与压迫感。守望先锋普遍将负责吸收伤害，站在团队前方的坦克角色设定的身躯庞大，武器笨拙且具有强大的杀伤力，例如三米长的战锤，一人高的激光炮以及令人生畏的屠钩。利用夸张的体型比例和装备元素，玩家可以很快的带入自己的角色，并理解在游戏中所扮演的位置。

而暴雪也有同样的艺术创作团队负责游戏的背景故事，像《魔兽世界》，《星际争霸》或是《暗黑破坏神》这样带领玩家遍历整条故事线的游戏需要一个庞大而健壮的故事背景，性格鲜明的人物，以及令玩家想要参与和改变的大量事件。而守望先锋作为强对抗性游戏，由于几乎没有机会将玩家带入剧情，则需要利用动画短片，漫画等游戏外的艺术作品，配合游戏内场景的细节表达整个团队想要讲述的故事。从游戏发布至今的九部剧情短片，均发生在游戏内现存地图的战斗区域内。而这些地图的胜利机制（例如护送物品，争夺控制权等）均和短片中发生的故事相契合。因此玩家在观看短片时会因熟悉短片内的场景而产生更强的代入感，反过来在游戏中也会因为剧情的感染而更投入的扮演英雄角色，并完成任务目标。

除去剧情本身，暴雪的艺术团队也通过游戏的音乐、光影效果以及图形界面为玩家提供沉浸式体验。从魔兽争霸系列到魔兽世界的八个资料片，魔兽世界作为一款具有魔法，巨龙及恶魔等元素的“低魔”游戏，其用户界面采用深灰底色，利用黄色与红色等亮色显示的文字与按钮，精美的浮雕作为窗口边界，并采用了非扁平化的UI设计。炉石传说作为一款以魔兽世界世界观为支撑的卡牌游戏，不仅继承了魔兽世界的艺术风格，也提取了现实生活中珠宝盒、音乐盒的设计元素，将游戏场景设计为一个装满卡牌的盒子，并加入钥匙、藤蔓等元素，利用反潮流的拟物化的UI将传统的2D桌面卡牌游戏赋予更立体，更具有浸入式体验的3D游戏环境。星际争霸则甚至三个种族设计了三种不同的用户界面。虫族的窗口边界由触须，利齿和半透明虫卵组成，神族利用亮金与半透明荧光蓝的材质模拟该种族高科技的操作面板，而人族则利用警戒线的黑黄配色，线条粗犷的传送带体现出未来人类高度机械化的特点。早年间画面略显粗糙的年代，绘制细腻而又不怎么消耗硬件渲染资源的拟物化UI能让游戏看起来显得制作更精良。而守望先锋作为一款16年推出的游戏，随着图形技术的日益迭代，采用扁平化、文字化的UI则会让用户识别信息的时间显著缩短，从设计学角度提高了用户的游戏体验。游戏用户界面的首要目标就是在与画面完全交融的前提下，能让专注于游戏本身的玩家能够不需要思考地进行游戏。而守望先锋显然做到了这一点：无论是技能、血量还是时间等UI元素都采用了扁平化、无边框的艺术效果，而在银白色粒子特效上方插入的浅灰色文字UI也使玩家只需极短的时间即可从UI界面获取有效信息，而更专注于于游戏本身。

而所谓的艺术性则体现在游戏的视觉效果上。相比于市面上绝大部分基于寒霜、虚幻等引擎开发的追求真实的游戏不同，暴雪的游戏在保留真实感的同时往往也会采用夸张与边缘模糊的手法，使游戏的场景及人物在足够真实的同时拥有一定的艺术色彩。从早年的星际争霸、魔兽世界中塑造的人类形象到守望先锋中各具特点的英雄，暴雪从未在塑造一个”真实而令人信服的“人类形象上花费太多精力。相对的，暴雪将更多的笔墨用于描绘人物的性格，特点，这一点在暴雪的类人角色上体现的尤其明显：暗黑破坏神系列的天使角色没有面部，魔兽世界中诸多的类人角色拥有完全不同于人类的面部形态，而星际争霸中的神族同样不具有完整的脸型。而暴雪通过为这些角色添加具有张力的服饰与装备，夸张而贴切的肢体语言，以及选取符合人物性格的配音演员来提升人物的真实感。在守望先锋中，初期的草稿会敲定人物的性格，并利用动画、音效和模型细节完善人物的性格。具有强大能力的英雄角色，例如救死扶伤的天使、久经沙场的老兵，以及充满荣誉感无惧冲锋陷阵的十字军战士，他们拥有自信的A型站姿、向后的肩膀、挺直的脖子及紧绷的肌肉，暴雪利用这些元素塑造出人物坚毅、无惧战斗而充满警惕的性格。相对的，像小美这种远离战场、亲切、活泼而缺乏自信的年轻女性角色，则具有内八字的站姿，跑动时前后摇晃的上肢，用来保持平衡而伸出的右手，以及充满歉意的语音。

毫无疑问，暴雪的每一款游戏都拥有着极有张力的美术效果、流畅的操作感、直观而优美的用户界面以及引人入胜的剧情。守望先锋之所以广受欢迎并不断被评为年度最佳游戏，不仅因为游戏本身具有优秀的游戏机制和高强度、舒适的游戏体验，同时也和游戏本身塑造出的庞大而具有浸入感的世界观密不可分。守望先锋不同于之前几款暴雪游戏塑造出的架空世界观，而是将游戏背景设定为未来的地球，一个饱受战火而仍充满希望的庞大世界，拥有取材于现实世界各地的美丽景色，不同肤色不同种族不同国籍的各路英雄，以及不同文化背景的人物故事。这些可以让人们把守望先锋的世界更好的和真实世界对应，增强了玩家自己就是英雄本身，在为了这个世界的未来而战的沉浸感。

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/25703934

https://towardsdatascience.com/the-math-behind-your-competitive-overwatch-match-a5184fc5a50f

https://daily.zhihu.com/story/9656679

Video Game Report: Overwatch

Overwatch is a multiplayer online first person shooting game launched by Blizzard Entertainment in 2016. In the game, players are divided into two teams, each team of six, acting as dozens of heroes on more than ten maps to cooperate or fight against each other, complete goals for victory in different modes. Overwatch is Blizzard Entertainment's first new IP in the past 20 years, as well as Blizzard's first first-person shooting game. The production team of Overwatch came from the next-generation MMO project "Titan", which was stranded by Blizzard. Overwatch is developed on the engine ‘Origin’ from Titan, and  it also referenced some artistic styles and design concepts of the Titan project.

Although Blizzard has several large project teams and also little groups responsible for all aspects of gaming development, every project has been following the original company thinking since the first generation of online games like Starcraft and Warcraft. From the hundreds of pages of "The Art of Blizzard", we can summarize Blizzard's core artistic idea into five aspects: readability, exaggerated proportions, deep stories, immersion and artistry.

Readability means that art is the most intuitive aspect to express the idea of the game designer. It needs to present the game's creativity and distinction in the most "readable" way, and the way of expression includes not only the character's model, but also the design of the scene, including lighting, tone, music and sound effects. For example, the opposite races in StarCraft: Zerg and Protoss adopt completely different artistic styles. The Zerg's art style is inspired from X-rays of arthropods and human skulls, and also adds barbed and exoskeleton of deep-sea fish to show their wildness, greed and evil ethnicity. On the other hand, Protoss uses lasers, holographic projections and ecstasy particle effects  to create the sense of highly developed civilization of the race. They also use the anti-gravity movement, the facial outlook without mouth to shape the indifferent and conceited character of the race. In Overwatch, The villains always have aggressive facial patterns and tattoos, and they always use darker color tone, spikes and fangs to highlight their aggressiveness, while the positive characters have a softer outline and brighter color combinations.

Blizzard's game also makes extensive use of exaggerated proportion. Male characters are full of tight muscles, orcs have abnormal teeth protruding from abnormal angles, Tyranid human races have body scale out of proportion, etc. This exaggerated proportion can shape the sense of power and oppression of "heroic characters." In Overwatch, tank characters who are responsible for absorbing damage, always stand in front of their teammates have a large body, fearful weapons with lethality, such as a three-meter war-hammer, a one-person-high laser cannon or a formidable slaughter. With exaggerated body proportions and equipment elements, players can be easily brought in their characters and understand which role they are acting in the game.

Blizzard also has the same artistic creation team responsible for the background story of every game. Games like World of Warcraft, StarCraft or Diablo that lead players through the entire storyline need a large and robust story background, characters with distinctive characters and a large number of events that players want to participate in and change the result. As a strong competitive game, Overwatch has a limited chance to bring players into the complete storyline, while animated short films, comics and other artworks outside the game as well as details in the game scene play important roles to express the story that the entire writer team wants to tell. Nine short films since the game's release in 2016 all happened in the battle zone of existing maps in the game. The victory mechanic of these maps (such as escorting payload, scrambling for control) are consistent with the stories that occur in the short films. Therefore, when watching short films of Overwatch, players will gain a stronger sense of substitution  with the familiarity with the scenes in the movie. In turn, they will also play  their heroic roles more committed when completing mission goals because of the infection of the story and films.

Therefore, Blizzard provides immersive experience for players not only through storytelling, but also through the music, lighting effects and graphical interface of the game. From the Warcraft series to the eight DLCs of World of Warcraft, the story happens in a background with elements including magic, dragons and demons. Therefore, its user interface has dark gray background and bright colors such as yellow and red in display of text and buttons in non-flat style. There's also beautiful reliefs as the boundaries of the window. As a card game supported by World of Warcraft, Hearthstone not only inherits the artistic style of World of Warcraft, but also extracts the design elements of real life jewelry boxes and music boxes, and designs the game scene as a chest with magic cards. The card's box, with the addition of keys, vines and other elements, uses the anti-trend quasi-materialized UI to give traditional 2D desktop card games a more stereoscopic, 3D gaming environment for more immersive experience. StarCraft has even designed three different user interface themes for three races. The Zerg's window boundary consists of tentacles, sharp teeth and mucus, while the Protoss uses bright gold and translucent fluorescent blue materials to simulate the high-tech operation panel of space shuttles, and the Terran uses black and yellow color of cordon and iron conveyer belts to display characteristic of high mechanization in the future. In the early years when the graphics rendering capability was slightly rough, the quasi-materialized delicate UI does not consume so much hardware rendering resources and can make the game look more exquisite at the same time. As a brand new game published in 2016, Overwatch borns in the age with increasd iteration of graphics technology, therefore flat UI will significantly shorten the time for users to identify information, and improve the user's gaming experience from design perspective. The primary goal of the game user interface is to allow players who focus on the game itself to gain information from UI canvas without thinking. Overwatch obviously did this: UI elements such as cooldown, health bar and timers all used flat, borderless art style, and the insertion of light gray text UI in high contrast also made players only need extremely short time to get valid information from UI canvas and focus more on the game itself.

The so-called artistry is reflected in the visual effects of the game. Compared with the vast majority of games developed in engines like Frostbite and Unreal pursuing reality, Blizzard games often use exaggerated proportions and fuzzy edges while preserving the realism, so that scenes and characters are realistic enough and have a certain artistic color at the same time. From  characters in the early years games like StarCraft and World of Warcraft to the heroes of Overwatch, Blizzard has never spent too much time in shaping a "real and convincing" human image. In contrast, Blizzard concentrates more in describing the characteristics of specific characters. For example, Angels in Diablo series has no face, many humanoid characters in World of Warcraft have facial structure that is completely different from humans, and Protoss in StarCraft does not have a complete face either. Blizzard enhances the realism of the characters by adding memorable clothing and equipment, exaggerated but appropriate body language, and voice actors to these characters to display their characteristics. In Overwatch, the initial draft will settle the hero's portrait, and art groups will add animation, sound effects and model details to polish the hero. For example, heroic characters with powerful abilities, such as mercy who saved uncountable lives, the veterans who have experienced wars for decades, and the crusaders full of honor and fearless, they all have a confident A-type standing, backward shoulders, straight neck and tight muscles. Blizzard uses these elements to create a character with a strong, fearless and wary character. In contrast, a young female scientist character Mei who is far away from the battlefield, kind, lively and lacking self-confidence, has a staggered position and several apologetic voicelines, her upper limb swings back and forth while running, and her right hand stretch out to maintain balance. 

There is no doubt that every Blizzard game has very strong artistic effects, smooth operation system, intuitive and beautiful user interface and a fascinating storyline. The reason why Overwatch is much more popular than expected and is continually ranked as the best game of the year, is not only the excellent game mechanics and high-intensity gaming flow, but also the huge,attracting and immersive world view. Different from the aerial world created by previous Blizzard games. Overwatch sets the game background as the future earth itself, a world full of war but still hopeful, with beautiful scenery from different countries around the world, heroes of different races, characteristics and nationalities, as well as stories of people from different cultural backgrounds. These can make players match the world of Overwatch with the real world better, and enhance the immersion when players acting as heroes themselves and fight for the future of this world.