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過去20年來我一直在設計解謎遊戲。今天我將帶領你們做一趟小小的導覽,從我所設計的第一個解謎遊戲開始,一直到我目前的設計。我為一些書籍等刊物設計解謎遊戲,我是《發現》雜誌的解謎遊戲專欄作家,這份工作已經做了大約10年。我設計過解謎月曆,也做了一些玩具。我做的大多是電腦遊戲方面,也設計過「寶石方塊」遊戲(掌聲)。「寶石方塊」遊戲並不是我發明的,我可不能搶這功勞。
我設計第一個解謎遊戲(1.折疊字母-我設計的第一個謎題),是我六年級時。我的老師說:「哦,看這傢伙,他喜歡搞東搞西;我要讓他用色紙剪些字母,來裝飾佈告欄」,我認為這是個很棒的任務,這就是我所想出的。我開始把它搞搞弄弄,我想出了這個字母。這是字母表中只折疊過一次的字母,問題是:如果我把它展開,會是那個字母呢?給你一個提示:不是「L」(笑聲)。當然,它可以是一個「L」,還可能是其他什麼字母?很好,大部分人都解出來了。是的,很聰明的玩意兒。
這是我第一個解謎遊戲,從此我就無法自拔了。我創造了一些新東西,感到非常興奮。你知道,我做了些填字遊戲,但這有點像填別人設計的矩陣一樣;這個原創性十足,讓我無法自拔。我讀了《科學美國人》中的Martin Gardner專欄,接著,我最後決定全心全意來做這方面的工作。
現在暫停一下,來談談我所說的解謎遊戲是指什麼?解謎遊戲是指解起來很有趣的問題,並有一個正確解答。 「解起來有趣」這一點,不同於日常生活中所遇到的問題。坦白說,那些都不是設計得很好的謎題。你知道,它們可能有解答,或許要花很長時間,沒有明確的遊戲規則,是誰設計的?就好比,你知道生命可不是照著寫好的劇本走,所以我們才需要作家來寫電影故事。
我處於日常生活的瑣碎問題中,所以設計解謎遊戲來逃脫。「正確答案」,當然,可能不只一個正確答案,很多謎題不只一個答案。但不同於某些其他遊戲形式,像是玩具和競賽;我指的玩具是,你所玩的是沒有任何特定任務目標的東西;你可以用樂高積木做個東西,你可以做任何你想要的東西或競賽遊戲,像是下棋。你並不是試著解出答案,你可以設計一個棋類的謎題,但真正目的還是在於贏過別人。
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以下為系統擷取之英文原文
For the last 20 years I've been designing puzzles. And I'm here today to give you a little tour, starting from the very first puzzle I designed, through what I'm doing now. I've designed puzzles for books, printed things. I'm the puzzle columnist for Discover Magazine. I've been doing that for about 10 years. I have a monthly puzzle calendar. I do toys. The bulk of my work is in computer games. I did puzzles for Bejeweled. (Applause) I didn't invent Bejeweled. I can't take credit for that.
So, very first puzzle, sixth grade, my teacher said, "Oh, let's see, that guy, he likes to make stuff. I'll have him cut out letters out of construction paper for the board." I thought this was a great assignment. And so here is what I came up with. I start fiddling with it. I came up with this letter. This is a letter of the alphabet that's been folded just once. The question is, which letter is it if I unfold it? One hint: It's not "L." (Laughter) It could be an "L" of course. So, what else could it be? Yeah, a lot of you got it. Oh yeah. So, clever thing.
Now, that was my first puzzle. I got hooked. I created something new, I was very excited because, you know, I'd made crossword puzzles, but that's sort of like filling in somebody else's matrix. This was something really original. I got hooked. I read Martin Gardner's columns in Scientific American. Went on, and eventually decided to devote myself, full time, to that.
Now, I should pause and say, what do I mean by puzzle? A puzzle is a problem that is fun to solve and has a right answer. "Fun to solve," as opposed to everyday problems, which, frankly, are not very well-designed puzzles. You know, they might have a solution. It might take a long time. Nobody wrote down the rules clearly. Who designed this? It's like, you know, life is not a very well written story so we have to hire writers to make movies.
Well, I take everyday problems, and I make puzzles out of them. And "right answer," of course there might be more than one right answer; many puzzles have more than one. But as opposed to a couple other forms of play, toys and games, by toy I mean, something you play with that doesn't have a particular goal. You can create one out of Legos. You know, you can do anything you want. Or competitive games like chess where, well, you're not trying to solve ... You can make a chess puzzle, but the goal really is to beat another player.
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我認為謎題是一種藝術形式,它們是非常古老的,可以追溯到開始有文字歷史紀錄的時候。它是很小形式的紀錄,像是笑話、詩、魔術、或一首歌那樣,非常袖珍的形式。最糟的情況,就是像廣告傳單那樣,只被當做一種消遣;最好的情況,就是能造成更大影響,創造一個難忘的印象。在我職業生涯過程中,總是期盼能創造出令人難忘的解謎遊戲。
在我開始設計電腦遊戲初期,發現我能夠創造出一個改變你看法的解謎遊戲(2.圖與背景謎題-改變你看法的謎題),我會讓你們看一些例子。這個很出名,這可說是兩個黑色側影,也可說是中間有個白色花瓶;這叫做「圖形-背景錯視圖」,是藝術家 M.C. Escher 開創的圖形,出現在他一些很棒的出版品中。這是他的作品「日與夜」。這是我做的「圖形-背景錯視圖」。這是以黑色作為「圖形」,這是以白色作為「圖形」,這都是同一張設計圖的一部分,黑白圖形互為彼此的背景。我本想試著用「figure」和「ground」這兩個字來做做看,但我知道自己做不出來,所以我將問題做了個改變:全都用「圖形」來做(笑聲)。
這是一些其他作品;這是我的名字,翻轉後可以變成我第一本書的書名《Inversions》。這種形式的設計現在被稱為「雙向圖」,我再給你們看一些其他的。這是1到10的數目,事實上是由0到9的數字組成,這裡每個字母都是0到9的數字其中之一;嚴格說並不是傳統意義上的「雙向圖」。我再多解釋一下「雙向圖」是指什麼。
這是「mirror」這個字。不,上下顛倒過來不是同一個字,它要這樣翻轉才會相同。一位來自媒體實驗室挺了不起的傢伙,剛接任羅德島設計學院校長的John Maeda,所以我為他做了這個,這算是種視覺經典設計吧 (笑聲)。最近在《魔術》雜誌中,我用魔術師的名字做了些雙向圖。這是「Penn and Teller」,上下顛倒過來後還是一樣,這在我的解謎月曆中也有出現。Okay,再回來看幻燈片(掌聲)。謝謝。
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I consider that puzzles are an art form. They're very ancient. It goes back as long as there is written history. It's a very small form, like a joke, a poem, a magic trick or a song, very compact form. At worst, they're throwaways, they're for amusement. But at best they can reach for something more and create a memorable impression. The progression of my career that you'll see is looking for creating puzzles that have a memorable impact.
So, one thing I found early on, when I started doing computer games is that I could create puzzles that will alter your perception. I'll show you how. Here is a famous one. So, it's two profiles in black, or a white vase in the middle. This is called a figure-ground illusion. The artist M.C. Escher exploited that in some of his wonderful prints. Here we have Day and Night. Here is what I did with figure and ground. So, here we have "figure" in black. Here we have "figure" in white. And it's all part of the same design. The background to one is the other. Originally I tried to do the words "figure" and "ground." But I couldn't do that, I realized. I changed the problem. It's all "figure." (Laughter)
A few other things. Here is my name. And that turns into the title of my first book, "Inversions." These sorts of designs now go by the word "ambigram." I'll show you just a couple others. Here we have the numbers one through ten, the digits zero through nine, actually. Each letter here is one of these digits. Not strictly an ambigram in the conventional sense. I like pushing on what an ambigram can mean.
Here's the word "mirror." No, it's not the same upside-down. It's the same this way. And a marvelous fellow from the Media Lab who just got appointed head of RISD, is John Maeda. And so I did this for him. It's sort of a visual canon. (Laughter) And recently in "Magic" magazine I've done a number of ambigrams on magician's names. So here we have Penn and Teller, same upside-down. This appears in my puzzle calendar. Okay, let's go back to the slides. Thank you very much.
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這些看起來很有趣,但要如何使它成為互動式呢?我做過一陣子的介面設計師,我思考了很多關於互動的問題。我們先將花瓶錯視圖簡化,做成像右邊的圖形,若你拿起黑色花瓶,看起來會像上面這張圖;若你拿起白色部份,就會看起來像下方這張圖。你無法實際做這個,但可以在電腦上做,讓我們切換到電腦畫面。
這就是「Figure Ground」遊戲,目標是拿起左邊圖上的小方塊,移動成跟右邊的圖形一樣;要遵守的規則是,像我剛剛說的,任何被白色包圍的黑色區域是可以拿起的,對任何白色區域來說,規則也一樣。所以,當這個白色區域在中間時,你就可以拿起它。我再玩下一關,就是這個,這裡有兩塊,將它們一起移動,現在這一塊就可以活動了。你可以由此看出一些人的想法,並讓他們體驗一些東西。就像一句古老格言說的,「你可以告訴別人某些事,並做給他們看看,但如果他們親自做了,就會真正瞭解」。
這是另一種你可以嘗試的挑戰(3.塞車遊戲-啟發你創意的謎題),叫做「塞車遊戲」。這是解謎遊戲設計中,除了魔術方塊以外,真正的傑作之一。這是個擁擠的停車場,到處都是車,目標是讓紅色的車開出來。這是個滑動拼圖遊戲,由「Think Fun」公司所設計,這遊戲很棒,我很喜歡。
我們來玩一次。這個很簡單,這個太簡單了,讓我們加一塊上去。Okay,這個要怎麼解?嗯,把藍色的移開就好了。我們讓它難一點,這還是太簡單了;再讓它難一點,難一點點;這個有點棘手,知道該怎麼做嗎?該先移哪一個?你將藍色移上去,讓淡紫色的可以右轉。你可以讓拼圖變成這樣,但還是沒解出。這四輛車塞成風車形位置,你無法分開它們。
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Now, those are fun to look at. Now how would you do it interactively? For a while I was an interface designer. And so I think a lot about interaction. Well, let's first of all simplify the vases illusion, make the thing on the right. Now, if you could pick up the black vase, it would look like the figure on top. If you could pick up the white area it would look like the figure on the bottom. Well, you can't do that physically, but on a computer you can do it. Let's switch over to the P.C.
And here it is, figure ground. The goal here is to take the pieces on the left and make them so they look like the shape on the right. And this follows the rules I just said, any black area that is surrounded by white can be picked up. But that is also true of any white area. So, here we got the white area in the middle, and you can pick it up. I'll just go one step further. So, here is -- here is a couple pieces. Move them together, and now this is an active piece. You can really get inside somebody's perception and have them experience something. It's like the old maxim of "you can tell somebody something and show them, but if they do it they really learn it."
Here is another thing you can do. There is a game called Rush Hour. This is one of the true masterpieces in puzzle design besides Rubik's cube. So, here we have a crowded parking lot with cars all over the place. The goal is to get the red car out. It's a sliding block puzzle. It's made by the company Think Fun. It's done very well. I love this puzzle.
Well, let's play one. Here. So, here is a very simple puzzle. Well, that's too simple, let's add another piece. Okay, so how would you solve this one? Well, move the blue one out of the way. Here, let's make it a little harder. Still pretty easy. Now we'll make it harder, a little harder. Now, this one is a little bit trickier. You know? What do you do here? The first move is going to be what? You're going to move the blue one up in order to get the lavender one to the right. And you can make puzzles like this one that aren't solvable at all. Those four are locked in a pinwheel; you can't get them apart.
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我想要為這遊戲做「續集」,我沒有用原來的構想,但用另一種方式。我把自己當做發明人來創造這遊戲的「續集」,我想出了這個。這是「火車調度遊戲」。這遊戲基本上是相同的,除了加上一個新的方塊,一個能夠水準和垂直移動的方塊。在另一款遊戲中,車子只能前後移動。我設計出很多不同的難易等級,我使這款遊戲可用於教學,它包含了一些訓練,引導你的不只是如何解出這些遊戲謎題,也教你如何找出解謎規則;這方法能使你解出數學謎題,或科學及其它領域的問題。
我對你學習如何創造出屬於自己的謎題很感興趣,就像我創造這些謎題一樣。Gary Trudeau 自稱為研究型漫畫家(4.《發現》雜誌-謎題就像研究報告),在畫漫畫前他都會做很多研究。在《發現》雜誌,我是研究型謎題創作家,我對基因序列感興趣。我總是說,「到底要怎樣才能想出DNA中的鹼基序列?」把兩股DNA切開,將它們分別定序,然後找尋重疊部分。基本上你是將它們的末端配對,我說 「這有點像是拼圖遊戲,除了這些DNA片段是重疊的」。
這是我為《發現》雜誌所設計的,這個解題工作剛好可以在雜誌上進行。你不能將紙塊剪開或轉動方向;這裡有9片紙塊,需要將它們放入這個方格中,你必須選擇邊緣可以重疊的紙塊。它僅有一個解答,不是很難,但需要耐心堅持一下。解出後,會是這樣的設計圖形。如果瞇著眼睛看,可以看出它是「helix」這個字。所以,謎題的形式來自於它的內容,而不是相反的過程。
這是另一些例子。這是以物理為基礎的謎題,它們會以怎樣的方式掉落?這些方塊分別是50、30、和10磅,視它們的重量和數量不同,而掉落在不同方向。這是以顏色混合為基礎的解謎遊戲。我把這些影像分別做成青色、紫紅色、黃色、黑色,就是印刷四原色,然後將個別顏色混合就得到這些顏色特殊的圖片。是混合哪些顏色來做出這些圖片呢?這讓你思考關於顏色的問題。
這是我正進行中的ShuffleBrain.com(5.給社交媒體的益智遊戲)。上這個網站看看,是我跟我妻子Amy-Jo Kim一起創立的,她只要一談到工作就很容易興奮起來。我們為社群媒體設計益智遊戲,我會解釋這是指什麼。我們著眼於三種趨勢。這是目前遊戲產業進行的方向:一開始,有很長一段時間,電腦遊戲指的是像Doom這類射擊遊戲。你四處射擊,非常暴力的遊戲,速度很快,市場鎖定十幾歲的男孩,對嗎?會玩電腦遊戲就是這些孩子。
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I wanted to make a sequel. I didn't come up with the original idea. But this is another way I work as an inventor is to create a sequel. I came up with this. This is Railroad Rush Hour. It's the same basic game except I introduced a new piece, a square piece that can move both horizontally and vertically. In the other game the cars can only move forward and back. Created a whole bunch of levels for it. Now I'm making it available to schools. And it includes exercises that show you not just how to solve these puzzles, but how to extract the principles that will let you solve mathematical puzzles or problems in science, other areas.
So, I'm really interested in you learning how to make your own puzzles as well as just me creating them. Gary Trudeau calls himself an investigative cartoonist. You know, he does a lot of research before he writes a cartoon. In Discover Magazine, I'm an investigative puzzle maker. I got interested in gene sequencing. And I said, "Well, how on Earth can you come up with a sequence of the base pairs in DNA?" Cut up the DNA, you sequence individual pieces, and then you look for overlaps, and you basically match them at the edges. And I said, "This is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, except the pieces overlap."
So, here is what I created for Discover Magazine. And it happens to be solvable in a magazine. You know you can't cut out the pieces and move them around. So, here is the nine pieces. And you're supposed to put them into this grid. And you have to choose pieces that overlap on the edge. There is only one solution. It's not that hard. But it takes some persistence. And when you're done, it makes this design, which, if you squint, is the word "helix." So, that's the form of the puzzle coming out of the content, rather than the other way around.
Here is a couple more. Here is a physics-based puzzle. Which way will these fall? One of these where it's 50 pounds, 30 pounds and 10 pounds. And depending on which one weighs which amount, they'll fall different directions. And here is a puzzle based on color mixing. I separated this image into cyan, magenta, yellow, black, the basic printing colors, and then mixed up the separations, and you get these peculiar pictures. Which separations were mixed up to make those pictures? Gets you thinking about color.
Finally, what I'm doing now. So ShuffleBrain.com, website you can go visit, I started up with my wife, Amy-Jo Kim. She could easily be up here giving a talk about her work. So, we're making smart games for social media. I'll explain what that means. We're looking at three trends. This is what's going on in the games industry right now. First of all, you know, for a long time computer games meant things like Doom, where you're going around shooting things, very violent games, very fast, aimed at teenage boys. Right? That's who plays computer games.
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猜猜後來怎麼了?潮流改變了,寶石方塊遊戲流行起來。這遊戲相當風行,就是所謂的休閒遊戲。主要玩家是35歲以上的人,多為女性。最近相當火紅的是「搖滾樂團」遊戲,是和其他人一起玩的遊戲;這是動感十足的遊戲,跟傳統遊戲很不一樣。這已成為電子遊戲主流形式。
在這中間發生了一些有趣的事,這也是對你有益的遊戲趨勢。為什麼呢?我們面臨老化潮、嬰兒潮,我們吃健康食品、運動健身。那我們的心智呢?哦,不,老年癡呆症在我們父母輩越來越普遍。我們得做些什麼。做填字遊戲可以避開一些老年癡呆症的影響,所以,我們有了任天堂開發的像「大腦鍛煉」之類的遊戲,這很紅。很多人做數獨,事實上,有些醫生將它開作處方。
還有社交媒體,這是在網路上所發生的情形。現在每個人視自己為創造者,不僅僅是觀眾角色,這些潮流綜合起來會變成什麼情形?這是目前的趨勢走向,就是符合健康生活方式的遊戲。這是你生活的一部分,它們不一定是分別的東西,它們對你既有好處,也很有趣。我是設計解謎遊戲的人,我妻子是社會媒體專家,我們決定將彼此的技能結合起來。
我們第一款遊戲叫做「抓圖」遊戲,大約要花1分20秒來玩。這是你們第一次玩我的遊戲,Okay,讓我們看看你們可以做到多棒。這裡有三張圖,每張圖有24秒時間來玩,這小圖在哪裡?我會儘快的找,但如果你看到了,就喊出答案吧。你會有更多-找到了,okay,這是在哪裡呢?喔,是的,在那裡,okay,J-O,還有-我想這是在那個部分,我們看到弓。這弓幫了大忙,這是他的頭髮。這裡有很多「圖形-背景」問題。是的,這張圖很簡單,Okay。啊!Okay,下一張圖,Okay,這是鏡頭,有人知道這個嗎?看起來像個黑色的形狀。在哪裡呢?它在這整張圖的角落。是的,我之前已經玩過這張圖,但即使我自己做了這些謎題-你可以把自己的圖片放在這裡,世界各地都有人放了他們的圖片。
我們在這兒,上ShuffleBrain.com來看看,親自嘗試一下吧。謝謝。
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Well guess what? That's changing. Bejeweled is a big hit. It was the game that really broke open what's called casual games. And the main players are over 35, and are female. Then recently Rock Band has been a big hit. And it's a game you play with other people. It's very physical. It looks nothing like a traditional game. This is what's becoming the dominant form of electronic gaming.
Now, within that there is some interesting things happening. There is also a trend towards games that are good for you. Why? Well, we aging Boomers, Baby Boomers, we're eating our healthy food, we're exercising. What about our minds? Oh no, our parents are getting Alzheimer's. We better do something. Turns out doing crossword puzzles can stave off some of the effects of Alzheimer's. So, we got games like Brain Age coming out for the Nintendo DS, huge hit. A lot of people do Sudoku. In fact some doctors prescribe it.
And then there is social media, and what's happening on the Internet. Everybody now considers themselves a creator, and not just a viewer. And what does this add up to? Here is what we see coming. It's games that fit into a healthy lifestyle. They're part of your life. They're not necessarily a separate thing. And they are both, something that is good for you, and they're fun. I'm a puzzle guy. My wife is an expert in social media. And we decided to combine our skills.
Our first game is called Photo Grab. The game takes about a minute and 20 seconds. This is your first time playing my game. Okay. Let's see how well we can do. There are three images. And we have 24 seconds each. Where is that? I'll play as fast as I can. But if you can see it, shout out the answer. You get more -- Down, okay, yeah where is that? Oh yeah. There, okay. J-O and -- I guess that's that part. We got the bow. That bow helps. That's his hair. You get a lot of figure-ground problems. Yeah, that one is easy. Okay. So, ahhh! Okay on to the next one. Okay, so that's the lens. Anybody? Looks like a black shape. So, where is that? That's the corner of the whole thing. Yeah, I've played this image before, but even when I make up my own puzzles -- And you can put your own images in here. And we have people all over the world doing that now.
There we are. Visit ShuffleBrain.com if you want to try it yourself. Thank you.