毫无疑问，《小猫咪大城市》（Little Kitty, Big City）是 2024 年最令人欣喜的新作之一，讲述了一只小猫寻找回家之路的冒险故事。自 5 月 9 日问世以来，它便收获了巨大成功，短短 48 小时销量突破 10 万份，同时还在游戏订阅服务 Game Pass 上吸引了超过 100 万名玩家。在任天堂 eShop，它也曾连续几周稳居下载榜前 5 名。
《小猫咪大城市》的受欢迎程度，也让西雅图开发商 Double Dagger Studio 的创始人马特・伍德（Matt T. Wood）感到惊讶。上世纪 90 年代末，伍德从 3D Realms 开始了游戏开发生涯，他曾为 Valve 工作超过 16 年，后来又创办了自己的公司。作为一名游戏开发者，伍德希望以新的方式挑战自己。
“离开 Valve 是个非常艰难的决定，那是一家很棒的公司，独立创业需要承担巨大风险，但为了能接受新挑战和尝试新事物，我认为是值得的。我想和一些新同事合作，尝试以前没有做过的事情，为游戏行业带来一些新东西。”
[离开V社之后，他做了一款“扮演猫咪”的游戏]
伍德很喜欢研究和探索日式的城市设计，这也成为《小猫咪大城市》将背景设定在日本的完美“借口”
独立创业也让伍德可以花更多时间陪伴他的 3 个孩子。他经常把自己的一些奇思妙想作为原型，与几个孩子分享，看看他们有哪些反应。通过这种方式，伍德发现在游戏里扮演一只猫的概念引起了孩子们的共鸣。“我迅速构建原型并制作了一段视频，然后放到网上，没过多久就获得了大量传播。当时我就想，人们似乎真的对扮演小猫很感兴趣，也许应该在这方面投入更多精力，这就是项目的起源。”
让玩家以一只猫的身份来表达自己，模仿猫的行为，或者从猫的视角看待世界都是有趣的概念，但接下来的问题是：在游戏中，玩家究竟应该做什么？游戏的目标是什么？
“就概念而言，我们的选择面很广，比如可以尝试一些有趣的玩法机制或技术，但这可能会削弱玩家扮演猫的感觉以及沉浸感，而我希望确保游戏能够满足玩家与猫零距离接触和扮演猫的愿望…… 通过这款游戏，我想为玩家提供与在网络上观看猫咪视频，或者与自己的猫一起玩耍时类似的感觉。”
伍德希望开发团队减少对设计的关注，投入更多精力关注玩家体验，以及玩家与猫咪的情感联系，并在此基础上构思有吸引力的玩法。“我们花了很多时间进行尝试，思考哪些玩法足够有趣，然后想方设法将它们转变成互动体验。”
[离开V社之后，他做了一款“扮演猫咪”的游戏]
马特・伍德从业 20 多年，参与过《半衰期 2》《传送门 2》《求生之路》以及《反恐精英：全球攻势》的开发
据伍德透露，按照他和同事最初的设想，《小猫咪大城市》更加强调生存玩法。在探索城市和寻找回家之路的过程中，小猫必须在适当的时间找到食物、资源或者睡觉，然而这种风格与伍德想要避免的一些体验产生了冲突。“当人们想和猫一起玩耍时，最不想看到的就是它们挣扎、失败、受伤或遭受痛苦。我没兴趣制作那种类型的游戏，只想给玩家带来快乐和欢笑。然后我很快意识到，如果不把小猫置于危险之中，我们就无法制作出一款有趣的生存游戏，因此就放弃了那个计划。”
作为一名曾经参与设计《半衰期 2》《求生之路》等游戏的资深开发者，伍德拥有将玩家角色置于危险境地的经验。但他指出，当玩家的角色不是人类时，情况就变了。“我不会纠结于人类在电子游戏里的遭遇，比如受伤、死亡等等，这些都没什么大不了的。然而，如果你对动物做那些事情，那就不酷了。”
对伍德和他的团队来说，让猫咪远离危险非常重要。他们很快发现，这款游戏的潜在玩家也有类似的想法。“随着时间推移，有人找到我，问我各种各样的问题，有父母问我：‘我们玩过其他猫咪题材的游戏，却发现猫可能受伤，所以很担心你们的游戏也这样。’我不得不向他们保证，我们绝对不会让猫咪受伤。”伍德说，“我始终专注于制作一款全龄段玩家都能轻松上手并乐在其中的游戏，父母也可以和孩子一起玩，这对我来说非常重要。我希望每个人都能感受到快乐，不必因为任何事情而有压力。这是一款积极乐观、让人们充分感受扮演猫的乐趣的游戏，不让猫受伤至关重要。”
在游戏中，猫咪可能遭遇的最大危险无非就是偶尔碰到水，或者被某个不高兴的店老板轻轻赶出商店。就算猫咪从高的地方掉下来，也总是四脚着地，不会受伤。猫咪可以随心所欲地探索城市，与各种动物互动并帮助它们，用鼻子蹭路人的腿，将放在高处的盆栽推倒，寻找阳光充足的地方小睡一下，或者到处吃鱼 —— 这些都是猫咪的典型行为。
[离开V社之后，他做了一款“扮演猫咪”的游戏]
如果下辈子变成一只猫，你会怎样生活？
事实上，准确地模拟猫咪的各种行为并不容易，从伍德收到的反馈来看，他和他的团队做到了。有趣的是，并非所有反馈都来自人类。“很多人给我发来他们家的猫观看游戏的视频或照片，因为它们被游戏里猫咪的动作迷住了。这正是我想要实现的，但我不清楚除了制作动画，还可以通过哪些其他方式来实现。”
“我们的动画师迈可・贝莱特韦瑟（Micah Breitweiser）非常给力。当我们刚开始合作时，就发现她有能力创造出特别自然的动画，质量超出了我的想象。因此，我们需要着重展示她的作品。”由于她为猫咪创造的动画大幅提升了游戏的整体标准，为了更好地配合动画，开发团队还在其他方面对角色进行了调整，比如改变猫咪转身或跳到窗台上的方式。
“我们做了很多事情来改进细节，比如采用了一套脊柱跟随头部的系统，能够让玩家看到猫咪非常流畅自然地转身和做出其他动作。如果采用老法子，虽然在电子游戏里很常见，但那种效果会非常‘辣眼睛’，如果玩家近距离观察猫咪，可能会突然觉得哪里不对劲。因此，我开始投资创作更有活力的骨骼动画，这有助于让猫咪的动作显得更加自然。”
考虑到《小猫咪大城市》拥有平台元素，涉及到猫咪跳跃的动画尤其难做，而且猫咪并非常见的平台角色，开发团队必须以不同的方式来处理相关动画。“平台游戏拥有理想的跳跃弧线、时机等元素，但我们希望把握平衡，使它看上去既像一款平台游戏，又尽可能贴近现实。我们尝试过设计一些夸张、花哨的跳跃动作，却发现无法让它们显得足够自然，以及创作出逼真的动画。”
[离开V社之后，他做了一款“扮演猫咪”的游戏]
没有生命值，没有危险，也没有失败
伍德承认，在《小猫咪大城市》发售前，他很担心 Double Dagger 的首部作品会不受玩家欢迎。“经过几轮测试，我们获得了一些积极反馈，发现人们对这款游戏的评价很高。但仍然内心忐忑，既担心游戏可能因为各种原因而失败，又暗自希望它能成功。”
幸运的是，这部作品迅速取得了意料之外的成功。“这令人惊讶，我预测过游戏到年底时的销量，却没想到很快就实现了目标。这款游戏让许多玩家产生共鸣，给人们带来了快乐，我为此感到高兴…… 另一件让人感到惊讶的事情是，我完全没想到在 Game Pass 上，它会引起玩家如此热烈的反响。我原以为没人会留意到它，但许多玩家发邮件或消息告诉我：‘我是一名 Xbox 玩家，通常只玩赛车游戏，但通过 Game Pass 玩了玩你的游戏，真的很喜欢。谢谢你制作了它。’”
从 2022 年大获成功的《Stray》到《小猫咪大城市》，再到将于今年晚些时候问世的《冒牌猫咪》（Copycat），“猫咪模拟”游戏似乎正在迎来崛起。伍德坦称，他觉得自己很幸运，因为《小猫咪大城市》抓住了较早进入市场的机会。“‘玩家可以扮演一只猫’是我们着重介绍的亮点，也是我们的优势。然而，以后的游戏就很难把它当成独特卖点来宣传了。未来，如果开发者想要在这个细分品类市场脱颖而出，就必须创作一些更有趣、更有深度的内容。”
Without a doubt, one of May’s surprise hit games has been Little Kitty, Big City. Released on May 9, the wholesome adventure game about a cat looking for its way home has been massively successful, selling over 100,000 units within the first 48 hours of release, and garnering over a million plays on Game Pass. As of this writing, it also continues to hold strong among the top five downloadable titles on the Nintendo eShop.
The remarkably warm reception has been equally surprising to its developer, the newly formed Double Dagger Studio, helmed by Matt T. Wood.
Wood, whose game development career began at 3D Realms in the late ’90s, spent over 16 years at Valve before deciding to break away and form his own company. Double Dagger Studio arose from his desire to challenge himself in new ways as a game developer.
“It was a super tough decision,” he says. “Valve was a really great place to be, and going out on your own was a huge risk to take, but it was worth it to be able to have new challenges and try new things. I wanted to bring something new to the industry, work with some new people, all these different things.”
Going out on his own also gave Wood more free time to spend with his three kids, who acted as sounding boards for his game ideas. He’d done several prototypes and experiments, but one idea that seemed to strike a chord with all of them was a game concept where you played as a cat.
Matt Wood, Double Dagger Studio
“I made a really quick prototype, made a video, put it online, and it kind of blew up,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow, people seem to really be interested in this. Maybe I should focus on it more.’ That was kind of the start of it.”
Expressing oneself as a cat, doing things as a cat, and seeing things through the eyes of a cat were interesting concepts, but the next question that arose was what exactly the player was supposed to do as a cat? What could be the game’s objective?
“The concept could be anything,” says Wood. “You can go in a direction that might be interesting game mechanics-wise, might be interesting technology-wise, but it could take away from the feel, immersion and spark of being a cat and connecting with people in that way.
“My main focus was to make sure that I could maintain and capture that spark and interest of playing as and relating to cats. When you watch videos on the internet about cats, that feeling that you get when you’re playing with your own cat, just watching your cat – I wanted to make sure that existed.”
Wood wanted the focus to be less on the design and more on player experience as well as the connections they made. Then, he needed to figure out the gateway based on that. “It took a while, experimenting and figuring out what is interesting, and how that translates into an interactive experience.”
Early concepts for Little Kitty, Big City still had the titular cat exploring the city to find a way home, but with a stronger emphasis on survival, having to find food and resources and sleep at appropriate times. However, that gameplay style naturally brought with it certain aspects that Wood wanted to avoid.
“I realized that when people want to play or connect with a cat, the last thing they want is to have that cat struggle, fail, get hurt or be in distress,” he says. “It’s not that type of game. This is for fun and making people smile. It didn’t take very long for me to realize I can’t really make a good survival game interesting without putting the cat in danger. So I scrapped that.”
“When people want to play or connect with a cat, the last thing they want is to have that cat struggle, fail, get hurt or be in distress”
Having worked on games like Half-Life 2 and Left 4 Dead, Wood definitely has experience with titles that put the player character in peril. However, he notes that when that character isn’t a human, things are different.
“I can disassociate with all the things happening to humans in video games, them getting hurt or dying or whatever. It’s no big deal,” he says. “But you do that to animals, it’s not cool anymore.”
Keeping the kitty out of harm’s way was imperative for Wood and his team, and they quickly learned that potential players shared their feelings. “As time went on… I had people reaching out to me, asking various questions. Parents especially – they’d say, ‘We’ve played other cat games and the cat would get hurt, and we were really worried your game was going to be similar. We don’t want that.’ I would have to assure them that’s not what we wanted the game to be.
“I really tried to focus on making a game that parents could play with their kids. That was a really important thing to me, to make a game that different ages could play together at the same time and enjoy. I want it to be an experience where everybody feels joy and they don’t have to stress about anything. This is a positive game about the joy of playing as a cat. Not having the cat get hurt is super important.”
As it is, the worst peril the kitty has to endure in the game is occasionally touching water or being gently carried out of a business by a disgruntled shopkeeper. Even if the cat should fall from a significant height, it will (as cats do) always land on its feet, no worse for wear. Instead of focusing on survival, the kitty gets to casually explore the city, interact with and help out all sorts of quirky animal characters, nuzzle the legs of passersby, knock potted plants off of high places, try and find find sunny spots for a quick nap, nibble on a fish here and there – typical kitty things.
Little Kitty, Big City allows players to explore the streets as a cat – or just cause mischief
Accurately simulating such a wide variety of catlike behavior in gameplay means getting the movement right. Judging from the feedback Wood received, he and his team succeeded – and not all of the feedback was from humans.
“I get videos and pictures of people’s cats watching the gameplay because they’re fascinated by the cat’s movement,” says Wood. “That was something I wanted to achieve but wasn’t sure how to actually accomplish other than nailing the animations.”
Thanks to animator Micah Breitweiser, they were able to do just that. “When I started working with Micah, she was able to create these animations that were so natural, more than I thought I could get out of this game,” says Wood. “Now we just needed to focus more on accentuating those and bringing the animations more to the front so we can showcase her work more.”
In fact, Breitweiser’s animations for the kitty raised the bar so significantly that other aspects of the character were tweaked to better compliment them, such as how the cat turned or leaped onto ledges.
“Valve was a really great place to be, but I wanted to bring something new to the industry”
“We would go back and revisit those, and I would redo a lot of things to [improve them],” says Wood. “I went with a system where the spine would follow the head, so now when you turn, you’re basically controlling the chest, and the head and everything else follows behind. You get very fluid turns and movements cats would do as they move around. The old way was, you move around, you’re turning, and then you stop and immediately go back to idle [animation]. It’s kind of jarring, but common in video games. But when you’re looking up close at this cat that’s beautifully animated and precise in a lot of ways, it suddenly feels not as good, so I started to invest in dynamic spine animation. I think it helped a lot with making things feel more natural and less like animation states.”
The animation could be particularly tricky when it came to the kitty making jumps, giving the game some platformer elements. However, since the kitty wasn’t your average platforming character, the team had to approach its animation differently.
“There’s all these ideal jumping arcs, timings and stuff for platformers, and they work really well in those situations,” says Wood, “but we were riding that line between trying to feel a little bit like a platformer but still grounding everything in as much reality as we could. Doing those really floaty jumps that a lot of platformers do, I tried it for a while and it just feels bad when you put it in a system like this where you’re trying to do realistic animations and make things feel natural.” Undoubtedly one of the biggest fears a fledging studio has is whether or not their debut title will be well-received by the gaming community. For Wood, he strove to keep his expectations tempered.
“You try your best to focus on all those playtests that you had where people would say good things, the good feedback you’re getting,” he says. “You have to find a balance between ‘My game is going to tank because of X, Y and Z’ and ‘No, I’ve been through this before. I know what the focus is going to be on. I don’t have to worry about these other things.’ I think in the end, it didn’t matter for a lot of those areas.”
Wood was right, perhaps far more than he expected. As mentioned at the outset, Little Kitty, Big City became an overnight success.
“It was surprising,” he says. “I had modest projections about what I was hoping to do by the end of the year, and we hit those pretty quickly. I’m really happy to hear and see that people are connecting with it and getting out of it what I hoped they would.
“The other thing that was surprising: I had no idea how well it would be received on Game Pass. I assumed it would fly under the radar, but I was getting emails and messages saying, ‘I’m an Xbox player, I normally play racing games, but I tried out your game on Game Pass and really enjoyed it. Thank you for making it.’ That’s super cool.”
Between the highly successful Stray in 2022, Little Kitty, Big City’s recent meteoric rise, and Copycat coming out later this year, it seems like “cat simulator” games are becoming a hot commodity, and game developers are rising to meet demand. Wood finds himself fortunate that Little Kitty, Big City was able to get in on the ground floor.
“It feels like it’s an introduction. ‘Hey, you get to play as a cat.’ The games that come out after won’t be able to use that marketing point as much. It won’t be as powerful.”
As cat games become more common and less of a novelty, Wood notes that the challenge for developers will become finding ways to make future games in a similar vein unique from what came before.
“They have to do something more interesting, deeper,” he says. “I think that there’s a lot of potential in making games that you actually play as a cat that feels like a cat and not a cartoon character with a cat face and ears or as a human character that looks like a cat. It’s just a normal platformer where you’re just playing as a cat character. I think there’s absolutely a lot of opportunity, focusing on an actual cat game, for sure. And I look forward to it.”
本文编译自：https://www.gamesindustry.biz/little-kitty-big-city-the-former-half-life-devs-cat-game-for-his-kids-that-became-an-overnight-success
原文标题：《Little Kitty, Big City: How a former Half-Life dev’s game for his kids became an overnight success》
原作者：Paul Cecchini
【来源】https://www.ithome.com/0/786/011.htm
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