在重度手游大行其道的今天，我们很少能看到像T-Rex Games和《胡闹西游》这样专注于轻度而且能做出大量有意思创新的塔防游戏了。为了了解更多关于《胡闹西游》的信息，我们采访到了T-Rex Games的CEOTim Page和《胡闹西游》的制作人吴鹏，跟他们聊了聊关于《胡闹西游》背后的故事。因原采访为英文采访，现翻译如下，英文采访原文附在翻译之后。
Q：在如此多的题材中，为什么会选择西游记作为《胡闹西游》的背景故事
有很多原因，但星爷的《西游降魔》是很大的启发。我不仅喜欢这部电影的幽默和它不同寻常的演绎手法，更喜欢它用现代的角度诠释西游这个主题——这是我看过最酷、最有趣，也是最现代的西游电影。我对《西游记》非常熟悉，小的时候在澳大利亚就非常喜欢看一部当时很火的电视剧，叫《猴子》。所以西游对我来说，也是一种怀旧的情节。在这款游戏的概念早期，我们就在尝试塔防的新玩法，同时也在寻找好的故事线——既有丰富的故事性，又能创造好的游戏性。一想到西游，我就觉得它具备一款塔防游戏需要的很多元素：唐僧就是那个永远需要保护的老家；三个徒弟一刻不停地为师傅斩妖除魔，翻山越岭走遍各地。这整是我们概念的开端。
Q：不同于一般的塔防游戏，《胡闹西游》选择了2.5D的表现方式，这么做的理由是什么呢？
首先，在T-Rex Games，我们喜欢3D所能带来的角色表现与独特动画。我们希望玩家看到生动的角色移动和战斗，在这一点上3D比2D更有看头。因此，在《胡闹西游》中我们使用了全3D角色，搭配2D场景，来塑造出2.5D的视觉表现。每一张关卡地图不仅是精心手绘的，而且在被整合进游戏后，能够跟随手机的移动，呈现视差的动态效果，特别是在山顶这样的场景里面。这样的结合方式非常的酷，这在许多地图，比如火焰山中，就有很棒的表现。
Q：塔防游戏的游戏模式逐渐固定化，《胡闹西游》的游戏模式由什么创新的地方呢？
这正是我们希望改进的游戏机制所在。在《胡闹西游》中，操作三位英雄保护唐僧是战斗的核心。如同西游的情节一般，几位英雄是不停移动的，从一个点打到另外一个点。这对我们重塑体验尤为重要，这也是在其他塔防游戏中不常看到的。常见的塔防更多围绕造塔与升级，有很多的等待。对我们来说，自由移动的体验恰是我们希望着力表现的——让英雄追着怪打的感觉，会让游戏很不一样——这种走位与攻防策略的搭配，甚至能带来RTS的手感，这是一种全新的体验。
Q：对比与其他的塔防类游戏，您觉得《胡闹西游》最能吸引玩家的地方是哪里。
那一定是英雄了。能够自由移动英雄走位，使用他们的主动技能的话，相比普通塔防游戏而言，自然有着更强的动作性。比如孙悟空的腾云驾雾，从天而降至一群妖怪中间，这正是我在《西游降魔》电影中找到的感觉；又比如悟空变身为一只大猩猩，碾压式扫平小怪。这些都是非常好玩的。另一个吸引人的地方是，游戏能够带玩家跟随故事，体验他们熟悉的取经路。我们绘制了许多著名的故事场景，比如高老庄、火焰山、盘丝洞等等；这些地方又由像牛魔王、蜘蛛精、铁扇公主这样的名角镇守——实际上，我们有超过50个风格迥异的角色，贯穿整个故事。
Q：不少玩家反映《胡闹西游》的难度相对于其他游戏较为困难，这么做的理由是什么呢
我觉得不应该说是难的问题，而是这样的玩法显然需要更多时间去熟悉、上手，就像许多玩家第一次玩“植物大战僵尸”最初的版本一样。《胡闹西游》玩法机制的确有很多不同，这使得玩家需要花更多的时间才能深入体验到乐趣。不过有一点是肯定的：作为开发者，我们非常愿意倾听玩家的反馈，并及时响应。对于《胡闹西游》，我们已经做了很多优化调整，新的版本即将更新在苹果商店。这里还要再次感谢所有玩家的热情反馈！
Q：《胡闹西游》上线之后，是否有后续的更新计划呢？
肯定有！《西游》如此之博大，还有许多妖怪我们想去制作，像犀牛精、蟒蛇精之类的，当然包括还有新的正在开发中的游戏模式。欢迎大家关注我们后续的更新！
Q： 为什么选择与麒麟狗合作发行这款游戏？合作的下来觉得怎样？
首先作为一名玩家，我本来就是麒麟狗发行过的各种好游戏的忠实粉丝。而作为一名从业很久的开发者，我认为麒麟狗是我合作过的最专业的发行商之一。麒麟狗中国区的专家团队，也对游戏的优化提供了莫大的帮助。这次合作体验对于双方都是极好的。我会向各位想要向中国及全球发行游戏的开发商强烈推荐麒麟狗。
Q：在其他厂商追逐重度手游的时候，贵司为什么选择开发普遍被认为是轻度手游的塔防类游戏。
T-Rex Games一向以游戏性和创造好玩的游戏体验为重。我们的理念是“为了明天的玩家创作游戏”。我们一直都着眼于推进某个游戏类型，并且创造新的东西。坦白说，市面上通过简单的抄袭，来尝试迷惑、欺诈玩家的开发商太多了，在我看来这不是游戏开发的精神——至少不是我们的精神。对我来说，创意和娱乐性，好玩而又充满想象力的游戏才是我们追求的。喜欢轻、中度的游戏，是因为在这些比重度游戏更轻量的游戏体验中，玩家能够花更多的时间在享受娱乐上，而非冗长的煎熬。塔防游戏这个类型在出现的很多年里，逐渐受到玩家欢迎，尤其是像“植物大战僵尸”、“王国保卫战”、“保卫萝卜”这样的优秀游戏。在塔防策略这个我们热爱的类型中，创作《胡闹西游》，是我们非常享受的。
Q：贵司在《胡闹西游》之后有没有什么新游戏的发行计划。
有的，我们正在开发一款日漫IP授权的对战游戏《一骑当千》。这个IP的故事背景里，有着三国历史的渊源，但更多讲述的是日本各个学院女生之间的争霸战。以T-Rex Games的风格，你能期待到的一定是创新的玩法，酷炫的动作，优秀的视觉表现。这一次，我们将走日漫风！
正如采访中提到，不管游戏是轻度还是重度，为玩家带来乐趣才是游戏制作人应该考虑的问题。与其追逐游戏概念，不如先踏踏实实的做好游戏，自己去定义一个新的游戏概念。
英文采访原文：
Q：Among so many themes， why do you take The Journey to the West as your background story？
There are a couple reasons， but it mainly started after watching a film by one of my favorite directors， Stephen Chow， called ‘Conquering the Demons’。 I’ve always enjoyed the humor and unusual twists he puts in his movies， but more importantly I enjoyed how he modernized the theme of Journey to the West in the film。 He made the story cool， funny and much more modern than I had seen in other Journey to the West adaptions。 I’m quite familiar with Journey to the West， as when I was a kid I used to watch a TV show called ‘Monkey’ which was super popular at the time and one of my favorite shows， so I’ve always had a nostalgic feeling towards the story。 At around the same time we were creating game concepts for a new tower defense game and thinking about a storyline， as we wanted a tower defense game that could story tell as much as being fun to play。 When thinking about Journey to the West， essentially it had all the right components to make a new style tower defense game。 Sanzang is a like a castle always needing protection。 Sun Wukong， Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing are constantly trying to protect him from countless enemies， and the story is moving across different places during the journey。 So we started concept drawing and that’s how we got started。
Q：Unlike other TD games， why does the Journey to the West Saga use 2.5D as your display form？
Firstly， at T-Rex Games we just love working with 3D as it allows us to make beautiful visual characters， and fun and unique animations。 We wanted our players to see our characters come to life moving and fighting， in much more interesting ways than can be done with 2D。 So for Monkey King Saga， we used 3D for all our characters together with 2D background environments， which gives the game a kind of 2.5D effect。 Each of the backgrounds are beautifully hand painted， but we also cut them in layers so some of the game levels， especially in high mountain scenes， the background slides and moves using the mobile devices’ gyroscope to give the game scene a feeling of being high up。 It creates a really cool effect when putting it all together， especially in some of the higher level maps like in the Flaming Mountains chapter。
Q：The play modes of TD games is more and more immobilized。 What are the innovative points in MKS？
This is one area we wanted to push some new gameplay ideas and mechanics。 In Monkey King Saga the game is mostly centered on the Heroes – Sun Wukong， Sha Wujing， Zhu Bajie and how they protect Sanzang。 Like the story of Journey to the West， the heroes are constantly moving around， fighting from one spot to another。 So it’s this essence we wanted to bring across to our game， which you do not see in other tower defense games。 Most tower defense games are about placing and upgrade towers， wait and fight type feeling。 But for us， we wanted to recreate the feeling of these moveable heroes and make them the main focus， rather than stationary towers and allow the heroes to freely chase down enemies or take the fight to the enemies so to speak。 Which makes the game feeling very different。 It’s almost RTS game like， in that you constantly move your heroes to strategic positions of attack or defense which makes a new innovation in gameplay。
Q：Compared with other TF games， what’s the most attractive point for the players in MKS。
It’s definitely about the heroes。 Being able to move the heroes freely into different positions to attack or defend， and also using their quick skill buttons brings a whole new action feeling compared to normal tower defense games。 Like doing a Monkey King Superman Jump into a bunch of monsters， and yes that was something I liked from the Conquering the Demons film， and then transforming into a giant Gorilla to smash enemies away is simply a lot of fun。 The other attractive area is players are able to follow the story and are taken on the journey they know and remember。 We’ve taken all the favorite places from the story like Gao River Village， Mount Hao， Silk Mountain Cave and more， plus brought to life the main enemies from the story like the Bull Demon King， Spider Demoness， Iron Fan Princes and many more。 In fact there’s more than 50 enemies in total to battle across the journey。
Q：Many players think that MKS is more difficult than other games， and what’s the reason for this？
I don‘t like to say more difficult， but the gameplay is definitely different so it might take players a little more time to learn the gameplay。 I compare it similar to the first time many people played Plants vs Zombies， the first version。 The gameplay was different enough and took a little more time before players really got hooked。 One thing can say， as a developer we’re very responsive to listening to our players in our games， and for Monkey King Saga， we’ve already done some recent tweaks and just about to release a new update version shortly。 Big thank you to all those players for your feedback！
Q：Are there some update program after the launch of MKS？
Most definitely！ The original story is so large， there’s many more scenes and enemies we want to bring to the game like the Single Horned Rhinoceros King and the Python Demon。 Plus also some new special modes we are working on。 Stay tuned in the near future！
Q：Why do you choose Chillingo as your publisher and how’s the cooperation？
Firstly， as a player， I’m a fan of the great games Chillingo has published。 As a developer and long time professional in the industry， I can say Chillingo is one of the most professional publishers I’ve worked with and working with their expert team in China has been very helpful to fine-tune our game for Chinese players。 It’s been a great experience for both us and Chillingo and we highly recommend them to developers looking to publish their games in China and globally。
Q：The developers are very keen on hard-core games now， why do you still want to launch TF games， which is defined as mid-core game？
For us at T-Rex Games it’s always about the gameplay and creating fun new experiences for players。 Our motto is ‘we create games for tomorrow’s players’。 So we’re always interested in evolving game genres and creating something new。 Frankly there are too many copycat developers out there trying to capitalize and trick players， which isn’t the soul of game development。 At least not for us。 For us it’s about creativity and entertaining players with fun and imaginative games。 We like mid core genres because of their lighter game experiences than hardcore， and players can enjoy more the entertainment of the game， rather than the long grinding experiences。 Tower defense games have been around for many years， and are actually more popular today than ever before， thanks to great games like Plants vs Zombies， Kingdom Rush， and Carrot Fantasy， so combined with our love of tower defense and strategy games， Monkey King Saga was something we really enjoyed creating。
Q：Does T-Rex has other new game launch plan after MKS？
Yes， we’re also working on a new game， which we licensed the famous Japanese TV anime IP called ‘Ikkitousen’。 It‘s a fun IP which is based on the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms， but revolves around an all-out turf war in the Kanto region of Japan where high school kids battle from different schools for supremacy。 In T-Rex Games style you can expect innovative gameplay， packed with lots of cool animations， and beautiful visual graphics。 This time in anime style！
