Here at SUPERJUMP, we are constantly trying to peek behind the curtain of indie game development, examining how studios get started and the nuts and bolts of how small teams take games from ideas to your living room.

^ h 埃雷在SUPERJUMP，我们正在不断努力的独立游戏开发的帘子后面偷看，研究工作室是如何被启动，并且组成的小团队是如何采取从创意游戏为您的客厅的螺母和螺栓。

James Silva is the embodiment of that process, starting Ska Studios as a one-man operation and producing a slew of games that led up to the release of Salt & Sanctuary in 2016. The 2D Souls-like adventure has sold over 1 million copies and is held up as one of the best examples of 2D action-RPGs available across any system.

詹姆斯·席尔瓦(James Silva)就是这一过程的体现，他以单人运营的形式创立了Ska Studios，并生产了一系列游戏，最终导致2016年《 盐与保护区》的发行。类似于2D灵魂的冒险已经售出了超过100万份，作为任何系统上可用的2D动作RPG的最佳示例之一，它被认为是最好的例子。

We’ve asked James a wide range of questions, covering everything from sound recording to screen shake, and a lot of other stuff. You’re going to love what he has to share!

我们已经向James提出了广泛的问题，涉及从录音到屏幕震动的所有内容，以及许多其他内容。 您将爱上他必须分享的内容！

SUPERJUMPGood morning James, thank you so much for joining us for this interview! With the pandemic and lock-downs that have been a part of daily life since March, have you found it easier or harder to be creative? How has your daily routine been altered, and has it affected your work on your current project?

詹姆斯，早上好，非常感谢您加入我们的访谈！ 自3月份以来，流行病和封锁已成为日常生活的一部分，您是否发现创意更容易或更难？ 您的日常工作如何进行了更改，并影响了您当前项目的工作？

JAMES SILVAIt’s interesting — I’ve been working out of one home office or another ever since I founded Ska Studios by myself over 13 years ago, so I’m completely used to this. In fact, when the pandemic hit, I had actually been working through a personal crisis for months, so a horrific global pandemic kind of made my own problems seem a lot more manageable.

JAMES SILVA这很有趣-自从我13年前独自创建Ska Studios以来，我就一直在一个家庭办公室或另一间办公室工作，所以我已经完全习惯了。 实际上，当流感大流行发生时，我实际上已经经历了数月的人身危机，因此，可怕的全球性流感大流行使我自己的问题似乎更易于管理。

SUPERJUMPObviously your games have a very unique graphical style. Would you consider yourself an artist first that learned programming, or did you develop the art once you started making games?

SUPERJUMPO显然，您的游戏具有非常独特的图形风格。 您会以为自己是一位首先学习编程的艺术家，还是一开始创作游戏就发展了美术？

JAMES SILVAI’m absolutely an artist that learned programming. When I was 9 or 10 I used to obsessively plan out video games with no real means of producing them: maps, enemies, items, controls; everything but the game code. In a few years, I got the hang of making text adventures in BASIC, but that was still a pretty far cry from the goal of 8-bit games. It took over a decade to reach a point where I could actually build out the games I imagined as a 10-year-old, but hey — I got there in the end!

JAMES SILVA我绝对是一位学习编程的艺术家。 当我9或10岁时，我曾经迷恋地计划电子游戏，而没有真正的生产手段：地图，敌人，物品，控制装置； 除了游戏代码之外的所有内容。 几年后，我开始用BASIC进行文字冒险，但这仍然与8位游戏的目标相去甚远。 我花了十多年的时间才能达到我实际上可以构想出自己十岁的游戏的水平，但是，嘿，我终于做到了！

SUPERJUMPOne of the things that stuck out to me for all your games was the sound design, specifically the sound effects. From the clank of grenades along the ground in ZP2K9 to the thunk of the weapons in Salt & Sanctuary, it’s all very lifelike. Did you record those with Foley, were they digitally generated or was there some other process?

SUPERJUMP在您的所有游戏中，让我着迷的一件事是声音设计，尤其是音效。 从ZP2K9地面的手榴弹到盐与保护区的重击武器，这一切都非常逼真。 您是否使用Foley录制了这些文件，它们是数字生成的还是其他流程？

JAMES SILVASound is probably my weakest area — I usually just buy and tweak them. I did record some sounds for Salt and Sanctuary, specifically the sounds around writing messages and placing bottles. I also record all of the voices — zombie screams and so on.

JAMES SILVA声音可能是我最弱的地方-我通常只是购买和调整它们。 我确实为Salt and Sanctuary录制了一些声音，尤其是围绕写消息和放置瓶子的声音。 我还录制了所有声音-僵尸尖叫声等等。

SUPERJUMPAnother hallmark of your games is the violent, bloody action and aesthetic. Did you ever get push-back on the violence, from family or other people in the industry? Have any of the platform holders where your games are published ever asked you to tone it back or change the games?

超级游戏的另一个特点是暴力，血腥的动作和美学。 您是否曾经从家人或行业内其他人那里抵制暴力？ 您发布游戏的平台持有人是否曾要求您对其进行回音或更改游戏？

JAMES SILVAI think way back when Microsoft was considering The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai for Xbox Live Arcade, there was some internal debate on whether XBLA should draw a line on violence; before Dead Samurai it just worked out to be a pretty family-friendly platform. I can also say that my mom’s still not wild about it; she doesn’t think it’s too late to pivot to a career in children’s books.

詹姆斯·席尔瓦(JAMES SILVA)我想应该追溯到微软考虑Xbox Live Arcade的《洗碗机：死武士》时 ，关于XBLA是否应该划定暴力界限，内部存在一些争论。 在死武士之前，它只是一个非常适合家庭使用的平台。 我也可以说我妈妈仍然对此不感兴趣。 她认为现在开始从事儿童读物职业为时不晚。

SUPERJUMPOne of the elements of many of your games is screen shake, to some varying degree in each title. That can be a divisive feature among gamers, but in your design, it doesn’t seem to be overpowering. How did you balance that, getting it to a point where it adds to the visceral nature of the gameplay without becoming disorienting or off-putting?

SUPERJUMP许多游戏的要素之一是屏幕抖动，每个标题在不同程度上都是如此。 这可能是游戏玩家之间的分裂特征，但是在您的设计中，它似乎并没有表现出太大的优势。 您如何平衡这一点，使它增加游戏玩法的内在本质而又不会迷失方向或令人反感？

JAMES SILVAScreen shake is one that I hadn’t given much thought to, I just did it. I’ve only had one person complain about it. I think like all design, it’s just about tweaking things that don’t feel good until they do. There’s a neat little talk by Ira Glass called The Gap in which he contrasts creative skill with “taste,” illustrating how one’s creative skill must catch up to what their taste tells them is good work. I find this resonates with a ton of stuff I do, except I still don’t think my skill has hit a point where I can consistently crank out good stuff on the first try, but I can comfortably listen to my taste as I iterate on work until I’m satisfied with it.

JAMES SILVA屏幕抖动是我没有想过的一种，我做到了。 我只有一个人抱怨。 我认为，就像所有设计一样，它只是在调整只有在感觉不好的情况下才能进行的调整。 艾拉·格拉斯(Ira Glass)有个整洁的小话题，叫做“差距(The Gap)”。 我发现这与我做的很多事情产生了共鸣，除了我仍然认为自己的技能没有达到可以一开始就不断地制作出好东西的地步，但是当我反复尝试时，我可以舒适地倾听自己的口味工作直到我对此满意为止。

SUPERJUMPUp until Salt & Sanctuary, all of your games were done on Xbox and PC. What was the impetus for that change to Sony’s platforms?

直到Salt＆Sanctuary，您所有的游戏都是在Xbox和PC上完成的。 改变索尼平台的动力是什么？

JAMES SILVAThat was a result of the console generation shakeup. From 2005–2015 or so, indie development grew into its own, and it took a little while for major platforms to embrace this. Steam didn’t publish its first indie game after I’d published The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai on Xbox 360 in 2007. Microsoft’s XNA framework was something of an indie vanguard, creating a bridge for hobbyists to release on consoles. XNA is what I used to make everything I released on Xbox360; in fact, I’m still using an open-source implementation of it. In time, Steam transformed into a Valve-only platform to an anything-goes platform, and Sony pushed their indie platform into high gear for PlayStation 4.

JAMES SILVA这是控制台一代改组的结果。 从2005年至2015年左右，独立开发逐渐发展为独立开发，主要平台花了一些时间才接受了这一开发。 自从我在2007年在Xbox 360上发行了《洗碗机：死亡武士》之后，Steam并没有发行其第一款独立游戏。微软的XNA框架是独立的先锋，为爱好者在游戏机上的发行打下了桥梁。 XNA是我用来制作在Xbox360上发布的所有内容的工具。 实际上，我仍在使用它的开源实现。 随着时间的流逝，Steam变成了一个只有Valve的平台才能成为万能的平台，而Sony则将其独立平台推向了PlayStation 4的高端市场。

When PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched, Microsoft had already discontinued XNA, effectively orphaning my years of engine code. But the news was that PlayStation 4 would be supporting Monogame, an open-source implementation of XNA. So I opened a dialog with Sony’s indie guy, and he was really, really interested in getting my next game on PlayStation 4. Things just fell into place from there.

当PlayStation 4和Xbox One推出时，微软已经停止使用XNA，有效地孤立了我多年的引擎代码。 但有消息称，PlayStation 4将支持XNA的开源实现Monogame。 因此，我与索尼的独立开发者展开了对话，他对在PlayStation 4上发布我的下一款游戏非常感兴趣。

SUPERJUMPOn a similar note, you created a PS Vita port for Salt & Sanctuary, even though Sony had long since stopped first-party development for the handheld, and many feel they completely abandoned it. What led to your decision to publish on the Vita?

SUPERJUMPOn在类似的注释中，您为Salt＆Sanctuary创建了PS Vita端口，尽管Sony早已停止了掌上电脑的第一方开发，许多人认为他们已完全放弃了它。 是什么导致您决定在Vita上发布？

JAMES SILVAThis was something we agreed with Sony about in advance in our publishing terms, and the port was actually completed by the incredibly talented Tom Spilman and Sickhead Games. Fun fact: Tom’s first build that he sent me was a pretty much perfect 1:1 recreation of the PS4 build…and it ran at around 0.5 FPS.

JAMES SILVA这是我们在发布条款时事先与Sony达成一致的想法，而移植实际上是由非常有才华的Tom Spilman和Sickhead Games完成的。 有趣的事实：Tom寄给我的第一个建筑是PS4建筑的几乎完美的1：1娱乐……它的运行速度约为0.5 FPS。

SUPERJUMPWhen the Salt & Sanctuary port for the Switch was done, it was handled by the port studio Blitworks. Did you personally seek out the studio and arrange for them to do the port, or was that something arranged by Nintendo?

SUPERJUMP完成Switch的Salt＆Sanctuary端口后，由端口工作室Blitworks处理。 您是亲自寻找工作室并安排他们去港口旅行，还是任天堂安排的事情？

JAMES SILVAI’ve actually been in touch with Blitworks since the Xbox 360 days, but platforms have become a lot more open since then, so it really made sense to approach them about a Switch port.

因为在Xbox360天JAMES SILVA我其实一直在与Blitworks接触，但平台已经成为自话，很多更加开放，所以这真的是有意义的接近他们有关交换机端口。

SUPERJUMPFor your game I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT!!!1, you sing the song that plays throughout the game. I’m wondering the order of things with the development, did you have the idea for the “game with a song” first, or did you create the game and then decided it needed the song?

SUPERJUMP对于您的游戏，我唱了GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT !!! 1，您唱了整个游戏中播放的歌曲。 我想知道开发过程的顺序，您是先想到了“带歌曲的游戏”，还是先创建了游戏然后决定需要这首歌？

JAMES SILVAI made the whole thing in about two weeks, and as I remember it, the idea was that the developer of this game is serenading you through his process while you play it. I think the song absolutely came first, as the game had to be synced with the song. There isn’t that much game to it. It’s mostly a song.

詹姆斯·西尔瓦(JAMES SILVA)我在大约两周的时间内就完成了整个制作过程，而我记得，当时的想法是，这款游戏的开发人员会在您玩游戏的过程中为您演唱小夜曲。 我认为歌曲绝对是第一位的，因为游戏必须与歌曲同步。 没有太多的游戏。 主要是一首歌。

SUPERJUMPYou have said that you are working on a new project but, so far as I could find, you have not gone public with any details. Are you able to give us any clues as to what the project is all about?

您说过您正在开发一个新项目，但据我所知，您尚未公开任何细节。 您是否可以向我们提供有关项目内容的任何线索？

JAMES SILVAHave I said that I’m working on a new project? I’d like to release a new game someday, but I can’t really say if I’m even working on something at the moment, which is truly tragic. I’ve learned that anything in the tag realm of stylistic/2D/action/RPG/platformer is where I’m most comfortable, so I probably won’t try to unleash a kart racer or deck builder on the world anytime soon.

JAMES SILVA我是否说过我正在从事一个新项目？ 我想有一天发布一款新游戏，但我现在不能说我是否还在做某事，这确实是悲惨的。 我了解到stylistic / 2D / action / RPG / platformer的标签领域中的任何内容都是我最舒服的地方，因此我很可能不会在不久的将来释放出卡丁车赛车手或甲板制造者。

SUPERJUMPThank you so much James for making time to answer our questions. Best of luck with your upcoming projects and we look forward to talking with you again soon!

超级谢谢你詹姆斯抽出宝贵时间回答我们的问题。 祝您接下来的项目一切顺利，我们期待与您再次交谈！

JAMES SILVAThank you too, stay safe!

JAMES SILVA谢谢您，也请注意安全！