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粉丝聚光灯 - VGCartography
Fan Spotlight: VGCartography
2024年4月5日
Apr 5, 2024
认识一下Max，他也被称为VGCartography。在2020年的封锁期间，他们通过VGCartography找到了慰藉，这是一个源于他们对游戏和数字创意热爱的业余项目。白天，Max是一名（非游戏）专业开发人员，但VGCartography让他们能够探索PS、视频编辑并与在线社区分享他们的作品。
Meet Max, also known as VGCartography. During the lockdowns of 2020, they found solace in VGCartography, a hobby project born out of their love for gaming and digital creativity. By day, Max is a (non-game) professional developer, but VGCartography allows them to explore Photoshop, video editing, and share their work with an online community.
问：你的VGCartography项目是如何开始的？是什么吸引了你进入制图领域？
Q: How did your VGCartography project start and what drew you to cartography?
我一直喜欢游戏地图和攻略指南。我想，这可能是因为你手中掌握着整个游戏关卡的微缩模型，并在脑海中玩转它的想法。当疫情开始时，我发现自己有很多空闲时间，于是开始探索一些粉丝项目，剖析旧电子游戏并提取模型和类似的东西。我觉得有机会利用这些关卡模型来创建复杂区域上方的有趣图表，就像我在那些旧指南中看到的那样。由于TRosettaStone等粉丝项目的帮助，古墓丽影得到了很好的记录，而其标志性的关卡设计使其成为显而易见的首选。当我在各个古墓丽影社区分享这些早期材料时，我得到的积极反应，鼓励我继续扩大我的项目。我制作了一些其他的东西并随机分享它们，然后我决定更集中精力打造自己的VGCartography品牌，以便人们能够发现我制作的其他作品。
I've always loved game maps and strategy guides. I suppose it's the idea of holding a whole game level in miniature in your hand and playing through it in your mind. When the pandemic started, I found myself with plenty of free time, and I started exploring a number of fan projects dissecting old video games and extracting models and such. I felt there was an opportunity to use those level models to create interesting diagrams of complex areas from above, like I had seen in those old guides. Tomb Raider was very well documented thanks to fan projects like TRosettaStone, and the iconic level designs made it an obvious first choice. The positive reactions I got from various TR communities when I shared these early materials encouraged me to grow my project. I made a handful of other things and shared them randomly before I decided to make a more concentrated effort to brand myself as VGCartography so people would be able to discover other things I made.
问：是什么激发了你对古墓丽影系列的兴趣？
Q: What sparked your interest in the Tomb Raider franchise?
1997年圣诞节时，我收到了一台PS1，里面附带了一张包含《古墓丽影II》试玩版的样本光盘。那是我选择的第一款试玩版——我之前只在NES上玩过游戏，所以在那个3D洞穴里跑来跑去，趟过水，听到远处老虎的咆哮声，简直令人震惊。不久后我就买了第一款游戏，并为之痴迷。我喜欢在这些被遗忘的地方探险，伴随着不祥的音乐和孤独的感觉，你不必匆忙或追逐分数，可以按自己的节奏进行。全动态视频中有电梯和摩托车上的酷炫特技。当然，我也喜欢劳拉以各种滑稽的方式死亡。我记得在附近的公园里跳来跳去，假装世界就像古墓丽影一样由网格方块组成。多年来，我一直持续关注这个系列。
When I got a PS1 for Christmas '97, it came with a sampler disc that included the Tomb Raider II demo. It was the first demo I picked - the only games I'd seen before were on our NES, so running around that 3D cave and wading into water and hearing the roar of the tiger in the distance was mind-blowing. I got the first game soon after and was obsessed. I liked exploring these forgotten places with the ominous music and the feeling of solitude, how you didn't have to be in a hurry or track a score but you could go at your own pace. The FMVs with cool stunts on elevators and motorcycles. And of course, I liked all the cartoonish ways Lara could meet an untimely end. I remember jumping around the nearby park pretending the world was made of grid squares like TR was. I've continued with the series over the years.
问：你能带我们了解一下你创作古墓丽影地图的过程吗？
Q: Could you walk us through your process of creating a Tomb Raider map?
在编写自己的古墓丽影关卡查看器时，我发现了Popov72的出色项目，即基于浏览器的《古墓丽影怀旧版》（https://github.com/Popov72/TRN2）。我修改了相机以正交方式渲染关卡，这意味着对象不会因为距离而变形，我可以捕捉到一切按比例缩放的漂亮伪等距视图。我还添加了一些控制选项来隐藏或显示单个房间。一旦我找到了关卡整体的好角度并截取了一些屏幕截图，我就会转到房间控制部分，关闭除了我需要隔离的区域之外的所有内容——如地下隧道、房间内部、隐藏在其他东西后面的地方。这些通常会作为小切口放在地图的周围。我也会尝试捕捉那些视觉上难以解释的地方，比如有多层楼可以分开的房间。如果某个地方有物品，我希望能够非常明确地展示出来。
In the midst of writing my own Tomb Raider level viewer, I found this great project by Popov72, the browser-based Tomb Raider Nostalgia (https://github.com/Popov72/TRN2). I modified the camera to render the levels orthographically, meaning objects aren't distorted with distance and I could capture a nice pseudo-isometric view with everything to scale. I also added some controls for hiding or showing individual rooms. Once I find a good angle of the overall level and take some screenshots, I go to the room controls and turn everything off except for whatever areas I need to isolate - underground tunnels, room interiors, places hidden behind something else. These will usually go on the map around the periphery as a little cutout. I'll also try to grab these for any places that are hard to interpret visually like rooms that have multiple floors I can separate. If the place has an item, I want to be able to show it pretty unambiguously.
然后转到图像编辑器。我通常会为新游戏制作一个模板文件，在那里我确定字体、颜色、徽标、图标，并将其用作每张地图的基础。将所有内容布局以最小化图像尺寸可能会非常令人满意，也可能会非常令人沮丧。由于我不耐烦，所以在绘制地图时我不会自己玩游戏，我会在YouTube上找一个100%通关的人，这样我就可以更轻松地浏览。添加一些物品和开关的标签，添加一些评论以增加趣味性（尽管我避免像为某些游戏所做的那样提供完整的通关指南），如果还有空余空间，可能会添加一张酷炫敌人的图片。有一段时间，我确实尝试过将所有敌人添加到地图上，但这变得太过繁琐，尤其是在《古墓丽影2》和《古墓丽影3》中。
Then off to the image editor. I'll usually make a template file for a new game where I figure out the fonts and colors, logos, icons, and use it as a base for each map. Laying everything out to minimize the image dimensions can be very satisfying or very frustrating. Since I am impatient, I don't play the game myself while mapping, I find someone who has a 100% level playthrough on YouTube so I can scrub around more easily. Add some labels for items and switches, add a few comments for flavor (although stopping short of a full walkthrough like I've made for some games), and maybe a picture of a cool enemy if there's empty space left over. At one point I did experiment with adding all the enemies to the maps, but it became too overwhelming especially in 2 and 3.
问：在你创建的古墓丽影地图中，哪一张最具挑战性，哪一张最无缝结合？
Q: Among the Tomb Raider maps you've created, which posed the greatest challenge, and which came together most seamlessly?
《古墓丽影1》的亚特兰蒂斯关卡让我在第一次尝试制作地图时就放弃了。它是一个巨大的柱子，房间螺旋式地绕在外面，你需要反复穿过中心，而试图合理地展示中央柱子上各个部分的排列位置真的非常困难。我最终采取了“蛮力”的方法，将它们分成单独的迷你地图，中间房间重复出现，但这种特定的布局引起了很多麻烦。
TR1's Atlantis made me quit making maps the first time I attempted it. It's a massive pillar with rooms spiraling up the outside and you repeatedly cross through the center, and trying to sensibly show where along the central column the various sections were arranged was really difficult. I ended up taking the "brute force" approach and splitting them into separate minimaps with the middle room repeated but that particular arrangement caused a lot of headaches.
VGCartography - 亚特兰蒂斯
VGCartography - Atlantis
另一方面，我对《古墓丽影2》的冰霜宫殿关卡的结果感到满意。它开始时有一个臭名昭著的弹簧板房间，你可以在那里弹射到不同的楼层，我尝试将楼层拉开，并绘制了长跳跃弧线，以直观地展示哪些弹簧板可以将你带到不同的地方，而不是使用标签或其他方式。这给人一种有趣的“堆叠纸张层”的感觉。
On the flipside, I was satisfied with how TR2's Ice Palace turned out. It has an infamous springboard room at the start where you catapult to different floors, and I sort of stretched the floors apart and drew long jumping arcs to show which springboards got you to different places visually instead of using labels or whatever. It gives it a fun "stacked layers of paper" feel.
VGCartography - 冰霜宫殿
VGCartography - Ice Palace
问：在你迄今为止创建的每部古墓丽影游戏中，你最喜欢的地图是哪一张，为什么？
Q: What is your favourite map from each Tomb Raider game you’ve created so far and why?
《古墓丽影I》 - 弥达斯宫殿
Tomb Raider I - Palace Midas –
VGCartography - 弥达斯宫殿
VGCartography - Palace Midas
对我来说，这个关卡是原型。开关谜题、花园、火焰跳跃、高耸的水渠、巧妙利用房间交换、在高高的天桥上来回穿梭，当然还有那只金手……它拥有一切。绘制这张地图很有趣，因为内容非常多样，这是我最喜欢的古墓丽影关卡，我希望能够忠实还原它。
To me, this level is the archetype. The switch puzzles, the gardens, the fire jumps, the towering aqueducts, the clever use of room swaps, how you double back across the level on high catwalks, obviously the golden hand... it had everything. This one was fun to map because there's so much variety, it's my favorite Tomb Raider level and I wanted to do it justice.
《古墓丽影II》 - 水下40英寻
Tomb Raider II - 40 Fathoms –
VGCatrography - 水下40英寻
VGCatrography - 40 Fathoms
我喜欢这张地图有60%是一个巨大的深蓝色方块，上面没有其他任何东西。而且，上面还有一只鲨鱼！
I love that 60% of this map is one giant dark blue square with nothing else. Also, there's a shark on it!
《古墓丽影III》 - 失落的天诺城
Tomb Raider III - Lost City of Tinnos -
VGCatrography - 失落的天诺城
VGCatrography - Lost City of Tinnos
又一个传奇关卡，由许多不同的部分组成。为了让它感觉完整，这个关卡需要很多房间的调整和额外的细节，比如谜题图和迷宫。
Another legendary level with a bunch of different pieces. This one required a lot of room surgery and extra details like the puzzle diagrams and the maze to feel comprehensive.
问：你有什么想对古墓丽影社区说的话吗？
Q: Do you have a message you'd like to share with the Tomb Raider community?
我鼓励感兴趣的人阅读Tomb of Ash对希瑟·吉布森、理查德·莫顿和其他经典古墓丽影系列关卡设计师的采访。这能让你深入了解制作过程，并且很有趣地查看是谁制作了哪些关卡，以及在他们的设计中寻找共通点。我认为古墓丽影从一开始就拥有出色的关卡设计，而那些让这一切成为现实的人却鲜为人知，让我们向他们表达一些爱意吧！
I encourage interested people to read the Tomb of Ash interviews with Heather Gibson, Richard Morton and other level designers from the classic Tomb Raider series. It gives insight into the process and it's fun to look at the list of who made which levels and look for patterns in their designs. I think Tomb Raider has been blessed with fantastic level design from the get-go and the people who made that happen are underappreciated, show some love!
你可以在这里关注Max的作品：
You can follow Max’s work here:
· YouTube
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Do you have a series of art or project you’re particularly proud of? Share it with us on social for a chance to be featured in our next spotlight!
