过去的游戏大作总是以动辄上G的大容量和夸张的画面音效为噱头，资深玩家对理念简单的休闲游戏不屑一顾——如今几乎所有人都听说过或者玩过《植物大战僵尸》和《愤怒的小鸟》，不少电脑族的机子上还常备着十几个不同类型的小游戏，好打发零碎的时间，而日益便利的智能手机以及移动平台也让这股休闲游戏热有愈演愈烈的趋势……
今天你玩了吗？
I'm about to race a tiny, digital car through the miniature[微型的] streets of Paris—on my cell phone. But the amazing thing is that I'm racing against David Hague, who's playing on his cell phone across the room.
我正要在巴黎的微型街道里用虚拟小车进行比赛——在手机上。但更牛的是我准备与戴维·黑格比赛，他就在房间那头玩手机。
Hague (Gameloft): Behind me you're about 210 feet.
黑格(智乐软件)：你在我后面，约210英尺（约64米）。
Hague is with Gameloft, the company that designed the Asphalt[沥青] Urban GT Racing. By using high speed cellular phone[手机] networks, you can race anyone with the same technology anywhere in the world.
黑格在设计《都市赛车》的智乐软件公司上班。通过高速的手机网络，你可以与世界任何一个角落使用同样技术的人比赛飙车。
Hague: It really adds a lot to all of the games. The direct competition with other people just makes it so much more real.
黑格：这确实让游戏平添许多乐趣。直接与他人进行竞技让游戏更有真实感了。
Cell phone games have made huge technological leaps over the last couple of years. What used to be a few simple games that came with your phone, like solitaire[单人跳棋] or brick breaker, has morphed[变种] into hundreds of selections that allow you to play in 3D or against real, live opponents[对手]. The problem for companies is that only a small fraction[小部分] of people with cell phones know how to download the games. But with the lure[诱惑] of one billion potential customers around the world with cell phones, developers are trying to unlock the secret of what people want in a wireless game.
最近几年，手机游戏在技术上取得了重大飞跃。过去随机附送的几款简单游戏——比如单人象棋或者打砖块游戏——如今演变为数百种让你享受3D效果或者与真人对手一较高下的作品。游戏公司面临的问题是只有一小部分手机用户知道如何下载这些游戏。但全世界拥有手机的潜在用户高达10亿，（这块“大蛋糕”）诱使游戏开发商力求弄明白人们对无线游戏有什么要求。
The game consoles[控制台] like Xbox and PlayStation rely on explosive action, with these intense graphics and sound. On the cell phone, most people want what are called casual games—something easy to play while they wait for a bus.
Xbox及PS等游戏机依靠的是爆炸性的动作场面，加上强劲的画面和音效。而在手机上，大多数人需要的则是所谓的“休闲游戏”，在等车的时候可以随便玩玩。
One of the most popular games, installed on 50 million phones around the world, is Bejeweled, a game that requires you to match up similar-shaped jewels to create three in a row. If it sounds simple, that's the idea.
最受欢迎的游戏之一就是《宝石迷阵》——全世界有五千万部手机上装了这款要求你将三块形状相同的宝石连成一线的游戏。如果这听起来非常简单，那正是宗旨所在。
John Vechey (Co-founder, PopCap): It's kind of like a meditation[冥想] thing, you know—when you play Bejeweled, you sit there, and you're just doing a very simple exercise for not much time, and so it just allows you just to kinda refresh yourself a little bit, when you're in the elevator, you're on the subway. And I think it becomes this addictive[上瘾的] thing.
约翰·韦奇(宝开公司创始人之一)：这有点像冥想之类的活动，你知道——你在玩《宝石迷阵》，你坐在那儿，进行一项不用耗费多少时间的简单锻炼，这让你在电梯或者地铁里打起精神来。我想它就这样让人渐渐上瘾了。
Vechey says the key to cell phone games is realizing that the people who use them come from a very different demographic[人口统计学].
韦奇说，手机游戏的关键在于认识到手机用户来自非常不同的人群。
Vechey: This is not the traditional hardcore[中坚分子] gamer of the 16-25-year-old male, you know; this is predominantly[主要地] female, it skews[倾斜] older. One of the great things about casual games is you don't have to have a history of playing games to enjoy a casual game.
韦奇：你知道，这不是传统意义上那些由16-25岁男性构成的铁杆玩家；这个群体基本为女性，年龄层也偏大。休闲游戏的优势之一是，即使你不是资深玩家，也可以享受个中乐趣。
With that in mind, cell phone game designers have been more open to games that require strategy instead of action that can be played with one hand and paused easily.
有鉴于此，手机游戏设计师更倾向于策略性而不是动作性。这类游戏单手也能操纵，而且随时可以暂停。
The design of the game will take months, but whether or not it's successful is in some ways out of their hands. Cell phone games are sold mostly through the cellular providers and people tend to buy the ones that providers prominently[显著地] display or whose name they recognize. It's telling that even with all the technological innovations, one of the best selling games for the cell phone is 20 years old: the vintage[古老的] computer hit, Tetris.
游戏设计一般耗时数月，但成品能否成功在某种层面上并不是他们能掌控的。手机游戏大多通过手机供应商进行销售，人们倾向于购买供应商重点演示的游戏或者自己熟知的品牌。即使相关技术出现了各种革新，据说其中一款最畅销的手机游戏到现在已经有20年历史了，那就是经典电脑游戏《俄罗斯方块》。
Link: The Brain Behind Plants vs. Zombies
链接：《植物大战僵尸》之父
George Fan has a knack[诀窍] for making weird ideas work. His vision of fish that poop[即poo，大便] money became Insaniquarium, which won an award at the 2002 Independent Games Festival and later became a PopCap hit. His next idea, about using plants to attack wave after wave of zombies, turned out to be one of the most popular casual games around the world.
“I thought plants actually make really good towers because they're stationary[固定的], they don't move, and you can give them a lot of personality,” Fan recalled. “Then I came up with the idea of zombies being the aggressors[侵略者]. They're perfect because they don't move very fast, they just kind of shamble[蹒跚] across the screen.”
Zombies also provided Fan with the opportunity to shake up the typical tower defense formula[规则] of planting towers and blocking off enemies. A hungry zombie can decimate[大批杀害] an entire line of defense, especially in later levels of the game.
“I don't think I'd be satisfied making games that everyone has played before. I think my job is to try to come up with new experiences for people to play. It's nice to be on a small team that has the freedom of making more unique games, and that's where a lot of the most bold ideas are coming from these days,” he said.
范乔治特别擅长将奇思妙想付诸实施。他那“小鱼拉金币”的想法成就了《怪怪水族箱》——这个2002年独立游戏节获奖作品后来成了宝开公司的当红游戏。他接着又想到“植物抵抗着僵尸们一波又一波的袭击”这个点子，由此产生了全世界最受欢迎的其中一款休闲游戏。
“我认为植物其实是很好的炮塔，因为它们固定在原地，不会移动，你可以赋予它们丰富的个性，”范回忆道。“然后我想到用僵尸作为进攻者。它们非常合适，因为它们移动速度不快，只是步履蹒跚地走过屏幕。”
僵尸还让范得以改变塔防游戏通过设置炮塔拦截敌人的固定模式。尤其到了游戏后期，一只饥饿的僵尸可以一下子摧毁整条防线。
“我不认为自己会满足于制作大家都玩过的游戏。我的职责是想出新主意，让人们得到全新的游戏体验。在小团队里工作感觉很棒，我可以自由创作更特别的游戏，如今许多最大胆的想法往往源自这样的团队，”他这样说道。
Link: Angry Birds Recruit!
链接：让小鸟再飞一会儿！
First, why are they angry?
Peter Vesterbacka (CEO, Rovio): The birds are angry because the pigs steal their eggs. You know, if somebody would steal your eggs, you would be really angry too.
The physics-based game is addictive, getting the arc off the catapult[弹弓] just right.
Andrew Stalbow (20th Century Fox): It looks pretty simple, but it's pretty hard to master. 
Andrew Stalbow is senior vice president of Mobile for 20th Century Fox. He thinks Rovio got everything right with Angry Birds: the degree of difficulty, the fact that it appeals to both kids and adults, the marketing...
Stalbow: They've created these kind of adorable little videos that just spread virally[病毒式地] across social networks, and it's something that we really aspire to in terms of the games that we've created here at Fox.
The American behemoth[庞然大物] 20th Century Fox wanted something from this little company in Finland. So Stalbow and another Fox executive flew to Helsinki. They showed Peter Vesterbacka and the team at Rovio clips of their new movie Rio.
Rovio agreed to create a new game featuring the angry birds and the exotic[异国的] birds from Rio. Now, remember, Angry Birds has been downloaded over 100 million times. Fox would be thrilled to get that audience for Rio. And what's in it for the Angry Birds?
Stalbow: The marketing power that we can bring to promote the new game on the platforms.
首先，它们为什么生气呢？
彼特·韦斯特巴卡(火游戏首席执行官)：小鸟们愤怒的原因是肥猪偷了它们的蛋。你知道，如果有人要偷你的蛋，你也会很生气的。
这个以物理学为基础的游戏让人非常容易上瘾，弹弓的拉弓要恰到好处。
安德鲁·斯塔伯(20世纪福克斯)：这游戏看起来简单，要成为高手可不容易。
安德鲁·斯塔伯是20世纪福克斯公司移动娱乐部的副总裁。他认为火游戏公司的《愤怒的小鸟》在各方面都无懈可击——无论是游戏难度的设置、对大人小孩的吸引力，还是营销策略等等……
斯塔伯：他们创作了这些可爱的小短片，后者在社交网络里像病毒一样疯狂传播。我们在
福克斯（移动）制作的游戏因此大受启发。
连20世纪福克斯这样的美国巨头也希望这家芬兰小公司帮个忙。于是斯塔伯与另一位福克斯高层一同飞往赫尔辛基。他们向彼特·韦斯特巴卡及其团队展示了新作《里约大冒险》。
火游戏同意制作一款新游戏，里面有愤怒的小鸟以及该动画里充满异国风情的鸟儿。别忘了，《愤怒的小鸟》的下载量高达一亿多次。如果能将这么多用户吸引去看《里约大冒险》，福克斯公司可得激动坏了。《愤怒的小鸟》又能得到什么好处呢？
斯塔伯：我们的营销力量可以在各种平台上推广这款新游戏。