Description
A solo game is a game or game mode intended for play by a single player.
Discussion
Solo games can stretch the definition of what a game is, but solo games have been around for some time. Patience, or Solitaire card games, war games, interactive fiction (e.g., Choose Your Own Adventure® books), crossword puzzles, paper-and-pencil games, word searches, and many more singleplayer, game-like pursuits are very popular and have been there for years. What is new is the explosion of demand, and supply, for solo board games, whether as standalone games or as game modes in multiplayer games. Rather than quibbling over the definition, we choose to embrace the varieties and possibilities of solo gaming. Solo games are closely related to cooperative games in the sense that the player plays against the game system itself, rather than a sentient opponent. Solo games can be considered as a special case of co-op games in which there is only one player—and thus, no alpha player problem. While most co-ops can be, and are, played solo, communications-based co-op games like The Mind typically can’t be played solo at all. Cooperative Limited Card Games (a genre, i.e., a blend of collectible card games and deck-building games) are very popular among solo players, and the dungeon-crawl-style rogue-like game seems especially amenable to solo play. Players can usually brew their own unofficial solo game from these games or from many non-communicationbased co-ops by playing more than one position in a co-op game, for example. The modern solo design pushes beyond that basic approach to solo play. We can classify a few kinds of solo games: goal-based, record-based, and
AI-based. In goal-based games, players try to achieve some goal, usually a Victory Point (VP) total, within a certain number of turns, or a certain amount of time. This type of design is most similar to multiplayer cooperative games. These games might have an AI opponent of sorts, but typically the opponent is an asymmetric villain of some kind, or even an entirely abstract process, like a spreading fire in Flash Point: Fire Rescue. The AI is not an automated version of a human player who competes as another human player might. Record-based games are those whose goal is to beat your previous high score. While this may seem like a mundane and dull victory condition, some games have developed large solitaire followings, complete with ladders and statistics that transform the game from a solo game to a community-based meta-competition. Ganz schön clever is one example of this type of game and community competition. Some goal-based games can also work as recordbased games, as long as some scoring metric can be captured that adequately measures game performance. Super Skill Pinball uses this method to great effect, as the pinball metaphor naturally lends itself to players competing for the high score. AI-based games attempt to recreate the multiplayer experience by introducing an automated player or players. Typically, this means some basic algorithm governs the moves of the AI player. These systems can be challenging to design and usually depend on decision flowcharts, as well as dice, cards, or other randomizers to create uncertainty about the AI player’s choices. However, other approaches to AI opponents are also possible, as shown by Morten Monrad Pedersen’s Automa system. Pedersen’s Automa system is more a philosophy and approach than an official system, and he and many other designers have used its principles to create Automas for games as varied as Scythe, Anachrony, Baseball Highlights 2045, and Between Two Cities. The key principles are that the solo game should feel as much as possible like the multiplayer game and that AIs should be representational, rather than procedural. The AI doesn’t observe the rules and doesn’t play the game as a player might. Rather, the AI focuses on the impact that an opponent has on the player’s plans and emulates those—a kind of Potemkin player. In Pedersen’s words, the AI is only the shell of a human player, and while the humans in a game of Viticulture have vineyards and grow grapes, the Automa players do not; they just give the impression that they do. In practice, Automas will claim action spaces, draft cards, block routes, and otherwise interfere with human players, but they will not collect resources, build buildings, or score victory points.
Another method for determining the behavior of an AI opponent is to have the player be the opponent as well. In this approach, the player wins or loses based on the fate of their primary faction, but they also play for the other factions in the game. At certain points in the game, the player may be required to change factions, typically switching from controlling their original faction to controlling the weakest of the other factions. Knowing that changes of faction control are part of the game gives the player incentive to keep all the factions relatively close, while putting their currently controlled faction in a position to grab victory. The Peloponnesian War is one of the earliest examples of this genre of solo play. Solo games are enjoyed by a large, active, and growing community that continues to homebrew solo versions of multiplayer games, host contests, and challenges and enjoy an unexpected comradery despite the solitary nature of their pastime. Increasingly, including a solo mode is a desirable feature for published multiplayer games, and the success of a number of solo-only games, like Friday and Hostage Negotiator, has established that there is a market even for the loneliest of player counts.
Sample Games
Ambush (Butterfield and Smith, 1983) Anachrony (Amann, Peter, and Turczi, 2017) Arkham Horror: The Card Game (French and Newman, 2016) B-17: Queen of the Skies (Frank and Shelley, 1981) Baseball Highlights: 2045 (Fitzgerald, 2015) Between Two Cities (O’Malley, Pedersen, and Rosset, 2015) Flash Point: Fire Rescue (Lanzig, 2011) Friday (Friese, 2011) Ganz schön clever (Warsch, 2018) Hostage Negotiator (Porfirio, 2015) Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (French, 2011) Mage Knight Board Game (Chvátil, 2011) One Deck Dungeon (Cieslik, 2016) Onirim (Torbey, 2010) Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island (Trzewiczek, 2012) Scythe (Stegmaier, 2016) Terraforming Mars (Fryxelius, 2016) The Peloponnesian War (Herman, 1991)
描述
单人游戏（Solo Game）是供单名玩家玩的游戏或游戏模式。
讨论
单人游戏可能会扩展“游戏”的定义，但单人游戏已经存在了一段时间。接龙（Patience）或单人纸牌游戏、战争游戏、互动小说（例如《惊险岔路口》系列丛书/Choose Your Own Adventure®）、填字游戏、纸笔游戏、单词搜索以及许多单人游戏式追求非常受欢迎，并且已经存在多年。新的是对单人棋盘游戏的需求和供应的爆炸式增长，无论是作为独立游戏还是多人游戏中的游戏模式。我们选择拥抱单人游戏的多样性和可能性，而不是在定义上争论不休。单人游戏与合作游戏密切相关，因为玩家是对抗游戏系统本身，而不是有知觉的对手。单人游戏可以被视为只有一名玩家的合作游戏的特例——因此，没有阿尔法玩家问题。虽然大多数合作游戏可以并且正在单人玩，像《The Mind》这样的基于通信的合作游戏通常根本无法单人玩。合作成长卡牌游戏（Limited Card Games，一种类型，即集换式卡牌游戏和牌库构建游戏的混合体）在单人玩家中非常受欢迎，而地下城爬行风格的Roguelike游戏似乎特别适合单人玩。玩家通常可以从这些游戏或许多非基于通信的合作游戏中酝酿出自己的非官方单人游戏，例如通过在合作游戏中扮演多个位置。现代单人设计超越了那种基本的单人游戏方法。我们可以对几种单人游戏进行分类：基于目标、基于记录和
基于AI。在基于目标的游戏中，玩家试图在一定数量的回合或一定时间内实现某个目标，通常是胜利点数（VP）总数。这种类型的设计最类似于多人合作游戏。这些游戏可能会有某种AI对手，但通常对手是某种非对称的反派，甚至是一个完全抽象的过程，比如在《Flash Point: Fire Rescue》中蔓延的火灾。AI不是像另一个人类玩家那样竞争的人类玩家的自动化版本。基于记录的游戏是那些目标是击败你之前最高分的游戏。虽然这似乎是一个平凡而沉闷的胜利条件，但一些游戏已经发展了大量的单人追随者，配有阶梯和统计数据，将游戏从单人游戏转变为基于社区的元竞赛。《Ganz schön clever》是这种类型的游戏和社区竞赛的一个例子。一些基于目标的游戏也可以作为基于纪录的游戏运作，只要能捕获足以衡量游戏表现的计分指标。《Super Skill Pinball》非常有效地使用了这种方法，因为弹球隐喻自然适合玩家争夺高分。基于AI的游戏试图通过引入一个或多个自动化玩家来重现多人游戏体验。通常，这意味着一些基本算法控制AI玩家的移动。这些系统设计起来很有挑战性，通常依赖于决策流程图，以及骰子、卡牌或其他随机生成器来为AI玩家的选择制造不确定性。然而，AI对手的其他方法也是可能的，如Morten Monrad Pedersen的Automa系统所示。Pedersen的Automa系统不仅是一个官方系统，更是一种哲学和方法，他和许多其他设计师已经使用其原则为《Scythe》、《anachrony》、《Baseball Highlights 2045》和《Between Two Cities》等各种游戏创建了Automas。关键原则是单人游戏应该尽可能感觉像多人游戏，并且AI应该是代表性的，而不是程序性的。AI不遵守规则，也不像玩家那样玩游戏。相反，AI专注于对手对玩家计划的影响并加以模仿——一种波将金村式的玩家。用Pedersen的话来说，AI只是人类玩家的外壳，虽然《Viticulture》游戏中的人类拥有葡萄园并种植葡萄，但Automa玩家没有；他们只是给人一种他们这样做的印象。在实践中，Automas将声明行动空间、轮抽卡牌、阻挡路线，并以其他方式干扰人类玩家，但他们不会收集资源、建造建筑物或得分。
另一种确定AI对手行为的方法是让玩家同时也成为对手。在这种方法中，玩家根据主要阵营的命运获胜或失败，但他们也为游戏中的其他阵营而战。在游戏的某些时刻，玩家可能被要求更换阵营，通常从控制原来的阵营切换到控制其他阵营中最弱的一个。知道阵营控制权的变更作为游戏的一部分，这激励玩家保持所有阵营相对接近，同时使他们当前控制的阵营处于夺取胜利的位置。《The Peloponnesian War》是此类单人游戏的最早例子之一。单人游戏受到一个庞大、活跃且不断增长的社区的喜爱，该社区继续自制多人游戏的单人版本，举办比赛和挑战，并非在独自消遣的本质中享受意想不到的友情。包括单人模式越来越成为出版的多人游戏的理想功能，像《Friday》和《Hostage Negotiator》这样的一些纯单人游戏的成功已经确立，即使是最孤独的玩家数量也有市场。
游戏范例
Ambush (Butterfield and Smith, 1983) - 《Ambush》 Anachrony (Amann, Peter, and Turczi, 2017) - 《时空乱序/Anachrony》 Arkham Horror: The Card Game (French and Newman, 2016) - 《阿卡姆恐怖：卡牌版》 B-17: Queen of the Skies (Frank and Shelley, 1981) - 《B-17: Queen of the Skies》 Baseball Highlights: 2045 (Fitzgerald, 2015) - 《棒球高光：2045》 Between Two Cities (O’Malley, Pedersen, and Rosset, 2015) - 《双城之间》 Flash Point: Fire Rescue (Lanzig, 2011) - 《Flash Point: Fire Rescue》 Friday (Friese, 2011) - 《星期五/Friday》 Ganz schön clever (Warsch, 2018) - 《绝顶聪明/Ganz schön clever》 Hostage Negotiator (Porfirio, 2015) - 《谈判专家/Hostage Negotiator》 Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (French, 2011) - 《魔戒：卡牌版》 Mage Knight Board Game (Chvátil, 2011) - 《魔法骑士》 One Deck Dungeon (Cieslik, 2016) - 《One Deck Dungeon》 Onirim (Torbey, 2010) - 《梦中楼阁/Onirim》 Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island (Trzewiczek, 2012) - 《鲁滨逊漂流记：诅咒岛之谜》 Scythe (Stegmaier, 2016) - 《镰刀战争/Scythe》 Terraforming Mars (Fryxelius, 2016) - 《殖民火星》 The Peloponnesian War (Herman, 1991) - 《伯罗奔尼撒战争》