I was wrong about game development

我对游戏开发的看法错了

July 6, 2026 Update: Since this post, I submitted a new version of Burst (1.2.2) which will go live soon. It removes the tip jar as it obviously gave off the wrong signal with the in-app purchase label in the App Store listing. This post also made it to Hacker News. 2026年7月6日更新：自本文发布以来，我已经提交了 Burst 的新版本（1.2.2），该版本即将上线。我移除了打赏功能，因为它在 App Store 的“内购”标签下显然传达了错误的信号。这篇文章也登上了 Hacker News。

A little over two weeks ago I released Burst and since then I added in a ton of bug fixes, and a completely new Zen mode for people who want to play without sweating the leader boards. Zen mode was born from the realisation that I was wrong about game development. I thought making a game was all about what it looked like, how it played and how it felt. And in thinking that, I was so close to the truth, but also so far away. 两周多前，我发布了 Burst。自那以后，我修复了大量 Bug，并为那些不想在排行榜上争得头破血流的玩家增加了一个全新的“禅模式”（Zen mode）。禅模式的诞生源于我意识到自己对游戏开发的看法错了。我曾以为制作游戏的关键在于画面、玩法和手感。持有这种想法，我离真相很近，却又相去甚远。

The thing I overlooked and underestimated was how hard it is to get the difficulty level of the game just right. Burst only has a couple of levers to pull to make the game easier or more challenging, but even with those few levers, I still got it wrong the first time. In the very first release version of Burst, the game was a bit too easy. Games would go on forever, and it felt stale and boring after a short while. 我所忽视和低估的是，将游戏难度调整到恰到好处有多么困难。Burst 只有几个可以调节难度的参数，但即便如此，我第一次还是弄错了。在 Burst 的最初版本中，游戏太简单了。游戏可以无限进行下去，玩一会儿就会让人感到乏味和无聊。

I wanted to adjust that slightly, so in a subsequent release I made the game more difficult; the bubbles would come at you faster, forcing the player to think a bit more. Quite a few people wrote in to say that the game was now too difficult, that they played because it was so chill and relaxing. The leaderboards were already filled up with massive scores from the first version, and now those scores felt unobtainable. 我想稍微调整一下，于是在后续版本中增加了难度；气泡出现的速度更快了，迫使玩家需要多思考一些。不少人写信告诉我，游戏现在太难了，他们玩这款游戏原本是因为它很轻松解压。排行榜上已经充斥着第一版本留下的高分，现在这些分数看起来遥不可及。

And that’s why I created Zen mode, which brought back that initial difficulty level, but this time without the leaderboards so people can enjoy the game without worrying about their score and just relax. Maybe down the line I have to reset the leaderboards, but this will surely be a controversial decision, so I want to think about it a bit more before doing that. 这就是我创建“禅模式”的原因。它恢复了最初的难度，但去掉了排行榜，这样人们就可以在不担心分数的情况下享受游戏，纯粹地放松心情。也许未来我不得不重置排行榜，但这肯定会是一个充满争议的决定，所以在采取行动前，我还需要再多考虑一下。

As I said, Burst only has a few levers to pull, but imagine something like Zelda Breath of the Wild, where you have thousands of things interacting with the game world, and you have to get the difficulty level just right. I can only imagine how hard it must be, and I have a newfound respect for game developers who manage to get it right. 正如我所说，Burst 只有几个调节参数，但试想一下像《塞尔达传说：旷野之息》这样的游戏，有成千上万的事物与游戏世界交互，你必须把难度控制得恰到好处。我只能想象这有多么困难，我对那些能把难度平衡做好的游戏开发者产生了新的敬意。

Another thing I probably got wrong, and a bit of a tangent, is that a few people asked for a tip jar to be included in the game. I thought about it, and decided to include it because it’s discoverable, and not tied to some other third-party platform like Ko-Fi or Patreon. If people want to support the development of the game, and any further games I make, they can do so directly in the game. 另一件我可能做错的事（稍微跑个题）是，一些人要求在游戏中加入打赏功能。我考虑了一下，决定加入它，因为这样更容易被发现，而且不需要绑定 Ko-Fi 或 Patreon 等第三方平台。如果人们想支持这款游戏的开发，以及我未来制作的其他游戏，他们可以直接在游戏内进行支持。

But that also means this stupid “in-app purchases” label is now on the App Store page, which I think is misleading. Technically, the tip jar is indeed an in-app purchase, but it’s not a feature gate or anything like that. I think Apple shouldn’t surface that label when the in-app purchase is just an optional tip jar. Although, people will probably try to abuse that too. I will have to think about the tip jar being included. It’s there now, but I might remove it again in a future update just to get rid of that label. 但这同时也意味着 App Store 页面上出现了那个愚蠢的“内购”标签，我认为这具有误导性。从技术上讲，打赏确实属于内购，但它并不是功能限制或类似的东西。我认为当内购仅仅是可选的打赏时，苹果不应该显示该标签。不过，人们很可能会试图滥用这一点。我得重新考虑是否保留打赏功能。它现在还在，但我可能会在未来的更新中再次移除它，只是为了去掉那个标签。

Burst is and forever will be free to play. I won’t go back on that promise. The App Store is already full of scammy, ad-ridden apps and games as it stands. Burst 现在是，且永远会是免费游戏。我不会违背这个承诺。目前的 App Store 已经充斥着各种诈骗和满是广告的应用与游戏了。