"Prune[1]" is the hottest game in Apple's App Store right now. And it's unlike any game you've ever played.
修剪艺术“Prune”现在是苹果应用商店里最火的一款游戏，而它极具特色，与你之前玩过的任何一款游戏都不一样。

Your objective is to help shape your tree as it grows closer to the sun, pruning away branches with simple swipes to avoid obstacles. It's a simple premise, but with gorgeous visuals and a zen[2] soundtrack, it's an extremely addictive experience.
玩家的目标是在树木越发向日生长时，为它塑形。玩家可以通过（在屏幕上的）轻松划动来修剪树枝，避开障碍物。这款游戏的设想很简单。不过唯美的视觉效果搭配上充满禅意的背景乐，能让玩家极其爱不释手。

Prune was created by Joel McDonald, a 31-year-old developer based in Madison, Wisconsin. In an interview with Tech Insider, McDonald said he was inspired by a tweet, which described how people could generate realistic-looking trees in the multiplatform game engine called Unity. But he said it "clicked when I saw a half-fallen tree in a field, its branches splayed out in all directions."
住在威斯康星州麦迪逊31岁乔尔·麦克唐纳是一位游戏开发者，修剪艺术Prune便是他的作品。在接受Tech Insider的采访时，麦克唐纳表示他的灵感来源于一条推特。那条推特描述了人们如何在一个名叫协作（Unity）的多平台游戏引擎上生成现实感十足的树木。然而麦克唐纳说“当我点击界面中一棵半弯的树时，它的树枝会向四面八方伸展开去。”

"At the time, I had been an indie[3] game developer for about six months and had been prototyping a bunch of ideas," McDonald said. "I had a few promising leads but I was looking for a nice, short project that could help me get my feet wet[4]. I thought 'Prune' was the perfect project for me to complete in a month or two and release on the App Store to test out the waters."
他回忆道：“那时我已经做了六个月的独立游戏开发，并产生一大堆初步的想法。”麦克唐纳说，“我感觉到它们未来有很大的发展空间，可我所找寻的是一个不错的简短项目，让我能在一个新的游戏领域做点尝试。我认为Prune这个项目很适合我。我能在一到两个月将其完成，然后在软件商店中发布，试试水。”

"Prune" took longer than a couple of months. In total, McDonald spent 15 months to finish the project. But he said he just wasn't happy with it. “'Prune' was still missing its soul at that point," he said.
修剪艺术花费了麦克唐纳好几个月。这个项目共历时15个月。但是他还对此不够满意，他说：“‘修剪艺术’那时仍缺乏灵魂。”

About 10 months into development, McDonald tapped[5] Kyle Preston, a composer and sound designer, to do the music and sounds for "Prune." And he personally refocused his efforts to create a game that was simple and more minimalist.
在游戏开发大概十个月时，麦克唐纳请来了作曲家和音效设计师凯尔·普勒斯顿，专为修剪艺术Prune制作音乐和音效。而他自己则再次调整游戏开发的方向，努力打造一款简易且更加具有极简抽象派艺术特色的游戏。

重点词汇解说：

1. prune: 这一动词的本意（包括在此文中的运用）指园艺家剪去长势较弱或枯死的枝桠，使得植株能繁茂生长。其引申义可指削减（开支）：It might make more sense for the company to prune down its dividend；除去不必要的部分：When was the last time you pruned your To Do list?

2. zen：日文外来语，意为“禅”、 “禅宗”，属于佛教的一个分支。在此文中zen作形容词，表示游戏背景音乐具有禅深远清幽之意镜。

3. indie：通常可见的搭配有indie musicians/ movies，前者意指音乐人不属于经纪公司，作歌谱曲和推广业务基本自己一手操办；而后者指新人（或名气不大的演员）出演、制作成本小的电影。

4. get one’s feet wet: to start a new activity or job，指的是接触一个新的领域/做一份全新的工作，通过实践积累经验。这一表达恰好与后文出现的“test out the waters"相呼应，表明Prune是McDonald进军一个新游戏市场的作品。

5. tap: 意指恳切地/不断地请求某人

声明：双语文章中，中文翻译仅代表译者个人观点，词汇解说系沪江英语原创，仅供参考。如有不妥之处，欢迎指正。