原作者：Craig Chapple 译者：Willow Wu

想必不用跟大家介绍King史上最热门的三消游戏《糖果传奇》了。

这几年它在app stores中一直是名列前茅，几乎没见过它掉出畅销榜。

作为King的王牌游戏，发行商并没有因为它的傲人成绩停下脚步，要让一个游戏这么长时间都不掉位需要的是一个在线运营团队进行定期更行、举办定期活动。

King的制作人Andra Petrosan是《糖果传奇》线上游戏内活动的主要负责人，她在斯德哥尔摩工作。她需要协调团队中画师和开发者，一起合作创作出能够吸引玩家的新活动。

Candy Crush（from gamasutra.com）

要在这个无人不知，无人不晓的游戏平台上运营线上活动，压力可想而知，不仅如此，Petrosan说最具挑战性的部分就是决定下一步他们要为玩家做什么。

“我们有太多想法了，它们都很有趣。”她说。

甜蜜活动

在最近，《糖果传奇》的其中一个计划实现了——跟电影合作，而且还是跟Emoji有关，这部电影就是之后被视为年度烂片的《表情奇幻冒险》。

电影制作人员们把游戏场景搬到了大荧幕上，主角Gene被卡在了《糖果传奇》的游戏面板中，玩家必须把他解救出来。这是《糖果传奇》游戏面板第一次被电影采用。

游戏团队是如何策划这些活动，还要确保它的质量？

“重中之重就是要把握好游戏难度和趣味之间的平衡，”Petrosan说。

“很多玩家都在寻求挑战，能够让他们的技能更进一步，但是我们不想把游戏做得那么难，导致某些玩家直接放弃这个游戏。我们必须紧紧围绕着《糖果传奇》的核心主题，毕竟这就是玩家喜爱这个游戏的原因，也是它们回到这的理由。”

四管齐下战略

Petrosan说这些线上活动对于延续《糖果传奇》的成功是非常重要的，玩家可以在游戏中体验到更多的花样，她相信这么做会增加游戏的乐趣，让玩家沉浸其中。

“总的来说，我们会继续按照四管齐下的战略，通过增加新的游戏内容、实施在线运营、扩充现有的游戏、还有创造出衍生或者是续集产品，让这个游戏系列赢得持久战。

在手游行业中，有一个非常流行的口号——“快速失败”。这句话背后的真正意思就是在大多数案例中，失败意味着可以去尝试新的东西，吸取教训，知道什么是有用的，什么是没用的，还可以提升你自己或者是你团队的技能、知识水平，为未来的更新工作或者是下一个项目做好准备。

实际上，失败可能还是一件好事。

（King一直在为《糖果传奇》测试新内容和新游戏特色，King希望能得到有价值的反馈信息，更进一步地了解他们庞大的玩家群体。）

虽然Petrosan没有直截了当地这么说，但是她说即使在King，团队也一直在做测试，从来自世界各地的上百万玩家中学习新东西，了解什么样的内容能够吸引这么一大批玩家。

“这就是为什么在开发新内容或者新游戏特色的时候，测试对我们这么重要，因为测试能带给我们有价值的反馈信息，告诉我们玩家对这些新东西的反应，不管是积极的还是消极的，”她解释道。

“曾经因为各种各样的原因导致我们新加入的游戏特色并没有受到玩家的欢迎。一定要在早期就弄清楚为什么它们不起作用，这是很重要的，这样我们就能及时作出调整。

“但我们不会纠结于过往，不会因为没有成功吸引玩家而不断自责，也不要去想‘假如……会怎么样’。相反地，我们会定期开会，回顾之前的工作方式、测试内容以及学到的东西，然后把这些东西应用到下一份工作中。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

King’s ever-popular match-three game Candy Crush Saga needs little introduction.

It’s been a dominant force on the app stores for years, rarely slipping out the top grossing slots throughout this period.

Still a flagship game for King, the publisher isn’t resting on its laurels, and keeping a game at the top for this long requires a live operations team supplying regular updates and in-game events.

King Producer Andra Petrosan leads the Candy Crush Saga live in-game events team in Stockholm, and is responsible for coordinating a team of artists and developers to create new and engaging events to keep players engaged.

Despite the pressure that comes with running a live event in one of the most popular and most played games of all time, Petrosan says the most challenging part is deciding on what to build next for players.

“There are so many amazing ideas to pick from,” she says.

Sweet on events

One recent idea that came to life in Candy Crush Saga through a film partnership were the Emoji Levels, based on the subsequently critically panned Emoji Movie.

The in-game event brought to life a scene from the film, where the lead character Gene gets stuck in a Candy Crush game board, from which players must free him. It was the first time the Candy Crush game board had been adapted for a film tie-in.

But how does the team design these in-game events, and what makes a good one?

“It’s all about getting the balance right between making events both challenging and fun,” says Petrosan .

“Many of our players are seeking a challenge that will push them but we don’t want to make it too difficult that players simply switch off. We also need to be careful to stick to the core themes of Candy Crush Saga as that’s ultimately what our players love and come back for. “

Four-pronged approach

Petrosan says these live in-game events player an important role in maintaining Candy Crush Saga’s success, as they offer players variety in the game, which she believes ultimately makes the game fun and engaging for the audience.

“Overall, we continue to execute on our four-pronged approach to create enduring franchises by adding new content, implementing live ops, and delivering extensions in our existing games, as well as offering players new sister or sequel titles,” she says.

One popular mantra in the mobile games industry is ‘failing fast’. The real meaning behind that motto is that in most instances, failure means trying something new, learning what works and what doesn’t, and improving your own or your team’s skills and knowledge for future updates or the next project.

It can, in fact, be a good thing.

King is always testing potential new content and features for Candy Crush Saga in order to get valuable feedback and further understand its massive audience
Petrosan doesn’t put it as bluntly, but she says that even at King, the team is constantly testing and learning new things about its hundreds of millions of players from around the world and what type of content appeals to such a massive audience.

“That’s why our testing process is so important when we’re developing new content or a new feature because it gives us valuable feedback on how our players are reacting to them – both positively and negatively,” she explains.

“There have been features that we’ve implemented in the game that just haven’t worked for various reasons and so it’s important we understand why they are not working early so we can make the necessary adjustments.

“In terms of handling things differently, we tend to avoid thinking too much about the past and hypothesising on ‘what if’. We have regular retrospectives on how we work, what we tested and what we learned, and then we take those learnings with us to our next endeavours.”（source：pocketgamer.biz ）