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Gamasutra票选2010年度5大最佳Facebook社交游戏

发布时间:2010-12-30 09:46:32 Tags:,,

2010对广大社交游戏开发商而言是既蓬勃发展又动荡不安的一年。Zynga,迪士尼/Playdom等社交游戏领域巨头公司在这一年中不仅旗下游戏用户实现了飞跃增长,公司的规模和资金也显著提升。蓬勃发展的社交游戏领域吸引了投资商们数以亿计的投资。

然而据游戏邦了解,2010年对于广大依靠病毒式传播渠道获取玩家的社交游戏而言也是十分艰难的一年。今年3月,Facebook社交网站向广大应用开发商发布了一份网站调整公告:本社交网站将不再支持目前多款游戏用于招揽玩家的垃圾邮件拓展策略。因此,许多热门社交游戏短时间内用户数量下滑数百万。其中最热门社交游戏FarmVille的月活跃用户从最高峰时期的8400万下降至5700万。

在此之后,社交网站纷纷开始注重游戏体验和游戏机制的开发制作,将这两者作为新社交网站环境下取得成功的关键因素。许多新兴社交游戏公司也致力于开发具有一定深度的Facebook游戏。

以下是Gamasutra票选出的2010年度5大最佳社交网站游戏:

5,Digital Chocolate公司旗下的Millionair City

millionaire-city

millionaire-city

如果说2009年社交游戏市场盛行的是农场和黑手党类游戏,那么2010年则是城市建设类游戏的天下拉。对于广大游戏开发商而言,城市建设类游戏较之普遍的社交游戏略有复杂,同时在城建城市过程中还能提供玩家以成就感。正是这两大元素的完美融合才使城市建设类游戏经久不衰。

在2010年涌现的众多城市建设类社交游戏中,Digital Chocolate公司出品的Millionair City受到了广大玩家的青睐。在Millionair City中,玩家需要管理经营城市发展,规划城市布局,同时玩家可以和好友在游戏中进行各种互动。正是由于Millionair City的不俗成绩,此后Digital Chocolate连续发布了姊妹作品Vegas City和Hollywood City。

4,PopCap Games公司的《祖玛闪电战》

Zuma

Zuma

在智力游戏爱好者逐渐厌倦《宝石迷阵闪电战》的当时,PopCap公司将旗下另一款运用于多个平台的热门智力游戏《祖玛闪电战》搬上了Facebook社交网站。与Mitchell的Puzz Loop/Magnetica系列游戏类似,玩家在《祖玛闪电战》中只需操纵鼠标击爆轨道中不同颜色的小球。

Facebook版《祖玛闪电战》秉持着1分钟游戏的理念(能量可以适当延长玩家的游戏时间),同时新增了能发射火焰球的“火焰青蛙”等游戏元素。在社交元素方面,Facebook版《祖玛闪电战》为玩家提供每周竞赛,排行榜,成就和金牌等功能,玩家可以通过Facebook与朋友分享自己的游戏体验。

3,LOLapps公司的Ravenwood Fair

ravenwoodFair

ravenwoodFair

由业内知名人士Brenda Brathwaite (Wizardry)和John Romero开发的Ravenwood Fair有别于我们常见的Facebook游戏。玩家可以在Ravenwood Fair中兴建游乐场,用不同的诱饵吸引小动物,并完成魔法森林的各种任务。在Ravenwood Fair中,游戏开发商将恐怖的森林和可爱的小动物两种氛围融为一体,同时还添加了各种与NPC人物的有趣互动。

2,CrowdStar公司的It Girl

It-Girl-Santa

It-Girl-Santa

CrowdStar公司开发的社交游戏It Girl将MMO和RPG游戏机制融入于购物,时尚,聚会等理念之中。在It Girl中,玩家的主要任务就是发现和购买各种服装和配饰,然后展示出来与朋友们的收藏一较高下。

据游戏邦了解,It Girl以年轻女性为主要用户群体。除面向女性玩家常用的洋娃娃等“粉红主题”之外,It Girl也融合了某些“核心游戏”元素。如玩家战斗和游戏任务等。

1,Zynga公司的FrontierVille

FrontierVille

FrontierVille

当很多人认定Zynga游戏是依靠病毒式传播渠道而迅猛发展的情况下,FrontierVille月活跃用户在Facebook社交网站禁用病毒式传播渠道的环境下迅速攀升至3050万(最近的新款游戏CityVille增长速度更为惊人)。

老牌策略游戏设计师Brian Reynolds及Zynga East开发团队将FarmVille的游戏机制与西部开荒背景融为一体。玩家可以在FrontierVille中从事各种任务,与虚拟伙伴结婚或邀请和拜访邻居等。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

For the social game leaders who’ve built their empires on social network Facebook’s platform and the backs of its users (which accounts for pretty much all of them, although iOS is an increasing force here!), 2010 was just as much a tumultuous year as it was a prosperous one.

The giants in the industry, like Zynga and Disney/Playdom, grew not only their total audience sizes but also their headcounts and coffers, opening and acquiring a myriad of studios around the world — expansions funded by the hundreds of millions of dollars raised from investors wanting a piece of this flourishing market.

It wasn’t an easy year for the titles that relied heavily on viral channels for their inflated user base numbers, though.

Facebook sent a message to developers with changes it implemented in March: the social network would not stand for spam-like tactics that many games relied on to attract and retain players.

After Facebook limited the application “notification spam” that aggravated its users but benefited social games looking for fast/cheap growth, many of the site’s most popular games lost millions of users.

Zynga’s FarmVille, the biggest Facebook app for most of the year, dropped from its peak of 84 million monthly active users to now 57 million, according to AppData.

Since then, more developers have espoused the idea that their titles need to focus on compelling gameplay and metrics-based design, rather than virality tricks, to succeed. It’s an approach that many social gamers, especially those new to gaming and now looking for more depth in Facebook’s offerings, surely appreciate.

Here are our picks for the top five social network games featured on Facebook and exemplifying that trend:

5. Millionaire City by Digital Chocolate

If 2009 was the year of countless farming and mafia game clones, 2010 was teeming with empire-building simulators inspired by Sim City and Civilization. For developers looking to create social games with more complexity and a satisfying sense of progression, there are few better titles to imitate than these two classics, which have enslaved players for decades.

Digital Chocolate, a strong proponent of the idea that social games shouldn’t be shallow, created one of the most popular sims with Millionaire City, which is more about snatching up and managing real estate than carefully planning the layout of a city. The game offers missions, achievements, the ability to visit friends’ towns, and other features designed to grab and keep players’ attentions quick.

The developer has naturally followed up Millionaire City’s success (nearly 13 million monthly active users) with recent releases like Vegas City and Hollywood City.

4. Zuma Blitz by PopCap Games

Just as puzzler fans were finally pulling themselves away from Bejeweled Blitz, PopCap brought another of its addictive PC/console/mobile titles to Facebook. Similar to Mitchell’s Puzz Loop/Magnetica series, Zuma has players frantically aiming with their mouse and firing colored balls at a chain of incoming spheres, matching three similarly colored orbs to explode a segment of the stream.

Zuma Blitz condenses the concept into a polished one-minute experience (power-ups can extend your play-time much longer) and adds an XP/leveling feature that unlocks new power-ups, a satisfying “Hot Frog” mode that sends sphere-clearing fireballs across the screen, and of course social features like weekly tournaments, leaderboards, and medals/achievements you can show off to friends.

3. Ravenwood Fair by LOLapps

Built under the creative direction of industry notables Brenda Brathwaite (Wizardry) and John Romero (Doom, Quake), Ravenwood Fair has a completely different atmosphere from the sims you typically find on Facebook: Players create and maintain a fairground, entertain woodland creatures with different attractions, and explore and complete quests inside a sinister, magical forest.

Ravenwood Fair’s offbeat premise and dichotomy between cute critters and menacing woods not only transforms the game into something more than a FrontierVille clone; it also afforded LOLapps the opportunity to add more character and flavor to NPC interactions than one typically expects from social games, and to present the world with a distinct visual style that’s both adorable and ominous.

2. It Girl by CrowdStar

Created by the largest independent game developer on Facebook, CrowdStar’s It Girl melds MMO and RPG mechanics with shopping, fashion, cliques, and parties. Players shop for/collect as many outfits and accessories as they can find, then compete against each other in “Showdowns”, quick battles that take into account clique size, confidence, and wardrobes.

Obviously targeting younger women (and designed by a mostly female team), It Girl goes beyond the “pink games” approach many developers take to appeal to girls with simple games about ponies and dolls, and provides a rich experience with elements reminiscent of “hardcore” MMORPGs: player-versus-player combat, countless fetch quests, and, yes, lots of rare gear to collect.

1. FrontierVille by Zynga

During a post-virality period when many believed a studio producing another major hit — one that could quickly take in tens of millions of monthly players and rise to Facebook fame — was highly unlikely, Zynga released just that with FrontierVille, an engrossing Old West pioneer sim that now has over 30.5 million users on the social network (not quite CityVille numbers but still impressive).

Veteran strategy game designer Brian Reynolds (Civilization II, Rise Of Nations) and his team at Zynga East took the habit-forming FarmVille formula and its farming/livestock mechanics, and expanded on it with varmints to clobber, quests/goals to complete, virtual partners to marry, families to raise, neighbors to visit and invite, badges to earn, and more in FrontierVille. (Source: Gamasutra)


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