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Appy Entertainment分享手机游戏项目的四项成功法则

发布时间:2011-03-30 21:37:07 Tags:,,

游戏邦注:本文原作者为Appy Entertainment公司品牌总监保罗·康纳(Paul O’Connor),该公司曾向iOS和Android平台推出了《Trucks & Skulls》、《FaceFighter》和《Candy Rush》等游戏,康纳在此文中以《Trucks & Skulls》这款游戏为例,分析了打造成功项目的四项法则。

出色的手机游戏开发者都知道创建一款好游戏只算成功了一半,如果要保证足够的曝光率和推动产品销量,强大的市场营销策略一样必不可少。

而更为杰出的开发者却知道,光有好游戏和市场营销策略还不够——将付费用户转化成会持续关注游戏的忠实用户才是真正的目标所在。有望从这个新兴市场中成功脱颖而出的公司,必是那些知道如何通过游戏与用户打交道的开发商。

为玩家提供一款好游戏,然后盼望他们为自己的另一款游戏掏钱的做法,并非取得成功的良策。

保罗·康纳建议那些认为“酒香不怕巷子深”的开发者向可口可乐取经,后者为了拉动产品销量,每年的广告预算都超过了20亿美元。

以下就是游戏邦编译作者总结四项成功法则的相关内容:

Trucks And Skulls

Trucks And Skulls

首先是游戏质量:关于某位开发者仅靠一款手机应用就一夜致富的现象已经不胜枚举。虽然这个市场很眷顾新奇的游戏,但我们更应该关注游戏质量——一方面这是Appy Entertainment开发者的天性使然,另一方面是他们认为只有高质量的游戏才能经得起时间的考验,赢得用户的青睐。

开发者也有可能推出一款很糟糕的游戏,却也获得了一些收益,但这并非长久之计,因为它最终会让开发者自绝后路,使其推出的第二款游戏面临无人问津的困境。

第二是持续更新:《涂鸦跳跃》、《口袋上帝》和《愤怒的小鸟》售价仅99美分,而且总会通过不断添加新内容推出升级版本。每一次更新都是对用户的回馈,鼓励他们重返游戏,让他们向周遭好友推荐自己的游戏,使他们对游戏的下一次更新产生无限期待。

《Trucks & Skulls》问世4个月以来,Appy开发团队已经发布了5个更新版本,增加了新的游戏机制,推出了200多个关卡,他们的努力也获得了用户的回报。

第三是用户沟通:Appy团队经常与玩家保持联系,他们的游戏中含有反馈邮箱链接,并总是认真回复玩家的每一封邮件。除此之外,他们还通过公司博客、Facebook页面和Twitter功能与玩家进行互动,他们乐于听取玩家的心声。

这种沟通应该分为两个方面,主动与玩家进行对话当然是好事,但更需要让他们自动与开发者交流。另外更重要的是,让玩家之间进行交流,以此提升他们对游戏的热情,推荐新用户加入游戏。

多数社交游戏就是通过这种病毒式传播渠道获得发展,Appy的策略与此类似,但他们从一开始就鼓励玩家通过分享内容,加强彼此之间的联系(这也正是Appy认为他们的做法比市场更超前的地方)。

最后就是分享内容:《FaceFighter》会采取措施迫使用户与好友分享照片,《Trucks & Skulls》则支持玩家分享游戏最精彩环节的视频截图,同时还鼓励他们自己创建游戏关卡与好友分享。

不过游戏邦认为,Appy和整个手机游戏市场面临的共同挑战就是,在用户之间搭建与社交游戏机制一样的内容分享桥梁,让玩家通过更多渠道加强互动。无论是哪种游戏,其操作手段都应该突破为推荐好友入伙的玩家提供奖励,以及通过Facebook传播渠道干扰对游戏不感兴趣的用户等模式。

玩家与游戏开发者之间的关系必须是真诚的,同时还应该从多个方向入手以达到这一目的。

快乐而热情的每日活跃用户是游戏开发者最大的一笔财富,那些知道如何培养和挖掘用户热情的开发商,最有希望成为游戏行业中的新兴主导力量。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Appy’s Paul O’Connor on four ways to create happy, enthusiastic and daily gamers

Paul O’Connor is brand director at Appy Entertainment. It describes itself as “a devil’s brigade of software developers, making the world better one game a time.”

Successful developers know making great games is only half the job – great marketing is also required to ensure discovery and sales of their work.

Really successful developers understand that making great games and marketing them well is just the cost of admission; converting the person who bought your game into a continuing customer is the real objective.

The companies that emerge successfully from this infant market will be the ones who connect with their players through games that people play with their friends every day.

Give it some sizzle

Giving players one great game and hoping they buy another isn’t the path to success.

Developers who think their work can speak for itself should examine the advertising budget of Coca-Cola, which spends north of two billion dollars a year to keep selling the sold.

Give me two billion dollars and I’ll have you believing Trucks & Skulls is one of your food groups but that’s not happening any time soon. We need more modest means of connecting with our players.

The four step method

How does Appy Entertainment connect to players through our games? We hit it from four angles.

Firstly, quality: Well, duh. Actually, not so duh. We all know the story of the fart app guy that struck it rich. The market has a taste for novelty but we’ve chosen to concentrate on quality games – both because we can’t help ourselves and because we think quality games have a better chance of winning the long-term allegiance of players.

You can do a great fart app, and maybe make a pile of cash, but it’s like that trick where Daffy Duck blows himself up with dynamite; it’s hard to come up with a second act.

Secondly, frequent updates: Doodle Jump, Pocket God and Angry Birds keep adding quality content for their original price of 99c. Every update is a little love note to their players, encouraging them to re-engage with their games, to recommend them to their friends, and to look forward to what they are doing next.

Since its introduction four months ago, we have released five free updates for Trucks & Skulls, adding new mechanics and pushing our game to over two hundred levels. We love our players! And we have been fortunate to receive their love in return.

From you to me

Thirdly, conversation: We talk to our players all the time. Our games include feedback mail links, and every email is answered. We talk non-stop on our blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. We communicate with instant updates via the Livebar in our latest apps, and we talk to Trucks & Skulls players with weekly free emailings through our Level of the Week Club.

We have a hundred thousand daily average users happily enjoying our games, but we’d like to hear more from them.

An underpinning of conversation is that it goes two ways. It’s all well and good to talk at players, but what you really want is for them to talk with you.

Better yet, you want them to talk with each other, to reinforce their enthusiasm for your work, and to recruit new players on your behalf.

Most social games are built around this prospect, encouraging you to recruit your friends and interact with them to get ahead. We are moving Appy in similar directions, but from the start we’ve encouraged player interaction through our fourth means of connection (and here is a place where I think we are just slightly ahead of the market).

Care to share?

Finally, sharing: FaceFighter practically compels players to share photos of their friends after they’ve beaten them up. Trucks & Skulls lets players share screen shots of the game’s best moments, and also encourages players to create their own levels to share with friends.

The challenge for Appy, and for the market as a whole, is to bridge social game mechanics with content sharing tools to empower players to connect with each other in more meaningful ways. Games must evolve beyond offering in-game bounties for player referrals and populating game landscapes with the Facebook ghosts of disinterested friends.

The connection between players and game creators needs to be genuine, and it needs to flow in all directions.

Happy, enthusiastic, daily players are the greatest asset a game developer can have, and the companies that learn how to foster and unlock that enthusiasm are the companies that will emerge as the new leaders of the games industry.(source:pocketgamer)


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