约翰尼·考夫兰（Johnny Coghlan）曾是Chillingo公司的发行部门主管，但后来转移到旧金山发展，目前担任手机社交游戏公司Storm8的业务发展副总裁。游戏邦获悉该公司由Storm8和TeamLava工作室两部分组成，已推出《Farm Story》和《Restaurant Story》等成功的游戏，已成为iOS平台最成功的免费游戏发行商之一，现在也已进军Android平台。

该公司在上周共有6款游戏跻身美国App Store免费游戏的前30名。考夫兰在最近的媒体采访中介绍了公司的业务发展状况，以下是游戏邦编译的访谈内容：

Restaurant-Story-iPhone-screenshot

你认为开发商需具备哪些要素才能在手机社交游戏市场获得成功？

当然是开发高质量、具有吸引力以及有奖励机制的游戏。这也正是Storm8成为业内领先的手机社交游戏开发商和发行商的重要原因之一。有许多用户在玩我们的游戏，我们也应该确保他们可以从中获得回报。

另外，我们的社交网络和沟通系统也发挥了重要作用，因为它支持用户通过相互协作，对战，或者与其他玩家进行对话，获得最大化的游戏乐趣。

手机社交游戏与Facebook社交游戏有何不同？

手机用户基本上一整天都带着手机，他们可以随时随地进入游戏状态，获得片刻的游戏体验。

Storm8和TeamLava的iOS、Android手机游戏在设计上就考虑到了这一点，支持玩家根据自己的时间安排，随心所欲地体验游戏。我们从来不强求用户完成一项任务，或者让他们忍受更长的游戏时间。我们还支持用户自主控制游戏进程，让他们自由选择要在外出途中玩游戏，还是坐在家里长时间玩游戏。

《Story》系列有没有什么项目扩展计划？

TeamLava开发的《Story》系列已取得了不俗的成就，收获了上百万的忠实用户，在App Store和Android Market两个平台都获得了极高的用户评价。我们将通过推出不辜负粉丝期望，甚至是让他们大为惊喜的好游戏，延续和保证我们在行业的领先地位。

但现在我还不能透露过多细节，只能说我们在今后数周和数月内会更加忙碌和充实。

在你们看来，将原来的玩家转移到新游戏，或者扩大新用户规模，这两者哪一个更重要？

我们一直在努力增加Storm8和TeamLava游戏的吸引力，为这些玩家创造更多价值。比如，我们在过去两周推出的iOS版本《Nightclub Story》和《Fashion Story》就属于这种典型。

我们的游戏是一个持续体验的过程——它们不会出现让玩家无物可玩的盲区。玩家可以自由选择与其他用户交流、协作或对战。

我们将继续推出新游戏，并对现有游戏进行更新。我们一直很重视持续更新游戏，会在适当的时候添加道具组合、建筑和互动奖励等新内容。我们的用户总数也正不断增长，这证明对新老用户来说，我们的游戏确实具有很高的质量和强烈的吸引力。

这些游戏很容易上手，但并不累赘和冗长。新玩家也可以像老用户一样，持续数月甚至几年时间都在玩这些游戏。

你认为有哪些因素会阻碍手机社交游戏的发展？

缺乏创意和质量过低这两个因素。这也正是我们坚持开发高质量、富有吸引力、保持创新性和可回报用户的免费游戏的重要原因。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Storm8′s Johnny Coghlan on making social games that are downloaded hundreds of millions of times

Last time, I interviewed Johnny Coghlan, he was head of publishing at Chillingo.

18 months on however, he’s shifted from Macclesfield to San Francisco, and is now vice president of business development for social mobile company Storm8.

Consisting of Storm8 and the TeamLava studios, thanks to games such as Farm Story and Restaurant Story, it’s one of the most successful freemium publishers on iOS, and now Android.

Last weekend, for example, it had six games in the US free App Store chart top 30.

PocketGamer: What do you think are the key features for success in the mobile social market?

Johnny Coghlan: Creating a high quality, appealing and rewarding games is key, of course. That’s the reason Storm8 has become the leading mobile social game developer and publisher. A massive number of people want to play our games and we ensure they are rewarded for doing that.

Our social networking and communication are also crucial as it allows people to collaborate, compete, or just interact with other players to maximise enjoyment.

How are mobile social games different from Facebook games?

People have their mobile device with them all of the time and they can potentially jump into the game and play for a few seconds before leaving and coming back later.

We design Storm8 and TeamLava games for iOS and Android to allow players to play for as much or little time as they want. We never force someone to finish an activity or keep them hanging on longer than they want. We also allow the player to control how they progress through the game, meaning they are able to play both on the move and when they have some downtime at home.

What should we expect in terms of expansion of the Story series?

TeamLava’s Story series has been and continues to be a phenomenal success, with millions of loyal players and great App Store and Android Market reviews. We are ensuring success and industry leadership continues with games that will immediately fit with our fans’ expectations, and some really amazing new surprises that will knock people’s socks off.

I can’t reveal anything more than that, but safe to say we are going to be very busy and very popular over the coming weeks and months!

What’s more important – getting players to transition to another of your games when they finish one, or gaining new players?

We are continually striving to increase our appeal and value to players of Storm8 and TeamLava games. For example, we’ve released Nightclub Story and Fashion Story for iOS over the past two weeks.

Playing our games is an ongoing process – there’s no dead zone where there is nothing left for players to enjoy. Players can communicate and collaborate or compete with friends and fellow players from around the world for as long as they want.

We will continue to offer new games, along with new content for our existing games. We focus on consistently updating games, when appropriate, with content such as new item collections, buildings and interactive rewards. Our rate of growth in total players is consistently increasing too, which is proof of our quality, appeal and reward to existing and new players.

This means our games are easy to start playing but they don’t become redundant. New players are happy to play over a sustained period of time, just like the players who have been playing our games for months or even years.

What do you think are the factors that will slow the growth of mobile social games?

Lack of innovation and low quality. That’s why we will always develop high quality, appealing free-to-play games that consistently innovate and reward our players.（source:pocketgamer）