作者：EZONE

本篇文章主要讨论的是如何将iPhone游戏设计得更棒，以下是游戏邦编译的相关内容：

到今天为止，我成为全职自由独立游戏开发者已有15个年头。我和哥哥在1994年创办Ezone.com，为好莱坞主流工作室（游戏邦注：本文作者业务涉及Disney、Universal、Nickelodeon、Sony、Fox和MTV等公司）制作网页游戏，为Shockwave、Miniclip、Kongregate和Newgrounds等主要网页游戏门户网站发行游戏。

2008年7月，苹果iPhone App Store上线后，我们从网页游戏制作转向iPhone应用开发，自那以后就靠应用收入维持生计。我们已经制作过50多款不同的应用，有《Crazy Lighter》和《Crazy Disco》等产品，《Crazy Mouth》和《Crazy Face》等数字玩偶，也有《Galactic Gunner》和《Turkey Blast》等游戏。但到目前为止，《Crazy Snowboard》是我们收获的最大成功，现在这款应用的免费和付费版本的下载量已超过500万次。

《Crazy Snowboard》是款休闲滑雪游戏，它并不受评论员或游戏评论网站待见，也未曾在iTune上获得成功。但它不断给我们带来稳定的收入，一直处于全美iPhone游戏排行榜前200位。这款游戏也进驻苹果近期发布的美国付费iPhone（游戏邦注：位于164位）和iPad（游戏邦注：位于22位）游戏榜单。

那么，这款游戏为何与众不同，并且获得成功呢？我们深入进行研究，也通过观察许多位于前200名的游戏，总结出以下4个iPhone游戏设计的黄金准则：简单有趣；关卡短且数量多；内容；深度。

简单有趣

游戏的核心机制必须简单有趣，而且我需要特别强调的是简单。在这个手机游戏扎堆涌现的世界中，如果你无法在最初10秒钟时间内抓住玩家的兴趣，你就有可能失去他们。这不同于玩家投入50美元的控制器游戏（游戏邦注：通常iPhone游戏售价只有0.99美元甚至免费），因而他们没必要在游戏中投入很多时间。如果你不在最初的10秒钟时间里抓住他们的兴趣，他们就会点击主界面按键更换至其他应用。

以《Crazy Snowboard》为例，其核心机制是左右倾斜。只需倾斜iPhone就可以滑下斜坡、跳跃、通过障碍滑雪门，从中体验乐趣。

Crazy Snowboard（from iphone.ezone.com）

在用户开始游戏前，无需设置冗长的新手教程。如若不然，你就又可能流失这些用户，甚至可能永远无法吸引他们的注意。最多你只需要设计个简单的界面告诉用户每个新的控制机制。确保每次只向用户介绍一个新技能，别让玩家觉得这是累赘。

测试游戏机制是否简单的另一种方法是，看看3岁的小孩能否玩游戏并从中得到快乐。最终极的测试是在给他们iPhone且不告诉他们怎么玩，看他们能否玩第一个关卡。

玩家测试（from iphone.ezone.com）

另一个极端是非游戏玩家的老年人能否顺畅玩游戏。克制住告诉或指导他们如何玩游戏的冲动，观察新玩家如何自然与游戏互动会让你学到很多东西。

关卡短且数量多

切记你是在为手机平台设计游戏，人们只在短暂的时间内玩你的游戏，比如等待公共汽车或为孩子感到心烦意乱时。这意味着你需要设计许许多多短小精炼的关卡。当《愤怒的小鸟》刚出来时，它也只有几个关卡。直到芬兰开发商Rovio增设更多关卡时，这款游戏才真正开始走红。

表现评级（from iphone.ezone.com）

你也需要刺激玩家重玩关卡，我们建议为关卡增加行动评级（游戏邦注：如三颗星等等），也可以让玩家收集铜币或分数来开启更多的内容。这些内容往往都是玩家已经见到的，感谢《愤怒的小鸟》为我们培养了数百万休闲游戏玩家。

内容

人们喜欢看到他们花的钱有所价值，他们喜欢解锁各种东西。在《Crazy Snowboard》中，我们设计了13个不同的滑雪手，玩家可以使用通关后赚取的游戏积分来解锁。游戏内还有13个相配的滑雪板和16种空中动作。

我们在《Crazy Snowboard》中也设计了两种应用内置付费功能，它们都与额外内容有关，分别是50万个Coins和扩展包。

13个不同的滑雪角色（from iphone.ezone.com）

此类解锁内容也会增加玩家重玩关卡的可能性，让他们觉得物有所值。

深度

纵然简单有趣的核心游戏机制很重要，如果游戏没有足够的深度，那么玩家很容易便会感到厌烦并离开游戏。玩家想要接受挑战，学习新技能随后掌握新技能。

在《Crazy Snowboard》中，只要你掌握了倾斜设备的技巧，我们随后便会在游戏中引进跳跃、空中动作和连跳等。这些新技能慢慢被引进游戏中，这样玩家就不会感到疲惫。但是如果他们掌握这些技能，他们就会不断取得高分。

深度（from iphone.ezone.com）

《愤怒的小鸟》在这方面做得很好，慢慢引进新的鸟类和升级功能。《割绳子》也不错，而《植物大战僵尸》将其发挥到极致，从非常简单的关卡逐步上升至相当复杂的游戏。

如果你采取适当的步骤，你将不断让玩家感到挑战性和有趣，同时也能够减少他们的挫败感和厌烦感。

我们的下款游戏——《Diversion》

所以，当你在设计下款游戏时，请牢记这些黄金准则。这里透露下我们即将发布的游戏《Diversion》以及我们如何在游戏中运用这些准则。

简单有趣---所有动作都通过触碰来控制

关卡短而且多---目前有50个关卡，发布时可能会更多

内容---可以用上百种道具改变你的角色

深度---只需通过简单的触碰，你就可以进行跳跃、游泳、飞翔等许多动作

因而，只要你遵从这些黄金准则而且足够幸运，那么你可能就会成为下个游戏设计大师。我们希望《Diversion》能成为巨作，时间会证明一切的。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

4 Golden Rules of iPhone Game Design

EZONE

This article is a follow-up/companion to our ‘4 Tips to Get in the App Store Top 200‘. The previous article focused mainly on marketing, pricing and the business side of the App Store, whereas this article is all about getting the game design right.

I’ve been a full-time self-employed independent game developer for more than 15 years now. My brother and I started Ezone.com in 1994 making web games for the major Hollywood studios: Disney, Universal, Nickelodeon, Sony, Fox, MTV, and publishing games to major web game portals like Shockwave, Miniclip, Kongregate, Newgrounds and a ton of other sites (probably a lot of which are out of business now).

In July 2008 (when Apple opened the iPhone App Store) we moved from web games to iPhone apps and have been making a living exclusively from apps since then. We have created more than 50 different apps ranging from novelties like Crazy Lighter and Crazy Disco to digital puppets like Crazy Mouth and Crazy Face, to games like Galactic Gunner and Turkey Blast. But by far our biggest success has been Crazy Snowboard, which has now had over 5 million downloads of the free and paid versions.

Crazy Snowboard is a casual snowboarding game. It was never well received by critics or game review sites (often referred to as that ‘other’ snowboarding game), it’s never received a major feature in iTunes, but it has continually been a steady earner for us and is consistently in the US iPhone Games Top 200. It also made it into Apple’s recent list of the top all-time paid iPhone (#164) and iPad (#22) games in the US.

So, what makes it different from our other games, and why has it been successful? We’ve taken a long hard look at it, and many of the other successful games in the top 200 and narrowed it down to these ’4 Golden Rules of iPhone Game Design’: Simple and Fun; Lots of Short Levels; Content; Depth.

Simple and Fun

At the core of your game you need a simple, fun game mechanic. And I stress simple. In this A.D.D. world if you don’t grab players in the first 10 seconds, you’ve probably lost them. Unlike a console game they haven’t invested $50 (in all likelihood it’s $0.99 or nothing), so they have not made a big commitment to your game. If they don’t get it in the first 10 seconds, then they are going to hit the home button and launch something else.

For example, at the core of Crazy Snowboard is tilt left and right. If you can tilt an iPhone you can cruise down the slope, go off jumps, through slalom gates, and have fun.

And you can forget about having 10 pages of instructions before people start playing. Once again, you’ll lose them (and probably never see them again). At most you want one clear screen as you introduce each new control mechanism (or game play rule). Be sure to only introduce one new skill at a time – don’t overwhelm players.

The other test of your simple game mechanic is can a 3 year old (yes, a 3 year old) play your game and have fun. The ultimate test is can they play the first level when you just hand them the iPhone without telling them what to do.

On the other end of the scale what we call ‘The Ma & Pa Test’. Same thing, but this time you want to see how the older generation of non-gamers handle it. And be sure to resist the urge to tell or show them what to do – you can learn a lot by just watching and seeing how new players naturally interact with your game.

Lots of Short Levels

Remember that you are designing for a mobile platform and people playing your game will most likely be doing it in short bursts, like waiting for a bus or as a distraction for the kids. This means you want to design lots of short bite-sized levels. When Angry Birds first came out it only had a few levels (not the 10,000 or whatever it is now). It wasn’t until they started adding more levels that it really took off.

You also need to give players an incentive to replay levels – we suggest adding a 3-star performance rating, and also coins (or points) that they can collect to unlock more content. Again, this comes down to presenting players with something they know, and we can all thank Angry Birds for educating millions of casual game players.

Content

People love getting value for money, and they love unlocking stuff. In Crazy Snowboard we have 13 different riders that can be unlocked using in-game points that are earned by completing levels. There are also 13 matching boards and 16 in-air grabs.

We also have two in-app purchases in Crazy Snowboard and they are both related to additional content: 500K Coins, and the Expansion Pack.

Having this unlockable content also increases the player’s incentive to replay levels, and hence better value for money.

Depth

OK, it’s great having a simple, fun core game mechanic, but if there is no depth to the game then players will get bored and leave. Players want to be challenged, learn new skills, and then master these skills.

In Crazy Snowboard once you have mastered the tilt to steer we pace the introduction of advanced jumps, in-air grabs, spins and flips, grinding, and jump multipliers. Each of these new skills is slowly introduced so we don’t overwhelm the player, but by the time they have master these skills they will be racking up huge scores and 10x multipliers.

Angry Birds does a great job of this, they slowly pace the introduction of new birds/powerups. Cut the Rope is another good example, and at the pinnacle is Plants vs Zombies, which builds from very simple to an extremely complex game.

If you can get the pacing right you will keep players challenged and interested while also minimizing frustration and on the other end of the scale, boredom.

Our Next Game – Diversion

So, as you’re designing your next game make sure you keep these golden rules in mind. I know we are. Here’s a breakdown of our upcoming release ‘Diversion’ and how we are going at applying these rules:

Simple and Fun: Everything is controlled with a single touch (can’t get much simpler than that!)

Lots of Short Levels: 50 so far, maybe more when released

Content: Change your avatar with 100′s of unlockable items

Depth: With a single touch you will be able to activate buttons, jump, swim, fly, use ziplines and more

So, if you follow these Golden Rules (and have a bit of luck) you might just be the next big hit game designer – well, that’s what we are hoping with ‘Diversion’ anyway! Time will tell… while you are waiting, why not check out the Diversion teaser trailer: (Source: Ezone.com Apps)