游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

论述在线游戏未来设计5大建议

发布时间:2011-06-03 15:47:28 Tags:,

游戏邦注:本文作者为GM Tristan,文中他针对在线游戏未来设计提出5大建议。

回到8或10年前,在线游戏市场就不会像现在这么拥挤,呈现饱和状态。在今天这片无情的市场,很多游戏以封闭测试版本姿态呈现,但最终都无疾而终(游戏邦注:将近80%-90%)。这是因为很多作品不过是其他热门AAA游戏的翻版。游戏市场有太多空虚作品。而试图摆脱这一路线的团队亦是举步维艰。

只有富有创意的作品才有机会顺利度过测试阶段,步入能够创收的“商业”阶段。同类游戏能够取得平平成绩,但如果出现画面效果更佳的类似作品,那么该游戏就无法掳获玩家芳心。

design from gmtristan.com

design from gmtristan.com

以下是我个人针对在线游戏设计/开发商提供的几条建议。

1. 方便玩家引入朋友

强大营销计划或深度营销策略本身并没有问题。我日后会深入探讨。但最常被忽略的获得工具就是玩家本身。在线游戏是社交活动。这是游戏取得成功的关键。我希望未来游戏能够促使邀请好友变得更加便捷,只要点击鼠标便可实现。目前我发现社交游戏,特别是Zynga游戏和其他Facebook游戏已实现这个目标。若设计师能够把这个元素融入设计当中,游戏发行和创收就会变得更加简单。

2. 着眼抽奖元素

抽奖类机遇游戏很受玩家追捧。游戏未来应该提供日常抽奖(游戏邦注:玩家通过游戏现金或虚拟商城货币购得)。玩家喜欢机遇游戏。谁不想投资几便士变身百万富翁呢?游戏行业存在的一大障碍就是游戏仅限于特定运营地区/国家。有时某款在某地区合法的简单抽奖游戏在其他地区就变成犯罪。 

chance from gmtristan.com

chance from gmtristan.com

3. 融入奖励和赞誉元素

这是区分玩家成就最简单的方法。就像索尼PSN采用的策略,玩家在线展示奖杯,告知Facebook好友(游戏邦注:奖励和赞誉也就自动形成)。如果你解锁某项成就,但内容却没有共享,那么一切都是徒劳,你觉得呢?设计团队应该将此内容作为标准元素融入游戏中。游戏应该同在线平台(例如网站或社交媒体)形成无缝隙连接,赋予排名、奖励和赞誉更多价值。若玩家置身榜首,定都会十分高兴。

4. 借助社交媒体

游戏公司通过Facebook Connect应用和小工具就会发现社交媒体的价值所在。它们已经成为全球统一登陆系统(UNIVERSAL LOG IN)。跳转至Facebook?那么为何不登陆呢?未来的游戏应该实现让新玩家迅速连接,即刻使用Facebook帐号进行体验。现在这个目标已经实现,但我希望未来能够发展成主流模式。

social media from gmtristan.com

social media from gmtristan.com

5. 商业模式至上

我玩过的游戏大多注重画面效果和游戏玩法,以及其他商业模式之外的元素。通常虚拟商城都是充当补充元素。设计师应该意识到这种“思维模式”的荒谬之处。所有在线游戏都应被视作商业活动,商业模式应该是游戏设计的优先考虑事项。顶级开发公司的思维转变定能给行业带来惊喜。

此外,充分利用玩家反馈信息的开发商将会处于优势地位。开展调查研究和趋势分析未来将会成为行业必不可少的活动。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

5 Online Game Design Notes For The Future

By GM Tristan

It used to be simpler 8 to 10 odd years or so ago, the online gaming market wasn’t as cramped, cutthroat and saturated like what it is today. In today’s unforgiving industry, a LOT of games get designed, put on the proverbial closed beta axe and (around 80% to 90%) will never get to see the light of day. This may be due to the fact that most games are just rehashes or old gimmicks or, sadly, clones of more popular AAA titles. There too much fantasy titles out there. The teams that tried to stay away from them are also having a hard time.

Only the innovative designs strike a big chance of seeing their titles go past the betas and earn money in the “commercial” stage. A like-the-rest-of-em game may be a modest hit but if another similar title comes up with better graphics, it’s difficult to start all over again and retain players.

Here’s my unsolicited advice for the design/developer talents out there… some ideas off the top of my head on how to make things work…

Online Game Design Notes For The Future

1. Make It Easy For Users To Recruit their friends – There’s nothing wrong with a kick-ass marketing plan or a deep marketing pockets. I’d take that any day of the week. But the most overlooked (and sometimes biggest) acquisition tool would be the users themselves. An online game is a social activity. That’s the key to its success. In the future, I’d want to see games that make it easy for players to invite their friends with a single mouse click. I’m seeing it now in Social Games especially by Zynga and other Facebook games. If the designers can integrate this into their designs, publishing and making profit on a game will be simpler.

2. The Itch For Chance – Games of chance such as lotteries are a big hit. In the future, games should offer daily lotteries which can be bought by either in-game cash or item mall currency. Players like games of chance. Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire for just pennies invested? One of the hurdles of the gaming industry is to keep within the boundaries of the laws on the areas/countries where they operate. Sometimes a simple lottery may be legal in an area but it may be a crime in some.

3. Rewards and Recognition – a simple way to rank players’ achievements. This can be as simple as what Sony’s PSN is doing… putting your trophies online and announcing it to your Facebook friends – automatically! If you unlock an achievement and it isn’t shared, it’s pretty much useless, dontcha think? Design teams should integrate it into their games as a standard. The game should seamlessly connect with online platforms like websites or social media to give more value to these rankings, rewards and recognition. Players always love it when they’re on the top of the pack (and have bragging rights to prove it)!

4. Social Media is your friend – With Facebook’s Connect app and widgets, companies (and games too) should see the true value of this. It’s become sort of like a UNIVERSAL LOG IN worldwide. Got facebook? Then, why register? Games of the future should allow new players to instantly connect and play in no time using their Facebook account. It’s happening now and I predict that this will be the wave of the future.

5. Business Model Before Eye Candy – Most of the games I tried were obviously designed with the graphics, gameplay and what-have-you BEFORE the business model was ever integrated. More often than not, the item mall was designed as an afterthought. Designers should see the fallacies of this “mode of thinking”. Hey! All online games should be treated as businesses and the business model should be among the TOP CONSIDERATIONS for game design. A paradigm shift among the top dev companies will do wonders for the industry.

There are other great and new ideas out there. Developers who harness the power of feedback from the users will lead the fray. Doing research and looking at trends will also be “musts” in this industry.(Source:gmtristan


上一篇:

下一篇: