游戏邦注：本文作者为James Brightman，文中Aki Järvilehto谈及作品《Death Rally》的成功经验，他对iOS平台的看法，以及公司未来发展规划。

虽然iPhone游戏让独立开发商无需发行零售产品就能榜首有名，但App Store应用繁多，要推出像《愤怒的小鸟》或《翼飞冲天》这样的作品实属不易。Remedy Entertainment最近刚进军iOS市场，借助重塑公司首款作品《Death Rally》一举成名。这款游戏一度风靡34个国家，雄踞榜首，Remedy通过开展0.99美元促销活动，进一步促进产品销量。

AJ from industrygamers.com

Remedy执行副总裁Aki Järvilehto日前接受IndustryGamers采访，讲述作品成功经验，采访中他还谈到对iOS领域及其定价的看法，以及这对Remedy未来发展策略产生的影响。

你们为何选择通过重塑原始作品，而非打造全新iPhone/iPad游戏进军iOS市场？

这和Remedy的历史有关。《Death Rally》是我们1996年推出的首款作品（游戏邦注：其后续作品是《英雄本色》和《Alan Wake》）。汽车和枪支总是能够带来众多乐趣，所以我们认为这款游戏仍有发挥空间。很多粉丝希望《Death Rally》能够入驻现代PC平台，所以2009年我们推出了游戏补丁，采用的是免费形式。仅仅是为了满足粉丝要求。其受欢迎程度令人惊讶，这使我们开始意识到这款小型游戏的潜力，这款游戏很多方面都表现出色。

我们开始尝试不同想法，而iOS平台堪称最佳起始点。很快我们就开始呈现这样的状态，“把游戏变得更富有朝气，让我们重现真正的电子游戏，”当然我们马上就想到重塑《毁灭公爵》及借用《Alan Wake》的Barry Wheeler充当配角之类的想法。

我们是瞄准iOS平台重新设计游戏。管理端口本无需全力以赴，但这不是Remedy的作风。大型起重机是由Mountain Sheep的杰出人士完成的，你或许对他们的作品《迷你戈尔》略有耳闻？这些人同我们一起制作这款游戏，正是因为他们，这款游戏才能够以60FPS的稳定帧率运作于iPad 2。我们对所取得结果和《Death Rally》的运作方式很满意。

Remedy曾表示，更多《Alan Wake》内容将会陆续呈现，但下款作品不是《Alan Wake 2》。我们是否有机会看到《Alan Wake》入驻iOS平台，迈向全球市场（游戏邦注：就像EA针对《死亡空间》采取的策略那样）？你认为《Alan Wake》能否完美呈现于iOS平台？

很抱歉，此事我不想透露更多，但我们确实很满意《Alan Wake》这款作品，粉丝亦是如此。

App Store如今应用泛滥，作品要获得关注实属不易。你们是如何让《Death Rally》脱颖而出？有没有什么可供分享的小诀窍？

是的，App Store的确是个竞争极其激烈的市场。但我认为这对那些希望独自发行作品及有能力制作很棒作品的开发商来说是个好消息。我的意思是说这将带来大家翘首以盼的游戏变革，同时让开发商能够展开公平竞争。

在数字推广尚未出现之前，获得沃尔玛货架空间是关键，鲜少独立开发商能够在此取得优异成绩。如今这种情况发生了变化，随着数字游戏的出现，游戏领域的较量不再是货架之争。连营销预算对数字游戏的影响也有所减弱，如今数字游戏多半是靠商铺和热门排行榜推动。

我建议开发商关注产品质量和病毒式传播（游戏邦注：帮助形成口头宣传）。你如何让人家认为，“哇！花这钱享受这款游戏真是太值得啦！”

这就是我们在《Death Rally》所采取的策略。我们花费大把时间，尽可能完善游戏，然后每隔一周就更新内容，添加等级、汽车、枪械、啦啦队和辅助功能。

death rally from tonistechblog.com

反响很好！我们不久前推出了0.99美元促销活动，游戏开始攀升至榜单之首。《Death Rally》连续5天成为全球销量最好的iPad游戏，这完全是意料之外。单活动周期间，游戏新增下载量就突破10万份。

iOS市场是否会成为Remedy关注的核心市场，同掌机和PC市场平起平坐？

《Death Rally》和iOS市场是我们的试验场所，其中蕴藏很多乐趣，十足的乐趣。我们希望学习平台知识和推广策略。能在这片领域有所发展我们很开心。虽然Remedy会继续侧重AAA故事情节推动的电影动作游戏，但我们认为小型游戏也极富潜力，能够补充大型游戏。

Remedy是否也会瞄准其他智能手机平台，例如谷歌的Android？

目前我们对《Death Rally》在iOS的运作情况感到十分满意。我们自然也关注其他平台，给予相应评估。但我们目前还未打算入驻其他手机平台。

你们是怎么看待3DS和即将问世的NGP（游戏邦注：索尼公司产品）？你们会支持这些平台吗？

我们目前正在评估不同选择。3DS和NGP都是很棒的平台，但他们和iOS截然不同。我不认同直接把iOS游戏植入这两个平台。相反我认为必须专门针对这两个平台开发游戏，方能充分利用平台的特殊功能。

智能手机和平板电脑更新很快，而且功能十分强大，你觉得传统手机和掌机设备是否会陷入困境？

很多智能手机和平板电脑能带给玩家美妙的享受。如今玩家只要花费一款手持掌机游戏的价钱便能够从iOS收获许多乐趣，而且还能够免费享受基于广告的作品，所以我认为传统手持掌机若想要占有一席之地就需要重新打造自己。

《Death Rally》曾售价99美分，应用价格远比手持/掌机游戏便宜得多。任天堂和其他公司都表示，这些平价应用将威胁游戏市场，因为它们贬低游戏价值，将游戏商品化。你怎么认为？

我认为如今市场开始发生根本性变革。新兴商业模式纷纷涌现，这并不存在什么贬低价值。Facebook带给游戏领域很大影响，帮助行业扩展新用户群（游戏邦注：他们主要体验更具休闲性和社交性的游戏）。我不明白为何有人会认为主流玩家涌入市场会产生消极影响。这不正是我们一直期盼的吗？

游戏和游戏体验显然开始发生变化。平台发生变化，开发商和消费模式也随之改变。iOS平台有点很棒：玩家只要花费0.99美元，就能体验6小时高质量游戏。

《Death Rally》的成功是否会促进你们深入开拓数字市场，如Facebook？

开拓市场是游戏开发商的职责所在。目前的任务是挖掘实体和数字推广机会。但我们依然钟情掌机商业模式；这是大型作品诞生和发光发亮的地方。透过掌机，我们能够接触全新游戏体验，能够创作扣人心弦的故事情节（游戏邦注：如《Alan Wake》），这是工作室的一大优势。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

iPhone Gaming: Remedy’s Take on the Booming iOS Market

by James Brightman

iPhone games provide great opportunities for indie developers to make their mark without a retail product, but the App Store is flooded with thousands of apps and it’s not so easy to have a hit title like Angry Birds or Tiny Wings. Remedy Entertainment (Alan Wake) recently entered the iOS market for the first time and instantly saw success by resurrecting its first IP, Death Rally. The game was #1 for a time in 34 countries, and Remedy further pushed sales with a $0.99 bargain price for a limited time.

IndustryGamers recently chatted with Aki “AJ” Järvilehto, EVP at Remedy, about the game’s success, their thoughts on the iOS landscape, pricing, what this means for Remedy’s ongoing strategy and more.

IndustryGamers: In approaching the iOS market, why did you decide to revamp your original game instead of building a whole new IP just for iPhone/iPad?

Aki Järvilehto: This has a lot to do with the history of Remedy. Death Rally was our first game back in 1996 before we began working on Max Payne and Alan Wake which later followed that series. Cars and guns translate into such explosive fun that we’ve always felt there’s a lot of mileage in the IP. A lot of fans were asking us to make the original Death Rally work on modern day PC’s, so we made a patch in 2009 which we put out for free. Just something for the fans. The reception was astounding, which brought us to realize the potential of this little game that we always thought was brilliant in many ways.

We started to toy around with different concepts and the iOS platform as a starting point immediately felt right. Instantly we were going like “Hey, let’s make the gameplay even more snappy, let’s bring back real arcade gaming” and of course ideas like bringing Duke Nukem back and using Barry Wheeler from Alan Wake as cameos instantly crossed our minds.

The truth is that we actually did end up designing the game from scratch for iOS. Doing a port of any sort would’ve been half-assed, and that’s not Remedy. The heavy lifting was done by the talented guys over at Mountain Sheep, you probably know them from their Minigore game? Well, those guys developed the title together with us and it’s their magic which makes the game run at a stable 60FPS for iPad 2. We’re really happy with the results and the way Death Rally plays on the platform.

IG: Remedy was recently quoted as saying that more Alan Wake is coming but that the next experience is not Alan Wake 2. Could we perhaps see an Alan Wake experience on iOS to further build on the universe, sort of like what EA did with Dead Space? Do you think Alan Wake would translate well to iOS?

AJ: Sorry, but I’m not going to spill the beans on this one just yet, but we’re of course really excited about Alan Wake, and we know the fans are too.

IG: With the App Store flooded with thousands of apps, it’s not easy to get your game noticed. How were you successful with Death Rally? What tips do you have for fellow developers?

AJ: You’re absolutely right about the App Store being a hyper competitive environment. But I think this is also great news for developers who want to self publish and can turn out amazing games. I mean this is the radical game changer that everyone’s been hoping for and in many ways it’s now really a level playing field for developers.

Before digital distribution it really was all about who owned the shelf space at Walmart, and that was a game few indie devs could really play well. That has somewhat changed and with the digital titles it’s no longer a battle of shelf space. Even marketing budgets have less of an impact to digital games as mostly it’s driven by the store front and top lists.

So I guess my advice would be to really focus on the quality of the product and viral aspects to create the word of mouth. How do you make people say “Wow! What a great game at this price!”

That’s really what we did with Death Rally. We took our time to polish it to be as good as possible and then we’ve updated the content like crazy putting out new levels, cars, guns, boosters and features literally every other week.

And hey, it’s really working out tremendously well! Last weekend we tried an aggressive $0.99 price campaign and the game shot it’s way to the top of the charts. For five days straight Death Rally was the most sold iPad game in the world and we were simply stunned by all this. Over 100,000 new copies were downloaded in that weekend alone.

IG: Has the iOS market now become a major focus for Remedy, on equal footing with console and PC?

AJ: Death Rally and the iOS market began as a testing ground for us, a bit of fun, but serious fun. We wanted to learn the platform and distribution methods.  It’s really nice to see us having success here also.  While Remedy’s focus will definitely continue to be on AAA story driven cinematic action titles, we also see these smaller titles having potential in the overall mix, supporting our big franchises.

IG: Will Remedy look at other smartphones as well, such as Google’s Android?

AJ: Right now we’re super excited about how well Death Rally is doing on iOS. And yes, of course we’re looking at other platforms and evaluating them. But we haven’t really committed into other mobile platforms yet.

IG: What are your thoughts on the 3DS and forthcoming NGP from Sony. Are those platforms you will support?

AJ: Right now we’re evaluating different alternatives. 3DS and NGP are interesting platforms, but they’re very, very different from iOS. I don’t think that the right approach would be to take an iOS game and just port it over to them. Rather you’d want to create games for these platforms which is designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the platform.

IG: Given that smartphones and tablets iterate their hardware so quickly and have gotten enormously powerful, do you think traditional handhelds and consoles will be in trouble?

AJ: Many smartphones and tablets offer mind blowing value to gamers. Right now you can buy tons and tons of fun on iOS with the price of a single handheld console game. Heck, you can get tons of fun for free with advertising based concepts. So I do think the traditional handheld consoles will need to reinvent themselves if they want to compete.

IG: Death Rally was 99 cents for a time, and apps in general are far, far cheaper than handheld/console titles. Nintendo and others have expressed great concern that these cheap apps are threatening the industry by devaluing and commoditizing games. What are your thoughts?

AJ: I think the market is changing in a radical fashion. Barriers of entry are literally being blown away. New business models are booming and this is not about devaluation. Facebook is doing tremendous things to gaming and attracting completely new people to enjoy different more casual and social games. I can’t see how the fact that mainstream consumers are finally embracing our industry could be negative. After all isn’t that what we’ve been hoping for since forever?

Games and gaming as an experience is certainly changing – platforms are evolving and developers and consuming is evolving with it. On iOS we think it’s totally awesome that you can buy a game like Death Rally, 6 hours of console quality gaming with high production values, with just $0.99!

IG: Will your success with Death Rally encourage you to explore other digital markets, like Facebook perhaps?

AJ: As game developers it’s our job to explore the industry. Right now that means exploring opportunities on both physical and digital distribution. We absolutely still love the console business model though; that’s where the big stuff gets done and shines. With consoles we get to work with a totally different kind of experience, and can tell more immersive resonating stories like Alan Wake which is one of our studio’s biggest strengths.

IG: Thanks AJ.（Source：industrygamers）