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游戏内互动或成社交游戏领域新突破

发布时间:2011-06-24 08:38:50 Tags:,,,

作者: Playgen公司

忽然之间,社交游戏的议论声此起彼伏。所有开发商都垂涎其丰厚营收,这个新兴市场领头人所取得的显著成就着实令人叹为观止。但设计一款趣味横生的社交游戏绝非人人都能胜任,即便作品跻身Facebook榜首也不意味着游戏就会取得成功。

综观整个社交游戏市场,以及我们最近刚推出第3款游戏,这里有些宝贵经验要同大家分享,帮助那些处在初创阶段的开发者创造更好作品。

这无非就是单人游戏模式融入社交元素。对吧?虽然单人模式很重要,但若这是游戏出发点,这个社交游戏设计定会相当局限。

游戏竞争模式

设计《iSeed》期间,我们考虑过加入社团和排行榜,但觉得这虽然有所帮助,却不符合促进玩家互动的目标,所以我们将竞争扩展成1对1的正面对抗模式(游戏邦注:这是古老的战斗模式)。这不是第一人称射击游戏,而是涉及环境元素,所以我们的工作受到限制,这也是为什么我们决定采用直接竞争模式。你能够选择对手,相互比较消息动态,种植植物对抗其他玩家,植物能够获得虚拟生长。

游戏虚拟交易

有些人对于虚拟交易这个词的追捧度仅次于社交媒介,但有些人对此知之甚少。虚拟交易虽然重要,但开发者需要充分考虑目标群体以及项目目标。

farmville(from blog.games.com)

farmville(from blog.games.com)

我们推出《iSeed》是希望玩家能够向慈善机构捐款,所以我们才会想到出售货币!是的,我们在《iSeeds》和《Plant Food》中重新打造虚拟货币,如果这听起来有点像《Farmville》,我想声明我们这款游戏先于《Farmville》。无论如何,能够以金币进行交易的虚拟商品市场并非新事物,但这需将此融入所有社交游戏当中。毕竟若你无法通过社交游戏创收,你要如何维持这款游戏呢?

游戏改变玩家行为

很多时候社交游戏旨在促使玩家沉浸其中,进行消费。但如果这是款严肃社交游戏呢?如果你希望通过游戏影响和改变玩家行为方式呢?是网页游戏,还是Facebook游戏呢?也许都不是。玩家离开荧屏才是真正变化的开始,变化在于他们玩过你的社交游戏之后,会采取什么行动。我们要如何实现这个目标?这是个真正的挑战。所以回到《iSeed》,游戏的前提是你从现实世界切入,面对现实挑战。通过Facebook、twitter和谷歌地图将这些元素交叉在一起。

游戏世界中的互动

一切还尚未实现,但什么时候你敢孤注一掷,成就定相当显著。那最接近的平台呢?是Kongragate还是Second Life,其实都不是。那是什么呢?这是社交游戏的下个大创新,在同个平台能够同时体验多款作品,玩家能够从一款游戏无缝隙切换至另一款游戏,仿佛二者处在同片游戏世界。就算Kongragate能够达到这个目标,但我们缺少的是共同平台,会是Facebook吗?我想不是,但游戏互动而非平台互动或许会是社交游戏的下个重大突破。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Social Games Developer-Fight, Monetize and Extend

Suddenly everywhere you look there is a buzz about social games. Dollar signs flashing before every developer’s eyes as everyone is amazed by the success of some of the first movers in this exploding market. But designing an engaging social games is not something everyone can do, just because the designer is ripping off the latest big hit on facebook it really doesn’t mean its going to be a success.

So having had a good look around the social game world & having made our 3rd social game this year, here’s some nuggets of information that should help any budding social games designer to develop a better game.

Its all about a great single player game experience with a bit of social attached! Or is it? I would argue that even though the single player aspect is paramount, if that is the starting point the design of the social game will be sadly rather limiting.

Ready, Steady, Fight!

When we were designing iSeed, we looked at opt-in leagues and leader-board tables and felt that whilst useful they just didn’t cut the mustard in getting people to engage with each other, so we extended the competition to one on one, head to head, good old fashioned fighting. Its not a first person shooter, it’s a game about the environment, so there were limits on what we could do – that’s where we decided to design for direct competition. You can pick an adversary and pit your stories and plants against them, a virtual grow-off if you like.

Kerching! Its time to Monetize!

Some people love the word monetize next to social media, some don’t really get it. We think it’s super important but needs careful consideration about target audience and what the project is for.

Whist we developed iSeed we wanted a way to encourage folks to donate to the charity involved, so we hit on the idea of selling money! Yes we reinvented virtual currency, in our case Seeds and Plant Food – if this is sounding like Farmville can I just clarify that we built it before Farmville. Any how, having a market place with virtual goods that can be exchanged with hard cold cash is not new, but needs incorporating into ‘any’ social game. After all if you can’t monetize your social game, how will you sustain it?

Going beyond the application

A lot of the time the social game is designed to suck you in and get you spending. But what if it’s a serious social game? What if you really are trying to influence and change behaviour? Will a web game, all be it on Facebook be the answer? Well probably not, the real change happens after the person has walked away from the screen, in what they do once they’ve played your social game. How do we do that? That’s the real challenge. So back to iSeed and the premise of the game is that you start in the real world, with real world challenges. Bringing it all together through mashups using facebook, twitter and google maps.

Going fully social on the social game

Its yet to happen, but when it does you can bet your bottom dollar it’s going to be massive. The closest thing to it? Probably Kongragate or Second Life – but neither is it. What is it? It’s the next big innovation in social games, being able to play multiple games together under one platform, moving from one game to another seamlessly as though it’s all part of the same universe. Granted Kongragate makes a good job of it, but what’s missing is a common platform, will it be Facebook? I suspect not, but being able to socialise in the game itself rather than in the wrapping website is probably the next big thing in social games.(Source:playgen


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