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

分析《Tiny Tower》如何利用游戏机制吸引玩家

发布时间:2011-10-28 18:17:42 Tags:,,,

作者:Lucifer Jheng

《Tiny Tower》是款由NimbleBit开发的iOS游戏。如同他们之前的代表作《口袋青蛙》一样,《Tiny Tower》也是款免费增值游戏。我在这款游戏上花了无数个小时,在过去两个月的时间里,它占据了我大多数的业余时间,经常耗干我的iPhone电量。

她说道:“你上瘾了。”“不,我没有。”随后我滑动解锁屏幕,点击应用图标开始打理我盖的塔。

即便是女友的iPhone也经常因为玩《Tiny Tower》而耗尽电量。“你今天有重新给商店进货吗?”“我新开的楼层是个博物馆!”“嗨,我有69个Bitizen正做他们梦寐以求的工作。”这种对话已经成为了我们日常生活的一部分。

我不知从何时开始,每天早上的第一件事情不是洗漱而是查看我修建的塔,为商店进货或构件新的楼层。晚上当我准备上床睡觉时,我做的最后一件事情是查看每个楼层,确保是否有商店仍然需要进货。

听着熟悉的DING(游戏邦注:这款游戏的音效),这让我感到舒适和满足。

Tiny-Tower(from gamasutra)

Tiny-Tower(from gamasutra)

基本游戏玩法

虽然在《Babel》这则故事中人类受到了严重的惩罚,上帝愤怒地摧毁了人类修建的通天塔,但尝试到达云层探索上方的天空这种人类本性依然存在。历史总是不断地重复,因为我们人类是健忘的动物。

但作为《Tiny Tower》世界中全能的上帝,玩家能做的事实上并没有那么多。当赚到足够金币开始向上修建新楼层时,玩家必须从6中楼层类型中做出选择,包括住宅、创造、零售、娱乐、服务和食物。

玩家只能决定他们想要修建哪种类型的楼层,但是直到建设完成之后,他们才能知道建成的究竟是哪种商店。

住在塔中的居民称为Bitizen。玩家必须首先修建“住宅”楼层让Bitizen移居到塔中,然后为Bitizen分配合适的工作,将最有效率的Bitizen放进最合适的商店中,这样才能够重新购进更多货物而且支付更少的金币。

《Tiny Tower》中流通的货币有两种——金币和Tower Bux。金币可以用来构建新的楼层或者在不同类型的商店中订购货物和服务。金币的主要来源是出售货物和服务而获得的收入,这个过程所需的时间从数分钟到数小时不等。但是,时间会随着现实时间前行,即便玩家没有在玩游戏,金币也会不断积累增加,直到所有的道具完全售出为止。

Tower Bux可以用来加快建设或货物运输速度、购买更快的电梯或换取金币。虽然它可以用现实世界的金钱来购买,但是如果玩家拒绝购买Bux,也不会失去任何游戏内容,因为这种货币通过游戏内的某些行为也可以获得,比如电梯用户的消费、帮助寻找某个Bitizen后获得奖励或将商店完全塞满货物。

《Tiny Tower》是模拟社交游戏,在这个充满和平的小塔内,没有充满挑战的游戏玩法,全都是高度积极乐观的场景。尤其是,游戏中没有打败对手的欢庆时刻,也没有嘲笑玩家失败的游戏结束屏幕。

Tiny Tower(from gamasutra)

Tiny Tower(from gamasutra)

核心机制

总的来说,构建于《Tiny Tower》内的核心游戏机制就是随机化。游戏在多个层面中使用了随机化,包括楼层、Bitizen、VIP、楼层重新油漆后的颜色和Bitizen的服装。

留给玩家制定战略的空间并不多。多数结果取决于玩家自身的运气和随机性。如果你是那种习惯于玩传统游戏的玩家,我打赌你不会喜欢上这款游戏。“嗨,我觉得游戏应当有互动和选择,难道不是吗?”

与以战略为中心的硬核游戏相比,轻量级游戏的组成元素通常更多是“运气”。当运气占据游戏的核心地位时,每个人都有获胜的可能,无论他的技术是否出众。

这款游戏并不会测试你的控制技能或反应速度。“任何人都有运气获得累积奖金”是为何这种题材的游戏总是能够吸引玩家的原因。

Jamie Madigan在自己的某篇文章中介绍了“友善嫉妒”这个心理学术语。他声称,看到好友拥有自己想要的楼层会驱使我们产生花真钱来购买的意愿,而这可能会使得《Tiny Tower》的盈利获得很大的提升。

确实,我相信这能够帮助NimbleBit在短期内赚到大笔金钱,但是这也有可能导致相反的结果,那就是会很快地失去玩家。无论玩家的目标是什么,只要能够简单地通过玩家手上的金钱得以实现,他们就会花费自认为合适数量的金钱来购买,随后就会失去继续玩游戏的驱动力。

《Tiny Tower》游戏机制的核心基础是随机化。玩家需要“好运”才能建造出他们确实想要的楼层,而这正是为何他们愿意持续玩游戏的原因。

Tiny Tower (from gamasutra)

Tiny Tower (from gamasutra)

留存策略

从基本游戏玩法的层面上说,《Tiny Tower》似乎与其他普通社交游戏并无差别。如果它只是款普通的社交游戏,玩家心中认为需要采取的步骤就是:打开游戏、点击、点击、点击、实现目标和离开游戏。

相反,为何玩家会不断回到游戏中来玩呢?以下是某些本质上的动机:

1、有机会获得VIP的帮助

2、有机会获得免费的Bux

3、有机会让新的Bitizen定居

4、“只需一小段时间”效应:你正想要离开游戏,但是3分钟过后商店中的进货就会完成。你会想:“好的,只需要再有3分钟的时间就可以了,我可以等下去。”几分钟过后,你注意到商店中的道具就要卖完了,需要在2分钟之后重新进货。你又会想:“再多玩几分钟也无所谓,不是吗?”这种微妙却强大的效应让我在《Tiny Tower》中投入了无数的时间。

与花费金币可以实现的效果相比,在《Tiny Tower》中Bux是最为关键的资源,它可以用于:加速楼层建设;加速货物运输;快速售出存货;升级楼层;升级电梯;换取金币;雇佣Bitizen;为Bitizen购买服装。

宝贵的Bux可以通过IAP选项使用现实世界的金钱来购买。但是,玩家也可以轻易地通过游戏内的某些行为来赚取Bux,不用花一分钱,这些行为包括:电梯用户付的消费(随机);将商店的货物存满(随机);帮助找到某个Bitizen;建设新楼层;为Bitizen庆祝生日。

这些游戏内置行为(游戏邦注:包括获得消费、存满商店中的货物和寻找Bitizen)是游戏让玩家上瘾的主要吸引力来源,让他们愿意不断地将电梯用户送到正确的楼层,这是件非常乏味单调的事情。

游戏中还有个吸引玩家的地方就是,输送不同道具的时间间隔有很大的差异。货物的输送时间需要2分钟到12小时不等,甚至当新道具被输送到达之后,玩家需要回到游戏中将其存货才能够开始出售。这使得玩家感觉自己有义务不断回到游戏中保持商店有存货。

所有这些设计精巧的“不定时奖励”加上游戏给玩家带来的独特模拟和快乐,游戏的魅力简直难以抗拒。

Tiny Tower (from gamaustra)

Tiny Tower (from gamaustra)

盈利选项

与多数社交游戏不同的是,《Tiny Tower》只给玩家提供3中购买选项:0.99美元换取10个Bux;4.99美元换取100个Bux;29.99美元换取1000个Bux。

0.99美元的选项适合冲动的购买者。玩这款游戏超过30分钟的玩家都知道,在游戏中赚取10个Bux并不难,你惟一需要的只是耐心而已。但是,当我们的欲望战胜睿智时,我们想要立马得到想要的东西,这便是我们的最佳选项。

4.99美元的选项适合理性分析的玩家。你只需要快速的分析就可以发现,这对普通玩家来说是个最合理的选择。有些人或许会争辩说4.99美元过于昂贵,如果定价2.99美元会更好。但是,当我们决定花钱购买某些想要的东西时,几美元的差距根本没有多大关系。

29.99美元的选项适合鲸鱼玩家。虽然多数玩家不会在手机游戏上花这么多钱,或许会认为这是种荒谬的行为,但是我们应当注意到的是,我们并不属于鲸鱼玩家这个范畴。鲸鱼玩家很稀少,但是游戏大部分的盈利通常都来源于此类玩家。

根据Nicholas Lovell的某篇文章所述,《Tiny Tower》的付费比率为3.8%。他的分析结果显示,45%的玩家选择了0.99美元选项,51%的玩家选择了4.99美元选项,4%的玩家选择了29.99美元选项。而这仅有的4%购买者贡献了将近30%的盈利。

该游戏教程教授玩家如何使用Bux来节省建造新楼层和储存货物的时间。游戏总是会毫不吝啬地向玩家提供Bux。它让玩家高兴,而且让他们觉得可以自由地花费Bux而不用保留。

《Tiny Tower》首先展示了花费Bux带来的便利,然后让玩家养成花费Bux的“好习惯”。最后,玩家可能就会愿意在需要的时候花现实世界金钱来购买游戏内的资源。《Tiny Tower》中的盈利选择并不像其他免费增值游戏那般强势。或许在短期内游戏的盈利潜力较小,但是我相信在长期的运营过程中,它会赢得玩家的忠诚和信任。

有时,过多的选项就等于完全没有选项。

失去理性的趣味性

如果你是跟我同种类型的玩家,从分析游戏中各种最优化战略中享受乐趣,我们可能在玩《Tiny Tower》时会感受到相同的痛楚。

每个楼层最多只能存放3个商品,当楼层被全部存满时效率达到最大化。因而,任何沉浸在这款游戏中的玩家都知道应该尽量保持个楼层存满。简单地说,保持每个楼层存满货物是游戏的最佳战略。

在输送货物时,我们不知道同楼层其他货物的存货量,也不知道何时这些货物会被售尽。当我们当代输送完成之时,很可能楼层就已经断货并关闭了。

为使盈利最大化,我们必须加快存活过程。“只要花3个Bux就可以让我节省3个小时的时间。”花些许资源加速收入和效率,这似乎是个很划算的交易,所以我们毫不犹豫地实施了。

《Tiny Tower》中没有腐烂或惩罚机制。因而即便你不经常玩游戏,你的楼层也不会倒塌或变得肮脏。但是,如果你努力想以最优化战略来玩游戏,你会发现自己会持续自觉去玩。如果你不采取行动和做些事情,你就浪费了获得优势的机会。这就像是发痒,你不得不去挠。

即便在玩游戏只是,我们也会下意识地被自己理性的思维方式所限制。有时,可能我们应当以不理性的态度来享受乐趣,这或许会让我们从“最优化战略”思维的笼子中挣脱出来。

每款经典的游戏都会有许多令人惊叹的时刻,让玩家难以遗忘。许多年过去后,我们可能会忘记连击技能、游戏中的最终BOSS和所有的其他细节,但是那种充满魔力的时刻我们不会遗忘,而且乐于同好友分享。

《Tiny Tower》给我带来的首个印象深刻的时刻是指派Bitizen到他们梦寐以求的岗位上工作。“如果每个人都能够在自己喜欢的岗位上工作,这个世界将是多么得美好!”但是,在玩了数个月的游戏之后,我的塔中的梦想工作完成率超过了90%,现在我的希望是能够构建自己的梦想楼层。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Tiny Tower: Why Irrational Elements Are Fun

Lucifer Jheng

Tiny Tower is an iOS game developed by NimbleBit. Just like their previous hit Pocket Frogs, Tiny Tower is also a freemium game. It was the game that I spend countless hours playing, occupied most of my leisure time and drained my iPhone battery a lot in the past 2 months.

“You got hooked.” she said. “No. I didn’t,” and then I swiped the screen lock, tapping on the app icon to fiddle with my tower.

Even my girlfriend’s iPhone frequently got exhausted because of playing Tiny Tower. “Have you restocked the shops today?” “My newly open floor is a Museum!” “Hey, I’ve got 69 Bitizens working in their dream jobs.” These conversations become part of our daily lives.

I don’t know from when, I choose to check my tower to stock shelves or construct new floors first thing in the morning instead of freshening up. When I’m about to sleep at night, the last thing I do is to review every floor to make sure if there’s any store still needs to be stocked.

Listening to that familiar DING (the game’s sound effect) makes me feel comfortable and satisfied.

Basic Gameplay

Although human was severely punished in the story of Babel, destroyed by God’s burning anger, it’s forever part of human nature trying to reach beyond the clouds to explore the sky above. History always repeats itself for we humans are forgetful creatures.

As the almighty lord of Tiny Tower, what players can do is not actually so much. When sufficient coins are earned to expand new floors upwards, players have 6 floor types to choose: Residential, Creative, Retail, Recreation, Service and Food.

Players can only decide what type of the floor they want to build, but not until the construction is completed, they won’t be able to know what kind of store it will be.

The habitants in the tower are called Bitizens – as they are built bit by bit. Players have to build Residential floors first to let Bitizens move in, and then assign the right Bitizen to the right job – to put the most efficient Bitizens in the most suitable stores in order to restock more goods and pay lesser coins.

There’re 2 currencies in flow in Tiny Tower – coins and Tower Bux. Coins can be used to build new floors or to order goods and services at various types of stores. The main source of coins is the income from selling goods and services, which may take from a few minutes to several hours. However, the clock keeps running in real time even when players are not playing so coins continue to accumulate till all items are sold out.

On the other hand, Tower Bux is used to speed up construction or deliveries of goods, to purchase faster elevators, or to exchange for coins. Although it can be purchased with real-world money, players will not miss out any content of the game if they refuse to purchase Bux, which can easily earned through in-game activities such as tips from elevator users, rewards for helping find a Bitizen, or for fully stocking a shop.

Tiny Tower is a type of simulation social game, and in this peaceful little tower, there’re no challenging gameplay and highly upbeat moments. Particularly, it has no glory time to defeat opponents, and no game-over screen to taunt you about your failure.
Core Mechanism

In a word, the core game mechanism built inside Tiny Tower is — Randomness. It makes use of randomness in the following aspects: Floors; Bitizens; VIP; Floors’ repainting colors; Bitizens’ outfit.

There’s not much room left for players to carry out their strategies. Most of the outcomes depend on your luck and the randomness. If you are the type of player who used to play traditional games, I bet you won’t be very comfortable with it. “Hey, I thought games are about interaction and choice, aren’t they?”

Compared with strategy-centric core games, the elements in lightweight games are usually composed of much more ‘luck’. When luck plays the central role in the game, everyone has a good chance to win, whether he is skilled or not.

This game is not really about testing your controlling skill or reaction. ‘Anyone can be in luck and hit the jackpot’ is the reason why this genre of games can always draw in players.

Jamie Madigan introduced a psychological term called ‘benign envy’ in one of his articles. He claimed that seeing friends owning the floor we want excites our will to spend real money to buy it, and it may greatly help increasing Tiny Tower revenues.

Yes, I believe it could help NimbleBit to earn big money in a short period of time; however, it might cause an opposite effect of losing players very quickly as well. It doesn’t matter what players’ goal is; as long as it could be achieved simply by the money players have, they will spend what they can afford to get it, and then lose the motivation to keep playing the game.

Randomness is the core foundation of game mechanism in Tiny Tower. Players have to ‘get lucky’ to build the floor they desperately want, and it is exactly the reason why they’re willing to keep playing and playing.

Retension Strategy

From the aspect of its basic gameplay, Tiny Tower seems to be no different from other common social games. If it was just another ordinary social game, the steps players are expected to take will be: launch the game, tap, tap, tap, done, and leave the game.

Conversely, why do players keep coming back to play it? Some essential motives are:

Having a chance to get assistance from VIP

Having a chance to get free Bux

Having a chance to settle new Bitizens

‘Just a moment’ effect: you’re about to leave the game, but 3 minutes later the stocking at the Arcade is going to be completed. “Okay, it’s just 3 more minutes, I can wait.” A couple minutes later, you notice the items at Music Store are going to be sold out and need to be restocked after 2 minutes. “A few more minutes won’t hurt, right?” It is the tiny yet powerful effect makes me invest countless time in Tiny Tower.

Comparing with what spending coins can achieve, Bux is the most crucial resource in Tiny Tower and it can be used in: Speed up the construction of floors; Speed up the deliveries of goods; Quick sell stocks; Upgrade floors; Upgrade elevator; Exchange for coins; Hire Bitizens; Buy costumes for Bitizens.

The valuable Bux can be purchased with real-world money from In App Purchase options. However, players can also easily earn Bux through in-game activities, without paying a dime: Tips from elevator users (Random); Fully stocking a shop (Random); Helping find a specific Bitizen; Expanding a new floor; Happy birthday, Bitizens!

Those in-game activities (getting the tips, fully stocking a shop and finding Bitizens) are the main attraction of the game that gets players hooked, and makes them willing to repeatedly bring the elevator users to their correct floor, which is quite a monotonous and tedious job.

The catch here is that time durations for delivering different items varies widely. The deliveries of goods can take 2 minutes to 12 hours, and even when new items have finally been delivered, they can’t be sold until the player returns to the game to stock them. It makes players feel obligated to constantly return to the game to keep stores stocked.

All these well-designed ‘unscheduled rewards’ added up brings players unique stimulation and joy, which is strong and hard to resist.

Monetizing Options

Unlike most social games, Tiny Tower provides players with only 3 price options for purchase: $0.99: 10 Bux; $4.99: 100 Bux; $29.99: 1000 Bux.

$0.99 option is for impulse buyers. Any player who enjoys the game more than 30 minutes would agree that it is not a hard task to earn 10 Bux or more – the only thing you need is a little bit of patience. However, when our desire defeats our intellect, for we want to get what we want right away, this is the best option for us.

$4.99 option is for rational analysts. You just need a quick analysis to figure out that this is the most reasonable option for general players. Some people might argue that $4.99 is too expensive and it would be better if it priced $2.99. However, when we decide to spend money on what we want, just a few dollars more doesn’t matter much.

$29.99 option is for whale players. Although most of us will never spend that much money on a mobile game, and may consider it as a ridiculous behavior, we should be aware that we are simply not the so-called whale players. Whales are very rare, but a large part of profit often comes from them.

According to one of Nicholas Lovell’s article, the pay ratio in Tiny Tower is about 3.8%. His decomposition analysis showed that 45% players chose the $0.99 option; 51% chose the $4.99 option; and 4% chose the $29.99 option. The merely 4% buyers contributed almost 30% revenue.

The initial game tutorials teach players how to use Bux to save their time to speed up building new floors and stocking items. And the game always offers players Bux generously. It makes players happy and let them feel free to spend Bux rather than saving it cautiously.

Tiny Tower demonstrates the benefits of spending Bux first, and then teaches players to form the ‘good habit’ of spending Bux. Finally, players might willingly buy the in-game resource with real-world money when they need more. The monetizing options in Tiny Tower are not so strong (intrusive and disturbing) as other freemium games. It might get lesser potential revenue in the short term, but I believe it has earned players’ devotion and trust in the long run.

Sometimes, too many options equal no option at all.

Irrational Fun

If you are the same type of player as me, who enjoy analyze various optimized strategies in games, we might feel the same pain while playing Tiny Tower.

There can be at most 3 products being stocked in each floor, and the efficiency reaches its maximum when the floor is fully stocked. Hence, any player immersed in this game knows he should keep floors as busy as possible. In short, keeping every floor fully stocked is the best strategy for the game.

While delivering items, we won’t be able to know the stock quantity of other items in the same floor, nor can we know when they will be sold out. When we wait for the delivering to be completed, it is very likely the floor is out of stocks and closed.

To maximizing the profit, we have to speed up the stocking process. “Spending just 3 Bux can save 3 hours for me.” It seems to be a very nice deal that spending a little resource could accelerate income and efficiency, so we will do it without any hesitation.

Tiny Tower has no decaying or punishment mechanism. So even you don’t play it regularly, your floors won’t get collapsed or polluted. However, if you strive to play at optimized strategies, you’ll find yourself play it constantly and spontaneously. If you don’t take action and do something, you’ll waste the chance to get the advantages. It is just like an itch you must scratch.

We are unconsciously confined by our own rational mindset even while playing games. Perhaps we shall, sometimes, dare to enjoy the fun with irrationality, and it may free us from the cage of ‘optimized strategies’ mindset.

Every classics game creates one or more amazing moments that are hard-to-forget for players. Many years later, we might forget the combo skills, the final boss or all the other details in the game, but it is the magic moment which we won’t forget and would be happy to share with friends.

The first amazing moment Tiny Tower brought to me was assigning Bitizens to work in their dream jobs. “What a wonderful world it would be if everyone works in his dream job!” However, after immersing myself in the game for a couple of months, and the accomplishment rate of dream jobs in my tower has been over 90%, I’m now looking forward to building my dream floor.

Have you discovered your magic moment? Welcome to my Tiny Tower! (Source: Gamasutra)


上一篇:

下一篇: