作者：Wojtek Kawczynski

迄今为止，我们已经发布了两款具有创造性的iOS游戏：2011年1月发布的《Garage Inc.》以及2011年9月发布的《KULA BLOX》。根据玩家的评论，《KULA BLOX》真的是一款优秀的游戏。但反倒是《Garage Inc.》在刚刚发行后便迅速取得了更好的成绩。我认为《KULA BLOX》的成绩不佳是有原因的，我们不可能故意创造一款难以接近玩家的游戏。所以本文将结合我们在设计最新游戏《Ants at a Picnic》期间特别留心的问题进行分析，希望其他设计师也能避免出现类似情况。

garage-inc-mac-product(from brutalgamer.com)

经验教训

1.简洁的营销语言

使用一句话或关键词式的简洁描述能够让那些从未听说过游戏的玩家快速理解游戏中的相关内容。这能够帮助你更简洁地描述游戏，从而达到让玩家口口相传的营销效果。而如果你不能把握单行的游戏描述方式，你便等于错失了“传布”游戏的潜在机遇。

我们针对于《Garage Inc.》所使用的方式是将其当成社“男生版《美女餐厅》”进行宣传，以此更好地依靠后者的名气推广游戏。

而对于《KULA BLOX》，我们则通过描述整个故事去解释游戏——因为我们没有更加快捷的方法可以阐述游戏的核心内容。

而《Ants at a Picnic》的营销语则是告诉玩家“让你的食物免受讨厌蚂蚁的侵蚀”，以此更加直白地描述出游戏玩法。

2.类型

如果一句话描述并不奏效，你可以尝试着将自己游戏与其它游戏进行比较，或者将游戏描述成一种特殊的类型。例如，将其描述为“《Tiny Wings》与《Moster Dash》的交集”，或者“这是一款豚鼠与僵尸赛车的游戏”，也许这听起来很奇怪，但是却有助于让人们获得清晰的游戏概念。

这种参照能够让潜在玩家迅速掌握他们所感兴趣的游戏，同时也能够帮助游戏更好地明确目标用户，过滤掉那些对游戏并不感兴趣的玩家。同时你也不需要解释过多游戏内容，因为根据相同类型游戏的惯例，玩家能够立刻理解你的游戏机制。

对于《Garage Inc.》来说，做到这一点很简单，因为这是一款时间管理游戏。这是一种较为有名的游戏类型，大多数玩家都掌握了这类型游戏的规则了。

而《KULA BLOX》却没那么幸运。它找不到任何有名的游戏作为参照点，因为它并不属于任何流行的游戏类型，所以我们便需要仔细解释清楚游戏的细节内容，从而帮助那些愿意购买游戏的潜在玩家进行理解。

《Ants at a Picnic》虽然不像《Garage Inc.》那般好运，但是因为玩家可以将手指当成武器操纵游戏，所以它可以算是一款休闲的塔防游戏。如此听来也比《KULA》所面临的情况好多了。

3.标题

当你基于一个新IP发布一款游戏时，另外一个需要着重考虑的内容便是游戏标题。确保游戏标题能够在某种程度上体现出游戏玩法，从而让潜在玩家了解到游戏的相关内容。《植物大战僵尸》和《割绳子》在这方面就做得很好，都通过游戏标题直接阐述了游戏的相关内容。

kula logo(from gamasutra)

而《KULA BLOX》却未关注这一点。我们竟然使用斯瓦西里语（游戏邦注：为非洲一种主要通用语言，kula在斯瓦西里语中意为吃东西）为游戏命名。对于潜在玩家来说他们根本就不了解KULA BLOX的意思，所以这一名称并不能够阐述游戏的相关内容。

garage logo(from gamasutra)

《Garage Inc.》——除非你误将其与金属乐队（游戏邦注：美国的一支乐队，他们唱过一首与此同名的歌曲）的一张唱片混淆起来，要不单看名字你也会知道这是一款关于汽车的游戏。游戏logo中的扳手标志更是体现了这一点。

ants logo(from gamasutra)

《Ants at a Picnic》则很好地描述了游戏的玩法。这款游戏结合我们的之前在玩家心中留下了不错印象的营销语言，能够更好地鼓励他们购买游戏。

4.截图

如果你的游戏截图不能很好地解释游戏进程，那就不能够帮助你说服那些潜在的游戏购买者。

garage screen(from gamasutra)

《Garage Inc.》——其截图主要是呈现出一个充满汽车和机械师的车库，这是个让人一目了然的场景。

kula screen(from gamasutra)

而对于《KULA BLOX》，尽管我们拥有画面精致的截图，但是因为我们并未明确预示移动的速度和方向，所以玩家很难通过这种奇怪的游戏设置了解的游戏玩法。

截止本文撰稿，我们还没有发布《Ants at a Picnic》的截图，但是我们将从一个自上而下的视角去呈现一个充满食物和蚂蚁的餐桌——希望以此能够让玩家清楚了解游戏玩法。

5.游戏玩法

你的游戏玩法越不明显，你需要解释的内容也就越多。想想《美女餐厅》，尽管这是第一款大受欢迎的时间管理游戏，但是因为它是以餐厅为背景，玩家能够轻易地理解餐厅内会发生些什么场景，从而让游戏无需花费更多精力去解释这些内容。

而《KULA BLOX》在这一方面却做得不好。一些方块形状的动物从天而降，“大鱼吃小鱼”，收集更多道具并发挥力量等等游戏玩法都不是大多数玩家所熟悉的内容。

《Garage Inc.》的游戏背景是在一个车库中，而《Ants at a Picnic》则是设置在一个餐桌上。这两款游戏的设置都较为直白，让玩家能够通过联想现实生活中这些画面场景而理解游戏玩法。

6.游戏描述

你需要为游戏推向应用商店而撰写一份游戏描述。要牢牢抓住这个机会去描述游戏玩法，不要夸夸其谈。只要阐述那些玩家希望了解到的内容即可。

因为大多数玩家都了解时间管理游戏的相关机制，所以对于《Garage Inc.》我们便创造了更加富有创造性的游戏描述，而不只是简单地描写明确的游戏机制。

我们同样也在《KULA BLOX》中使用了创造性的游戏描写，如：“努力攀上食物链的最顶峰吧！从全球任何一个奇异的区域自由落下…适者生存！”但是这样的描写却不能向玩家解释游戏玩法。

而对于《Ants at a Picnic》我们利用了古英语进行描写（因为游戏的背景设置在19世纪左右），但是我们也在文本上清晰描写了游戏玩法，并阐明了关于游戏标题，营销语以及屏幕截图等内容。

总体来看，对于《KULA》这款游戏，我们并不是故意创造出这些不够清晰的内容——游戏中的许多小细节以及错误的市场营销方式促使玩家不能够迅速理解这款游戏。结果便导致即使免费销售这款游戏，也不见得能够带来较好的销售成绩。

当我们免费进行3款iOS的“捆绑推广”，并且最后看到《Garage Inc.》获得最高下载量，《Puzzle Quest》紧随其后而《KULA BLOX》排在最后，我们便更加确信了这一论断。在这三款游戏中，《KULA BLOX》是最新的一款游戏，并且拥有最高的用户评价，且之前从未采用免费模式！从中我们便可以发现问题的根源。所以我们必须努力让玩家轻松做出购买游戏的判断。

（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）

Make Your Game Easy To Buy: Lessons from Garage Inc. and KULA BLOX

by Wojtek Kawczynski

Cross-posted with our Studio blog

To date, we’ve released two original iOS games: Garage Inc. in January 2011 and KULA BLOX in September 2011. Based on player reviews, KULA BLOX is the superior title. However, Garage Inc performed better in the months immediately following launch. While underperformance of a good title on the app store is not particularly new or interesting in and of itself, I believe that many of the issues that contributed to the lesser performance of KULA BLOX were self-inflicted. We inadvertently made the game difficult for people to buy. This is a summary of our analysis, which we were mindful of during the design of our latest game Ants at a Picnic, and which I’m hoping will prevent others from making similar mistakes.

Lessons Learned

Tag-line

Have a one-liner / tag-line that gives a person who’s never heard of your game a good idea of what to expect. The exercise of coming-up with a one-liner will show you if your game is easy to describe succinctly which is a key factor to successful word-of-mouth marketing. If you are having a hard time coming-up with a one-line description of your game, chances are so will your potential “evangelists”.

The one-liner we used for Garage Inc. was “Diner Dash for dudes” and given the popularity of Diner Dash, that worked very well.

For KULA BLOX, we needed to tell an entire story to explain the game – there was no quick way to capture the essence of what was happening.

The tag-line for Ants at a Picnic is “protect your treats from pesky ants” which pretty much describes the gameplay premise.

Genre

A great way to describe your game, if your one-liner doesn’t quite cut it, is to try to compare it to another game or to describe it in terms of a particular genre. “Tiny Wings crossed with Monster Dash”, while lame gives you an idea of what to expect. Or, “it’s a cart racing game where guinea pigs race motorized zombies” might sound strange but you’ll get the concept of what kind of game you’re getting.

Having a reference point like this will allow potential customers to quickly understand if the game is of interest to them – it’s a great way to select for people who like this kind of game and to filter out those who don’t. You also won’t have to explain as much about your game since the general gameplay mechanics are immediately understood as are any genre-specific conventions. So a lot less “evangelism” required.

Garage Inc. was easy, it’s a time management game which is a well known genre with an understood set of gameplay conventions.

For KULA BLOX this was hard. There weren’t any well known games that we could use as a reference point and the game didn’t fit into any popular genres so we had to explain pretty much everything before a potential buyer would be prepared to part with their money.

Ants at a Picnic won’t be as easy as Garage Inc. but it can be described as a casual tower defense game where your finger will be your only weapon. That should work better than KULA.

Title

Another important consideration, when you’re launching a game based on a new IP, is the title itself. Make sure that the title is to some extent descriptive of the gameplay so that potential customers can get a hint as to what to expect. Plants vs. Zombies and Cut the Rope are two great examples where an aspect of the game is implied in the title.

KULA BLOX is not. We thought we were being all fancy by using a Swahili word (kula means eat in Swahili) in our title. And we were. Too fancy though. KULA BLOX means nothing to potential buyers and therefore does not help describe the game.

Garage Inc. – unless you’re looking for the Metallica album, you’d probably expect a game to do with cars. Especially once you see the logo.

Ants at a Picnic – pretty much describes the game’s setting. The title combined with our tag-line should produce the correct impression of the game making the purchase decision easier.

Screenshots

Now, as much as I’d never suggest designing your game in a way that produces cool screenshots, having screen shots that are hard to interpret in terms of what’s going on gameplay-wise does not help convince potential buyers that your game is for them.

Garage Inc. – the screenshots showed the inside of a car garage with cars and mechanics – a well understood setting.

For KULA BLOX our screenshots looked pretty but because we didn’t have effects that indicated speed or direction of movement, it wasn’t clear what was going on in this already strange game setting.

We haven’t revealed any screenshots for Ants at a Picnic at the time of writing but they will show a top-down view of a picnic table with food and ants – we hope this will be easy to recognize.

Game setting

The less obvious you make the setting of your game, the more you’ll have to explain. Think of Diner Dash – it was the first popular Time Management game but because it was set in a diner a lot of the rules of what happens in a diner were well understood and did not require explaining.

For KULA BLOX, not so much. Block-shaped animals falling from the sky eating each other while getting pickups and using powers is not something that most people would just ‘get’.

Garage Inc. was set in a car garage, Ants at a Picnic will be set… …at a picnic. Both of these settings should be equally easy for players to understand as should be any conventions of what happens in these settings.

Game Description

You will need to write a game description for the app store. Make sure to use this opportunity to describe your gameplay. Don’t get too fancy. Just tell people what they can expect to be doing if they buy your game.

Since the mechanics of Time Management games are understood, for Garage Inc. we felt we could be more creative with the description which set the story more than describing the specific gameplay mechanics.

We got too creative in the original description of KULA BLOX and said cool-sounding things like: “Fight your way to the top of the Food Chain! Free-falling through exotic locales across the globe… it’s survival of the fittest!” This explained very little…

For Ants at a Picnic the description is written in an attempt at old English (the game is set at the turn of the 19th century) but the text describes the specific gameplay features clarifying any questions that our title, tag-line and screenshots might have still left open.

Overall, with KULA we’ve unintentionally created the perfect storm of unclarity – pretty much every facet of the game and its marketing made it difficult for people to quickly understand what it is. The result was that it was hard to even give the game away for free.

Further proof of our assertions came when we did a “Not Quite Bundle Bundle” where we offered all 3 of our iOS titles for free and Garage Inc. got the most downloads followed by Puzzle Quest and KULA BLOX was last. And of the three KULA BLOX was the newest, had the best user reviews and was never offered for free before! That should tell you something. Make it easy for people to buy your game.

As outlined, we’ve attempted to incorporate a lot of the lessons learned from Garage Inc. and KULA BLOX in the design of Ants at a Picnic. While doing so will not guarantee success we are hoping that making it easier for potential customers to buy our game will be reflected in the game’s sales numbers. Fingers crossed.(source:GAMASUTRA)