作者：Tyler

致力于推进Android项目融资、手机&社交游戏开发及新兴平台公司发展的游戏开发公司Yetizen在谷歌旧金山总部举办了“Prepare to be Android-i-fied”活动。

该活动的重头戏是Bionic Panda Charles Hudson和Ngmoco Barry Dorf关于Android游戏开发的主题演讲。Charles Hudson以此开始自己的演讲：

ANDROID是个棘手的平台！

Charles Hudson丝毫不避讳自己在Bionic Panda Games工作室的Android开发经历。下述关于Android开发者面临的6大主要挑战直截了当，尤其是和iOS平台相比。以下是他就这6大挑战的具体描述及应对建议。

android from blog.betable.com

1. 分裂性

问题：和iPhone不同，Android设备类型多种多样，这导致OS出现分裂性，设备的屏幕尺寸、分辨率及硬件类型纷繁各异。这意味着用户体验也各不相同。此外，Android游戏开发者需要极力将游戏变得更具兼容性。

解决方案：Charles建议开发者在各种设备上测试游戏，以确保用户体验在各设备上保持一致。他表示，自己会从经销商那购买旧的“热门”Android手机，目的是实现低成本地在各设备测试自己的游戏作品。至于操作系统版本，若你需要划清界限，放弃支持陈旧版本，以便提供连贯的体验，那么不妨这么做。据Ngmoco表示，94%的Android玩家都采用2.1或以上的版本，所以放弃麻烦的1.6和1.7版本，你也不会错失很多用户。

2. 开发&测试

问题：由于在Android发行新应用和新版本非常方便（游戏邦注：只需一键点击就能发布一个更新版本），这有时令Android开发者更新过于频繁。这会令玩家遭受打击，放弃更新游戏。

解决方案：Android通常不会像iOS用户那样经常更新应用，所以Charles建议更新日期至少要间隔一周，当然紧急漏洞修复除外。就如我们之前提到的，在激活更新内容前，你应该在一个主要手机类型及一个支持操作系统上测试游戏。这能够防止意外的不可预测问题，避免需要进行紧急漏洞修复的情况。

3. 参数

问题：谈到用户同应用的互动方式，尤其是Android平台，开发者通常全无头绪。

解决方案：搭载预算范围内的游戏分析平台。Google Analytics就无需付费，但整合过程比较棘手，因为它并非针对手机平台。若你想要寻找更便携、更适合手机平台的解决方案，有Flurry或Localytics之类的手机游戏分析平台可供选择。

4. 平台战争

问题：23%的智能手机用户都采用iOS设备，在传统观念看来，相比Android用户，iOS用户更愿意付费购买应用及进行虚拟交易。这令Android游戏创收陷入困境（游戏邦注：详见第6点）。

解决方案：用Charles Hudson的话来说，“在单个平台创建杰出作品要好过在两个平台推出一款普通作品。”每个平台都有其不同的性能，所以不妨将资源集中用于创造出一款杰出Android作品，然后才考虑iOS平台。Bionic Panda是个专注于Android平台的游戏工作室，所以Charles将其所述内容完全落到实处。

5. 推广&曝光

问题：相比iOS，Android的曝光较少依赖于类别排名，在Android Market获得推荐的难度和苹果App Store不相上下。此外，Android不具备Facebook或苹果Game Center那样的统一社交图谱，所以游戏很难依靠病毒式传播机制获取用户。

解决方案：Android用户倾向进行更多的搜索操作，所以确保应用描述保持准确性，瞄准用户会进行搜索的主要关键字。此外，拥有精心设计的应用图标，以吸引用户眼球非常重要。图标和应用标题通常是用户在做出下载决定前看到的所有内容，所以合理利用这一空间。同样，令Android开发者颇为欣慰的是，Android依然允许奖励下载模式，所以不妨借助Tapjoy和Admob之类的广告网络获取游戏的种子用户。假设你的游戏破引人注目，那么只要能够获取自己的种子用户群，你就算是成功一半。

6. 创收

问题：在传统观念里，相比Android游戏，iOS游戏能够创收更多收益。形成这一趋势的部分原因是，在iOS进行虚拟交易要比通过分化的Android付费渠道简单得多。因此有人表示，要在Android平台创收更加艰难，因为该平台缺乏挥金如土用户。

解决方案：主要希望寄托在统一的Android付费方式上，Google Payments就是个不错的默认付费方式选择，因为这一渠道无处不在。创收的关键在于，要提供富有吸引力的理由，促使用户进行消费，这样他们就会自己寻找完成交易的方式，无论过程有多艰难。（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）

Charles Hudson’s Six Android Development Challenges (and how to tackle them)

by Tyler

Last night, Yetizen, an Android game development accelerator for helping fund and build mobile & social games and emerging platform companies, hosted “Prepare to be Android-i-fied” at Google SF.

The turn out was fantastic, and it was fun hearing people pitch their exciting ventures, such as Explorence, a company that lets you chart your own Amazing Race™ with your friends, or Chute, a cloud-based photo sharing API that allows developers build creative applications with their database.

Networking aside, the main event was the Android game development-focused keynote talks from Charles Hudson of Bionic Panda, and Barry Dorf from Ngmoco. Charles Hudson kicked off the talk with:

ANDROID IS HARD!

Charles Hudson was not shy about his experiences developing on the Android platform with his game studio, Bionic Panda Games. There was little sugar-coating of the six major challenges that Android developers face, especially when compared to iOS. He did have great suggestions for tackling each one, which we wanted to pass on to you. His six tips are below:

1. Fragmentation

Problem: Unlike the iPhone, there are many types of Android devices, which leads to OS fragmentation, varying screen size and resolutions, and types of hardware. This means that the user experience can vastly differ from user to user. Also, Android game developers can drown themselves in work trying to make their game compatible with everything.

Solution: Charles suggests that you test your game on multiple devices to make sure the user experience can consistent across a sea of devices. He said that he bought old, “well loved” Android phones from resellers to cheaply test his game on each type of hardware. As for OS, if you need to draw a line in the sand and not supporting older OS versions to provide a consistent experience, then do so. According to Ngmoco, which spoke later in the evening, 94% of Android gamers are on 2.1 or above, so you won’t miss many customers by cutting out the troublesome 1.6 and 1.7 versions.

2. Development & Testing

Problem: Because it is so easy to launch new applications and versions on Android – you are essentially just one button away from pushing new versions – Android game developers can sometimes get trigger happy. This can overwhelm users and stop them from updating your game.

Solution: Android users typically don’t update their apps as often as iOS users, so Charles recommended a minimum period of one week between app updates, excepting urgent bug fixes of course. And as we mentioned before, you should test your game on each major type of phone and supported OS version before an update goes live. This can prevent unforseen hiccups and help you avoid those urgent bug fixes.

3. Metrics

Problem: Developers are typically flying totally blind when it comes to the way that users are interacting with their app, especially on Android.

Solution: Look into integrating with a game analytics platform that fits your budget. Google Analytics is free, but can be a trickier integration as it isn’t built for mobile. If you are looking for an easier and more mobile-friendly solution, there are mobile game analytics platforms that are free to try such as Flurry and Localytics.

4. Platform Wars

Problem: 23% of all smartphone customers are on iOS devices, and conventional wisdom states that iOS users are more likely to pay for apps and complete in-app purchases than their Android counterparts. This also leads into the problem with Android game monetization, which we cover at #6.

Solution: To paraphrase Charles Hudson, “it is better to build a great game on one platform instead of a mediocre game on two platforms.” Each platform has different capabilities, so focus your resources in building an awesome game on Android before you worry about iOS. Bionic Panda is an Android only game studio, so Charles clearly practices what he preaches.

5. Distribution & Discovery

Problem: Discoverability on Android depends less on category ranking compared to iOS, and getting Featured on the Android Market is just as difficult as it is on the Apple App Store. Also, Android does not have a united social graph like Facebook or Apple’s Game Center, so it is hard to lean on viral mechanics to acquire users.

Solution: There tends to be higher search activity on Android (as Charles pointed out, “it is Google product”), so make sure your app description is accurate and hits all of the important keywords that users would use to search for a game like yours. Also, he could not stress enough the importance of having a well-designed app icon that draws users in. This icon and your app title are often all the user sees before making his decision to download, so use that space wisely! Also, fortunately for Android developers, Android still allows incentivized installs, so jump on the ad networks such as Tapjoy and Admob to help capture your seed group of users. Assuming you’ve made a compelling app, once you get the seed group of users you should be off and running.

6. Monetization

Problem: It is conventional wisdom that iOS games typically generate more revenue when compared to Android games. Part of the story behind this is that in-app purchases on iOS is much easier than the severely fragmented Android payments. Others argue that monetizing Android is hard because the platform attracts a less free-spending customer base.

Solution: Count on an eventual consolidation of payment methods on Android, and Google Payments is a good default because they will always be around. The key with monetization is to provide compelling reasons for users to buy in, and then they will find ways to do so, regardless of the difficulty. If you’re interested in getting more tips about game monetization and building games on Android, be sure to check out our articles A Hacker’s Guide to Monetizing Free-to-Play Games, and Roger Dickey’s Hacks for Game Monetization.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading, and if you found it helpful we hope you subscribe. We have also started a meetup on Meetup.com for San Francisco game developers interested in Game Monetization, and we invite you to join us there. We are just getting started, but we plan to include speakers, workshops, game developer roundtables and panels of industry leaders, all around game monetization. Join today to become a part of San Francisco’s first game monetization community.（Source：betable）