作者：Mekersa David

引言

在推出中间核心探险游戏《Age of Enigma》之后的困境中，法国工作室Casual Box分享自身经历、创收情况及其在变幻莫测的市场环境中的生存和发展战略。

关于文章作者

我的名字是David Mekersa，是法国工作室Casual Box的负责人。

我的首款作品是基于Amstrad CPC设备，然后是Amiga。

我是新技术领域的元老，有超过20年的开发经验。通过担任开发者、创建者、设计师、技术总监和国际项目主管之类的角色，我领略到IT行业的错综复杂。2006年，我创建了casualgames.fr网站，2009年，我成立了游戏工作室Casual Box。

历史记录

—2006年：创建casualgames.fr（游戏邦注：这是休闲玩家的社区网站）

—2009年：在法国南部成立了工作室

—2009年：发行《Geisha The Secret Garden》，这是款谜题游戏，基于下载门户网站

—2011年：在投入16个月后最终完成《Age of Enigma》，游戏通过THQ、Avanquest和Big Fish Games进行发行

—2012年：迅速发行《Chicken Deep》及《Age of Enigma》的iPhone版衍生内容《Age of Enigma Pocket Adventure》

数据信息

From 150K to 9K post from gamasutra.com

《Geisha The Secret Garden》

这最初是由我利用自身业余时间制作的一款科幻谜题游戏（我当时是Access Company的项目主管），游戏很快转移至更休闲、更女性化的游戏领域，最终变成《Geisha The Secret Garden》。游戏机制借鉴《Panel de Pon》。

我习惯使用基本语言开发游戏。出于这一目的，我选择了BlitzMax，这是针对PC和Mac电子游戏的基本语言。这让我回想起1985年我在Amstrad平台采取的最初举措。

工作室成立于2009年3月，游戏开发切换至更高速档。游戏于12月份通过主流下载门户网站进行推广。总之，开发耗费6个月时间。

愉快的惊喜：游戏找到自己的细分用户，带来相应收益，在头1年每月平均创收超过3000美元。从那以后，游戏每月都带来数百美元的收益，堪称行业所谓的“长尾效应”。

但这一成绩在我们的合作人看来相当脆弱。的确，在隐藏物品探险游戏能够给开发者带来数十万美元收益的情况下，我们怎么能够将数千美元收益看作成功？

这也是Casual Box孤注一掷的地方：通过较高预算开发一款“真正的游戏”，参与激烈竞争。难道《Geisha》也不算“真正的游戏”？

这原本能够让我们处于有利地位，但这一失误最终几乎让公司破产。

《Age of Enigma》

《Age of Enigma》是Casual Box的重大赌注。这是款介于休闲和硬核游戏之间的探险游戏，游戏融入多个宇宙，基于幻想世界，这主要来自于我的想象。

我们缺乏经验，但团队的积极性无懈可击。我们的目标是：上百万！

工作安排和预算有些模糊，我不知不觉进入到持续16个月的马拉松式集中工作中，其中充满阻碍和风险。

团队当月就开始急剧扩大，因为需求快速增加，且日益多元化：视觉效果、影片3D动画、制作25个迷你游戏以及制作众多图像。我们完全忽视成本，因为我们力争获得成功，游戏非常优美和精彩。我们努力争取实现上百万的目标。

我们只看表面，听取合伙人Big Fish Games的所有建议（游戏邦注：最初的发行商伙伴）。这是另一错误：我们持续推迟开发时间，以达到beta测试员的预期，他们觉得游戏过于复杂和缓慢。

游戏基于C++语言，成本非常昂贵（约15万美元），很晚才发行，当时市场充斥许多“令人毛骨悚然”的作品。尽管游戏得到正面评价，但新奇效应很快就消失。游戏头个月创收2.5万美元——我们的预期目标是这一数据的5倍。

有些玩家认为这是他们玩过最棒的休闲探险游戏，其他人则抛弃我们的作品，销量依然保持平平。头1年只带来8万美元的收益。

2012年，是时候该评估状况？

尽管推广渠道和翻译版本得到扩充，但游戏依然无法在合理期限内创造足够收益，抵消其制作成本。我们深陷泥潭，无法着手新项目；资金非常紧俏，2012年初，工作室一度频临奔溃。《Age of Enigma 2》最终被我们放弃。

我们从未收获如此多的经验，我们建立自己的网络，有很多合作伙伴，但我们缺乏继续前进的资金。

总结：总之，《Geisha》是目前创收最多的作品。

复兴策略和3个关键问题

在和合作伙伴经历3周的不确定、沮丧和讨论之后，我决定重新振作，我问自己3个问题：市场向何处迈进？我的优势何在？我如何在市场中充分发挥这些优势？

1）市场朝何处迈进？

市场朝手机应用方向迈进（iPhone/Android）。

决策：将我们的项目锁定在iOS和Android平台，尤其是因为这一平台是资金拮据工作室的主要瞄准目标！

2）我的优势何在？

只要有适当的工具，我是个相当迅速的程序员和设计师。我有能力创建机制，进行调试，确保他它们具有可玩性（的确，这是《Geisha》的优势之一）。

决策：放弃C ++，转而采用直观的快速开发工具，这个选择就是Corona SDK。

3）我如何在市场中充分发挥这些优势？

瞄准中等水平的循环性收益，主要通过制作更多较短开发周期的游戏。

决策：游戏开发周期从构思到发行不要超过3个月。我们的目标就是，截止2012年底推出至少3款新游戏，到2013年推出至少6款作品。

2012年末将发行的作品

虽然复兴策略是正确路线，但我们缺乏资金。因此，我们需要快速而有节奏地开始这一过程：

—为确认Corona SDK技术，我个人在2个月内开发了一款动作游戏。iPhone版《Chicken Deep》确实于6月22日发行英文版本，Android和国际化版本很快就会问世。游戏采用免费模式，通过内部交易进行创收（In App Purchase）。

—我们在Languedoc Roussillon地区获得3万欧元资金，用于开发创新性的半同步多人技术，我们计划在未来的项目中融入这一技术。

—我们基于iPhone、iPad和Android平台调整《Geisha The Secret Garden》，这样游戏就能够迎合手机用户。预算：1万美元以下。

—我们基于iPhone平台重新编写了《Age of Enigma》，将其改造成6个迷你片段，每个售价99美分。预算：少于1万美元/片段。优势：我们已拥有图像、文本和音乐资产，但我们移除那些令内容变得过于休闲的元素。

—我们推出自己的下载门户：Solidar Games

我们手中有很多项目，包括复古游戏机制的手机平台改造，我希望这能够成为明智选择。（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）

What’s the best strategy to survive and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace?

by Mekersa David

Introduction

In dire straits after the release of its mid-core adventure game Age of Enigma, the French studio Casual Box reveals its experiences, revenue, and strategy to survive and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace.

About the author of this article

My name is David Mekersa and I manage the French studio Casual Box.

I started creating my first games on Amstrad CPC, then on the Amiga…

I am a veteran in the world of new technologies with over 20 years of experience. At times developer, creator, designer, technical director, and head of international projects, I have explored all the intricacies of IT. In 2006, I created the sitewww.casualgames.fr and in 2009 I launched Casual Box, the French video game studio.

History

- 2006: Creation of  casualgames.fr , community site for casual gamers

- 2009: Creation of the studio in the south of France

- 2009: Release of Geisha The Secret Garden, a puzzle game, through download portals

- 2011: Release of Age of Enigma following 16 months of work, distributed amongst others by THQ, Avanquest, and Big Fish Games

- 2012: Immediate release of Chicken Deep and a derivative of Age of Enigma for the iPhone: Age of Enigma Pocket Adventure

The figures…

Geisha The Secret Garden, the abandoned 1st success

Initially a SF puzzle game developed on my own time (at that time, I was the PMO of Access Company), the game migrated rapidly to a more casual, more feminine gaming universe and became Geisha The Secret Garden. The mechanics are loosely based on the Panel de Pon.

As I am not a fan of gas plants, I develop the game using a basic language. To that end, I used BlitzMax, a basic language dedicated to videogames suitable for PCs and Mac deployment. This reminds me of my first steps on Amstrad in 1985!

The studio is founded in March 2009 and game development switches into high gear. The game is marketed in December through the major download portals. All in all, the development took six months.

Pleasant surprise: the game finds its niche audience and revenue ensues: over $ 3,000 per month on average during the first year! Since then, the game generates several hundred dollars every month without flinching … a “long tail” as they say in the industry.

However, this success is considered feeble by our partners. Indeed, how can we consider a few thousand dollars as a success when other hidden-objects and adventure games make their authors hundreds of thousands of dollars?

That’s where Casual Box takes a gamble: to develop a “real game” with a big budget, and enter the big league. Come to think of it, isn’t Geisha a “real game” too?

An error which could have worked in our favor but that almost bankrupted the company.

Age of Enigma: the bet

Age of Enigma is the big bet of Casual Box.  An adventure game sitting between casual and core gaming (mid-core) with multiple universes in a fantasy world coming straight out of my imagination.

We lack experience but the team’s motivation is unbeatable. Our goal: the million!

The schedule and the budget are unclear and we are unknowingly getting into a 16-month marathon of intensive work fraught with obstacles and quicksand…

The team grows by the month as needs mount and diversify: visual effects, 3D animation for cinematics, development of 25 mini games, and the creation of hundreds of graphics. We glaringly ignore the cost side because we aim for success and the game is beautiful and exciting. We’re going for the million!

We take all recommendations of our partner Big Fish Games -our initial distributor- at face value. This may have been another error: the game ended up looking like them … and we multiplied the delays to meet the beta testers’ expectations, who found the game too hard and slow.

The game, developed in C++, is expensive (about $ 150,000) and released too late, in a market crowded with “spooky” games. Despite very favorable comments, the novelty effect quickly fades. It makes $ 25,000 of revenue in its first month – we were hoping for 5 times that amount!

Some players consider it the best casual-adventure game they’ve ever played, others happily trash our work … and sales remain modest. Just $ 80,000 of revenue in its first year.

2012, time to take stock?

Despite the proliferation of distribution channels and translations, the game fails to generate enough revenue to cover its cost within a reasonable time. We get bogged down without being able to start a new project; cash is tight and in early 2012 the studio is nearing its demise. Age of Enigma 2 is abandoned until further notice.

We have never been so experienced, our network is established, we have numerous partners … but we lack the funding to keep going!

The conclusion: All in all, Geisha proved the most profitable game.

The bounce-back strategy and three key questions

After weeks of uncertainty, discouragement and discussions with my partner, I decided to bounce back and I ask myself three questions: Where is the market going? Where do my strengths lie? How can I best leverage such strengths in the market?

1) Where is the market going?

The market is moving towards mobile apps (iPhone / Android)

Decision: focus our projects on iOS and Android. Especially since this platform is a prime target for a cash-strapped studio!

2) Where do my strengths lie?

I am a fast programmer and designer as long as I have a suitable tool. And I have some talent to create mechanics and fine tune them to ensure their complete playability (indeed, that was one of Geisha’s strong points).

Decision: Abandon C ++ for an ultra fast and intuitive development tool. The choice is Corona SDK.

3) How can I best leverage such strengths in the market?

Aim for modest but recurring revenue by producing more titles with shorter development cycles.

Decision: The game development cycle shall not exceed three months from conception to commercialization. The goal is to market at least three new games by the end of 2012 and six more in 2013!

Our projects announced for late 2012

Although the bounce-back strategy proves correct, funds are not forthcoming. Therefore, we have to play it smart and nimble to start the process:

- To validate the Corona SDK technology, I personally develop an action game in under two months. Indeed, Chicken Deep for the iPhone is released on June 22 in English, with the Android and international versions coming soon. The game is free and monetized via an internal purchasing (In App Purchase).

- We obtained a grant of € 30K from the Languedoc Roussillon region to develop an innovative, semi-synchronous multiplayer technology we intend to integrate in our future projects.

- We adapt Geisha The Secret Garden for iPhone, iPad and Android, fine tuning it so that it caters to the mobile audience. Budget: Under $ 10,000.

- We rewrite Age of Enigma for the iPhone as 6 mini episodes priced $ 0.99 each. Budget: Under $ 10,000 per episode. The advantage: we already have the images, text, music … but we remove the elements that made ??it too casual!

- We launch our own download portal: Solidar Games

Our boxes are full of projects, including the mobile adaptation of retro gaming mechanics, and we hope this will be a good bet…

Who knows?（Source：gamasutra）