作者：William Volk

我不想说我预言了iOS市场的规模。2007年，市面上还没有应用或应用商店。当时我们已基于从监狱中解救Paris Hilton主题推出了首款热门flash游戏，开始思考下款作品的构思。

flash game based on freeing Paris Hilton from jail from free-online-web-games.com

我们觉得基于Steve Ballmer（他曾嘲笑iPhone设备）的“打地鼠”游戏将非常有趣。我们对iPhone了解不多，但我们知道它只支持网页应用。这是当时的报道：

苹果CEO史蒂夫·乔布斯表示，“开发者和用户将惊讶于这些应用的表现及其在iPhone上的运作。我们基于Web 2.0标准的创新方案让开发者创造出惊人的新应用，同时让iPhone保持安全可靠。”    ——Steve Jobs，2007年6月11日

我因此得出这样的结论，这对乔布斯来说是个很棒的策略，能够取得手机和运营商软件的控制权（游戏邦注：2008年前于移动平台开发或发行游戏的人士就能够证明这点）。

事实上，Safari非常擅于运用网页应用。它唯一令人失望的地方是，缺乏声音功能。我还记得自己曾网上搜索音效播放的各HTML示例，只是为了查看是否存在可行内容。没有，没有音效。

我们甚至不知道设备的实际屏幕分辨率，所以我们主要得摆脱谣言。那个周末（6月30日/7月1日），我们积极寻找持有这一设备的人士，传播游戏，将其推广：

2010年11月myNuMo-LLC将其游戏资产出售给我目前任职的PlayScreen

第二年，我们制作超过20款的网页游戏，据苹果表示，其中两款入驻热门网页应用榜单。作品类型从保龄球游戏到二十一点、基诺游戏及射镖游戏之类的经典作品。

PigsAPopnTitle from gamasutra.com

我们有不错的流量，4-13美元的eCPM（千人印象成本），这看起来像是个不错的机会。Safari在性能方面优于200年初的J2ME手机。

随后App Store出现了。

这主要针对DeLorean DMC-12和Flux Capacitor（时光机器软件），下面是几点经验。

1. 坦白讲，成为第一至关重要。

足够聪明，能够将他们的“经典”游戏发行的人士将最终胜出。即便在今天，某些经典游戏依然由发行于2008年、外表普通但性能杰出的应用主导。是的，市面上也许出现更杰出的版本，但通过成为第一，他们能够进行如下操作：

* 挤进App Store榜单的前列，玩家于此发现游戏、

* 获得最具描述性的名称，这让游戏在搜索结果中出现在首位。

如果时光能够倒流，我会把我们最热门的网页游戏的发行日期选在App Store推出的当天。

令人惊讶的是，网页游戏的流量并没有一夜之间就消失。

这花了我们不少时间，但我们的确在App Store发行若干杰出作品（游戏邦注：超过20款），其中3款得到苹果的推荐。我们通过承揽项目支撑公司运营，得以制作从电信到烹饪的应用。这是项棘手业务，但丰富经验非常重要。

第二个经验是：

2. 若能够带来用户，赠送物品就非常值得。

这里的最佳范例是ngmoco。ngmoco于2008年10月免费发行《指尖迷宫》。这给他们的付费作品创建用户基础。我认为这非常聪明。这给剩余的应用创建渠道。2010年，日本公司DeNA以4亿美元收购ngmoco。

若回头查看我们2011年前的应用商店作品，我认为最令人印象深刻的作品要数《Match 3D》。

M3dFlickPuzzle from gamasutra.com

这是款基于3D空间的连线消除游戏，连线消除是个非常热门的谜题类型。《Match 3D》于2009年6月发行，获得苹果的推荐，是排名前10的热门付费谜题游戏。游戏有两种不同游戏模式，定时选项或不定时选项。还有奖金选项，包含很多体验方式。

这引出第3点内容：

3. iOS用户想要寿司刀，而不是瑞士军刀。他们不希望在游戏体验中基于众多选项进行选择。简单的销售。

你可以在《翼飞冲天》、《神庙逃亡》和《Draw Something》之类的作品中看到典型例子。《Draw Something》尤其值得我们仔细研究，游戏由若干“看图说词式”的游戏推进，而且超越它们。原因？没有选项。事实上，将“和好友共同体验”设置成唯一体验选项能够带来病毒式传播，病毒式传播是最迅速的游戏用户增长方式。

iOS游戏最令人惊讶之处在于，这片市场和传统电子游戏以及我投身30年的电脑游戏行业截然不同。最佳游戏作品包含特定iPhone属性。这不仅只是一种美术风格或用户界面方案。这很难形容，但我看了就能做出判断。

这可以是《翼飞冲天》的一键式雅致外观，也可以是《扔纸团》、《神庙逃亡》和《愤怒的小鸟》的优质界面。

我们是否有运用这些知识？2011年初，我们发行了《Bocce-Ball》，这成为App Store上最热门的保龄球游戏。在意大利成为排名第一的作品，在美国排名第六。我们还推出非常热门的扑克游戏和谜题游戏（《Crickler Daily Word Puzzle》）。

其中经验？查看如下第4点。

4. 就如哲人曾说过的，“界面就是游戏”。这点在iOS平台表现得最是淋漓尽致。

我们都记得，早期的iOS游戏以斜面作为主要UI。现在这一元素主要作为主要界面的附属物（游戏邦注：如《神庙逃亡》）。我认为《Bocce-Ball》的成功主要源自于扩展《扔纸团》、《水果忍者》等其他游戏的杰出界面。

这同时也会令你处于不利地位，我依然不喜欢iOS上的任何一款第一人称射击游戏，但话说回来，相比主机，我更偏好搭载这些游戏的电脑平台。

但5年当中，我收获的最大经验是什么？查看如下内容：

在NES的整个生命周期当中，美国和欧洲地区总共只发售785个Carts。而截止2012年2月，iOS App Store共有应用72.57万款。这是个高度竞争的市场。所以最终经验是什么？

5. 营销至关重要，营销始于设计。

再次以《Draw Something》为例，游戏将体验模式限制为社交体验。但还有《翼飞冲天》及《愤怒的小鸟》等游戏的杰出视频预告片。热门作品的背后通常涉及持续的营销付出，涉及找出主要一致性信息，将此传递给可行渠道这一棘手任务。我每天查看图表。你需要倾听玩家意见，做出必要调整。

这甚至涉及设计决策，甚至是制作什么内容的基本决策。仅查看和体验可行应用就能够获取丰富资源。我同时还尽可能倾听游戏团队的讨论。

每周都会有款游戏令我大吃一惊。这是个持续变化的市场。

最后：

6. 这些都是过去的美好时光。

电子游戏领域再没有比如今更低的市场准入门槛了。所有人都能够构思出下款《愤怒的小鸟》。成功机率？不比撰写出下部杰出小说，下首热门歌曲及下部奥斯卡得奖电影更困难。

这和传统电子游戏市场存在什么不同？想想作为独立开发者，发行一个任天堂卡带的成本。2008年前的手机游戏市场也好不到哪去。

现在是充满机会的美好时光，所以不妨试试吧。（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）

Reflections on Five Years of iOS Gaming, What Have I Learned?

by William Volk

I’m not going to claim that I predicted the size of the iOS market.  Heck, in 2007 there were no apps or app store.  At the time we had put out a popular flash game based on freeing Paris Hilton from jail and were thinking about what the next game should be when this video appeared:

YouTube: Steve Ballmer Laughs at the iPhone

So we decided that a little “Whack A Mole” game featuring him would be a fun project.  We knew little about the iPhone, but we did know it was ONLY going to support web apps.   Well that was the story at the time:

“Developers and users alike are going to be very surprised and pleased at how great these applications look and work on iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Our innovative approach, using Web 2.0-based standards, lets developers create amazing new applications while keeping the iPhone secure and reliable.” – Steve Jobs, June 11th, 2007

I have since come to the conclusion that this was brilliant strategy on Jobs’ part, to wrest control of the phone and it’s software from the carriers (anyone who developed or published games on mobile prior to 2008 can attest to this).

See: Apple’s “Boca Raton” Moment – How the App Store happened

In fact, Safari was pretty good at running web apps.  I would say the only real dissapointment was the lack of audio functionality.  I remember Googling for every single HTML example of playing a sound effect just to see if ANYTHING worked.  Nope, no sound effects.

We didn’t even know the actual screen resolution of the device, so we had to work off rumors mainly.  That weekend (June 30/July 1st) we managed to find people with the devices, tweeked the game and got it out:

Over the next year we would build over 20 web based games, two of were among the most popular web apps according to Apple.  This including everything from a bowling game to classics such as BlackJack, Keno, Darts etc…

We had decent traffic and with $4 to $13 eCPM this looked like a good opportunity.  Performance-wise Safari was superior to the J2ME handsets we had struggled with in the early 2000 decade.

Then the App Store happened.

Oh for a DeLorean DMC-12 and a Flux Capacitor.   Here’s the first lesson.

1. Being FIRST matters, honest.

The folks who were smart enough to get their ‘classic’ games out at launch succeded.  Even today some of these classics are still dominated by the quite plain looking but competant apps that shipped all the way back in 2008.  Yes, better versions may have shipped .. but by being first they could do the following:

* Get at the top of the App Store Charts, where players find games.

* Grab the best descriptive name, which made them the first app in a search for that game.

If I could go back in time I would have just taken our most popular web game and made sure it was out the day the App Store opened.

Amazingly, the traffic on the web-based games did not dissappear overnight.

It took us a while, but we did get some great games out in the App Store (over 20), three of which were featured by Apple.  We financed operations with work-for-hire projects and got to work on everything from telecom to cooking apps.  That is one tough business to be in, but that broad experience was invaluable.

The second lesson was this:

2. It’s worth giving away stuff, if it builds an audiance.

The best example of this was ngmoco.  ngmoco released MazeFinger as a free game in Oct. of 2008.  This built an audiance for their paid titles.  This in my opinion was brilliant.  It created a channel for the rest of the apps.  Japanese-based DeNA acquired ngmoco for $400 million USD in 2010.

If I were to look back at our app-store releases prior to 2011, I would have to say that our most impressive title was Match 3D.   Technologically and in terms of user interface, I am still in awe of this:

This was a Match-3 game in a 3D space, match-3 being a very popular puzzle type.  Match 3D ‘shipped’ in June of 2009, got featured by Apple, and reached the top 10 of paid puzzle games.  There were two different main game modes, options for timed or not timed.  Bonus options … so many ways to play this.

Which leads to the third lesson:

3. iOS users want Sushi knives, not Swiss Army knives. They don’t want to have to select from a bunch of options to play a game.  SIMPLE SELLS.

You can see a great example of this in games like Tiny Wings, Temple Run and Draw Something.  Draw Something is especially worth examining, as it was proceeded by several ‘Pictionary-Like’ games and surpassed them all.  One reason?  No options. In fact making the ONLY play option being a “Play With A Friend” give it a viral spread that contributed to the most rapid rise in audiance of any game in history.

The most surprising thing about iOS games is just how DIFFERENT this market is from the classic video game and computer game industry I had worked in for three decades.  There’s a certian iPhone-ness about the best titles.  It’s more than just one art style or user interface approach.  Hard to describe, but I know it when I see it.

Can be anything from the one-button visual ellegance of Tiny Wings, to the great interfaces of Paper Toss, Temple Run and yes … Angry Birds.

So, did we apply this knowledge?  Well yes, in early 2011 we shipped Bocce-Ball and it became the best selling Bocce game in the App Store.  Hit #1 in all apps in Italy, #6 in the USA.  We also have a very popular Poker game and puzzle title (Crickler Daily Word Puzzle).

The lesson there?  Number four.

4. As a wise man once said “The Interface Is The Game.”  More so on iOS than any other platform.

Who can forget how many early iOS games used tilt as the main UI.  Now if it appears, as it does in Temple Run, it’s an adjunct to the main interface (swipes in that game).   The success we had with Bocce was based, once again … my opinion, on extending the cool interfaces we saw in Paper Toss, Fruit Ninja and other games.

This can also work against you, I’m still not in love with any of the first person shooters on iOS … but then again, I prefer the computer to the console with these games as well.

But what’s the biggest lesson after five years?  Chew on this:

For the entire life of the NES there were only 785 Carts in TOTAL shipped for the USA and Europe.  As of Feb. 2012 there are 725,700 Apps on the iOS App Store.  This is a hyper-competitve market.  So the final lesson?

5. Marketing Matters and Marketing begins with design.

Once again, Draw Something comes to mind … with the decision to limit play to just social play.  But there’s also the awesome video trailers created for games like “Tiny Wings” and yes … Angry Birds.  And there’s the relentless marketing efforts behind many of the top grind games, the hard hard work to come up with a great unified message and taking that message to the channels that work.  The absolute necessity of listening to your players and making the changes you need to make.

It’s even about design decisions … even the basic decision of what to build.  There’s a great resource in just looking and playing the apps that work.  I look at the charts every day.  I try as best as I can to listen to the discussions in the game groups too.

Every week there’s a title that surpries me.  This is a constantly evolving marketplace.

Finally:

6. These are the good old days.

There’s never been a lower friction, lower barrier to entry market in the history of video games.  Anyone can (and sometimes does) come up with the next Angry Birds (yeah, we’ve got one in the works … I do believe that).  The odds? No worse than writing the next great novel, the next popular song or the next Oscar winning movie.

What a difference between the classic video game market.  Just imagine the expense of trying to put out a Nintendo cart as an independent.  And it wasn’t much better in the mobile game industry prior to 2008 (well, unless you were in Japan coding for DoCoMo).

These are great times with great opportunities.  Go for it.（Source：gamasutra）