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开发者谈如何制作首款iPhone游戏

发布时间:2012-07-20 16:00:26 Tags:,,

作者:Neil Long

在情况好的时候,Simon Read一天可以通过自己的iOS热作《New Star Soccer》赚得约5000英镑。在上周的Develop Conference大会,New Star Games创始人谦虚地将自己在App Store的杰出表现归功于运气,但许多开发社区似乎全然无视Read所述的观点,Hello Games的Sean Murray及Relentless Software主管Andrew Eades谈及iPhone开发的欢乐与艰辛。这里我们将罗列他们关于如何开发首款iPhone游戏的建议。

cut the rope from edge-online.com

cut the rope from edge-online.com

要:给予玩家持续体验的理由

Simon Read:“你可以通过体验《New Star Soccer》获得显著进展,但你也可以静坐几小时,获得若干真正的成就——赢得联赛或进入世界杯。你可以从中获得些许乐趣,同时也可以接触到更持久、更有深度的游戏。这就是为什么玩家如此着迷其中。”

New Star Soccer from nidokidos.org

New Star Soccer from nidokidos.org

不要:依靠陈旧的主机游戏开发程序

Andrew Eades:“在制作《登山测试》时,我们都是来自注重过程的主机AAA游戏领域,因此我们借鉴其中经验。我们投入大量资金制作《登山测试》——是真的非常多的资金。预算完全不相符。所以我们的下款游戏没有任何制作人员,没有进行真正的项目管理——更像是利用业余时间创建模型。我们避免利用资源,目前我们对于成果非常满意,我们将运用些许资源。所以我们通过困境学习到的是,若采用陈旧的主机游戏开发流程制作iOS游戏,那就会很烧钱。”

要:认真看待平台

Sean Murray:“对我来说,iPhone不过是‘厕所游戏’——就是你在上厕所时玩的游戏。这一心态已逐步发生改变,我开始真正欣赏这类游戏。iPhone平台有真正的玩家。我之前有这种观念是因为很多游戏都非常糟糕。你觉得自己无法在此平台做出有意义的事情。”

SR:“我觉得iPhone承受某种污名,类似于Flash游戏,你可能犯下的致命错误是,不尊重用户,未能制作出令人感到自豪的内容。你想要制作出玩家能够长久享受其中的内容,而不是玩过2分钟后就舍弃的内容。”

不要:错误定价

AE:“我们开始制作69便士的游戏,但在开发过程中我们意识到,这缺乏可行性,因此我们转投免费模式。我们依然坚持传统的定价观念——对比定价和呈现价值,以及所有在游戏机领域表现突出的内容。我们尝试类似对比模式,所以我们发行没有广告的1.19英镑付费版本及免费版本(游戏邦注:后者内容相同,但嵌入广告)。广告令玩家丧失兴趣,苹果非常厌恶广告,因此没有推荐作品。相比《愤怒的小鸟》的69便士,1.19英镑算是相当高的价位。这是重点所在,因为我们想倡导玩家去玩免费游戏。但我们没有意识到,在iOS平台,没有人会进行这样的比较——游戏要么免费,要么需要付费。”

要:制定后续发行计划

AE:“我觉得这非常显而易见,因此当我们推出无人清楚要如何进行更新,毫无后续发行计划的作品时我非常惊讶。我们糊里糊涂地推出这样一款没有这类计划的游戏,或者说我们在发行数月之后没有采取任何举措,而这对于iOS平台来说非常必要。”

SR:“目前我积极更新《New Star Soccer》,因为我依然希望将众多构思呈现于游戏中,尤其是在作品取得成功的时候。我希望维持这一状态。作为单人团队,你可以回应粉丝,进行自己所期望的操作——甚至是在最后关头。”

不要:依靠苹果帮你推广游戏

SR:“最困难的莫过于让苹果回复我的邮件,替我做推荐。游戏上周获得苹果的推荐,没有人告知我游戏即将获得推荐。《New Star Soccer》只在英国取得成功,所以目前我们试图在欧洲、美国和南美地区再现此佳绩——我需要苹果的协助,他们目前并没有给予我们帮助。作为独立开发者,这非常困难;除非你建立关系网,找到愿意协助你的联系人,否则你就是孤身一人。”

不要:依赖发行商

AE:“若能够避免,尽量不要借助发行商。我们源自这样的背景:我们习惯于和发行商合作,我们可能高估了这种模式的作用。有些杰出人士能够协助我们进行推广,但要在嘈杂中胜出非常困难。要取得诸如《New Star Soccer》之类的成就就需要呈现优秀作品及获得口碑传播,现今没有发行商能够做到这点。”

SM:“关于Chillingo,我们能够探讨的内容非常多,他们会群发邮件,进行交叉推广,我知道这并不意味着游戏就会成功,但这带给你些许机会。反之,有些人在推出作品后毫无收获。”

要:基于发行商视角进行思考

AE:“你要清楚自己需要做些什么,方能获得安装量,这意味着你需要清楚发行商将替你完成哪些工作,需要利用哪些参数。目前我知道要如何在1个月里获得5万次安装量,因为我做到了。我知道如何做到这点,此外,若我因此给游戏设置适当的病毒式传播及留存率机制,那么我将把握这一基础模式,做出进一步完善。你得翻倍估计自己所需投入资金。你需要保护营销活动拥有充足资金。”(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

How to make an iPhone game

By Neil Long

Three independent App Store developers offer some essential advice on how to make your first game.

On a good day, Simon Read makes around £5,000 from his iOS hit New Star Soccer. Speaking at the Develop Conference last week, the New Star Games founder might have modestly put his App Store success down to luck, but a healthy chunk of the development community turned out regardless to hear Read, Hello Games’ Sean Murray, and Relentless Software boss Andrew Eades discuss the pleasures and pitfalls of iPhone development. Here, we list their most pertinent advice on how to make your first iPhone game.

Do: Give players a reason to keep playing

Simon Read “You can play [New Star Soccer] for two minutes and make quite good progress but you can also sit down for hours and get some real achievements – win a league or get into a World Cup. You can have some fun but you’ve also got a much longer, deeper game as well. That’s why people seem to be so hooked on it.”

Don’t: Rely on old console game development processes

Andrew Eades “When we made Quiz Climber, we came from that very process-driven, console triple-A background so that’s what we applied. We spent a horrifically large amount of money making Quiz Climber – I mean a huge amount of money for what it is. The budget didn’t match at all. So our next game doesn’t have any production staff and doesn’t have any real project management – it’s as if we’re building prototypes in our spare time. We’ve been kind of doing it as if we didn’t have resources, and we’ve got to the point now where we’re quite happy with what we’ve got and we’re going to apply resources. So I think we learned the hard way that you can spend a lot of money making iOS games using the old-fashioned console process.”

Do: Take the platform seriously

Sean Murray “For me, iPhone was just ‘poo gaming’ – games you play when you’re having a poo. That mindset’s changed over time and I’ve come to really appreciate it. There are actual gamers on iPhone. It was just that before, I viewed it that way because a lot of the games were crap. And you think it’s not possible to do something worthwhile on that platform.”

SR “I think there was a kind of stigma around iPhone gaming, similar to Flash gaming, and I think the key mistake you can make is to not respect the audience and not make something that you’re proud of. You want to make something that people will enjoy for long periods, not just a two minute throwaway thing.”

Don’t: Get pricing wrong

AE “We started making a game aiming for 69p but during development we realised that that wasn’t going to cut it and we went free-to-play. We still had this really old-fashioned view of pricing – comparison pricing, and showing value, and all of these things that are successful in the console world. We tried the same kind of comparison model, so we shipped a £1.19 premium version with no ads and a free version which was identical but had ads. The ads put people off, and Apple hated it and didn’t feature it because of that. £1.19 is ridiculously expensive compared to Angry Birds for 69p. That’s the point, because we’re pushing people to free. But we didn’t realise that on iOS no-one compares like that – it’s either free or it’s not.”

Do: Have a post-release plan

AE “I thought that it was something so obvious that I was surprised when we released a game that no-one knew how to update, [with no] post-launch plan. We kind of sleepwalked into delivering a game which, while I think it delivered, didn’t have that kind of plan for success, or what we would do in the months after launch, which I think is essential for iOS.”

SR “I’m keen to keep updating [New Star Soccer] at the moment because there are still loads of ideas that I want to put in the game, especially while it’s successful. I’d like to stay up there. As a one-man team you can respond to the fans and do what you want – even last minute you can change it.”

Don’t: Rely on Apple to help you promote your game

SR “The hardest thing was to get Apple to actually respond to my emails and feature it for me. It happened last week but I don’t know how, and no-one told me it was going to be featured. [New Star Soccer] has only been successful in the UK so now it’s about trying to repeat that success across Europe, in the States, South America – I need Apple to help me do that and they’re not doing it. As an indie, that’s tough; unless you network and get a contact who’s willing to help you then you’re out on your own.”

Don’t: Use a publisher

AE “Don’t use a publisher if you can possibly help it. We come from a background where we’re used to partnering with publishers, and I think we had more faith in that model that we should have had. There are great people out there doing great jobs who can help promote, but it’s very hard to get above the noise. To be successful like New Star Soccer requires a great product and word of mouth, and no publisher on this earth could do that.”

SM “I think that there’s a lot to be said for Chillingo, who will send out mail blasts and cross-promote and stuff like that – I know that doesn’t necessarily mean the game will be successful, but equally it gives it some sort of chance. Whereas some people will bring out games and do nothing.”

Do: Think like a publisher

AE “You have to understand what you need to do in order to get installs, and that means you need to understand what a publisher would be doing for you and what the metrics should be. I know how to generate 50k installs in a month now because I did it. I know how to do that and if I then had the right virality and retention mechanics in my game then that would be the seed I would use to then push it further. You can multiply that by how much you have to spend. You have to reserve significant cost to spend on marketing activity.”(Source:edge-online


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