作者：Keith Andrew

德国社交和手机游戏开发公司Wooga正在进军手机平台，同许多社交游戏公司一样，它正稳步发展。

据该公司通讯主管Sina Kaufmann所述，Wooga决定在Android上发行《Diamond Dash》（已在iOS平台获得成功）只是开始，到2013年初公司打算让自己的手机游戏和Facebook游戏双倍增长。

然而，HTML5在这场智能手机突击战中的作用如何？这一点尚不明确。

尽管Kaufmann否认Wooga将HTML5游戏《Pocket Island》转为开源项目的决策意味公司“放弃”了这种语言，但她也承认该游戏没有满足Wooga主流受众的期望。

在下面的采访中，Kaufmann将解答Wooga在有或没有HTML5支持的情况下，如何筹划手机游戏的开发。

在iOS平台上，你们有2千万的《Diamond Dash》玩家，这个数目不容轻视。是否曾预料到这种成功会来得这么快？

没有料到，《Diamond Dash》是我们在iOS平台上的第一款游戏，也是我们进军手机平台的第一步。

当《Diamond Dash》于11月在苹果应用商店发行时，这款游戏在Facebook上已经相当成功了，但我们仍然对自己的第一款手机游戏感到非常兴奋，无论我们能否成功地将其转移到手机平台。

现在，我们盼望着把游戏移植到Android平台。

在Facebook和智能手机之间，这款游戏的受众有何不同？

没有太大不同。

我们的游戏受众面非常广，70%的玩家是女性。事实上，我们已经看到一股强大的趋势，即在手机上玩《Diamond Dash》的玩家也通过Facebook连接游戏。

自游戏发行起，选择连接到Facebook的玩家比例仍在增长，从12月的28%一直增至3月底的64%。

从Facebook登录游戏的玩家花钱的概率是80%，而且平均多消费50%。这就是为什么我们说连接游戏就是未来。

diamond dash(from pocketgamer)

在Android上发行之后，有没可能在其他操作系统上推出游戏？

目前，我们的注意力在于将非常成功的Wooga游戏移植到iOS上，将《Diamond Dash》移植到Android上，通过Facebook将我们所有的玩家连接起来。

到2013年初，Wooga会加大在Facebook游戏和手机游戏的投入。

有些公司批评你们将HTML5游戏《Pocket Island》作为开源项目的决策，Ludei甚至认为你们错误地放弃了HTML5。你的看法是什么？

经过《Magic Land Island》（游戏原名）一年的开发，我们越来越明确，虽然我们努力将该游戏推向的手机大众市场，但它还不能满足我们主流手机受众的需求。

我们对这项技术感到兴奋，说我们“放弃”它不是正确的说法，但我们决定停止单独尝试，期望看到HTML5社区如何利用《Pocket Island》的开发经验来发展这项技术——但愿它能彻底变革手机应用市场。

wooga data(from pocketgamer)

有人还称Facebook游戏整体上呈衰弱趋势。你们在Facebook平台上的运营情况如何？

在Facebook上，我们看到大量新玩家和很高的游戏活跃度。我们很高兴看到游戏的发展。我们还会开发新的Facebook游戏。

另外，我们是社交游戏专家，这意味在我们的游戏中，你可以和朋友一起玩，即使你并不认为自己是玩家。

我们将社交网络和真实的朋友纳入游戏玩法中——没有Facebook，那是不可能的。对手机平台也是一样的。（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）

Wooga: We’ve not given up on the HTML5 revolution

by Keith Andrew

Wooga is making a move on mobile, and – like scores of other social gaming specialists – it’s doing it at pace.

According to the firm’s head of communication Sina Kaufmann, the firm’s decision to launch Diamond Dash on Android (following a successful run on iOS) is just the start – Wooga plans to double its mobile and Facebook portfolio by the start of 2013.

HTML5′s role in this smartphone assault, however, remains unclear.

Though Kaufman denies that Wooga’s decision to open up the HTML5-powered Pocket Island was a sign the company was ‘giving up’ on the language, she does acknowledge that the game didn’t hit the right notes with Wooga’s mainstream audience.

We caught up with Kaufmann for her take on how Wooga plans to win the mobile game with or without HTML5 on board.

Pocket Gamer: 20 million Diamond Dash users on iOS is nothing to be sniffed at. Did you expect that level of success so quickly?

Sina Kaufmann: No, Diamond Dash was our first game for iOS and our first step to mobile at all.

When Diamond Dash was launched in the App Store in December, it was already quite successful on Facebook, but still we were pretty excited about our first mobile title and whether we would manage to transfer the game successfully for mobile users.

And now we are looking forward to also bringing the game to Android.

How does the game’s audience differ between Facebook and smartphone?

They don’t really differ that much.

We create games for a very broad audience and 70 percent of our players are women. In fact, we’ve seen a strong trend of Diamond Dash players on mobile also connecting via Facebook.

The percentage of users choosing to connect to Facebook has continued to rise since the game launched – from 28 percent of users in December to 64 percent and rising at the end of March.

Users who log into Facebook from the game are eight times more likely to spend money, and spend 50 percent more on average. That’s why we say connected gaming is the future.

Is the move on Android likely to be followed by launches on other operating systems?

Right now the focus is on bringing the very successful Wooga titles to iOS and bringing Diamond Dash to Android, connecting all our players via Facebook.

Wooga will double its current game portfolio on Facebook and mobile games by early 2013.

Some firms have criticised your decision to make HTML5 release Pocket Island open source, with Ludei suggesting you’ve wrongly given up on the language. What’s your view?

It became clear to us after one year of developing Magic Land Island [the game's original name] that, while trying hard to push the game for mobile mass market, it wasn’t yet ready to sustainable satisfy our mainstream mobile audience.
We are very excited about the technology and to say we ‘gave up on it’ is not the right term, but we decided to stop trying it alone and look forward to see how the HTML5 community can use the lessons learned from Pocket Island to develop the technology forward – hopefully to the point where it may revolutionise the mobile app market.

Some also claim Facebook gaming on the whole is on the decline. How is the social network doing for you?

We see a lot of new users and a high activity in our games on Facebook – we are very happy with their growth. We also develop new unique titles for Facebook.

Also, we are social games specialists, which means games you can play with your friends even if you don’t consider yourself a gamer.

We implement the social graph and your real friends into our gameplay – without Facebook that is not possible. The same accounts for mobile.(source:pocketgamer)