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Kixeye首席执行官谈公司创业经历及发展愿景

发布时间:2012-08-20 16:16:53 Tags:,,,

作者:Matt Lynley

Will Harbin是Mark Pincus的最大竞争对手。

Zynga现在所面临的麻烦是,当其Facebook游戏已经停滞不前,甚至开始走下坡路的同时它需要努力寻找新的出路。

他们可以考虑创造“硬核”游戏而迎合更多男性玩家的喜欢,并以此创造出超过其大热游戏(如《FarmVille》和《Draw Something》)的收益。

除此之外Zynga还面临的一个问题是,他们的游戏设计师必须正视来自Kixeye的挑战。与Zynga一样,Kexeye的总部也位于旧金山,他们已经在游戏领域小试牛刀,并取得了不错的成绩。

比起尝试着吸引大量玩家花几分钟时间不断点击奶牛,Kixeye选择创造出具有爆炸感和重型战斗的游戏,并以此迎合那些具有强烈竞争意识的玩家的喜好。

Kixeye拥有一个250人的工作团队,并通过《战争指挥官》以及《Backyard Monsters》等游戏去占领市场。他们的团队中也不乏一些顶级游戏设计师,其中也包括一些前Zynga员工。

他们高调的行事风格在许多技术公司或游戏公司中并不多见。特别是他们近来的招聘视频更是将矛头直接对准了Pincus及其它竞争对手。甚至连他们的新的办公室也很像电子游戏中的场景。

Will Harbin在最近采访中谈及当Zynga在Facebook游戏市场的主导地位受到动摇时,Kixeye会采取何种行动等内容,以下便是主要结果:

*Kixeye正致力于创造四款新游戏,并计划推出自己的游戏门户网站。可以看出他们对基于浏览器的游戏信心十足。Harbin还表示他非常看好平板电脑平台。

*Facebook游戏还不会灭亡。Kixeye游戏的玩家都是一些更具有竞争性的男性玩家,并且比起《FarmVille》玩家他们也更愿意为游戏中的道具而掏钱。

*密切关注Kixeye的下一款游戏。据Harbin所称,这将是他们基于浏览器游戏的首创。

will-harbin-kixeye(from businessinsider)

will-harbin-kixeye(from businessinsider)

能否说说你自己的背景?

有很长一段时间我都致力于科技领域,并且我也是因此开始涉足专业游戏开发领域。当我还是六七岁小孩时,我便因为游戏开始对技术和计算机产生了浓厚的兴趣。在我学会了如何更好地进行编程后,还是高中生的我便开始利用业余时间自己制作游戏。在12、13年前,跻身游戏产业是一件非常困难的事。所以我便转向其它技术领域继续我的职业生涯。

几年前,当Zynga开始获得成功(面向女性玩家)时,我也意识到终于有人能够证明虚拟商品模式在西方文化中的可行性。那么我是否也能够将其应用于我所喜欢的游戏类型中,而非像《FarmVille》或《CityVille》等游戏?

最初Kixeye叫做Casual Collective,是一家位于伦敦且只有两名成员的小公司。我们最终决定团结协力去重塑这家公司,并以Facebook为起点创造出免费且具有极高易用性的好游戏。这便是我们的第一个发展阶段。很快地我们也将推出自己的门户网站。并最终确保游戏能够同时具有高度易用性和高保真度。

你们似乎总是频繁地广纳贤才?

我并不认为我们的增长速度过快,事实上还有许多发展更快的案例摆在我们面前。去年,我们从原本30个人的团队扩展到250多人。不过也有其它公司的扩展速度更加迅猛。我们也会确保每个加入公司的新人都有极高的准入门槛。

自从两年半前发行了《Backyard Monsters》这款游戏后,我们便迎来了第一波热潮。很长一段时间我们都基于这一节奏发展着,并且我们也非常幸运从未推出失败作品。除此之外我们还拥有大获成功的《战争指挥官》以及其它四款正在开发中的游戏。本来我们打算紧跟潮流而进入手机游戏开发领域,但是幸运的是我们最终注意到了网页游戏所存在的巨大潜力。

这里存在巨大的拓展空间。而我们也将基于自己的节奏并投入一定的时间去抓住这些机遇。除此之外我们也将继续延续之前的成功。

我们的下一款游戏是基于3D引擎的角色扮演游戏,这是一款让人激动,且充满野心的游戏,这也是我们在浏览器平台上的首次尝试。我们将在三,四个月后完成这款游戏。

难道你们都没有手机玩家吗?

移动设备分为:手机和平板电脑。从玩家角度来看,在一个这么小的设备上玩我们的游戏并不能得到真正的满足。我们需要的是一个能够适用于我们游戏用户界面的较大屏幕。对我们来说这个平台太过于局限限。就像是画家也不愿意被限制在一块小小的画布上一样。

我们希望挣脱这种局限。我们希望创造出一些非常出色且能够带来高度沉浸感的游戏,但是像手机这样的小屏幕却很难实现我们的创想。当然了,在手机上也能够创造出许多很有趣的内容,但是我们却不愿意将自己局限于这张“画布”中。我们测试了自己的哪一款游戏能够转适应于这种小规格设备,并最终选择了《Backyard Monsters》,所以在不久后我们将推出这款游戏的手机版。而基于这次尝试所取得的结果,我们有可能进行更深入的规划。

而平板电脑则是游戏的最佳平台,这是一种具有强大的易用性与良好用户界面的硬件设备。随着平板电脑用户的不断增加,我越来越看好这一设备。也许在我们新的角色扮演游戏发行后我们便会考虑推出它的平板电脑版本。我们现在所面临的是一个资源有限,但是方法无限的世界,而我们也将继续尽己所能而做到最好。比起平板电脑,笔记本和台式电脑拥有更多浏览器系统,所以我们也不会放弃这些领域。

你们拥有非常独特的市场营销模式,这些模式从何而来?

kixeye-recruiting(from businessinsider)

设立在旧金山BART车站的Kixeye招聘广告(from businessinsider)

我们是一家电子游戏公司,所以疯狂是我们的本性。我们并未承受任何期望,所以不需要遵循某些特定的模式。我们并未拥有企业客户,所以可以尽情地采取各种愚蠢且有趣的做法。

我们整个团队的工作氛围都是如此,我们只是在娱乐自己。我们并不在乎别人的想法,如果别人认为有趣,那当然再好不过,但是如果别人觉得遭到了冒犯了,那也只能说是他自己的想法而已。我们真正的交流对象是潜在的用户和雇员。可以说这是娱乐产业中的一种好模式。

你们创造了一些“硬核”游戏。能否跟我们分析下这些游戏?

我们的商业模式其实与其它免费游戏公司类似。即我们创造一款高质量的免费游戏,并且在游戏中设置了平衡的经济模式,即那些免费玩游戏的用户与其他花钱游戏的玩家拥有同等的竞争力。我们始终强调游戏的用户粘性,所以只要确保相关游戏元素的平衡,我们便能获得获得更多利益。这与传统社交游戏公司的做法截然不同。我们并未设置任何能量机制,即使玩家完成了一个行动也不会获得星星或泡泡。我们所创造的是稳定且具有竞争性的游戏,并且也在即时策略游戏领域取得了非常不错的成绩。也就是说,我们创造了大型多人在线即时策略游戏空间。

如此我们的玩家便能够更好地融入我们所创造的内容中。因为男性玩家总是能够与竞争性游戏机制达成共鸣,所以我们便为他们创造出了带竞争机制的高质量游戏。比起普通的社交游戏,我们所创造的游戏类型与玩家具有更紧密的联系。因此实现玩家共鸣便是提高游戏用户粘性的有效方法。所以并不是我们瞄准哪类型玩家而采取行动,而是玩家自己选择了我们的游戏。

我们当然也在目标市场定位以及市场营销方面做了一些努力。最初当我们开始发行游戏时我们总是拥有一个混合用户基础。而在这个过程中你将清楚哪些对游戏是有帮助的哪些又是无益的,并以此不断完善市场营销方法以确保你能够获得真正的目标用户,并让他们了解游戏。我们并不会说我们将面向24岁的挪威男性设计一款游戏之类的话。我们会扩大这一范围,从而更加自然地找到属于游戏的目标用户。

kixeye-game(from businessinsider)

kixeye-game(from businessinsider)

似乎Facebook游戏市场大不如前了。你对此有何看法?Facebook游戏是否还有发展空间?

我们确实看到了面向男性的网页游戏的发展,而如果一切都能够有序地发展的话我仍会对社交游戏报以积极的看法。你必须从整个市场的角度来看。如果你是基于整个市场规模去讨论这一问题,那么我便必须为社交游戏做出辩护。

这个问题就像是问EA他们将如何与动视,THQ等公司共存一样。这是一个巨大的市场。玩家不会只是玩一款游戏。《Backyard Monsters》是基于社交游戏而做出的创新。在此之前并未出现过类似的游戏(游戏邦注:即大型多人在线即时策略游戏)。而我们的下一款游戏也是新的尝试,是人们在那个平台上从未看过的新类型。所以如果我们的竞争者仍然停留在过去的产品,或我们之前的产品身上,那么我们便占据了有利的位置。即使我们的竞争者紧随着我们的脚步,但只要我们能够继续专注于创造出我们有信心获取成功的高质量游戏,我们便不会被轻易比下去。

你们现在正在做些什么?

我们正同时致力于开发四款游戏。我们有三个游戏团队仍在维护现有游戏,以及4个完全独立的游戏团队在执行新游戏的开发工作;我们的门户网站团队也在紧锣密鼓地建造自己的门户网站。除此之外我们便没有任何秘密的作战计划了,我们已经敲定了一半游戏的发行计划,而剩下的则将在我们自己的门户网站上发行。虽然也涉及了游戏的发行和市场营销工作,但是我仍希望我们公司能够始终将侧重点放在创造更加优秀的游戏上。我的梦想是基于浏览器或具有高度易用性的平台创造出具有AAA级质量的免费游戏。我认为待在起居室面对主机玩游戏的时代已经过去了,而现在的我们能够做的便是紧跟时代潮流不断创新。(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

As Zynga Stumbles, All Eyes Are Now On This Startup

Matt Lynley

Will Harbin is Mark Pincus’s worst nightmare.

Here’s why the CEO of upstart gaming studio Kixeye is such a threat to Zynga, the giant of social games.

Zynga is having a lot of trouble trying to find a new business as its Facebook games stagnate or decline.

One direction it’s mulling over is producing a “hardcore” game that caters to a more male-centric audience, in the hope that it’ll make more money than the games it’s best known for, like FarmVille and Draw Something.

But there’s a problem—Zynga’s game designers will have to deal with Harbin’s Kixeye. Kixeye, based like Zynga in San Francisco, has been working on games like that for a while, and is already doing quite well.

Instead of trying to appeal to a massive audience of gamers that spend a few minutes clicking cows on breaks, Kixeye caters to a hypercompetitive audience with games that glorify explosions and heavy-duty combat.

Kixeye has a 250-person team going directly after that market with its own games like War Commander and Backyard Monsters. Its staff has some top game designers—including some former Zynga employees.

And they go after that audience with a kind of swagger you don’t normally see at a tech or gaming company. A recent recruiting video went for the jugular, mocking Pincus and the rest of the gaming world.

Even its new office feels like a video game.

We caught up with Will Harbin, CEO of Kixeye, to find out how things are going at Kixeye now that Zynga’s chokehold on the Facebook gaming market is slipping. Here’s what we found out:

Kixeye is already working on four new games and plans on launching its own gaming portal. That’s a lot of confidence in browser-based gaming. Harbin says he is also bullish on tablets.

Facebook games are far from dead. Because the audience is more competitive and skews male, they’re more likely to pay for in-game goodies than your average FarmVille player.

Keep an eye on Kixeye’s next game. It’ll be “the first of its kind” for a browser-based game, Harbin says.

Here’s a lightly-edited transcript of the conversation:

BUSINESS INSIDER: What’s your story?

Will Harbin: I’ve been in tech for a long time, this is my first foray into professional game development. Games got me interested in technology and computers in the first place back when I was 6 or 7 years old. I started making games in my own spare time in high school after I learned how to program better. Found it pretty tough to break into the gaming industry, 12 or 13 years ago whenever that was. I set out to pursue my career in other areas of technology.

A couple years ago when Zynga started getting success, obviously for women, I thought it was pretty interesting that someone had proven the virtual goods model worked in Western culture. Why not do it with games I want to play rather than these games like FarmVille and CityVille?

Originally, Kixeye was another company called Casual Collective, it was two guys out of London. We decided to join forces and restart the company and really try to make good, free to play, hyperaccessible games starting with Facebook. That’s the first phase of the business. Pretty soon we’ll be launching our own portal. In the end, it’s really the intersection of hyperaccessibility and fidelity when it comes to games.

A Kixeye recruitment billboard, as seen in the San Francisco BART terminal.

BI: It seems like you guys are hiring pretty quickly.

WH: I don’t think we’ve been growing insanely fast. There are many other growth stories that have surpassed us. We’ve grown from 30 people to over 250 people in the last year. There are other companies that have seen larger growth spurts. We’re making sure every new person coming in the door meets a very high quality minimum bar.

The business has really clicked since the release of Backyard Monsters almost two and a half years ago. We’ve been on this pace for a while, we’ve been very fortunate that we haven’t had a miss. We have War Commander, which is really kick ass, and another four games in development. We could have spread ourselves thin, going with the sheep going after mobile, but fortunately for us we’ve seen the vacuum of competition with the browser space.

It leaves us a lot of space for us to dominate. we’re growing at our own pace, taking our time, when we see a good opportunity we seize it. We stay focused on what we know how to do and build on top of previous success.

Our next game, it’s a [role-playing] game with a full 3D engine, really exciting, extremely ambitious, it’ll be the first of its kind to ever grace a browser. We’re maybe three or four months out from that.

BI: Not a fan of mobile?

WH: Well, there’s two categories: phone and tablet. For the phone, from a gamer’s perspective, playing on such a small form-factor device is not really satisfying for the kind of games we’re playing. We need a larger form factor that can accommodate the user interface. That right there is quite limiting for us. Look at it like a canvas, if you’re an artist you don’t want to be confined by a very small canvas.

We want to be unbound by canvas restraints. To create something that works really well and is super immersive, small form factors like  phones are just not fun to work with. Sure, you can make a lot of cool things, but it’s not in our DNA to build games that limit themselves to that canvas. We are doing some tests to see how one of our games would translate to that small form factor, Backyard Monsters mobile will be launching in a little bit. depending on how that does, we might do more.

Tablets are perfect for games, it’s good hardware matched with good accessibility with good user interface. I’m definitely bullish on tablets as long as consumer adoption grows. We’ll probably have a tablet version of our RPG soon after it launches. For now, we’re in a world of constrained resources and infinite amounts of runway, we’re gonna stick with what we do best. There are far more laptop or desktop based browser systems than tablets, so we’re still going after that.

BI: You guys have a very unique marketing style. Where does that come from?

WH: We’re a video-game company, we can go crazy and wild. There are no expectations for us. We don’t have to behave a certain way. We don’t have enterprise clients, we can be crass and funny.

It’s our collective personalities at the office, we’re really entertaining ourselves. We don’t give a damn of what others think, if they think it’s funny that’s great. If people are offended, fine, that’s their opinion. We’re speaking to our potential users and employees. That’s kind of a nice thing being in the entertainment business, that’s what this is.

BI: You guys produce “hardcore” games. Can you explain a little bit about what those are?

WH: The way our business works is like any other free to play company. We build up a quality title that’s free to play, we have a well-balanced economy in the game to where our user plays for free who’s equally competitive for someone who pays a lot of money. We focus on engagement in our game, that naturally encourages monetization if you have things properly balanced. It’s a very different system from what companies in traditional social gaming space do, it’s contrary to their approach. We never have things like an energy mechanic, when you complete an action you aren’t picking up stars and bubbles. We make good, solid, competitive games and so far have been very successful in the real-time strategy space. We practically invented the massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game space.

There’s a good match between our audience and the kinds of content that we’re making. I’d say the masculine sensibility inherently resonates with competitive game mechanics and we give them quality games with competitive game mechanics. There’s a tight match between the audience and the type of game we’re making versus a run-of-the-mill social game. It’s really audience resonating that drives the engagement. It’s not that we’ve laser-targeted the audience or found a person who’s gonna do this. The audience finds the game.

We certainly do a lot of targeting and marketing. But initially when you’re launching a game you have a good audience mix that touches the game. As you see what works with the game and what doesn’t, you certainly refine marketing to make sure you’re reaching out to those users and letting them know about it. We’re not trying to force a round peg into a square hole. We don’t necessarily sit around in a room and say, ok, we’re going to design this for 24-year-old males in Norway. We’re certainly broader than that, it just happens to find its audience a little more naturally.

Kixeye’s games go crazy when it comes to explosions and combat.

BI: The market for Facebook games seems to be softening a bit, though. What are your thoughts on that? Is there still room for Facebook games?

WH: We’re definitely seeing an uptick in male browser gaming, I would still be relatively positive in social gaming if things are executed properly. You have to look at the total market. If you look at the total market size, I will defend social gaming.

It’s like asking EA how can they coexist with Activision, THQ and everyone else. It’s a big market. Gamers play more than one game. Backyard Monsters was innovative from a social gaming standpoint. There were no [massively multiplayer online real-time strategy] games before that. Our next genres that we’re attacking will be new and will be something that people haven’t seen on the platform. So far, as long as competitors are playing with yesterday’s products, or our yesterday’s product, I think we’re in good standing. Even if we had competitors launching products lock step with us, as long as we stay focused on making quality games we’re quite confident that we’re gonna come out on top.

BI: What are you guys working on now?

WH: We’re heads down on four new games simultaneously, we still have three games team working on our existing games. We have four completely separate game teams working on new games. We have our portal team working on the portal. There’s no secret battle plan beyond that, we’ve nailed half the distribution, the rest of the distribution will come with our portal. We’ve nailed publishing and marketing of our games, but really what I’m keeping the company focused on is really upping our game and producing a better product. My dream is to produce triple-a quality gaming inside of a browser or some other hyper-accessible platform combined with the free-to-play business model. I just think the days are over for having to plug in a console sitting in your living room, I think those days are numbered and we want to be on the forefront of innovation and advancement.(source:businessinsider)


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