作者：Christopher Parschat（Wooga工作室）

2010年末，《钻石爆爆乐》（ Diamond Dash ）仍然是一个粗糙的游戏原型。而我们的团队用了5个月的时间将这一游戏理念变成了现实，并在2011年3月份正式将其推向Facebook。

在发行几周后，这款游戏迅速吸引了大量玩家的注意，并成为当时发展速度最快的Facebook游戏，我们也很快便取得100万日活跃用户这一好成绩。同年6月份，我们便决定面向iOS平台推出该款游戏的手机版本。

最终在2011年12月，《钻石爆爆乐》出现在了App Store中。自那时开始，它已在67个国家的最畅销游戏榜单登顶，取得了超过3000万次的下载量并获得4.5颗星的评级。以下我将说说我们从Facebook转向手机平台的过程。

1.保持原版游戏的感觉

首先，我们必须清楚不可能将Facebook用户体验直接移植到手机平台上，除非有足够的理由让我们这么做。在面对向《钻石爆爆乐》这类型游戏时，你可能会认为这种移植是一个很简单的过程。但是你却会发现，某些UI元素和游戏体验根本不能够进行移植。

面向手机平台我们所做出的最大改变便是钻石网格。在Facebook上，网格的大小为10×10。你可能会认为在iPhone上保持同样规格的网格能让用户感觉更加自在。但是事实上却不是如此。尽管测试者面对的是几乎相同的游戏，但是他们却反映好像不是在玩《钻石爆爆乐》了。所以我们只能重新开始并想办法修改游戏玩法。我们改变了平衡，积分和时间设置，并且将钻石网格调整为7×8。所以当再次进行测试时，测试者便给出了积极的反馈，他们能够重新找回《钻石爆爆乐》的游戏感了。所以为了让玩家感受到游戏的一致性，我们的确需要花费更多精力去做出更大的改变。

Diamond Dash（from qzee.net）

2.管理玩家的注意力

任何游戏开发者都清楚，他们必须分秒必争地吸引玩家的注意力。当用户在游戏的早期迭代过程中打开应用时，他们将会看到两个启动画面（游戏邦注：在到达主菜单之前）。第一个画面是Wooga页面，第二个则是《钻石爆爆乐》的加载页面。但是最终我们发现这样的设置是多余的。

当我们将其修改为只剩一个醒目的页面并紧跟着主菜单时，我们便有效地留住了更多用户。我们同样也打算引领着用户去经历他们的首次游戏过程。对于资深玩家来说，这些步骤设置是符合逻辑的，但是对于所有新人玩家来说，他们总是很容易在前面几个步骤中便遭遇挫败。当然了，你可以根据你所制作的游戏类型做出改变，而如果你所面对的是休闲游戏，那就好办多了。在Wooga，我们的目标是面向所有玩家创造游戏，而游戏教程则能够帮助我们做到这一点。

3.确保社交性

Facebook Connect是游戏早期的主要功臣。正是凭借着在Facebook中所获得的玩家基础才让我们能够更加轻松地挤进这一竞争激烈的市场中。也许这一方法并不适用于所有开发者，但是如果你制作的是社交游戏，你就需要慎重考虑这一点。

Facebook手机用户通过收取好友的游戏邀请，点击它，便能直接进入《钻石爆爆乐》（如果他们已经安装了这款游戏），或者会进入App Store中的游戏下载页面。后来我们发现，那些通过Facebook Connect登录的玩家，在游戏中的消费意愿比一般玩家高8倍左右，并且游戏时长也比后者多2倍。这便是用户粘性的力量。甚至是在带有多人元素的硬核游戏中，如果玩家能够在此与好友一起游戏，他们也更能感受到游戏的乐趣。所以让玩家与好友一起游戏或确保游戏的社交性能够帮助你更好地推动游戏的发展。

4.重视平板电脑

iPhone to iPad（from gamasutra）

如今的平板电脑变得越来越受欢迎，所以我们有必要将其区别于手机体验而单独对待。对于《钻石爆爆乐》的平板电脑版本，我们便重新设计了UI，并将钻石网格再次调整为Facebook版本中的10×10规格。

我想我们的应用获得成功的最大因素便在于较小的文件规格。在手机网络中，用户只能下载低于50兆的应用，不过随着retina屏幕的iPad诞生后，这一规格也随之大大提升了。我们已经将文件规格控制在30兆以下，而我们也对于能够创造出只有26兆的总文件大小感到骄傲。

如果你是面向iPhone和iPad制作游戏，那么帮助你压缩文件规格的一大方法便是反复利用相同的资产。但是你也需要留意你所再次利用的内容，确保这些内容不会对你当前的游戏带来任何负面影响。

5.发行后的完善

Wooga始终坚持着这一理念，但却并非所有人都适合这一方法，不过《钻石爆爆乐》在iOS平台上获得持续发展的一大原因便是源于我们的定期更新。在一年前我们也陆陆续续地推出一些更新内容，从而确保游戏能够持续发展，而我们始终未停止游戏的开发，迭代与完善工作便是决定性原因。我们已经添加了更多魔法能量，完善了网络连接，在iOS6中整合了新的社交功能，并在出现任何新技术时相对应地调整了游戏的视觉效果。我想这才是决定我们成功的最重要因素，我们期待着看到这款游戏在未来一年中的发展。

（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）

Postmortem: 5 lessons learned making Diamond Dash mobile

By Christopher Parschat

It all started in late 2010, when Diamond Dash was but a rough prototype. Over the course of 5 months our team brought that concept to reality and in March 2011 we launched Diamond Dash on Facebook.

After a few weeks the game was a hit, becoming the fastest growing Facebook game at the time and we soon hit the one million daily active user mark. In June we decided to start on a mobile version for iOS devices.

Later that year in December, Diamond Dash popped up on the App Store. Since then it has gone on to become the highest grossing game in 67 countries, has been dowloaded 30 million times and boasts a four and a half star rating. Here’s a little insight into how we made that journey from Facebook to mobile.

1. Getting That Native Mobile Feeling

First and foremost, a Facebook user experience should rarely be ported directly to mobile unless there are very good reasons for doing so. With a game like Diamond Dash you may think that transfer would be a relatively simple process. But certain parts of the UI and gameplay experience simply didn’t transfer.

The biggest change we made for mobile was the grid of gems. On Facebook, that grid is 10×10. You’d have thought that by keeping that grid the same size on the iPhone users would feel at home almost immediately. Curiously, that was far from the case. Even though testers were playing almost the exact same game, they responded by telling us that it did not feel like Diamond Dash. We went back to the drawing board and tweaked the gameplay. The balancing, scoring and timing were changed and the grid was downsized to 7×8. When we next playtested the response was very positive. Users felt like they were playing Diamond Dash again. So it took a lot of work to make it feel like nothing had changed, by changing a lot.

2. Managing Attention Spans

As any game developer knows, you’re against the clock to keep your players. When users opened the app in the early iterations of Diamond Dash they saw two splash screens before arriving at the main menu. The first was a Wooga page, and the second a Diamond Dash branded loading page. That turned out to be one too many.

When we reduced it to a splash page followed by the main menu we retained more users. We also hand hold users through their first game. A more experienced gamer may see those steps as logical, but to those totally new to gaming we realized those first few steps were the most daunting. This of course changes depending on the type of game you’re making, but if you’re making a casual game, it helps. With a goal to make games for everyone at Wooga, a tutorial was an essential addition.

3. Being Social

Core to our initial success was Facebook Connect. Having an already established player base on Facebook gave us that initial buzz that would have otherwise been so difficult to attain in such a competitive market. This won’t be an option to everyone, but if you’re making social games it’s well worth considering.

Players on Facebook mobile who received a request from a friend playing Diamond Dash, and clicked it, were either directed to the game if they had it, or the Diamond Dash download page on the App Store. We later found out that players who choose to log in are 8 times more likely to spend money and play for twice as long. It’s all about engagement. Even core games with a multiplayer element are better when you’re playing with a friend you know, and I think that appeal is universal. Playing with friends is fun and being social will help your game.

4. Focus on Tablets

Tablets are getting more and more popular and it’s important to treat this as an entirely separate entity from the mobile phone experience. For Diamond Dash we redesigned the UI and once again changed the layout of gems to the original 10×10 Facebook grid size.

Possibly our biggest success with the app, which is a universal app for both iPhone and iPad, was to keep the download size low. Super low. Only apps under 50MB can be downloaded over a cellular network, a figure that was bumped up when the retina iPad was announced. We’d prepared for that figure to be under 30MB, and we’re still proud that the total file size is only 26MB.

If you’re making an app for iPhone and iPad one of the ways you can get that file size down is by reusing the same asset. But be mindful of the ones you do re-use, and make sure that they’re not ruining your game’s presentation.

5. Post-Launch Treatment

Wooga was built from the ground up on this idea, so it may not work for everyone, but part of the reason why Diamond Dash on iOS continues to grow is our regular updates. We launched a little under a year ago and the game continues to grow and that’s because we haven’t stopped developing, iterating and improving the title. We’ve added magic powers, improved networking, been lucky enough to benefit from new social features embedded into iOS 6 and updated the visuals whenever new technology is announced. This has been paramount to our success and we’re all excited to see how the game develops over the next year or so. (source:GAMASUTRA)