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Gamasutra评选2012年度十大游戏开发商

发布时间:2012-12-14 16:38:28 Tags:,,,

作者:Gamasutra网站、GD杂志

一般来说,我们只评选出年度五大游戏开发商。但今年我们将入围名单扩大了一倍,这是为了适应2012年的新状况:许多开发者今年的表现令人刮目相看,他们拓宽了游戏创意、经营和文化的视野。当然,虽然数目增加到10,仍然很难筛选。

我们的评选目标并非正好在2012年制作出好游戏的开发商(尽管在今年发行好游戏确实增加了它们入围的可能性)。我们选择上榜开发商(以字母顺序排名)的标准是,它是否对今年的游戏行业产生了积极的影响。落选今年榜单的开发者和工作室,明年再接再励吧!

Cactus

这么多年了,独立游戏开发者Jonatan Soderstrom(即Cactus)的作品产量几乎一直很高,类型也很丰富,或深刻或狂躁或怪异。制作这么多实验性的小游戏虽然与他的创新相谐调——但他本人也承认,这表明他始终缺乏信心管理大项目,即使大项目的赢利可能更丰厚。

今年,他与来自Dennaton Games的视觉艺术家Dennis Wedin合作,于是,非常刺激过瘾的游戏《火线迈阿密》(《Hotline Miami》) 诞生了。这款游戏充分表现了80后人群的荒诞和冒失。游戏收获了几乎全面的积极评价,

不仅因为这个先锋派艺术家始终思维独特又多产,也因为他对软件盗版的态度令人大开眼界,甚至可以说是革命性的。

hot line miami(from gamasutra)

hot line miami(from gamasutra)

尽管他自然是应该同意必须制裁盗版行为,但Soderstrom却跳入The Pirate Bay网站的激流中为盗版提供技术支持、建议和非法获得他的游戏的补丁。他接受不可避免的盗版,使他与开发商及其游戏群体的关系发生了革命性的变化,甚至导致其他独立开发者也开始效仿这种“用户要买什么就给什么”的做法。今年,Cactus已经成为创意灵活性和适应性的标志,这证明了小独立开发者也可以影响游戏业的大局面。

Cygames

完全新类型的游戏获得爆发式成功是不常见的现象,但那正是日本游戏开发商Cygames在手机社交领域的成就。《Rage of Bahamut》于年初首次登录欧美的Android和iOS平台,其日式卡片收集玩法就大获成功。自发布日起,就在Google Play和App Store的排行榜上高居不下。这么大的成就甚至让该游戏美国发行商Ngmoco都感到不可思议。

rage of bahamut(from gamasutra)

rage of bahamut(from gamasutra)

但Cygames的成就不只是开创了移动设备游戏的新天地。时尚会随时间流逝,卡片收集类游戏的热潮随着市场的饱和也必然会冷却。但是,Cygames的成就影响更持久,从根本上证明了小众市场也可以支撑手机免费游戏的开发。《Rage of Bahamut》的成功史为许多追随者铺平了道路。

Double Fine

2012年的游戏开发终于因为玩家而实现大众化了吗?那是完全不可能的。但在很大程度上,Double Fine的冒险在这方面有所突破。

这家公司为开发一款老式冒险游戏而筹得330万美元,是其目标筹集资金(40万美元)的8倍多,并成功地打破了之前电子游戏的大众融资记录。

double fine adventure(from gamasutra)

double fine adventure(from gamasutra)

大众融资如此迅速地普及,以至于我们难以想象它的不可思议程度。甚至在一年以前,电子游戏设计师还得自己录视频向粉丝求赞助。Double Fine在2012年为大众融资的革命打下了基础。

另外,Double Fine的独特项目“Amnesia Fortnight”允许粉丝投票表决工作室实验哪个游戏理念(粉丝还可以观看和试玩),这可能成为电子游戏前期设计的趋势或革命。无论如何,回顾2012年,你都不能忽视Double Fine。

King.com

在King.com凭借《Bubble Witch Saga》一飞冲天(成为Facebook的第二大开发商)以前,传统的观念是,如果你不能在病毒式营销的淘金热时期进入平台,你就不可能建立稳定而广泛的玩家基础。现在,这个神话被打破了。

bubble witch(from gamasutra)

bubble witch(from gamasutra)

但King.com的故事还没结束。至今数年来,这家公司在网页休闲游戏方面始终很成功。它可以靠许多已经成功的游戏转战Facebook平台,将这些游戏裹上一层“社交”的糖衣,就能在新平台上收获成功。满足热切的玩家对益智游戏的需求也促进了它的成功。

在Facebook上凯旋而归后,King.com又把目光转向iOS,《Bubble Witch Saga》没有费一分一角的营销成本就冲上排行榜前十名。当然,这个成功归结于原有的玩家也用手机玩这款游戏,以及明智的病毒式整合策略、同步和等价不同游戏版本的进程和购买。这为跨平台整合树立了标准。

《Bubble Witch Saga》当然不是第一款消除泡泡的游戏,甚至不是第一款消除泡泡的Facebook游戏—-但它指明了这种经营方式应该如何运作。

Christine Love

有时候,引领新潮流的开发商自己却从来没有制作“游戏”。多伦多的Christine Love创作了《Digital: A Love Story》《Don’t Take It Personally》、《Babe》、《It Just Ain’t Your Story》等交互式作品, 因为其独特的剧情而倍受好评—-作为欧美地区少有的视觉小说实践创作者之一,Christine Love也因此成名。

hate story(from gamasutra)

hate story(from gamasutra)

于今年2月发布的《Analogue: A Hate Story》是她流传最广的作品。玩家的任务就是,在一个迷人的AI角色的帮助下,阅读神秘的日志揭开太空飞船消失的秘密。这款游戏因其有深度的剧情在粉丝中走红,特别是通过对话养成恋爱关系的开发,这在独立游戏中是极少见到的。

这款游戏的独立发售量超过4万份,说明了Love敏锐地发现玩家对数字时代的社交互动和浪漫的需求。游戏的流行,也必然归结于在便携式阅读时代,文本导向型玩家群体这个小众市场的崛起。

Obsidian Entertainment

如果说Double Fine为游戏玩家和游戏开发者之间扫清了道路,那么可以说是Obsidian将这条道路拓展为双行道。

Double Fine证明了大众融资的游戏开发是可行的,但却是Obsidian让它的粉丝找到了作为团队一员的存在感。通过不断的更新、粉丝论坛和反馈循环,该团队的“Project Eternity”就像一款集体开发的游戏。

obsidian(from gamasutra)

obsidian(from gamasutra)

更重要的是,Obsidian表现了开发者在风云变幻的游戏开发世界中所具有的强大适应和发展能力。该工作室经历过失败的合约和作品,但多亏了大众融资渠道,它重振旗鼓的同时又增强了自身的核心实力。

如果该工作室能够维持Project Eternity,甚至以相同的方式进行跟进,它就会证明,小规模的工作室也能独立制作它想做的游戏并成长壮大,只要粉丝还想玩这些游戏。

Supercell

要承认自己的错误、吸取教训然后继续前进是很困难的,而这正是芬兰游戏开发界新秀Supercell在2011年所做的。那时,它意识到其多平台游戏《Gunshine》不会受玩家欢迎,于是从这个错误中抽身而退,转向手机游戏领域,一年后这家公司成为该领域中最成功的工作室之一,目前有两款游戏登上iOS应用排行榜的前五名。

那么,Supercell到底如何放弃失败的作品,靠两款作品《Clash of Clans》和《Hay Day》日进50万美元的收益呢?作者近日获知该公司的成功秘方是,“平板优先”战略、鼓励失败的文化和公司的扁平化管理模式。

clash of clans(from gamasutra)

clash of clans(from gamasutra)

Supercell能否在新作上复制这种成功尚不可知,但不得不承认该公司是通过周详计划手机游戏开发而成功的。Supercell的成功也值得其他工作室深思,同时迎合多个平台究竟是不是正确的方向。

Telltale Games

作为章节购买模式的坚定追随者,Telltale Games从中取得了成功,但还没真正地一鸣惊人——该工作室缺少一次重大突破来彻底证明章节购买模式不仅有利可图,而且能够在感染情绪的水平上吸引玩家。

Telltale的前面几款游戏都得到应有的关注,但直到《The Walking Dead》问世,该工作室才从商业和创意的角度出发,真正确定了章节系列的模式。Telltale似乎意识到是时候发挥章节购买模式的创新优势,而不是纠结于其劣势。

The-walking-dead(from gamasutra)

The-walking-dead(from gamasutra)

《The Walking Dead》在今年的成就是复兴(在一定程度上是重新定义)了冒险游戏这个类型。暂且不说这款游戏的章节购买模式,它的剧情和叙述也堪称年度最佳,角色培养系统非常出色,游戏中的选择展现了一种紧迫感,很有意义。所有这些方面都让这款游戏成为今年最吸引人的游戏之一。本文当然不是说Telltale是今年“唯一”发行了好游戏的工作室,但该工作室凭借该系列实现了重大突破,可能改写了自身的历史——我们猜其他工作室应该也已经认真研究了该游戏系列了吧。

ThatGameCompany

目前为止,ThatGameCompany这家洛杉矶游戏工作室与索尼的三次游戏合作都产生了令人瞩目的成果,《Flow》和《Flower》就是例子。大量玩家和媒体渴望看到合作的第三款也是最后一款游戏《Journey》的表现。

journey(from gamasutra)

journey(from gamasutra)

众所周知,《Journey》没有让人失望,得到多方回应。如之前的作品,《Journey》专注于视觉刺激和无指导下的探索,是一款特别的游戏。然而,虽然它的游戏规则与一般游戏机玩家的体验有所冲突,但它仍在PlayStation 3平台大获成功,很快就在玩家当中流行开来,几乎难以找到没有玩过一次的玩家。

ThatGameCompany表明,玩家其实欢迎不同的体验,即使那种体验与他们熟悉的体验是不同的。值得注意的是,自《Journey》发布后,其他类似的游戏(如《The Unfinished Swan》)也已经广受讨论。

当然,2012年的故事还没讲完。随着《Journey》的发行,与索尼的合作的结束,许多大牌员工开始脱离公司,包括Kellee Santiago、Robin Hunicke和Chris Bell。但联合创始人Jenova Chen留下了,公司现在的计划是开发多平台游戏。这家公司在制作情绪性游戏方面颇有造诣,使我们迫不及待地想见识它的下一款游戏。

Ubisoft Montreal

Ubisoft Montreal不再开拓AAA领域,而是埋头做好游戏,明确自己需要迎合的是哪类玩家。该公司能够灵活地协调企业责任和不断变化的创意想象力,努力甩开旧思维的束缚。就这方面,Ubisoft的表现比其他发行商所有的工作室表现更好。

刺客信条(from gamasutra)

刺客信条(from gamasutra)

Ubisoft显然对自身的能力有信心,敢于在今年竞争最激烈的时节发行《刺客信条3》和《孤岛惊魂3》。目前,《刺客信条3》的策略仍然管用——按年发行的游戏仍然很有势头。据该公司所称,这款游戏一个月内的销售量就达到700万份,成为Ubisoft史上销售最快的游戏。这是对该游戏品质(和它的大众营销活动)的有力证明。当该公司在今年E3游戏展上公布《Watch Dogs》时,该游戏成了展会的亮点。

今天,人们愿意为一款电子游戏花60美元,但玩家的期望和要求是很高的,毕竟他们的选择如此之多。他们希望受到开发者的尊重。这种尊重是通过高端产品来传达的,不止是挑战玩家的动作技巧,还要满足玩家的期待视野。大发行商的AAA游戏总是有市场的,只要它们能像Ubisoft这么做—-给游戏注入60美元的价值,一切就都好办了。(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

The top 10 game developers of 2012

by Gamasutra, GD mag staff

Typically, Gamasutra publishes its Top 5 developers of the year. But not in 2012. This time, we’ve doubled the size of our list to a nice, even 10 in order to better accommodate the number of developers who exceeded expectations and pushed creative, commercial and cultural boundaries. Of course, even at 10, it was difficult narrowing down who to include.

This is not intended to be a list of 10 developers who happened to make good games in 2012 (though releasing a good game certainly didn’t hurt anyone’s chances of being included). When selecting the developers on this list (presented alphabetically), Gamasutra and Game Developer magazine editors determined which ones defined the year in a positive way. These are the developers and studios that left their mark on 2012 — the ones that the industry will be watching in the years ahead.

- Kris Graft, Editor-in-Chief, Gamasutra

Cactus

For years, one-man show Jonatan “Cactus” Soderstrom has been almost embarrassingly prolific, producing a veritable catalogue of the thoughtful, manic and strange. Doing so many short, experimental games tuned his creativity — but by his own admission, it highlighted how he’s historically lacked the confidence to manage a bigger project, the sort that might actually pull in revenue. You know, for rent and stuff.

This year, he forged an official partnership with visual artist Dennis Wedin, and from Dennaton Games, the sharp and addictive Hotline Miami was born, radiant with the surreality and irreverence of the ’80s. The game’s nearly-universal positive critical reception crowned the commercial debut of a prolific and always-unique underground artist — and his attitude to software piracy was eye-opening, even revolutionary.

Though naturally he would have preferred the inevitable pirates pay, Soderstrom jumped into the trenches at torrent site The Pirate Bay to offer tech support, advice and even a patch for those that had obtained his game illegally. His embrace of the inevitability of piracy helped start a revolution in the relationship between devs and their community, and even led to other indies earning money for their games through pay-what-you-want goodwill. This year, Cactus has been an icon for how the creative agility and adaptability of a small indie can be leveraged against the larger landscape.

Cygames

It’s not often that an entirely new genre segment explodes, but that’s something Tokyo-based Cygames has managed in the mobile social space. Rage of Bahamut debuted earlier this year for Android and iOS in the West, and its Japanese-inflected collectible card gameplay has proven surprisingly successful. Since its launch, it’s stayed parked at the top of the top grossing charts for both Google Play and the App Store. That’s quite an achievement for a game that even its U.S. publisher, Ngmoco, was initially skeptical about.

But Cygames has accomplished more than blowing open the doors on a new genre on mobile devices. Fads are fads, and collectible card games will inevitably cool off when the market gets saturated (we’re already well on the way to this). No, what Cygame did that will have a more lasting impact is conclusively proving that a niche of dedicated gamers can successfully be induced to pay for a free-to-play game on mobile at high enough rates to support the development of core games for these devices. Rage of Bahamut is the mid-core success story of the year, and paves the way for many developers to follow in its footsteps.

Double Fine

It’s entirely possible that 2012 will go down as the year that game development finally became democratized by game players and, in many ways, it all started with Double Fine Adventure.

The company managed to smash all of the previous video game crowdfunding records when it managed to raise $3.3 million dollars to develop an old-fashioned adventure game, over eight times the $400,000 it was asking for. And it did it merely by being itself.

Crowdfunding has become so commonplace so quickly that it’s hard to imagine how weird it would have been, even a year ago, to have a video game designer on camera in his office asking his fans for money. Double Fine paved the way for what appears to be a crowdfunding revolution in 2012.

Add to that its unique Amnesia Fortnight project, in which fans were able to vote on which concepts the studio would prototype next (as well as watch them unfold and, at the end, play them), and you have what could be the early stages of what is either a temporary trend or a video game revolution. Either way, you can’t look back at 2012 without closely examining Double Fine.

King.com

Before King.com skyrocketed to success on the back of Bubble Witch Saga — becoming Facebook’s number two developer in the process — conventional wisdom was that if you didn’t get onto the platform during the gold rush days of cheap virality, it would be impossible to build meaningful audience share. That’s one myth shattered.

But there’s more to the King.com story. For years now, the company has operated a successful web-based casual games business. It was able to transition over to Facebook with a stack of proven games, and smartly wrap them in what it calls a “social envelope” which powers its success on that specific platform. Delivering puzzle games to an underserved and hungry audience has driven its success.

Then, King.com turned around and spun its triumph on Facebook into a major win on iOS, driving top 10 success for Bubble Witch Saga without spending a dime marketing the game. Rather, success was achieved by getting its existing audience to go mobile, thanks to a strategy of smart viral integration and progression and purchase parity between versions of its games. This set the standard for cross-platform integration.

Bubble Witch Saga certainly wasn’t the first bubble-popping game, and it wasn’t even the first on Facebook — but it’s shown the world how this segment of the business is supposed to work.

Christine Love

Sometimes the developers that lead new trends in the ways we think about games never set out to make “games”, per se, at all. Toronto-based Christine Love started out exploring ways to make her writing interactive, and work like Digital: A Love Story and Don’t Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain’t Your Story gained cult acclaim for their unique storytelling — while Love herself became known as one of the rare creators experimenting with the visual novel format in the West.

This year’s Analogue: A Hate Story, launched in February, is her most expansive work yet, tasking the player with mining the diaries of a mysterious lost society — while engaging and bonding with the AI characters who manage that information. The game caught fire among fans for its thoughtful storytelling, especially as regards the development of romantic relationships through conversation, a subject rarely of focus in indie games.

The popularity of Analogue, of which Love has independently sold more than 40,000 units this year, speaks to demand for Love’s attention for themes of social interaction and romance in the digital age — and is incredibly relevant as storytelling moves to the forefront among the text-oriented niches that are exploding in the age of portable reading.

Obsidian Entertainment

If Double Fine paved the dusty road between game players and game developers, it was Obsidian that turned it into a two-way street.

Double Fine proved that crowdfunding game development is viable, but it was Obsidian that made its fans feel like they were part of the team. Through constant updates, fan forums, and a constant back and forth feedback loop, the team’s “Project Eternity” feels like a crowd-developed game.

More importantly, Obsidian represents a developer quickly adapting and thriving in what is a rapidly changing game development world. The studio had been struggling with bad deals and draining triple-A work, but thanks to crowdfunding, it may have reinvented itself while playing to its core strengths.

If the studio is able to sustain with Project Eternity, and even have a follow-up developed in a similar way, it will have proven that a decently-sized studio can survive and thrive by independently making the games it wants to make, for fans that want to play them.

Supercell

It can be tricky to admit your mistakes, learn from them and move on. That’s exactly what Finnish games start-up Supercell did in 2011, when it realized that its multiplatform release Gunshine wasn’t so hot with players. Now, a year on from that false start, the company is one of the most successful mobile studios to date, and currently has two games in the top five grossing apps on the iOS App Store.

So how exactly did Supercell swing from a dud release, to making $500,000 a day from two releases, Clash of Clans and Hay Day? The company recently told Gamasutra that it’s all down to a mixture of elements, including its tablet-first approach, and its culture of celebrating failure and reveling in zero bureaucracy.

Whether the company will be able to repeat this success with its next upcoming releases remains to be seen, but it’s hard to deny that Supercell is keeping its eye on the ball, and scoring success through carefully-planned mobile game execution. Supercell’s success should also make other studios question whether attempting to cater for multiple platforms is, in fact, the right approach.

Telltale Games

As the foremost stalwart of the episodic business model Telltale Games had found success with the format, but the studio lacked a real bona fide blockbuster — a hit that would prove once and for all that the episodic business model is not only commercially viable, but also a format that is capable of uniquely engaging audiences on an emotional level.

All due respect to previous titles from Telltale, but it wasn’t until The Walking Dead that the studio really nailed the formula for an episodic series, from a commercial and creative standpoint.

It seems that Telltale realized that it was time to identify and leverage the creative advantages of the episodic model, rather than fight against the disadvantages.

What The Walking Dead did this year was reinvigorate (and to an extent, redefine) the adventure game genre. And forget about the episodic format of the game for a minute — aside from that, its storytelling and narrative were arguably the best of the year, character development was top notch and choices in the game presented a sense of urgency and meaningfulness. All of those aspects added up to one of the most engaging games of the year, one that people could not stop talking about. This list isn’t really meant about studios that “merely” released a good game this year, but Telltale made such a leap forward with this series that it likely changed the studio for good — we suspect other studios have been examining the series closely as well.

ThatGameCompany

Although ThatGameCompany is still very much alive and kicking, 2012 felt like the end of an era at the Los Angeles studio. Up to this point, its three-game contract with Sony has yielded remarkable results with Flow and Flower, and swarms of players and the press alike were eager to see how the agreement’s third and final release, Journey, would play out.

As we now know, Journey did not disappoint, garnering critical acclaim all-round. Like its predecessors, Journey is not your typical video game release, with a huge focus on visual stimulus and exploration with no hand-holding provided. And yet, while its premise appeared to clash with the types of experiences that the average console player would usually take part in, the game was hugely successful on PlayStation 3, and it soon became impossible to find someone who hadn’t at least given it a go.

ThatGameCompany showed that players are in fact open to different experiences outside of their comfort zones, and it’s notable that other similar games (such as The Unfinished Swan) have also been discussed widely since Journey’s release.

Of course, that’s not the whole 2012 story. Following the release of Journey, and the subsequent end of the Sony contract, various big-name individuals began to peel away from the company, including Kellee Santiago, Robin Hunicke and Chris Bell. Co-founder Jenova Chen remains, however, and the company now plans to develop games for multiple platforms. With all the studios’ accomplishments in taking such emotional games mainstream, we can’t wait to see what’s next.

Ubisoft Montreal

Instead of fretting too much over transitions in the triple-A space, Ubisoft Montreal (backed up by Ubisoft’s worldwide network of studios) has been keeping its head down, making big, beautiful games, selling lots of them and simply knowing the kind of customers that it needs to cater to. Better than any other publisher-owned studio this year, Ubisoft Montreal has been able to deftly balance business responsibilities with an evolving creative vision that makes an honest effort to go beyond slapping a thick coat of gloss on tired ideas.

Ubisoft is apparently confident in the capabilities of its Montreal studio, releasing both Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 3 into the thick of the highly-competitive 2012 shopping season. The strategy has worked out so far with Assassin’s Creed III — the annualized game still has momentum, selling through to consumers 7 million units in one month, the fastest-selling game in Ubisoft’s history, according to the company. It’s a testament to the game’s quality (and to its massive marketing campaign). And when the studio revealed the upcoming Watch Dogs this year at E3, for many, it was the highlight of the show.

People are willing to pay $60 for a video game today, but expectations are high, and perhaps players are more demanding, as they have so many choices nowadays. They want to feel respected by developers. That respect is conveyed through a top-tier product that challenges not only their motor skills, but their expectations. There will always be room for triple-A games from the big publishers, as long as studios like Ubisoft Montreal lead by example — simply inject about $60 worth of value into these games, and perhaps everything will be just fine. (source:gamasutra


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