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街机游戏元老谈进驻Facebook所采取的战略

发布时间:2013-02-01 09:26:19 Tags:,,,

作者:Christian Nutt

街机、主机与博彩领域的资深开发者有望改变社交游戏吗?Spooky Cool Labs希望答案是肯定的。

在20世纪80年代,该公司首席执行官Joe Kaminkow便制作出优秀的街机游戏,过去13年来,他一直效力于博彩领域巨头IGT。

如今,他希望以震惊其它领域的方式整改社交游戏:比如提高街机游戏的画面感与玩法深度,推出更优质的授权作品(针对博彩游戏)。

绿野仙踪(from gawkerassets.com)

绿野仙踪(from gawkerassets.com)

其首款作品《绿野仙踪》(游戏邦注:获得经典电影的官方授权)并没有掀起多大浪潮。作为Facebook平台上画面精致的游戏,该作月活跃用户量仅有50多万,该游戏历经一年半的开发周期,去年末才开始进行beta测试。

但是,该团队仍对自己制定的战略自信满满。在研究社交游戏领域时,Kaminkow感慨:“我觉得有点像首次进入街机游戏市场的情景,那时还只是黑白画面,而后我们为其增添了色彩。我相信我们将进一步提高社交游戏的玩法,比如改善图画,声音,提高趣味性。”

采用Unity引擎

该团队认为,采用Unity引擎制作3D画面,支持游戏缩放,与市民互动,都是加快黑白画面向彩色画面飞跃的必要举措。

其首席创意总监兼Midway元老Brian Eddy(游戏邦注:拥有弹珠台、街机、主机与手机游戏开发背景,代表作包括《Medieval Madness》和《John Woo’s Stranglehold》)表示:“我们的成员想法一致。我也曾想过制作更大项目。我想用户已为新层次元素做好准备,比如进一步改进的游戏画面与内容呈现方式。”

他继续指出:“这些游戏的玩家会像《光晕》与《使命召唤》的硬核玩家那般投入。”此处的玩家指代Facebook城建题材的游戏用户。

Kaminkow补充道:“……我们正采取一些可靠的游戏机制,打算向那些从未见过这类游戏的玩家揭开其面目。”

Edd指出该策略已取得成功:“现在,不少玩家表示已经深深沉浸于此,不想投入其他游戏中。”

Spooky Cool首席技术官Chuck Hess声称,这不仅是视觉上的效果,先进技术同样增加了游戏深度。“在该游戏中,居民不再是装饰品,他们是鲜活实体……如果你深入观察,你还可以采取额外策略。你会从中挖掘到不寻常元素。”

Eddy表示:“喜爱原创游戏的玩家可以尝试体验该作。我们并不想要超级硬核、具有真正难度的游戏,这些真正有趣的元素已经将用户吸引到游戏中。”

进军博彩领域

即使《绿野仙踪》并未获得如《CityVile》般的用户量,该公司也已准备好迎接下一个挑战。鉴于Facebook平台上真钱博彩游戏的潜在增势与Kaminkow的开发背景,我们是否能够预见Spooky Cool将推出博彩游戏?

Kaminkow表示:“我可能将在2月份涉水博彩市场。”

鉴于公司已从头创建定制客户端以及后端框架的情况,Hess相信他们还将继续针对Facebook平台(并最终针对移动与平板电脑)开发新型高端游戏。

该工作室营销总监Bob Holtzman表示:“我们想制作出各种游戏。我认为,我们会围绕Spooky Cool Labs创建一个出色品牌。”

Kaminkow指出:“从完整指标、后台与用户服务来看,Spooky Cool极其类似独立发行商”,他半开玩笑道,它可能会成为一个极具吸引力的收购目标。(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

Spooky Cool Labs: What happens when arcade vets take on Facebook Exclusive

by Christian Nutt

Can a group of arcade, console, and casino veterans change social games? Spooky Cool Labs hopes so.

CEO Joe Kaminkow worked for arcade greats in the 1980s and has the Donkey Kong and 1942-fueled anecdotes to prove it — and has spent the last 13 years working in the casino space at industry leading manufacturer IGT.

He now hopes to shake up social games by bringing in the same elements that shook up those spaces: better graphics and gameplay depth (for arcades) and better licenses (for casino games).

The studio’s first title, The Wizard of Oz — officially licensed from the classic film — hasn’t made major waves just yet. Graphically impressive and complex for a Facebook game, it’s only captured 500,000+ monthly active users since it went into beta late last year, after a year and a half of development.

Still, the team is confident about its strategy. When he and his team started investigating the social game space, “We felt a little bit like when we got into the arcade market — when games were black and white and we started to put color on them,” says Kaminkow. “We think we can take this genre of gameplay to the next level… better graphics, better sound, a better caliber of entertainment.”

Unity + Facebook = Better Games?

Using Unity for 3D graphics and allowing players to zoom down and into their version of Oz and interact with the munchkin citizens — the game is a city-builder — was a necessary step to making the black and white to color leap, the team says.

Chief creative officer Brian Eddy, a Midway veteran, has a background in pinball, arcade, console and mobile games, with credits as diverse at the Medieval Madness pinball table and John Woo’s Stranglehold for current-gen consoles, concurs.

“We all had the same vision. I was in the same space they were and wanted to do something bigger,” he says. “We thought the user was ready for something next-level — the next step up in graphics and presentation.”

“These gamers who play these games are just as dedicated as the hardcore gamers who play Halo and Call of Duty,” he says, of Facebook’s city-builder audience.

“We have our equivalency of a smart bomb — but it’s a Glinda smart bomb to kill a bunch of flying monkeys,” Kaminkow adds. “We’re taking some tried-and-true play mechanics and exposing it to a whole new audience of players who’d never seen anything like this before.”

According to Eddy, this strategy is paying off: “We’re seeing players saying it’s hard to go back to those other games now.”

But it’s not just visuals, argues Chuck Hess, the company’s CTO. The advanced tech (for a Facebook game) adds depth of play, too. “It’s not a game where the inhabitants are window dressing — they’re real living entities in the world… if you want to look a little deeper you can get some extra strategy. There are things to find you normally wouldn’t.”

“People who love making a real creative world can go down and experience it,” says Eddy. “We don’t want super-hardcore, really difficult games, but these really fun elements… have really brought people to get attached to the game.”

The Future: Casino Games?

Even if The Wizard of Oz never attracts CityVille-style numbers — or even close — the company is ready to move on to its next challenge. Given the undercurrent of excitement around real money gambling on Facebook, and Kaminkow’s background, can we expect casino games from Spooky Cool?

“I think when my noncompete expires in Feburary, I will begin to embrace that segment of the marketplace,” the CEO says.

With custom client and backend architecture built from the ground up, Hess is confident that the developer has what it takes to continue to develop new high-end games for Facebook (and, eventually, mobile and tablet).

“We want a variety of games. I think we can build a great brand around Spooky Cool Labs,” says Bob Holtzman, the studio’s director of marketing.

With “full metrics, full backend, full customer service,” says Kaminkow, Spooky Cool is akin to “a standalone publisher” — and an attractive acquisition target, he half-jokes. (source:gamasutra)


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