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列举开发者增加游戏收益的4种方法

发布时间:2013-04-13 10:26:41 Tags:,,,

想象一下这种情况,你的游戏刚获得赞助,你的辛勤劳动终于换来了回报。但为何要让游戏收益就此划下句号呢?

典型赞助模式的弊端

首先要澄清一下:我喜欢赞助模式。

赞助模式很棒,是一种来钱快的渠道。你开发了游戏,赞助商向其投标,运气好的话你可以回收足够弥补自己开发游戏的成本。

让我们讨论下传统赞助模式对职业游戏开发者所带来的问题(例如,在这种模式中,门户网站会支付你一笔费用,在你的作品中打上他们的logo,你的游戏就只能标注他们的logo,不能再增加广告,也不能含有微交易元素)。如果你想以此谋生,就必须不停地制作新游戏。你只有完成游戏之后才能赚到钱。而作品出售之后,你就无法再从这款游戏中创收。这意味着你只能重返开发循环,又开始制作更多游戏。

这个模式适用于一些游戏开发工作室,但却没有多少稳定性。如果赞助模式连续数月市场行情不济,如果竞争更为激烈,如果你还得等好几个月才能出售游戏,又或者你不幸病了一个月无法制作游戏,那资金来源就很成问题了。你最好寄希望于自己的帐户已经有了大笔存款。

典型赞助模式的另一个问题在于缺乏独立性。你得向门户网站出让自己对游戏的所有权。当玩家想起你的游戏时,他们很可能不会想到你,而是想到自己是在哪玩到这款游戏。这对门户网站来说很棒,但对你的品牌发展却没有多大帮助。

microtransactions(from southpawgeek.net)

microtransactions(from southpawgeek.net)

开发者如何持续创收?

那么你想让游戏发布之后仍然持续创造收益吗?

那就准备付出更多努力吧,相信付出必然有所回报。通常情况下,你可以同赞助商就以下选项进行协商:

1.在游戏中增加微交易

微交易,这是一种小型的游戏内置交易模式,允许玩家购买额外关卡、道具包等物品强化游戏体验。

微交易模式受到欢迎的一个原因是它们更易于添加,对玩家也不具有干扰性(游戏邦注:玩家不需要购买所有东西也能获得乐趣),并且如果使用得当,还可以让你获得数量可观的收益。

GamerSafe正是微交易市场的主流服务之一,易于同你的游戏绑定。

2.在游戏中植入广告

广告是一种让游戏获得额外收益的便捷方法。你只需要在游戏中输入数行列码,就可以看到广告在游戏加载过程中运行。

广告可能无法让你获得堪比微交易模式的收益,但它们很容易操作,也仍可让你的游戏在发布数月甚至数年之后持续创收。对我们来说,易于使用并且具有创收潜力的广告系统当属MochiAds。

3.将玩家引向你自己的网站

你的游戏已经采用赞助模式,并不意味着你就不可以在游戏中推广自己的网站。可以试试在游戏加载时呈现一些抢眼的画面,让玩家访问你的网站。

你将玩家引向自己的网站之后,可以通过在自己的页面展示广告而创收,让他们注册你的邮件列表(这样你好及时通知他们游戏更新消息),或者为他们提供一些捐助你的选项。

4.添加一个捐赠按钮

玩家会欣赏那些为其提供了出色体验的游戏开发者,有些人甚至会特意回报这些开发者。但你得为他们提供这种渠道。可以在游戏中添加一个“支持我们”或“捐赠”按钮,让玩家由此为你掏钱。不要指望这可以让你创造丰厚收益,但这确实是一个让玩家表达自己对游戏热爱之情的简便而非干扰性方式。(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

4 Ways to Increase Your Game’s Profitability After Launch

Picture this: You’ve just gotten your game sponsored, and a nice, (hopefully) fat check is rolling into your bank account. Finally, you’re getting paid for all your hard work. It’s a good place to be, but why should the money stop there?

The Problem with a Typical Sponsorship

Before I go bashing sponsorships, let me clarify: I love the sponsorship model (even enough to make a whole book about sponsorships).

Sponsorships are a great, quick source of money. You build a game, sponsors bid on it, and hopefully you get paid enough to compensate for all the time you spent making it.

That being said, let’s get down to the problem the traditional sponsorship formula presents for professional game developers (i.e the model in which a portal pays you a set amount of cash to have their logo, and their logo only, in your game. No ads. No microtransactions. Nada). In order to make a living off your games this way, you have to consistently create new games. You are only paid for the finished work you produce. Once that work has been sold, you aren’t going to make any more money off it. This means it’s back to the development process, back to creating more games.

This formula works for some game development studios, but it doesn’t have much stability. If the sponsorship market is rough for a couple months, if the competition gets fiercer, if you have to wait a few months until your game sells, if you get sick for a month and can’t work on games, you’re out of luck. You better hope you have a pile of cash saved up for times like this.

Another problem the typical sponsorship formula presents is lack of independence. You are letting portals take ownership of your games. When players think of your awesome game, they probably aren’t thinking of you, but where they played it. That’s great for the portal, but it isn’t exactly helping your brand.

How to Keep the Money Rolling In

I’m looking for a five letter word. Starts with an m…

So you want to keep making money from your game after you’ve released it?

Then prepare to put in some more work, but you can usually have your cake and eat it too. Sponsors are usually willing to negotiate with you on allowing the following options:

1. Adding Microtransactions to Your Game

If you haven’t heard of microtransactions yet, they’re small, in-game purchases which allow players to enhance their gaming experience. Things like extra-levels, item packages, and bonuses can all be sold as microtransactions.

The reason microtransactions are gaining is popularity is that they’re easy to add, non-intrusive to the player (the player doesn’t have to buy anything to have fun playing your game), and can make you a considerable amount of cash if you do them right.

GamerSafe is one of the major players in the microtransactions market right now, and can be easily integrated into your games. If you’re looking for some ideas to get you started, check out this post.

2. Putting Ads in Your Game

Ads are an easy way to make some extra cash from your games. You just put a few lines of code into your game and BOOM! You’ve got ads running while your game loads.

Ads probably won’t make you as much money as microtransactions, but they’re simple to add and will still be making you money months (or even years) after you’ve released your game. Our favorite ad system for ease of use and earnings potential is MochiAds.

3. Sending Players Back to Your Website

Just because you’ve gotten your game sponsored doesn’t mean you can’t advertise your own (developer) site in the game). Throw up a nice splash screen when you’re game loads to convince players to visit your site.

Once you’ve got a player on your site, you can monetize then by showing them ads on your page, getting them to sign up as a fan on your mailing list (bonus: this will let you keep them updated on all the cool games you’ve been working on), or by giving them the option to donate to you. Which brings me to my next tip…

4. Adding a Donation Button

Players appreciate a game developer who provide them with a great experience, and some will even go out of their way to reward game developers for it. But only if you give them the option. By adding a “Support Us” or “Donate” button within your game, you can give players the option to send you money. Don’t expect to make a fortune, but it’s an easy and non-intrusive way to let players show their love.(source:freelanceflashgames


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