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列举手机游戏开发者需知的5项技能

发布时间:2013-07-10 16:44:40 Tags:,,,,

作者:James Kaye

在当前市场形势下,开发者的角色转变超过了所有人的预想。口头传播在过去也许能够令一款游戏大获关注,但现在基本上是不可能的事情。

开发者若要争取用户关注并留存玩家,除了游戏设计和编程,还应该增加自己的其他技能。这正是让游戏创收和获得成功的地方。

以下就是相关技能:

技能1–数据分析

Data-Analysts(from spotfire.tibco)

Data-Analysts(from spotfire.tibco)

发布一款手机游戏已经成为一种数字游戏。

这要求开发者分析其中生成的大量数据,但分析工具产生的海量信息可能让你无法招架。

可以采用Flurry的免费分析工具。若使用得当就可以让开发者设置复杂的触发器,追踪应用的使用情况,例如事件以及“漏斗”来跟进一系列操作。

开发者还可以借这些工具获得大量用户群体和使用数据。这很强大,但开发者首先需要掌握筛选和破译数据的能力,这样才能将数据转变成可操作的观点。

同理,使用Distimo、App Annie或Appfigures等应用商店分析工具监测销量,以及其他应用的表现情况,可以让你得到其他需要筛选和消化的数据集合。

如果你像许多开发者一样,计划推出一个削价促销活动呢?这虽然也可以带来一些帮助,但如果要考虑长远利益,就需要合理分析净收益和用户获取效果。

分析是一项复杂的工作——不但要洞察形势,了解趋势,还要能够为团队其他成员提供可执行的分析结果。但这就是开发者目前所需的技能。

技能2–PR & 营销经理

如果你打算自主发行应用,那么你就需要认真考虑应用营销的问题。

要投入大量时间和精力完善应用的每个层面,向应用商店提交出色的视频,撰写引人注目的新闻稿,推出精致的图标。

而应用商店优化(ASO)服务也愈加棘手,开发者需找到iOS平台使用最广的最佳关键字。这可以借助Appcodes和Searchman等服务,这两者都极有用处,但需要开发者投入大量时间、金钱和耐心以获得最佳关键字。

而在此之前,我们还要创建一个媒体联系人列表,向关键媒体及应用商店所有者发布消息,这些都是成功发布应用必不可少的环节。当然,我们还可以借助Flipboard杂志中的链接服务、博客和文章找到更多关于应用营销的资源。

但应用营销需要大量时间和知识,而极少开发者拥有营销或PR预算。

这本身就是个问题,因为这意味着应用可能缺乏运营策略。而更值得担忧的是尽管越来越多证据表明,营销是推动应用曝光度和用户获取成效的必需手段,但开发者对解决这一问题的态度仍没有多大转变。

技能3–广告达人

也许开发者面临的最大挑战就是如何有效运用移动广告。

任何开发者看到诸多广告网络(例如基于奖励、交换下载等形式的网络)以及CPI、CPA、CPM、ECPM、ARPU、ARPPU和DAU等专业术语,都会因如此之众的选择和复杂的概念而生怯。

负责处理移动广告的开发者必须深谙不同广告背后的机制,以及如何创造富有感染力和效用的广告,否则就必须拥有足够的资金将这一切活计外包给他人。

虽然自主发行本身没有错,但多数自主发行的开发者却并没有采用分析性方法,根据获取成本vs终身价值来投放移动广告。结果总会让营销活动大把烧钱,但却没有明显成效。

你可以使用一个策略和买入代理,但许多代理服务至少会让你花费2万美元,这会让许多小型和中型开发者望而却步。这里并没有单一的解决方案,而移动广告是一个复杂的领域,若要自如驾驭这一方法,则需要开发者投入大量技巧、时间和洞察力。

技能4–产品经理

product manager(from smartbear.com)

product manager(from smartbear.com)

产品经理通常是一款好游戏背后默默耕耘的无名英雄,因为他们通过自己的洞察力和市场调研,帮助游戏确定了功能集合和产品未来计划,并不断推动游戏发展以应对市场竞争。

他们会通过用户反馈、市场调查和其他数据点等总结的信息推进公司的内部流程,你的应用也同样如此。

要记住自己可用的一系列工具,以及搜集和分析数据的必要性,你将运用自己所搜集到的信息,并将其转化成一个清晰的运营决策。

技能5–社区经理

社区经理的一部分角色是客服,一部分是PR,他们代表着公司形象,要同时与顽固派玩家和休闲粉丝打交道。

社区经理通常需要擅长运用社交媒介,同时还要使用大量工具和分析服务。除了Hootsuite和Tweetdeck等工具,社区经理对其用户群体还要形成一个覆盖率、影响力、情感及其他因素的分析视角。

越来越多公司开始借助Meltwater Buzz、Sprout Social和SalesForce Marketing Cloud等服务来了解不断变化的社交媒介用户群体。

你可能还需要处于Vine、Instagram Video以及Snapchat等最新社交网络的发展前沿。

总结

以上所有的“角色”只是当前游戏开发者所面临的不同而现实挑战的一个简单描述,这里甚至还没有涉及编程、设计和美术等游戏开发环节的困难。

免费增值模式的发展,加上来自大量工具的获取和分析数据,也许会招致许多只想专心制作好游戏的小型/中型开发者的反感。

但这并不是想吓退任何人,只是想提醒进入市场的开发者注意,制作好游戏还只是你们必须去做的部分工作,除此之外你们还需要发展本文概括的不同技能,不然就得准备拨款招募这方面的专家帮助推广应用,创造成功的营销活动。(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

Five essential – and new – skills that mobile game developers need to succeed

James Kaye

James Kaye is co-founder of app marketing service appromoter as well as a director of PR & Marketing agency dimoso.

Thanks to Kevin Costner, many developers have a beautifully simple vision of how the world of games works – “If I build it, they will come”.

While this is an extremely admirable (if naive) view to hold, back in the real world, it’s just not how things work.

The reality is that the role of the developer is changing beyond all recognition. Whereas word-of-mouth alone might once have carried a game to glory, in the current market that is vanishingly unlikely.

Developers need to increase their skills way beyond game design and coding if they are going to not only attract, but also retain players That’s where the real money and success is.

So let’s take a look at those skills.

Skill 1 – Data Analyst

Launching a mobile title has become a numbers game.

The requirement to analyse the vast amounts of data that’s being generated is essential, but the volume of insights that are generated by analytic tools is staggering, and can easily overwhelm you.

Take Flurry’s free analytics tool. Used properly, it enables developers to set sophisticated triggers to track how their app is being used, such as events and even ‘funnels’ to follow a set of actions.

The tool also provides developers with a mountain of demographic and usage data. This is great, but developers first need to develop the ability to filter and interpret the data that is given to them in order to turn it into actionable insight.

Likewise, plugging into app store analytics such as distimo, App Annie or Appfigures which monitor your store sales as well as that of other apps, provides another set of data that needs to be sifted and assimilated.

And what if you, like many developers, plan a price drop on your app? While these can be beneficial, the net revenue and acquisition effect needs to be analysed properly if it is to be of longer term benefit.

To get an idea of just how much thought needs to go into analysing a price drop take a look at this excellent report by distimo from January 2013 on the impact of price drops; pretty complex reading for most people.

The role of the analyst is a complex one – to spot trends, understand them and then be able to offer insight to the rest of the team so that it can be acted upon. But that’s what developers now need to be able to do.

Skill 2 – PR & Marketing Manager

If you have aspirations to self-publish then you need to think seriously about your app marketing.

A lot of time and effort is required to perfect every aspect of the app to get it ready for the stores such as a great video, enticing app store copy, an attention-grabbing press releases and a polished icon.

Then there’s the increasing complexity of ASO (app store optimisation) services to identify the best keywords to use on iOS. These include Appcodes and Searchman, both of which are incredibly useful but require significant investment in time, money and patience to get the best out of them.

And all of this is before we even think about building up media lists of hundreds of contacts as well as reaching out to key media and the app store owners, which is all part and parcel of a successful launch. Of course, there are many guides and resources out there on app marketing: we’ve even created a Flipboard magazine full of our favourite links to services, blogs and articles to help developers do it themselves.

But marketing your app takes a lot of time and knowledge, and the truth is that few developers have budget set aside for marketing or PR.

That in itself is a problem, as it means that the business strategy behind the app may well be lacking. But what’s more worrying is that despite the growing evidence on how effective marketing is required to drive discovery and acquisition we’re not seeing a big shift in developer attitudes to address this.

Skill 3 – Advertising Guru

Perhaps the most complex challenge facing developers is how to effectively use mobile advertising.

Any developer who has looked at the myriad of networks (blind networks, incentivised, traded installs) as well as terminology such as CPI, CPA, CPM, ECPM, ARPU, ARPPU and DAU will likely be hugely intimidated by the choice and complexity of what’s out there.

Anyone who undertakes mobile advertising needs to be extremely well versed in both the mechanisms behind different kinds of advertising as well as how to create impactful, effective adverts – or else have pockets deep enough to outsource the whole thing.

Through no fault of their own, the majority of self-publishing developers don’t undertake enough of an analytical approach to mobile advertising based mostly on acquisition cost versus lifetime value. This results in a lacklustre campaign that burns through thousands of dollars with no clear results at the end.

You could use a planning and buying agency, but many of them have a minimum spend of $20,000, which prohibits many small and medium developers. There’s no single solution and mobile advertising is a complex world to enter into and to be able to do it well requires a huge amount of skill, time and insight.

Skill 4 – Product Manager

Product managers are often the unsung hero of a good game as they help to define the feature set and future of a product through insight and market research, and help to benchmark the game against the competition as it evolves.

They will tend to drive internal processes in a company through solid insight that has been gathered through customer feedback, research and other data points; your approach to your app should be no different.

Bearing in mind the suite of tools available to you and the need to gather and then analyse the data, you’ll need to be able to act on what you’ve gathered and turn it into a clear commercial (and artistic) decisions.

Skill 5 – Community Manager

The role of the community manager is part customer service and part PR; they’re the face of the company, engaged with diehard and casual fans alike.

Community managers often need to be skilled at social media: not just its various nuances but also using the huge range of tools and analytics that are out there. Asides from the tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, community managers also need to form a more analytical view of their audience in terms of reach, influence, sentiment and other factors.

More and more companies are turning to services such as Meltwater Buzz, Sprout Social and SalesForce Marketing Cloud to gain deep insight into their ever-shifting social media audience.

You might also want to stay abreast of all the latest developments and social networks that are appearing, from Vine and Instagram Video through to Snapchat and more.

Bringing it all together

All of the above ‘roles’ are just a short illustration of the very different but very real challenges that face game developers wanting to create sustainable businesses. And that’s without even looking at the coding, design and artwork side of game development.

The growth of the freemium model coupled with the necessity to capture and analyse data that comes from multiple tools may well conspire against the average small or medium developer who just wants to make a great game and get it out there.

This isn’t intended to frighten anyone, but for any developer that’s entering the market, you need to be acutely aware of the necessity that making great games is only part of what you need to do – albeit probably the most important one.

You need to develop the kinds of skills that have been outlined, or else have the budget to recruit the right expertise at the right time in order to take their game to market and make it a success.(source:pocketgamer


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