游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

总结关于2013 Develop大会的5个热门话题

作者:Keith Andrew

时间飞逝,又到了一年的7月。游戏行业的大师和能人们知道是时候会聚到英国南海岸城市布赖顿讨论游戏界的大事件了。

确实,这次大会上的许多热门话题与往年截然不同。以下是我们总结出的5点:

1、手机游戏开发形势喜人

在过去几年,参加任何一场行业大会的人都知道,当说到智能手机游戏的情况时,发言人几乎总是带着一种抱歉的语气。

但这种情况已经改变了。

在大会的第一天,手机就成主导话题,特别是大会第二天由Lady Shotgun的Anna Marsh主持的会议,表明行业对手机开发的态度正在转变。

Marsh的发言旨在说明开发者如何理更好地利用手机和平板游戏的接触点——触屏。

但与往届大会的其他发言人所说的不同的是,Marsh没有站在讲台背后发表一通不偏不倚的看法,而是通过许多角度解释为什么触屏操作会比其他“传统的”操作方式给开发者带来更多优势。

Marsh指出:“即使我们认为玩家使用操作器是很自然而然的事,但事实上,这是先入为主的看法。”

“许多设计操作器的人告诉我,触屏的局限性大。我认为不是这样的——对我们的大脑而言,屏幕更直接——缩短了反应时间。

“你可以直接点击游戏中的物品,所以这就大大降低了学习难度。”

优秀的手机游戏正是充分利用了这一点。

正如Marsh所说的,《The Room》的操作很多——转动钥匙、拖动滑块等,这些动作是需要你的手指像现实生活中那样活动。

the room(from pocketgamer)

the room(from pocketgamer)

想投掷《愤怒的小鸟》中的小鸟?只要用你的手指拉弹弓就行了。想设置《Flight Control》中的飞机飞行路线?用你的手指画出来就行了。

还有什么操作方式能提供这么直接而精确的输入?

2、微软Xbox One的沉寂引发众怒

“为什么Xbox One又悄无声息了?”在大会的最后一天,观众席上有一位记者向座谈小组抛出这个问题。

座谈小组的主持、Develop Magazine的编辑Will Freeman回答道:“呃,确实,微软在本次大会出尽风头,但Xbox就比较沉默了。”

确实,微软是本次大会最大的赞助商之一——在会场的所有宣传材料上几乎都能看到它的LOGO,在展览会上,微软的展位也非常显眼。

但是,虽然大会工作人员穿着PS4的T恤衫(该游戏机在第二天被放在人群最多的走道的塑料展柜内),微软却把注意力更多地放在它的手机和平板平台,Windows 8和Windows Phone。

在大会进行的三天里,微软的做法导致开发者们之中产生了许多猜测。

几乎就好像悄无声息的Xbox One在一夜之间就把Xbox 360在过去几年修炼的神圣光环给消磨了。如此以来,许多开发者过去对微软抱有的不满情绪也似乎合情合理了。

“索尼没有任何大动作——它只是说了开发者想听到话。”有位开发者告诉我。

“相比之下,微软显得自大了。它已经掉进一个自以为是的陷阱,它觉得自己就是市场主导,可以随意地对玩家和行业放话,然后任由我们去消化它的承诺。”

当然,如果结果正如谣言所说的,开发者能够不费力地(或者也许完全不需要转换)就把他们的Windows 8应用移植到Xbox One,那么微软在大会上只宣传Windows而不是Xbox的策略就成功了。

然而,照目前的情况看,出席本次大会的公司对微软多有不满。

3、免费模式的论战没有意义

大会的最后一天,Fireproof工作室的Barry Meade作了主题演讲。观众席上的许多开发者出席就是为了看他是否会揭开《The Room》成功背后的秘密。

Fireproof是不是花了好几个月时间做分析?它是否为拉动下载量和最大化收益制定了专门计划?答案是否定的。据Meade所言,Fireproof只是做了一款它的团队有爱的游戏罢了。

Meade的开头句是:“我们不想做大生意,我们只想成为一个优秀的工作室。”

“游戏开发者认为,玩家想看到他们已经有的东西。这就是市场想要的东西——于是我们就要做那个东西。但玩家根本不想看到10个相同游戏的版本。

“所以为什么我们要相信这种成规?我们忽略了玩游戏最纯粹的快乐。”

Meade不是批判关注商业的开发者,而是不满他们没有做到他们应承担的责任,如果他们确实知道自己正在做什么的话。

Meade表示Fireproof没有让《The Room》走免费路线是因为不了解免费模式。总之,坚持你所知道的:做一款好游戏。此外一切都是次要的。

他补充道:“如果你连人们喜欢玩的游戏都做不出来,那么其他一切都没有意义了。”

总之,手机开发者受到错误的指示,以至于花太多时间关注错误的东西。

是的,如果你想做出另一款《Clash of Clans》——至少在成功程度上,那么你就应该借鉴Supercell的模式。但如果制作一款好游戏才是你的首要目标,那么不要浪费时间担心怎么卖、怎么宣传游戏了。只要好好做游戏就行了。

Meade总结道:“游戏行业对免费模式抱有大争议——什么是道德”。

“我认为人们不是真正关心这个问题,谁会关心人们怎么给游戏付费呢?玩家不关心,但出于某些原因,我们似乎很关切。”

4、手机游戏正在走向全球化

本次大会上的许多发言是关于如何开发海外市场的。

中国、日本和巴西都被纳入考虑,压倒性结论是,它们并不如你所想象中的那么不同。

在大会举行的第二天,Harry Holmwood发表了他著名的演讲,指出日本今天做的事往往就是我们明天要做的事。总之,那意味着现在显得怪异的东西在几年的时间内就会被欧美开发者视为平常。

另外,欧美工作室有机会进军日本市场。

Holmwood指出:“功能性手机已经主导日本手机市场已有很长一段时间。”

“早在十年以前,日本人就能在手机上玩一些高级的游戏了,正是那时候,他们的手机社交网络兴起了。”

那造成的结果是,日本玩家不能接受智能手机作为核心游戏设备。在过去几年,日本没有发生像在欧美的那种革命——日本消费者喜欢更温和的演进。

同样地,手机游戏作为一种有别于游戏机和PC的独立市场而存在,能够本土化游戏的欧美开发者有机会改变消费者的想法,重新将智能手机定位为掌机的另一种可行选择。

Holmwood引用《极速赛车》作为欧美游戏的案例,表示如果能够本土化成功,有可能在日本获得巨大成功。

CSR Racing(from pocketgamer)

CSR Racing(from pocketgamer)

他总结道:“人们往往认为怪异的东西是没什么可学习的。现在我们觉得日本市场上的现象很奇怪,但两三年以后我们也会做同样的事。”

“以《极速赛车》为例,它看起来像赛车游戏,而本质上却是卡片战斗游戏,那就是它能大卖的原因。”

类似地,中国和巴西的市场看似庞大、难以征服,但你在那里开发和发布游戏的方式与在英国或美国并无差异,尽管玩家和市场不同。

你只需要与对的人合作,特别是针对巴西市场,要确保你的游戏迎合他们的民族认同感。

5、税收减免政策给游戏行业带来春天

英国政府即将执行的游戏税收减免政策要求游戏必须体现民族文化,这种“文化测试”的前景已经让一些人感到焦虑了。

但是,在本次大会上的一次座谈中,为了彰显英国文化,游戏必须融入伦敦公交车或约克镇烤肉等文化标签这个想法最终崩溃了。

英国电影学院的Anna Mansi详细地解释了游戏要获得税收减免需达到一个系统规定的分数,这个系统的评分标准涵养了游戏的方方面面,例如游戏制作人员的国籍、是否以女性为主角或是否鼓励多样性。

所以,如果你的游戏没有以英国为背景或有外籍程序员参与,并不意味着你的游戏不能获得足够的分数。

例如,以同性恋为主角或发生在幻想大陆(游戏邦注:如外太空或纳尼亚)可以分别加分,从而提高总分。

另外,许多得分点并没有严格或苛刻的规定。相反地,评审小组会具体问题具体分析,灵活地讨论游戏是否能获得税收减免的资格。

同时,新税收减免政策非常有可能显著地促进英国的游戏开发业的健康成长。

据称,英国对游戏行业的税收政策可以模仿加拿大,后者的繁荣正是因为该策略吸引了大量开发人才。(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 things we learned from Develop 2013

by Keith Andrew

When the calendar flips over to July, the games industry’s great and good know it’s time to gather on the English south coast to discuss the burning issues of the day.

For once, ‘burning’ was also an entirely accurate way to describe the annual Develop conference in Brighton.

Rather than contending with a typical mix of wind and driving rain, temperatures outside passed the 25C mark, making the air-conditioned conference rooms inside the Hilton Metropole – once again, Develop’s lavish home of choice – something of a sweaty sanctuary.

But while attendees quickly cooled down on a physical level, many of the discussions on stage heated up in quick time.

Indeed, many of the hot topics that dominated at Develop 2013 were of a a vastly different nature to that of previous years. Here are some of our top take-away points:

Mobile developers are now happy in their own skin

Anyone who has attended any industry conferences over the last few years – even mobile exclusive ones – will know that, talks focused on the smartphone scene have often been delivered with an almost apologetic tone.

That’s a situation that’s been changing of late.

The typically mobile-dominated first day of Develop – better known as Evolve – once again played host to some of the entire conference’s best talks, but it was a session hosted by Lady Shotgun’s Anna Marsh on day two that signified the changing attitude to mobile development.

Marsh’s talk was designed to illustrate how developers can best make use of the main point of contact for most mobile and tablet games – the touchscreen.

But unlike similar talks given by other speakers at various events in the past, Marsh didn’t stand behind the lectern and talk about compromises – rather, she explained why, in many regards, touchscreen controls offer developers scores of advantages over other more ‘traditional’ control methods.

“Even though we think that it’s very natural for gamers to use a controller, actually it’s a learned convention,” said Marsh.

“A lot of people who have been designing for controllers tell me that touchscreens are limited. I don’t think that’s actually true – screens are very immediate for our brains – it shortens the circuit.

“You can directly touch the objects in the games, and so it radically reduces the learning curve.”

That’s something some of the best mobile games know all too well.

As Marsh pointed out, The Room is full of operations – turning keys, pulling sliders – where the action you’re required to pull off with your finger is a literal physical replication of how you’d perform those acts in real life.

The Room

Want to fling a bird in Angry Birds? Simply pull back on the catapult with your finger. Need to re-route a plane’s flight path in Flight Control? Sketch it out with your digit, and the craft will follow.

What other control inputs offer this kind of immediacy and literality?

Microsoft has a lot of ground to make up

“Why haven’t we heard more about Xbox One?” piped up one journalist in the audience during Develop’s final day wrap up panel.

“Well, to be fair, Microsoft has had quite a big presence here,” replied the panel’s host, Develop Magazine editor Will Freeman. “It’s just Xbox that hasn’t.”

Indeed, Microsoft was one of Develop’s most prominent sponsors – its logo adorned almost all promo material throughout the venue and, in the expo itself, Microsoft enjoyed a prominent and slickly fitted out stand.

But, while Develop organisers were adorned with PS4 t-shirts (and the console itself sat within a plastic cabinet in one of the most frequented corridors on day two), Microsoft instead preferred to focus on its mobile and tablet platforms, Windows 8 and Windows Phone.

It’s an approach that resulted in much trash talk about Microsoft amongst developers over the conference’s three days.

It was almost as if the Redmond giant’s lacklustre Xbox One unveiling has, almost overnight, legitimised all the old feelings of discontent many developers held for the Microsoft in the past, completely wiping away the more positive aura Xbox 360 had fashioned for itself over the years.

“Sony isn’t doing anything amazing – it’s played a blinder simply by saying what developers want to hear,” one developer told me.

“In comparison, Microsoft appears arrogant. It’s fallen into the trap of thinking it’s untouchable, that it’s the market leader, and that it can simply tell gamers and the industry what’s going to happen and that we’ll lump it.”

Of course, if it turns out that – as rumours suggest – developers will be able to port their Windows 8 apps across to Xbox One with little fuss (or, perhaps, with no conversion required at all), then Microsoft’s strategy of pushing Windows ahead of Xbox at Develop may yet pay off.

As things stand, however, there wasn’t much love for the company amongst the halls of Brighton’s Hilton.

The F2P debate is all wrong

It stands to reason that many of the developers in the audience for Fireproof Studios’ Barry Meade’s keynote on the final day of Develop were there to see if he revealed the secrets behind The Room’s success.

Had Fireproof engaged in months’ worth of analytics? Did it follow a dedicated plan designed to drive downloads and maximise profit? Not really. According to Meade, Fireproof simply made a game its team members knew they’d love.

“We didn’t want to make a great business, we wanted to make a great studio,” opened Meade.

“The industry is taught to think that gamers want to see what they’ve already had. ‘This is what the market wants’ – this is sold to us as what you should do. But gamers don’t want to see ten versions of the same game, they just don’t.

“So why do we all believe this stuff? We’ve lost sight of the simple delight of playing a game.”

Meade didn’t criticise developers who do pay attention to the business side of things, but that’s only something they should undertake if they actually know what they’re doing.

By the same token, Meade admitted that the main reason Fireproof didn’t follow the free-to-play route with The Room is because it had no real knowledge of it. In essence, stick to what you know: making a great game. In comparison, everything else is just dressing.

“If you don’t at least make something people like playing, none of that stuff matters anyway,” he added.

In short, mobile developers are being schooled to spend far too much time focusing on the wrong things.

Yes, if you want to serve up the next Clash of Clans – at least in terms of success – then it makes sense to mirror Supercell’s approach. But if making a great game is your main priority, then don’t waste time worrying about how you’re going to sell it, promote it or monetise it. Just make a great game.

“Within the industry, there’s this big debate about free-to-play – what’s ethical,” concluded Meade.

“I don’t think anyone really cares about that. Who cares how people pay for games? The gamers don’t care, but for some reason we seem to care.”

Mobile is truly going global

Many talks at Develop were designed to explain lucrative foreign markets to what was a predominated western audience.

China, Japan and Brazil all featured across the schedule, and the overwhelming message was, they’re not as different as you think they might be.

As detailed by Harry Holmwood during his much-celebrated talk on day two, what Japan does today, we tend to do tomorrow. In short, that means what appears alien at the moment will be commonplace for western devs in a few years’ time.

What’s more, there’s a genuine opportunity for European and North American studios to take a lead in Japan.

“Feature phones have been big in Japan for a long time,” said Holmwood.

“They were playing some advanced games on their phone ten or twelve years ago, which is when their mobile social networks emerged.”

The end result of that early start is that gamers in Japan have a problem seeing the smartphone as a core gaming device. There’s been no revolution in the last few years as their has in the west – Japanese consumers have enjoyed a more graduated curve.

As such, mobile gaming exists as a distinct category separate from the console and PC market, and western devs who are able to localise their titles for the Japanese market have a chance to change consumer thinking, and re-position the smartphone as a viable alternative to handhelds.

Holmwood cited CSR Racing as the perfect example of a western game that, if localised, could be a big hit in Japan.

CSR Racing

“It’s very easy to look at something alien and think there’s nothing to learn from it, but there are many things happening in Japan now that we’ll be doing in two or three years,” he concluded.

“Look at CSR Racing. It looks like a racing game but it’s essentially a card battler, and that’s why it monetises so well.”

Meanwhile, both China and Brazil look like vast, unconquerable markets, but – while the big players and the marketplaces are different – the actual way you develop and release your game is no different than in the UK or US.

You just need to partner up with the right people and, especially in the case of Brazil, make sure your games appeal to their sense of national identity.

Qualifying for Games Tax Relief isn’t about shoving red telephone boxes or cups of tea into your game

The prospect of a ‘cultural test’ for developers looking to benefit from the forthcoming Games Tax Relief on offer from the British Government has made a few folk rather nervous.

But, during one of the panel talks at this year’s Develop, the idea that a game needs to feature London Buses or a Yorkshire Roast in order to be deemed culturally British was finally – and firmly – smashed up.

As detailed Anna Mansi of the British Film Institute, games looking to qualify will be judged via a points system that will take into account everything from the nationality of the people making the game to whether or not the release features a female lead, or promotes diversity.

So, in short, just because your game isn’t set within the United Kingdom or was aided by a foreign coder doesn’t mean you won’t pick up enough points to qualify.

For instance, featuring a gay character, or setting the game in a fantasy land – examples given as outer space, or Narnia – will all win you credit, adding to your total score.

What’s more, many of the points on offer aren’t defined by hard and fast rules. Rather, the judging panel will evaluate games on a case by case basis, discussing qualification on a flexible, rather than rigid, basis.

There’s also much hope that the new tax breaks will have a noticeable impact on the health of the development scene in the UK.

It’s claimed the UK industry could mirror that of Canada, where it’s claimed tax breaks have bolstered the nation’s standing by drawing more developers to the region.(source:pocketgamer)


上一篇:

下一篇: