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

阐述游戏应实现“云化”的5个理由

作者:John Griffin

在游戏领域,云技术在2013年得到广泛支持。今年2月,NewZoo首席执行官Peter Warman甚至宣称“有朝一日所有游戏都会实现云端运行。”我同意他的预言,虽然我不知道游戏全面云化的“有朝一日”到底是哪一天,但我敢肯定2014年会是大多数游戏“飞上”云端的一年。许多大公司已经把游戏搬上云端。例如,游戏如《Candy Crush》只有一小部分在设备上运行,大部分精巧的工作是在云上或服务器端完成的。游戏开发者需要适应的是心态转变。公司如King也在考虑为游戏搭建一个数据中心。我们也必须那么做。以下是原因:

(注:大部分情况下我说的“云端”是指服务器端,至于我为什么坚持使用“云端”,原因见下文。)

cloud-based game(from xtium.com)

cloud-based game(from xtium.com)

1、降低成本

现在,游戏要在许多平台上发布——特别是手机游戏。一款游戏必须在iOS、 iOS、Android、Windows等平台和平板、智能手机上发布,那么结果当然是开发者必须制作多个版本的游戏客户端代码。据我所知,有许多游戏开发者甚至要为同一款游戏制作15个不同的版本。这是一个噩梦,更别说管理媒体。因此,减少发生在客户端的游戏逻辑量,转移到沟通所有客户端的单一服务器端,是势在必行的。当然,有许多方法可以缓解版本制作压力,如使用Perforce和Git等源代码控制系统。游戏引擎如Unity也允许开发者只写一份可以跨设备运行的代码。虽然这些办法是管用的……但结合其他关键原因,最好的解决方案是,把尽可能多的游戏逻辑转移到服务器端。这只是紧接着已经存在的面向多层级系统的架构转移发生的事。

2、如果游戏不在云端,你就无法把游戏当作服务

游戏从业者的思路已经从“游戏即产品”(GaaP)转换到“游戏即服务”(GaaS)。为什么?这样对发行商和开发者来说风险都更小……他们不必追求立即的成功,不必投入大量资源支持初次发行。相反地,他们得以用长远的目光对待游戏开发,先想好游戏概念,然后积累玩家基础,再定期根据玩家反馈修改游戏。但这种思维转换还有另一个原因——基础技术的进步。数字整合在其中一直扮演着重要角色。从GaaP到GaaS是游戏行业演变为一个不断变化的数字领域(总是在线的快速连接、设备兼容性、渗透性导致玩家增加,等等)的关键路径。最终,为了支撑游戏商业,游戏必须挣到足以支付开发成本和维持运营(是的,还有营销)的钱。当然,我认为这是很明显的,但必须明白地解释,因为似乎经常被许多人忽略了。

支撑游戏行业的商业模式演变得太快了,以至于找出哪一种模式能适用于所有情况。免费模式?付费模式?什么才是合适的?如果你接受游戏云化,那么你就不必为从中选择唯一一种模式纠结了。云系统允许你采用各种模式。我不主张设计一款好游戏却不知道如何营销它,但我强烈建议你应该具有改变或调整游戏的能力,因为你必须回应玩家反馈。没有什么快速的硬性法则。适用于某个国家、某类玩家、某种游戏的东西不一定在其他情况下也行得通。变化太多了,很难预测。发行商跟着风险投资发行游戏……他们把赌注压在若干游戏上,希望好股打败坏股。随便下个赌注就希望有最好的回报,这并不是一个高明的做法。

当你把游戏当作服务来经营时,你就是在从事一种商业,你要培养受众,并靠他们赢利,使你挣到的钱超过开发他们的成本更多。为了成功,你必须掌握各种能力,你必须了解玩家如何玩你的游戏、他们的偏好、消费习惯并做出回应;你必须给他们新的、有趣的内容;你必须让他们能够与朋友开展社交活动。游戏公司只有把这些事情都做好了,才能成功,才能维持,才能不断壮大玩家基础。然而,如果你的游戏不能依靠服务器商的能力如玩家管理、游戏内交易和商店管理、动态内容管理、数据分析等,那么你就无法成功。

3、游戏内消费更加高效

出于各种原因,我强烈支持免费模式。要把免费模式做好,首先要擅长销售。这种技术有多个级别。第一个也是最重要的一级是,带着销售的心理设计整个游戏体验。游戏设计师必须在显然不存在供应限制的游戏世界中创造一种稀缺性。我可以制造出比这个游戏世界所需要的更多的物品——所有人都可能。一旦稀缺性产生了,供求链就形成了,市场就出现了……而你也开始营销游戏了。

如果游戏设计很出色,那么你要擅长的第二样本领就是,销售理论并且有支持你的合适的系统。你的系统必须有管理股票、定价、定位、管理仓库、分析数据和报告的功能。这些都是云端需要的工具,因为在每一款游戏中分别构建是不可能的。它们对于电子商务系统是必不可少的功能,如果不具备基本的玩家管理和合造的销售系统,没有人能擅长在不同设备上销售大量游戏。经营游戏需要灵活性,这样才能维持游戏的动态变化。例如,能够快速改变虚拟商品的价格,给忠实玩家提供的折扣和举办促销活动。这些事是不可能提前准备的,这就是你的游戏必须搬上云端的原因。把这些事做好了才有可能获得像Supercell的《Clash of the Clans》和King的《Candy Crush》那样的成功。

不可否认,这个领域的这种系统确实短缺。大游戏公司至今还在自己研究这些功能,真是耻辱。而在其他小工作室的人,也面临类似的挑战,再也不能指望从无到有建立客户关系管理或电子商务系统。我自己供职的公司GameSparks就是一家以为游戏开发者提供这些功能为主要宗旨的公司。我在这家公司工作的原因就是,我相信我在本文中所预测的事。

4、你需要云来支持多人游戏

在这样一个竞争激烈的世界,玩家开发是游戏开发者面临的一个大问题。因此,有那么多游戏设计师忽略了关于玩家开发的关键元素——多人模式,不可谓不令人惊讶。从根本上说,社交性越强的游戏,病毒传播力越强。Zynga 的《Letter Press》、《Draw Something》和“with Friends”系列能在一个平台上获得巨大的成功,正是归功于游戏本身的社交性和多玩家属性。郎忘了营销吧。如果游戏本身不具这种病毒性传播力,那么它就一开始就是残缺的。

在多人模式方面,Apple的Game Center只为iOS设备提供混合解决方案。 Google Play的Game Services为了支持iOS和Android,也做了同样的事。在我看来,这些只是隔靴搔痒。如果你要做出一款成功的多人游戏,那么就你必须理解你在做的事。有限的游戏状态持续性、排行榜、挑战……这些都好,但其实只是冰山一角。你最终需要把游戏逻辑转移到后端和开发服务器端代码。

5、无限的可扩展性

不在服务器上运行的游戏不存在可扩展性的问题。然而,许多与登录云端有关的话题其实与把游戏转移到服务器端的设想有关,我们应该正视这个事实……没有云端,你也可以做到,但云端使游戏更加容易扩展,并且在许多情况下,使用云服务是维持游戏商业的唯一办法。

也许有些天真,我认为大多数游戏开发者在制作游戏时是带着把游戏做成功的想法的。对于基于服务器端的游戏,这意味着必须扩展后端服务,以满足玩家越来越高的期待。准确预测是很困难的,并且在不确定的情况下开展基础建设也是不明智的。云或“基础建设作为服务”(IaaS)的产品消除了这个压力,允许你在基础建设最低的情况下发布游戏,然后再应时扩展。

在寻找第三方IaaS供应商时,你必须谨慎,也需要一些专门知识。在不知道游戏的收益情况时,你必须更加认真考虑免费扩展和收费扩展。你需要策略管理,使你能够做出选择:忽略游戏表现直接扩展还是等游戏收益稳定时再考虑。

结论

我在这里所说的理由都是紧密关联的。我们的观点是,所有游戏最终会变成在云端管理的服务。虽然现在它只是一种想象,并且 现有的案例也不是最佳设计方案,但总有一天会实现的。(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

Resistance is futile: 5 reasons your games need to run in the cloud

By John Griffin

2013 has so far seen the emergence of some pretty strong endorsement for the cloud when it comes to games.  Peter Warman, CEO of the highly rated NewZoo,  boldly declared in February that ‘Someday all games will run in the cloud’.  I agree with this.  I am not sure when exactly it will apply to 100% of games but I am sure 2014 will be the year that most games convert.  Many of the larger games studios of course already architect their games on the cloud.  In fact, if you look at a game like Candy Crush, the device executable is only a tiny part of it.  Most of the smart stuff is done in the cloud or on the server-side. Its a mindset shift that games developers need to adopt.  Companies like King think data centre when they think game.  Most of us need to do the same.  Here’s why …

(please note that in most cases I am using ‘the cloud’ to imply server-side but stick to referring to the cloud for reasons that should become clear at the end)

#1: It costs less

These days a game needs to launch across a lot of platforms – particularly if mobile. A game that has to launch across iOS, Android, Windows etc on tablet, smartphone and now the whole plethora of open consoles appearing on the market will end up having lots of versions of the core game client-side code. In fact many of the games developers we work with have up to 15 different versions of the same game. This is a versioning nightmare and not to mention unmanageable in the medium term. It makes complete sense to reduce the amount of game logic that happens in the client and transfer it to a single instance on the server that interfaces with them all. Of course there are lots of ways to minimise the overhead of the versioning issue such as source code control systems like Perforce and Git. Game engines like Unity also allow you to write once and run across devices. Sure these can work … but combined with the other key reasons, the best solution is to move as much of the game logic to the server as you can. This is really just following the architectural shift towards multi-tiered systems that has already occurred in many other verticals.

#2: You cannot run your game as a service if it is not in the cloud

There has been a strong paradigm shift towards thinking of games as a service (GaaS) rather than as a product (GaaP). Why? Its less risky for both publishers and developers … They are less orientated around trying to build instant hits and gambling huge amounts to support the initial launch. Rather they take a long term view and take a good game concept, get it out as early as possible and build player numbers over time making sometimes (but hopefully minimal) fundamental changes to the game in response to feedback from players. There are other reasons for this shift too though. Basic technology changes make this shift possible. Digital convergence generally speaking has played a big role. GaaP to GaaS is the key way the games industry is evolving to the changing digital landscape (always-on fast connections, device capabilities, penetration leading to huge player volumes, etc etc). Ultimately, to sustain a games business the games have to make more money than they cost to build and operate (and yes – to market). Of course I realise this is stating the obvious but it needs to be stated plainly as it seems to get overlooked by so many people so frequently.

The business models underpinning the games industry are evolving so fast it is hard to know what works in every circumstance. Freemium? F2P? Subscription? Which one is right for you? If you embrace cloud-based gaming you don’t have to hitch your wagon to only one of these models. Cloud-based systems allow you to play with these models a lot more. I don’t advocate designing great gaming experiences without having a strong idea about how to go to market but I do strongly recommend you build in the ability to tweak it or alter it as you go forward in response to what your player base tells you. There are no hard and fast rules around this. What works for one demographic in one country for a particular genre of game may not work elsewhere. There are so many variables at play that its hard to predict with any certainty. Publishers play the game that VC’s do … they bet on several and hope and pray the good bets cover the bad bets. Its not a good idea to just take a punt and hope for the best.

When you run a game as a service, you are now in the business of building an audience and trying to make more money from them than it costs you to get them to your game. Once you have players playing your game you need a lot of capabilities in order to be successful at this. You need to understand how players are playing the game. You need to understand their preferences and their buying habits and be able to respond to this. You need to give them new and engaging content. You need to enable them to engage socially with their friends. It is only when these things are done properly will a games company successfully sustain and grow its player base. You cannot achieve this without having your games based on some server side capabilities such as player management, in-game commerce and storefront management, dynamic content management, analytics etc.

#3: You can be more effective at in-game selling

I am a huge fan of the Free-2-Play revenue model for a variety of reasons and recognise one thing very clearly. To do well out of it I have to be an expert at selling. There are many levels to this expertise. The first and most important aspect is to design the whole gaming experience with this in mind. Game designers need to create scarcity in a world where clearly there are no real limits to supply. I can create more digital tractors than the world will ever need – anyone can. Once there is scarcity you have a supply and a demand. Once you have that you have a market … and once you have that you are in the selling game.

If the game design is good then the second thing you need to get pretty good at is retail theory and have the systems in place to support you. You need to have stock management, pricing, placement, store management, analytics and reporting capabilities. These are all tools that should be available on the cloud as it would be wrong to build them into each and every game. They are the essentials of eCommerce systems and there is no way one can be good at retailing across a large install base of games on different devices without some basic player management and merchandising systems in place. Running a game requires flexibility so that things can be changed dynamically. For example, being able to change the prices of virtual goods on the fly, offering discounts for loyalty and running promotions. Its an impossible task to get all of this right up front which is why your game needs to be dynamic and cloud-based. Getting this right is the key to success like that enjoyed by Supercell with Clash of the Clans and King with Candy Crush.

Systems in this area are in short supply admittedly. The larger games companies have, to date, had to build these capabilities themselves, which is a shame. People in other verticals, faced with similar challenges, wouldn’t expect to have to build a CRM or an eCommerce system from scratch any more. I’ll be open. I work for a company (GameSparks) whose main purpose is to bring these capabilities to every games developer. The reason I work for this company is because I believe what I am writing.

#4: You need the cloud to support multiplayer

In a very competitive world, player acquisition is one of the larger issues facing game developers. It is surprising therefore that so many game designs overlook one of the key strategies around player acquisition: multiplayer. Ultimately, games that are more social by design and bring people together to play are more viral. Letter Press, Draw Something, the ‘with Friends’ series from Zynga were all at one stage (if not still) hugely successful games because of the social and multi-player nature of the games themselves. Forget marketing. If the games themselves do not support virality the game is handicapped from the start.

With respect to multiplayer, Apple’s Game Center provides a hybrid solution for iOS devices only. Google Play’s Game Services does the same and aims to support both iOS and Android. In this writer’s opinion these are just scratching the surface. If you are going to be successful in building social multiplayer games then you have to understand what you are really doing. Limited game state persistence, leaderboards, challenges … these are great things but they are the tip of the iceberg really. Ultimately you need to transfer game logic to the back end and develop server-side code.

#5: Infinite scalability

Games that do not run on the server do not have a problem scaling. Let’s acknowledge that upfront. However, a lot of the arguments for moving to the cloud really pertain to making your games more server-side and let’s face it … you can do that without a cloud. The cloud comes into play to make scalability easier and, in many cases, using cloud services is the only way to make the whole thing commercially sustainable.

Perhaps somewhat naively, I am of the opinion that most games developers build their games with a view to making them successful. For server-based games this would imply the need to scale the back end services appropriately to meet the player volumes expected. Its very hard to predict accurately and it makes no sense to provision a large infrastructure upfront without certainty. Cloud or Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings remove this burden and allow you to launch your games on a minimal infrastructure and then burst or scale as appropriate.

Just be wary that using a 3rd party IaaS provider requires some know-how too. One needs to be careful about bursting freely and incurring charges for that without taking into account the revenue performance of the game. You somehow need policy management that enables you to set the option: ‘burst to this capacity regardless of game performance and only go above if game is profitable’. GameSparks allows you to do this by the way.

How a company like Zynga views a game.

Conclusion … Cloud-based games

All of the reasons cited here are closely linked. Our vision is for all games to eventually be run as services, managed from the cloud. Its a vision that divides the games industry and no doubt there are lots of examples where this is not the optimal design paradigm right now. Some day it will be though .. for all games.(source:gamesbrief)


上一篇:

下一篇: