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CoRa工作室创始人分享儿童游戏开发经验

发布时间:2013-09-02 14:27:38 Tags:,,,,

作者:Ruth Wilson

评估标准:“笑得越开心,游戏越好”

CoRa工作室是一家位于德国科隆的独立游戏工作室。在工作室成立以前,创始人Michael Contento一边从事在线广告生意,一边学习新的编程语言Monkey,为他日后开发儿童游戏打下坚实的基础。他凭借第一款简单的益智游戏《DaffyDrop》的成功而创办了这个工作室。不到一年,CoRa工作室就推出38款游戏,获得190万下载量,从而成为行业新秀。在谈到游戏开发时,Michael认为,在家庭中玩游戏是游戏开发的关键。“他们是我的测试者!”

DaffyDrop(from itunes.apple)

DaffyDrop(from itunes.apple)

这种测试系统是可以量化的:“我们的模式是‘笑得越开心,游戏越好’。我没有时间也没有资金请非常多玩家做大型A/B测试。”

因为他的游戏受众是低龄智能手机用户,所以这并不令人惊讶。100% Indie是行业领先独立手机游戏发行商Chillingo的合作网站,专注于鼓励、培养和支持世界各地的独立游戏开发者。Michael和其他许多开发者的作品正是在它的帮助下走进市场。开发儿童游戏的开发者越来越多了。

Kids Industries最近研究发现,虽然只有9%的学龄前儿童会自己系鞋带,但20%的可以在智能手机上玩游戏;在英国和美国,父母平均每年给孩子下载约27款应用。

开发者也许因此把儿童游戏开发当作另一个容易成功的领域,Michael的建议是,但你必须认真考虑你的游戏内容和商业模式。

灵感来源于现实

Michael从现实生活中的游戏如“大家来找茬”、“连连看”和拼图游汲取灵感,但有些确实很难转化为数字游戏。他解释道:“玩具商店能启发我,但现实生活的游戏有时候需要触觉反馈(即你必须感觉得到物品的结构)和在3D空间中简单地旋转,这两种情况都是不可能或极难转化成手机设备的触击/触摸操作的。但甚至非常年幼的小孩也能把现实生活中的‘抓取和移动’转化为手机设备的‘触摸、停留和滑动’动作。”

不一定要抱着做“教育”游戏的思想来做儿童游戏。正如Michael所主张的,所有游戏从本质上说,都具有教育的功能。他指出:“以《愤怒的小鸟》为例,玩家必须学习如何操作弹弓以及基本的拉力原理。《水果忍者》?玩家要理解重力、时机和物品如何在重力的作用下下落。”他认为这就是不必限定儿童游戏的玩家年龄的原因。“为什么要限定年龄?只要孩子能够理解游戏,且游戏内容适合,那么玩那些游戏对他们就是一种有趣而有益的活动。”

吸引两种市场

Michael建议道:“不只是孩子,你还要考虑孩子的父母。大部分孩子都喜欢玩游戏,即使游戏音乐被关闭或没有音乐。但孩子确实喜欢游戏中伴随着音乐,所以,游戏的音乐和声音不能做得太吵闹就非常重要了。大部分音乐前几次播放听起来不错,但循环次数多了就会让其他人感到厌烦。”

角色也要好好考虑。他补充道:“如果可以的话,最好能在游戏中添加一两个识别度高的、可爱的吉祥物似的角色,以便在玩家和游戏之间建立更深刻的情感联系。我曾经见过一些游戏就是加入这些简单的元素,确实增加了识别度和促进玩家忠实度。”

营销和赢利

营销儿童游戏需要使用特殊的策略,特别是对于独立开发者。

CoRa工作室目前的赢利主要是通过广告(“放广告要非常非常非常谨慎,广告能给玩家留下的印象极小”)和升级到最新版的IAP。“在免费版本中,有些关卡是上锁的,购买IAP可以解锁这些关卡和彻底移除所有广告。所以家长可以测试游戏,也就是让他们的小孩子试玩免费关卡,然后再决定要不要升级。升级后,父母可以放手让孩子自己玩,不必担心广告或额外的IAP,因为已经没有了。在我看来,这对双方来说都是理想的模式。父母可以测试和决定游戏是否值得他们花几块钱,而我可以得到费用。”

Michael承认发行和营销过程是复杂而辛苦的。“对于开发者,那是费时、费钱、费力的事。每天都有上千款新游戏发布,更别说还要与大规模大预算的公司竞争。但要在市场上占据一席之地(非常非常小的一块地)也不是不可能的,我尽力而为。像100% Indie这样公司就是非常好的带动流量的渠道商。他们在他们的网站、节目和社交媒体上推广游戏,这能大大促进游戏的知晓度。把自己的钱拿给评论网站、广告公司和“一天一款应用”之类的推广服务,出于各种原因,我完全看不到效果。

“因为赢利和营销因素,儿童游戏要取得成果必须具备以下三大要件:鲜明的图标、令人印象深刻的截图和优秀的品质。”

记住受众

“好游戏”之所以“好”,是因为开发者在设计它的时候始终没有停止考虑它的受众——儿童。Michael表示:“除了经济和参数(我的游戏通常不需要太复杂的图像、故事或机制),卖儿童游戏最让人高兴的就是它的玩家——看到小男孩小女孩们兴奋地触击屏幕布、试图解开谜题、看到他们喜欢游戏的画面和声音,真是让人快乐。我可以做这小游戏,让世界上的那么多小玩家玩到它们并且收到积极反馈,真是让我觉得不敢相信!

“我虽然不是世界上是优秀的美工,但我能为世界上的所有孩子的快乐做出贡献。这是一个美好的时代。”(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

Creating Games for Kids: How to Find and Test Content, Monetize and Market Your Game

by Ruth Wilson

‘The bigger the smile, the better the game’ measurement model

Keeping it in the family is key when it comes to game development, according to Michael Contento, of CoRa Games. “They’re my testers!” he says. And the measurement system is proudly qualitative:

“We operate on a ‘the bigger the smile, the better the game’ model. I don’t have time or the budget to do huge A/B testings with hundreds of users.”

As he’s developing for a young smartphone audience, this is not surprising. 100% Indie, the initiative that’s helping Michael and other developers bring their games to market, is increasingly seeing children’s games being submitted for consideration by developers from all over the world.

A recent study by Kids Industries found that while only nine percent of pre-school children in different countries can tie their shoes, about 20 percent can play an app on a smartphone; and that across the UK and the US, parents download around 27 apps per year on average for their children.

Developers might therefore see children’s games as easy pickings, but you have to think carefully about your content and your commercial approach, Michael advises.

Real life versus smartphone

Michael uses real life games such as ‘spot the difference’, ‘join the dots’ and jigsaws as inspiration, but while some transfer to the digital space, it’s not a given. “I can be inspired in a toy store but in real life, a game can sometimes require haptic feedback (ie you need to feel the structure of something) and the simple rotation in a 3D space,” he says. “Both things are either impossible or really hard to translate to the swipe/touch input of mobile devices. But it’s genius how fast even small children can adapt the “grab and move” handling of things in the real world to the “touch, hold and move” gesture on mobile devices.”

And they don’t have to be ‘educational’ games. As Michael asserts, all games are, in their own unique way, educational. “Angry Birds as an example. You need to understand the slingshot and the basic principle of tension. Fruit Ninja? Gravity, timing and projection of things flying up with gravity rules applied,” he says, and argues that this is the reason there doesn’t need to be a minimum age for children’s games. “Why should there be one? As long as children are capable of understanding the game, and it has appropriate content, it’s a fun and productive activity for them.”

Appealing to two markets

“It’s not just the children, but also the adults that you need to consider,” says Michael. “Most children enjoy games even with the music disabled. But they do like to keep the sounds activated and so it’s important to have music or sounds that aren’t too obtrusive and annoying. Most music loops can be really nice for the first few iterations but become totally annoying for other people after a few more minutes.”

Characters must also be considered, he says. “It’s important to add one or two recognizable and cute mascots if you can, to establish a better connection between the player and the game. I’ve been looking at some games with this simple element; it really aids recognition and loyalty.”

Marketing and monetization

A specific approach needs to be adopted for monetization and marketing in children’s games, especially as an independent developer.

Monetization for CoRa Games is currently provided via ads (“placed very, very, VERY carefully, and they get few impressions per user”) and through an in-app purchase to upgrade to the pro version. “In the free version, some levels are locked and the in-app purchase unlocks them and removes all ads forever,” says Michael. “So the parents can test the game, let their little ones try the free levels and then, if they both like it, simply upgrade with one click. After the upgrade, the parents can give the game to their kids without having to worry about ads or additional in-app purchases, because there are none. In my opinion that’s a good model for both sides. The parents can test and decide if the game is worth a few bucks for free, while I get some payment.”

Michael admits he finds the publishing and marketing process complicated and exhausting. “It’s time consuming, expensive and very hard for an indie developer. There are thousands of new games per day and huge companies with huge budgets to compete with. But it’s not impossible to get a (very, very small) part of the cake and I simply do my best. Conduits like 100% Indie are great for helping to drive traffic. They promote games on their site, at shows and through their social media, which is great for driving awareness. Spending my own money on posting to review sites, ad campaigns, and “app of the day”s have come with a price tag attached or have, for various reasons, no effect for me at all.

“Because of the monetization and marketing factors, it boils down to three main ingredients to make a children’s game a success:  a great icon, impressive screenshots and a simply awesome game.“

Remember the audience

That ‘awesome game’ is all for the best thing about designing games for children – the audience. Says Michael, “Besides the economic and organizational arguments (my games usually don’t require overly complex graphics, story telling or game mechanics), the best thing about selling children’s games is the audience. It’s an incredible pleasure to see little boys and girls tapping around the screen, trying to solve the riddle, and see them enjoying the graphics, the sounds and the reward when they get it right. It’s almost unbelievable that I can build small games, ship them to every corner of the world and receive positive feedback from literally everywhere!

“I’m not the greatest artist but I’ve created hours of entertainment for thousand of kids around the globe. What stunning times we live in.”

CoRa Games is an independent studio based in Cologne. It began as a side project in mid-2012 when, while working in the online advertising business, Michael was learning a new programming language named Monkey which he recognized as being a good basis for games. His first game, the simple yet fast puzzle DaffyDrop, went live in various mobile stores and the studio was born. Less than a year, 38 games and 1.9 million app downloads later and CoRa Games shows no sign of slowing.

100% Indie is a collaboration between Chillingo, the leading indie mobile games publisher and division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.  The partnership fuels the mobile games developer community and provide unparalleled revenue opportunities.  Spearheaded by Chillingo founders, Chris Byatte and Joe Wee, 100% Indie aims to inspire, foster and support indie developers around the world.(source:gamasutra)


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