作者：Raf Keustermans

我设法避免使用“粘性”这个词。在今天的这么激烈的游戏市场上，用“粘性”来形容一款具有持久吸引力的游戏似乎太过时太简单了。“制作一款具有持久吸引力的游戏”的真正内涵应该是，给玩家提供一种能长久保持他们的兴趣和产生真正的沉浸感的体验。

刺激玩家产生并保持沉浸感是使游戏长盛不衰的重要原因。虽然我的游戏经验主要来源于社交博彩游戏和休闲游戏，但我的建议也适用于其他应用。成功没有神奇的配方，特别是因为不同类型的游戏的差异如此大。但总是有些原则是值得记下来的。

prince of persia(from denofgeek.com)

1、核心机制要扎实

你的游戏的基本主题总是最重要的因素。以社交赌博游戏为例，最基本的方面之一往往是最难被看到的，至少对于玩家来说——游戏潜层的数学模型。你的游戏可能具有非常精美的画面，但如果数学模型不理想，游戏仍然很难留住玩家，更别说产生大量收益了。尽管玩家看不到潜层机制，但能感觉得到它，并且可以轻易地识别出什么是优秀的赌博游戏，什么是糟糕的赌博游戏。

当然，光有扎实的核心机制还是不够的，但之所以要在这里强调，是因为开发者往往一开始就把精力放在修饰小细节上，而忘记再回头检查游戏的初始前提。

2、设身处地思考玩家心理

你大概会想到声音，提前估计你希望玩家产生什么感觉——对某个特征或事件的反应，非常有助于做出正确的决定。当然，即使你知使你非常了解玩家行为，科学和数据导向的方法也是很费时间的。但还有一个“软”方法——设身处地，这是非常重要的。

作为开发者，当你就是你的游戏的受众时，要设身处地是很容易的。但当你不是时，要感同身受就很困难了。例如，社交博彩游戏主要的受众是中年妇女，所以要让24岁的男性开发者或设计师理解她们的心态是很困难的。但仍然有很多事可以帮助你推测玩家心态。例如，在老虎机游戏中，获胜的频率和接近获胜的频率是一样重要的。正是这种差一点儿获胜的情绪把玩家长久地留在游戏中。要制作一款好游戏，必须应用这种心理学的方法。

3、兼顾整体和细节

当你对玩家行为的假设已经确定，那么就可以用可靠的数据进一步验证猜想了。这听起来似乎也是很显然的事。但我在这里要强调的不是你应该依靠数据，而是你的玩家行为范围是非常广的。在休闲玩家的和硬核玩家的玩家体验中寻找平衡，将变得格外重要。在理想的情况下，结果是各种各样的个性化体验，取决于各个玩家的沉浸程度——它自然延伸为“冲动消费”体验，借此，你得以最大化游戏收益。

最后，我想说：不要低估了哪怕最小的细节。看似微不足道的东西有时候会产生重大影响。例如，对于老虎机游戏，所有制作人都会告诉你，获胜或接近获胜时产生的图像、声音、特效几乎与事件本身一样重要。为了保持玩家的沉浸感，全面的感觉体验是必须的。从一开始就花相当的时间和资金把这些细节做好，是值得的。（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）

Why stickiness isn’t enough: Creating a game with enduring popularity

by Raf Keustermans

I try to avoid the term “sticky.” In today’s competitive era of gaming, it seems antiquated and simplistic, and creating a game with enduring popularity is about much more than that. Instead it’s about providing gamers with an experience that keeps them interested long-term and generates real engagement.

Driving and then maintaining that engagement is what will make your game popular. My experience is in social casino and casual games in general, but this advice applies to just about any apps. There’s no one magic formula to achieve success, especially since it varies significantly between different games categories. But there are a few guidelines that always good to keep in mind.

1. Start with a solid core

The basic proposition of your game will always remain the most important factor. Within social casino for instance, one of the most fundamental aspects tends to also be the least visible, at least to users —  that’s the math model sitting behind the scenes. You could have the best graphics and most visually engaging slots game. But if your math isn’t optimal, you’ll struggle to keep your users engaged or to generate any significant revenue. Although they don’t see it, users actually feel it and can easily tell a good slots experience from a bad one.

Obviously, this isn’t enough in itself, but it’s worth calling out because it’s too easy to start focusing on the smaller details and to forget to check back on the initial premise of the game.

2. Get into your player’s head

This sounds like an obvious one, but knowing in advance how you want the player to feel — in reaction to particular events or features — will be of great help in making the correct product decisions. Of course, the scientific and data-driven approach will take over with time, once you know exactly how your players are behaving. But that first “soft” approach of putting yourself in your players’ shoes is very important.

It’s easy when you, as a developer, are your own audience. It’s somewhat harder when you’re not. For example, social slots and casino games predominantly have an audience of middle-aged women. It’s hard for a 24 year-old male developer or designer to understand her mindset. But there are still a lot of things you can safely assume about players. For instance, within slots, as important as the frequency of winning is the frequency of near-wins. The emotion you create in the player when they almost win is one of the things that keeps them spinning, and ultimately, coming back. This psychological approach is crucial to creating a good game.

3. Make it scientific but customized

Once your assumptions about your players’ behaviors are set, start testing to confirm or inform them with solid data. This also sounds like another obvious one. But the point I’m trying to make here isn’t only that you should rely on data, but rather that the range of your users’ behavior is going to be very wide. Finding the right balance in the user experience between your casual and your hardcore gamers is going to be crucial. And ideally what ends up happening is a very granular personalization of the experience depending on each user’s engagement level — the natural extension of which becomes the customization of the “prompt to pay” experience through which you’ll be able to maximize revenue.

Lastly, I’d say: Don’t overlook even the smallest of details. Things that may seem inconsequential sometimes have a major impact. For example, with slots games, any producer will tell you that the quality of the audio and the special sound effects surrounding a win or a near-win are almost as important as the event itself. To keep users engaged, the full sensorial experience is a must. It’s definitely worth spending a good amount of time and money on ensuring you get these details right from the beginning.(source:venturebeat)