作者：Nicholas Lovell

一开始，只有几家不知名的独立工作室在做免费游戏。后来，免费游戏成为风投关注的商业。现在，越来越多以制作大型主机游戏见长的AAA工作室投身于免费游戏。

自2008年起，我一直作为免费游戏的设计顾问活跃在这个领域。那时，平台兴衰起伏。PC下载游戏、网页游戏、社交游戏、手机游戏和平板游戏已经迎来各自的曙光。

在过去的12个月，我在三大游戏机发行公司和许多以开发游戏机游戏而闻名的工作室组织专家班，教授如何从免费游戏中挣钱。在我的咨询课中，我发现有一些问题一而再再而三地出现。免费游戏设计，或者说所有游戏设计都是一座金字塔，但刚刚进入行的工作室往往只注意到金字塔的底部，而忽视了更上面的层次，这往往正是他们的免费游戏失败的原因。

所以，我提出了“免费游戏设计的金字塔”这个概念。在金字塔底部的是核心循环，中部的是留存游戏，顶部的是超级粉丝游戏。为了创造一款成功的免费游戏，你必须保证核心循环和留存游戏之间具有紧密的共生关系。超级粉丝游戏是可选择的，可能不会出现在你的最小可行产品中，但如果有，可以促进游戏的赢利。

pyramid(from gamasutra)

核心循环

核心循环是游戏的心脏。当你问玩家什么是“玩法”时，他们通常会告诉你游戏的核心循环。核心循环可能是《宝石迷阵》中的一分钟的回合，也可能是《Hay Day》中的种植-收割-种植的循环，还可能是《军团要塞2》的一场死亡竞技模式下的游戏或《Candy Crush Saga》中的一个关卡。

（注意，我在这里可能会让一些游戏文法专家感到心烦心烦。我把农场游戏中的简单的种植-收割-种植循环等同于FPS中的死亡竞技。当我试图将短期玩法从长期玩法中分离出来，却发现FPS中还有更小的玩法。你可能会称之为“爆头-获得奖励”循环。

核心循环是玩家在游戏中反复玩的、基本的东西，是游戏的原型部分。如果你把它给别人展示给别人看时，对方最可能回答你：“我明白了，我理解你的游戏了。”

虽然核心循环能让别人理解游戏，但还不足以做成一款成功的游戏。有时候，核心循环可能非常完美，非常有趣，让玩家为了它纯粹的乐趣而不断地玩下去。但那种情况几乎不存在。更多时候，还需要留存游戏作为支撑。

留存游戏

留存游戏是吸引玩家继续回来玩的部分。它超过了“再玩一次”这样的乐趣。它可能极其简单，如希望在《太空入侵者》中再创得分纪录；它可能非常复杂，如渴望在《古墓丽影》或《最后生还者》中看到后续情节。留存游戏的机制包括：

*得分

*关卡

*简单的进程机制（如《Candy Crush Saga》的地图）

*升级

*剧情

*成就

*排行榜和比赛

无论是一次性付费购买游戏还免费游戏，以上机制都是存在的。策略游戏如《未知敌人》、《全面战争》系列和《铁血联盟》系列都有非常出色的留存游戏，与核心循环交织在一起，足以使玩家沉迷上几个星期。

免费游戏通常有特殊的留存游戏机制，通常与即时进程结合在一起，如不同时期的多重交叉循环或鼓励玩家在某个时间返回游戏的定时机制。这些可以为玩家创造预感和乐趣元素且是可能执行的，因为大多数FPS游戏都有一些基于服务器的游戏的逻辑的元素。这些机制的赢利原理也非常容易理解，即允许玩家花钱绕过延时。但把延时当作主要的赢利策略是错误的。它们只是主要的留存机制。

留存游戏的目标是，给玩家充分的理由继续玩上数天、数周或数月。好的留存游戏是统一到玩法循环中的，尽管这不是必须的。《Candy Crush Saga》中的地图已经被证明是一种非常成功的留存机制——在这款基础的三连消游戏中，在剧情中缓慢进展游戏。

超级粉丝游戏

在GDC 2012的演示中，Kongregate首席执行官Emily Greer表示，该公司所有成功的免费游戏都有一个共同属性：“明显的社交性和竞技性”。

终极游戏——即我所谓的超级粉丝，就是鲸鱼玩家所在的地方。它是除享受核心循环的休闲玩家之外的玩家所在的地方。它比使玩家继续玩上数周数月的留存玩法更高级。它使你的游戏作为服务转变成游戏作为嗜好。在那个阶段，玩家就开始习惯于花钱享受游戏了。

并非所有游戏都能变成终极游戏。这是我的猜测，尽管我并不确定。例如，与终极游戏如《Clash of Clans》或《坦克世界》相比，《神庙逃亡》和《疯狂喷气机》的鲸鱼玩家就比较少，平均消费也比较低。

我不认为你的最小可行产品中一定要有超级粉丝游戏。没有核心循环与留存游戏的良好结合，你的游戏永远也不可能上升到超级粉丝游戏的阶段。有些游戏在没有设计的情况下就产生乐趣玩法。付费MMO《星战前夜》中的大部分乐趣玩法都存在于游戏本身之外。

如果你希望你的游戏让你的玩家着迷，那么你就需要超级粉丝游戏。它是大额玩家生存的根基，它对于那些真正珍视游戏的内容的人而言，是合理的。它可能包含公会和家，可能有排行榜或家族战争，可能有同步或异步的PVP，可能有可供炫耀的等级或进程系统。

但超级粉丝游戏并不能保证游戏的成功——毕竟它只是第二阶段，不是第一阶段。

最大的错误

我看到AAA开发者犯的最大的错误就是，太过于专注核心循环，而忽略了留存环节。免费游戏的修饰越来越重要了，但永无止境地修饰核心玩法，只能导致收益递减的结果。如果玩家放下手机或平板或鼠标或控制器，就忘了再回来玩，那么玩法循环修饰得再完美也没有意义了。

整款游戏中最重要的一个页面就是显示“游戏结束”的那个页面。无论是因为什么，玩家必须玩到玩法体验的最后。这个页面必须反复修饰，以显示核心玩法如何过渡到留存游戏，反之也一样。你可以以许多方式体现留存玩法——成就系统、地图、排行榜、升级等等，但永远不变的一个要求是，你必须让玩家再回来玩的渴望。认为核心玩法就是一切，留存玩法是在“经过测试，玩法确定了”的时候可以修改的东西，是灾难的源头。

成功的免费游戏就是由核心循环、留存游戏和超级粉丝游戏的层级组成的。核心循环和留存游戏之间的交互作用是关键。事实上，我甚至敢说，你的预先推介发行的主要目的就是，用数据验证关于核心循环和留存游戏的交互情况的假设。（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）

The Pyramid of Free-to-Play game design

by Nicholas Lovell

At first it was unknown independent studios that did F2P. Then it was venture-backed businesses. Now it is increasingly AAA studios whose expertise lies in crafting huge console products, not iterative free-to-play games.

I have been consulting on free-to-play game design since 2008. Over that time, platforms have ebbed and flowed. PC downloadable games, browser games, social games, mobile games and tablet games have all had their time in their sun.

In the last 12 months, I have given masterclasses on making money from free-to-play games at three major console publishers and a dozen studios better known for their console work. In my consulting, I see the same issues coming about time and again. F2P game design –and indeed all game design – is a pyramid, but studios coming fresh to it focus on the base without enough awareness of the higher levels. Without which their F2P game is destined to be a failure.

So, I’ve come up with the Pyramid of Free-to-Play Game Design. At the bottom is the Core Loop. In the middle is the Retention Game. At the top is the Superfan Game. To build a successful free-to-play game, you need a strong, symbiotic relationship between the Core Loop and the Retention Game. The Superfan Game is optional, and may not belong in your Minimum Viable Product, but it will help you make more money from your game.

The core loop

The Core Loop is the beating heart of your game. It is what many people think of when you ask them about “the gameplay”. It might be a one-minute play of Bejewelled Blitz. It might be a plant-harvest-plant cycle in a game like Hay Day. It might be a single death match in Team Fortress 2 or clearing a level in Candy Crush Saga.

(Note that I may upset game grammarians here. I liken the simple plant-harvest-plant cycle of a farming game to an entire Deathmatch in an FPS. That is useful for my purposes, when I am trying to split out the in-the-moment gameplay from the long-term gameplay, but there is arguably a smaller gameplay loop in a FPS. What you might call the “shoot someone in the head – get rewarded” loop.)

The Core Loop is the basic thing that the player does over and over again. It is ideal for prototyping. If you show it to someone, they go “OK, I get it, I understand your game.”

Only they don’t. They understand the core of the game, but that is rarely enough to make a successful title. Occasionally, a Core Loop will be so perfect, so fun, so enjoyable that players will keep coming back to it just for the sheer joy of it. That is rare. More often, there is a Retention Game layered on top.

Retention Game

The Retention Game is what keeps players coming back for more. It goes beyond the joy of just one-more-go. It can be incredibly simple, such as the desire to beat your high score in Space Invaders. It can be complex, like the desire to find out what happens next in the narrative structure of Tomb Raider or The Last of Us. Retention Game mechanics include:

Scores

Levels

Simple progression mechanics (like Candy Crush Saga’s map)

Levelling up

Narrative

Achievements

Leaderboards and competition

Those can all function within traditional pay-once games as well as free-to-play games. Strategy games like XCom, the Total War series and the Jagged Alliance series all have excellent Retention Games intertwined with the Core Loop but keep players entranced for weeks.

Free-to-play games often have specific retention game mechanics that tend to be tied to the passage of real time, such as multiple intersecting loops of different durations, or appointment mechanics that encourage players to come back at a particular time. These can create elements of anticipation and enjoyment for players and are possible to enforce since most F2P games have some element of server-based game logic. They are also easy to understand how to monetise, by allowing players the opportunity to spend money to bypass the delay. It would be a mistake to think of time delays as predominantly a monetisation technique, though. They are mainly a retention mechanic.

The objective of the Retention Game is to give players good reasons to want to keep playing for days, weeks or months. A good retention game is integrated into the gameplay loop, although it doesn’t have to be. The map in Candy Crush Saga has proven to be a phenomenally successful retention mechanic, and publisher King has demonstrated that by implementing a light layer of progress and narrative over a basic Match-3 game, you can create a winning combination.

The superfan game

In a great presentation at GDC 2012, Kongregate CEO Emily Greer said that all the successful free-to-play games on Kongregate had one thing in common:  “a strongly social and competitive end-game”.

That endgame – that I call the Superfan Game – is where the whales live. It is the place where people have moved beyond casual players who enjoy the core loop. They have moved beyond the retention game that kept them playing for weeks or months. They have started the transition from your service being a game and towards it being a hobby. That is when they start being comfortable spending more money on their enjoyment.

Not all games are suitable for being a Superfan title. I suspect, although I don’t know for certain, that titles like Temple Run and Jetpack Joyride have fewer whales, spending less on average, than games that really do cater for Superfans such as Clash of Clans or World of Tanks.

I don’t believe the you need a Superfan Game in your minimum viable product. Without a Core Loop that interacts well with the Retention Game, you will never reach the Superfan level. Some games have a Superfan Game without ever designing it. Much of the Superfan Game for Eve Online, a subscription MMO, exists outside the game, and developer CCP sees little direct reward from it.

The Superfan Game is something that you need if you expect your game to instil fierce passions in your players. It is where the big spenders who love what you do will live, and it makes sense to offer those people things they truly value in the context of the game. It might include guilds and clans. It might be about leaderboards or clan competition. It might include Player versus Player, whether synchronous or asynchronous. It might include overt displays of status or progression.

But it is not necessary to prove whether you have a game that will work – the Superfan Game is phase 2, not phase 1.

The biggest mistake

The biggest mistake I see AAA developers making is focusing too much on the core loop at the expense of the Retention Game. Polish in free-to-play games is increasingly important, but endlessly polishing the core game is a path of diminishing returns. It is no good making the most perfectly polished gameplay loop if, after someone has put down their phone or tablet or mouse or controller they don’t remember to come back.

One of the most important screens in the entire game is what used to be called the “Game Over” screen. For whatever reason, the player has to come to the end of the gameplay experience. This screen needs to be iterated and polished to show how the core game feeds into the Retention Game and vice versa. You can show retention in many ways – through achievements, through a map, through competitive leaderboards, through upgrade screens – but the one constant is that you have to give players the desire to come back again. Thinking that the core loop is everything, and that the retention game is something that you can fix “after Alpha, once the gameplay is nailed”, is a recipe for disaster.

The hierarchy of Core Loop, Retention Game and Superfan Game is what makes up a successful free-to-play game. The interaction between the Core Loop and the Retention Game is critical. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the primary purpose of your soft launch is to verify, with data, that your assumptions about how the Core Loop and the Retention Game interact.(source:gamasutra)