作者：Matthew Diener

DeNA在去年10月公开了第一人称射击类手机游戏《The Drowning》并在手机玩家群中引起了较大的反响。

因为《The Drowning》的定位是触屏设备上的射击游戏的进化，所以它在发行时获得了各种各样的评价。

说它未能吸引对游戏感兴趣的用户是绝对不公平的，游戏一直在努力提高玩家留存，并希望通过游戏内部事件去提高用户粘性。

最近我们在纽约与前Scattered Entertainment的Ben Cousins谈论了有关《The Drowning》的表现以及DeNA对于下一款FPS游戏的打算。

Pocket Gamer：尽管这款游戏之前一直备受期待，但似乎它的表现却不如人们的预期。到底是哪一环出了错？苹果的17+评级是否影响了它的改变？

Ben Cousins：我想从对用户的吸引力来看，它并未取得成功。

我曾在其它平台上创造过免费射击游戏，并于2009年在PC上发行了《战地英雄》（游戏邦注：3个月内获得了200多万的下载量）。而《The Drowning》在2周内便做到这点。

对于《The Drowning》我们进行了3种实验性研究。首先便是明确手机上的免费射击游戏是否具有用户基础？当然有。

其次，你能否创造一个控制系统去吸引那些不喜欢虚拟操纵杆的玩家？

当我们着眼于虚拟操纵杆和姿势控制间的区别时会发现，大多数人选择了姿势控制—-所以我们认为有必要采取进一步措施去处理手机上的控制问题。

面对那些愿意完全接受其它游戏类型的能量机制的玩家，如果你在一款射击游戏中呈献给他们完全相同的机制，他们便会感到厌烦。这将对游戏的用户留存造成不利影响。

未来，我们可能不会使用手机类游戏循环。

PG：DeNA关于《The Drowning》的宣传活动会不会太过广泛，即瞄准传统手机新闻和评论网站意外的大型网站？

BC：《The Drowning》的PR活动的广泛触及面是一种策略性活动。

在游戏面向全球发行后我们对那些下载并玩《The Drowning》的玩家做了一项调查，并发现大多数这些玩家都属于硬核主机玩家。

关于之前研究的第三个问题便是，你是否能够执行一次休闲游戏盈利循环，并将其用于硬核设计游戏玩家中？我认为答案是否定的。

所以我相信有关手机市场是由不同人群组合在一起的说法纯属用词不当。

手机市场中有一个子集是由硬核玩家（他们同样也玩手机游戏）所组成，并且他们也是对《The Drowning》最感兴趣的玩家——他们是通过传统网站去寻找游戏。

而关于在未来的游戏中仍执行《The Drowning》的PR活动必然存在一定的理由。

PG：为什么你认为游戏媒体对于《The Drowning》的反应是消极的？你是否认为这与你个人有关系——你已经明确表明了自己对于手机取代主机的信念。

BC：也许真的是这样，但这又与我何干。我讨厌那种抑制自己想法的作者。

现在我已经创造了10款免费游戏，所以我知道当你在做出一些新的尝试时，并不是所有人都会支持你。

如果人们想要抓住机遇去批判这一角度，我也不会反对，因为最终关于免费游戏最棒之处便是消费者可以免费下载并尝试游戏。

如今的产业中已经没有看门人存在，所以你不能在基于同样的方式毁掉自己的游戏。

PG：所以没有所谓的负面宣传？

BC：我认为比起在包装零售业务中，这更符合免费业务。

有些人也许看到了一款免费游戏的消极评价，但却仍对其充满兴趣，所以他们便会下载这款游戏。但是如果存在付费墙的话这种情况便不会出现。

PG：你是否认为《The Drowning》的三个月软发行让你拥有足够的时间去测试游戏内部经济？

BC：这是专注于用户留存而非盈利，并且也存在一个有趣的数据点。

关于软发行我们拥有一些相对较少的用户，而转向全球发行的参数也许具有5%的偏差，所以从软发行以来我们便获得了良好的全球表现结果。

这也告诉我们关于玩家在菲律宾或者在德国的方式表现并没有多大差别。

PG：据说《The Drowning》还未真正找到用户群体，DeNA是否会采取适当的方法去重新吸引玩家？

BC：比起我们的预期，游戏吸引了更大规模的用户，我们也很满意现在所拥有的用户。

我们正在向苹果提交游戏最后且最主要的更新架构。这一架构包含了两个新模式：潜行游戏模式和行动游戏模式。

在那之后我们将继续运行像boss狩猎活动等内容。

PG：你在之前提到能量机制是一种问题所在。你是否认为《The Drowning》的盈利模式遭到破坏或者能够得到完善？

BC：休闲游戏或手机游戏循环机制（游戏玩法以外）并不像人们预想的那样成功。

我们并不清楚这点，因为之前并未有人尝试过，所以我们并不能说这是一种失败，因为并不存在比较对象。

但是我们发现了这类盈利和游戏循环与游戏玩法相矛盾——特别是能量机制。

就像有些用户本来能够接受其它游戏的能量机制，但是当你将硬核射击游戏玩法与能量机制结合在一起时，他们便会感到郁闷。我不知道具体原因，但是消费者始终都是对的，所以我不会与他们争辩。

我也不知道这会影响盈利，尽管我认为它会最大程度地影响用户留存。

《The Drowning》的盈利在手机游戏的正规参数中是合理的，从ARPDAU来看，我们拥有与《Candy Crush Saga》同样的盈利水平。

PG：你是否认为，如果不依赖于控制器，FPS也能在手机平台上取得成功？

BC：控制器与我们在《The Drowning》所面对的用户留存难度并不相干。

姿势控制能够帮助我们弥补那些不喜欢虚拟操纵杆的用户的空缺。

除了虚拟操纵杆，未来的游戏还会支持硬件控制器（基于苹果的标准）和姿势控制。如果这些选择都不适合你，我也不知道自己该怎么做。

PG：你们是否估算过多少用户在使用姿势控制（而不是虚拟操纵杆）？

BC：大约60%的玩家在使用姿势控制。

这一比例真的很惊人，因为我们在游戏一开始让玩家能够做出选择，即他们将有15秒钟去尝试姿势控制，结果有一半以上的玩家略过虚拟操纵杆而选择姿势控制。

有趣的是，玩家所获得的平均分数高于他们使用姿势控制所获得的那分数，但是我们也发现许多高分得主都在使用姿势控制，这便说明我们的做法没错。

PG：你认为自己的未来项目能从《The Drowning》中获得哪些重要经验教训？

BC：关于手机平台上不存在免费硬核游戏市场是不正确。也许现在该市场仍小于休闲游戏市场，但是你能否告诉我现在在哪个平台上还能看到小型的休闲游戏市场？

在街机上，玩《吃豆人》的玩家多于《Gauntlet》，而在PC浏览器上，更多人在玩休闲游戏而不是硬核游戏，所以注定在手机平台上休闲游戏会拥有更大的市场，但我们却不能否认在这里硬核游戏也具有自己的市场。

记住在过去与iPhone 3GS，iPod touch4或iPad 1并不兼容的700兆的下载现在能够在一周创造100万的下载量这一点非常重要。

所以从生成乐趣和下载来看，我们希望更多人能够支持这一成果，我们也希望在未来看到更多像《The Drowning》这样的作品的出现。

（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）

Ben Cousins: The Drowning is monetising ‘at the same level’ as Candy Crush Saga

by Matthew Diener

There was much excitement amongst mobile gamers when DeNA unveiled mobile FPS The Drowning last October.

Having pitched itself as the game that would revolutionise shooters on touchscreens, The Drowning received mixed reviews at launch and somewhat stumbled out of the gate.

While it would be unfair to suggest it hasn’t amassed an interested audience, the game has struggled with player retention, soon turning to in-game events to keep players engaged.

We caught up recently with former Scattered Entertainment’s Ben Cousins in New York to talk about how The Drowning has performed and what DeNA has in store for the FPS next.

Pocket Gamer: Though highly anticipated, The Drowning arguably hasn’t performed as well as hoped. What went wrong? Did the 17+ rating from Apple hurt its chances?

Ben Cousins: I would contest the idea that in terms of audience appeal that it wasn’t a success.

Comparing apples to apples, I’ve done free-to-play shooters on other platforms and in 2009 we launched Battlefield Heroes on PC and that took three months to get two million downloads. The Drowning did that in two weeks.

There were three real experiments with The Drowning that we explored. One, is there an audience for free-to-play shooters on mobile? Absolutely.

Ben Cousins

The second was, can you create a control system that appeals to people who don’t like virtual sticks?

When we looked at the split between virtual sticks and gesture controls, the majority of people chose gesture controls – so we definitely feel like we took a step in the right direction addressing the control issues in mobile.

People that were entirely accepting of an energy mechanic in another genre of game were annoyed when you presented them with that exact same mechanic in a shooter. This probably had the biggest affect on the game’s retention.

In the future, we probably won’t use the mobile-style game loop.

Was DeNA’s press campaign for The Drowning too broad, aiming at big sites outside of the traditional mobile news and review sites?

The broad reach of The Drowning’s PR campaign was a strategic move.

After the game’s global launch we did a survey of the people who downloaded and played The Drowning, and the vast majority of them are core, console gamers.

The third thing was, can you take a casual gameplay monetisation loop and apply that to a core shooter? And I think the answer there is no.

So, I believe that it’s a bit of a misnomer that the mobile market is made up of a different set of people.

There’s a subset of the mobile market made up of core gamers who also play mobile games, and that’s the audience who was most excited about The Drowning – and those people find out about games from traditional sites.

There’s definitely a case for repeating the kind of PR campaign that we ran for The Drowning with future titles.

Why do you think the gaming press reacted so negatively to The Drowning? Do you think any of this was tied to you personally – you’ve been rather outspoken about your belief about mobile supplanting consoles.

Probably, but it doesn’t bother me. I hate the idea of writers feeling that they need to hold back.

I’m on my tenth free-to-play title now, and I’ve become aware of the fact that when you do something new that not everyone is going to be behind you.

If people want to take opportunities to critique that angle, I’m fine with that because at the end of the day the great thing about free-to-play is that consumers can download and try the game for free.

There isn’t a gatekeeper now in the industry, so you can’t have your game rubbished in the same way.

So there’s no such thing as bad publicity?

I believe that’s much more true in the free-to-play business than in the packaged goods business.

Someone might see a poor review of a free-to-play game but be interested in it, and so they’ll download it. That just wouldn’t happen if there was a pay wall in place.

Do you feel that The Drowning’s three month soft launch gave you an adequate test of the in-game economy?

It was focused on retention over monetisation, but there’s an interesting data point there.

We had a relatively small audience for the soft launch and yet the metrics carried over to the worldwide launch with maybe a five percent deviation so we got a really good picture of the worldwide performance from the soft launch.

What this told us is that there really isn’t much of a difference between how gamers behave in The Philippines or in Germany.

It’s been said that The Drowning hasn’t really found an audience, is there anything DeNA can do to re-engage players?

It found a bigger audience than we expected and we’re quite happy with the audience that we have now.

We’re in the process of submitting a build to Apple that has the final, major gameplay updates in it. This build contains two new modes that we’re adding: a stealth-based game mode and an action-based game mode.

After that, we’ll continue to run things like the boss hunt events.

You mentioned the energy mechanic being a problem earlier. Do you think the monetisation model for The Drowning is broken or can it be fixed?

The casual-style or mobile-style game loop metamechanics – outside of the gameplay – weren’t as successful as they could have been.

We didn’t know this because no one’s ever tried this before, so I wouldn’t call it a failure because it’s a failure compared to what? There was nothing else like it.

But we’ve learned that that kind of monetisation and game loop kind of jars with the gameplay – particularly the energy system.

These were the same consumers who were fine with the energy system in other games but when you combine core shooter-style gameplay with an energy system, it jars them. I don’t know why, but the customer’s always right so I won’t argue with them.

I also don’t know about that affecting monetisation, however, as I think it affected retention more than anything.

Monetisation for The Drowning is well within the normal metrics for a mobile game, we’re probably monetising at the same level as Candy Crush Saga per user in terms of ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active user).

Do you think it’s possible for a FPS to succeed on mobile without relying on a controller?

The controls have nothing to do with the difficulties we had with retention in The Drowning; those elements have been a success.

We’ve seen an uptake on the gesture controls that proved that we filled a gap that suits the people who don’t like virtual sticks.

Future games will support hardware controllers – the standard from Apple – and gesture based controls in additional to virtual stick controls. And if none of those options work for you, I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do.

Do you have a breakdown on what percentage of users were using gesture controls over virtual joystick?

I believe that it was about 60 percent of players used gesture-based controls.

This is pretty amazing, because we give them that choice pretty early in the game when they’ll have had about 15 seconds of playing with gesture controls and more than half are choosing that over virtual sticks.

Interestingly enough, the average score that gamers got was higher than the scores they were getting with gesture controls but we see a significant portion of the very high scoring players using gesture controls which tells me that we’re probably doing the right thing.

What the most important lesson that your future projects learn from The Drowning?

The notion that there’s no market for free-to-play core games on mobile is utterly untrue. Now it may be smaller than the casual game market, but can you tell me a platform where the casual game market is smaller?

In the arcades, there were more people playing Pac Man than Gauntlet, and on PC browsers more people play casual games than core games, so there’s a bigger market for casual games on mobile but there’s certainly an addressable market for core games.

With that in mind a 700 megabyte download that wasn’t compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 4, or iPad 1 doing a million downloads a week is pretty significant.

We hope more people will be bolstered up by this success in terms of generating interest and downloads, and we hope to see more products like The Drowning in the future.(source:pocketgamer)