作者：Mark Sorrell

本文中提到的每一个趋势都可能自成一文了。我发现自己经常为游戏公司的行为感到困难，他们为什么打着管理风险的旗号做那么冒险的事——永远不尝试任何新的东西；什么可行就山寨什么。不知有多少山寨游戏得向《Candy Crush Saga》表达谢意。但我们没有实验过的创意的数量已经超过太阳的氢分子的数量了。

所以我列举了以下几个可能比较新的想法，我希望不愿冒险又没想象力的游戏开发者能大胆地尝试一下。

1、《Salty Bet》的启示

如果你已经听说过《Salty Bet》，那说明你走在行业前沿。对吧？如果没有，那么你现在就应该去看看，因为它实在太好玩了。它使用MUGEN格斗游戏引擎，让出自各种经典的格斗游戏的角色和大量邪恶的东西（比如巨大的Tiger Woods的头？）进行格斗比赛，角色的战斗由AI控制，战斗情况通过流媒体技术做成视频，让玩家打赌结果，和在聊天窗口里为角色加油。《Salty Bet》是一封写给格斗游戏的情书，同时也是一封憎恨邮件。

Salty Bet(from evo.shoryuken)

启示？制作一款核心循环基本上或完全自动执行的游戏，而让玩家重点参与社交方面和元游戏循环。个体玩家的体验（有时候）并不像集体玩家的体验那么重要。所以尝试一下制作一款只有大循环而核心循环中没有任何玩家角色的游戏。你可能会学习到一些有价值/能赚大钱的东西。

这就是Facebook/Zynga混合体努力的方向，但他们一直没有做出成果。这就是“一起玩”和“玩时在一起”的区别。这就是《魔兽世界》这款其实是优秀的单人游戏却这么成功的原因之一。因为有聊天！Kongregate公司的游戏正是这样的，但目前为止iOS平台还没有什么值得一提的成果。这是一个开放的目标，Snapchat/Whatsapp（游戏邦注：前者是一个照片共享应用程序；后者是一个允许不付短信费互相交换信息的智能手机短信应用程序）变成游戏吧！

2、先试验你的创作

花了大量时间和金钱为你的游戏创作漂亮的美术材料或精彩的故事？想做一本电子书，先发布它吧。也许这太疯狂了，如果你想寻找人们喜欢的美术风格，人们想进入的游戏世界，那么就试试公布几个不同的版本，看看哪受欢迎。

然后，你不仅给电子书筹到一些钱和学习了如何制作和发布东西，你还知道了人们到底喜欢什么样的风格/角色/世界/故事。也许甚至更好，你还会让粉丝感知到电子书的价值（不是免费）而不是游戏的定价（免费）。或者你可以免费发放，作为市场营销。或者你想到什么就试一试吧。但无论你做什么，你都将从你的作品中获得更多价值，以及学到新的赚钱技巧。

3、挖掘文化遗产

Supercell和GungHo强强联手，显然表明，现在世界的主宰是手机游戏。几乎没有任何一类游戏达到了真正的世界性成功，所以非亿万美元公司的工作室，是不是应该尝试一下？

购买一个改编版权，根据没有人相信能做成游戏但风靡全世界的主题制作游戏。东方和西方有什么文化遗产，却还没有对应的游戏版，够新奇又能廉价地买入改编权？铁女架（游戏邦注：是中世纪欧洲的一种刑具）？我猜还有相当多这类文化遗产，但你可以自己去找找。

4、用游戏赚钱

我现在非常喜欢Icoplay的《Icominer》，它能在用户的机子上利用空闲的CPU循环给用户挖比特币。

icominer promo(from geekwire.com)

然而，我很好奇这是否只是第一步。当用户在你的游戏中做你让他们去做的事时，你还能利用用户的机子做什么？经常看到玩家在为人类福利和科学而设计的游戏中发现癌症治疗法和发现太空物质。但如果你只是想赚钱呢？游戏可以通过无意识的玩法帮你赚钱吗？

当然可以。

5、向电视节目取经

为什么在电视上受到追捧的东西不能立即变成游戏？这对我来说是一个谜题。毕竟广大观众已经暗示这种东西很棒他们喜欢，所以你找到方向了。为什么你还不制作关于这个东西的游戏？以下是一些比较容易实现的想法：

在1960年代经营一家广告公司

经营一家日益壮大的冰毒工厂

烘焙糕点

作交际舞比赛的评委

成为只杀其他连环杀手的连环杀手——或警察！

扮演任何一类你能想象得到的怪异警察或古怪侦探

有没有人已经做出一款能让我扮演电视剧《New Girl》中的Schmidt的游戏？

当然，电视节目的乐趣来源于剧本和表演，而不是背景，但游戏的乐趣来源于玩法，也不是背景，所以为什么不让你自己过得轻松一点，选择一个对游戏来说是新的同时让你的目标受众（所有人）觉得熟悉的背景？（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）

Five Game Business Trends I Wish Were Happening

By Mark Sorrell

Here is an article based on a statement that could easily be an article all to itself, if not a book. Here it is. I find myself constantly bemused by the huge risks games companies are willing to take — in the name of managing risk — by never trying anything new, ever. Copying what works can yield results, Candy Crush Saga take a bow, but the number of ideas we have no data on because no-one used them exceeds the number of hydrogen molecules in the sun.

So here are some vaguely newish ideas that I wish were being ruthlessly exploited by risk-averse game developers with no imagination.

1. Always Never Bet On Salty Bet

You’ve all heard of Salty Bet because you’re cutting edge types. Right? Well if you haven’t, you should go there now and kook at it, because it is weirdly awesome. It uses the MUGEN fighting game engine to match up fighters from various classic fighting game titles, as well as loads of insane other things they just threw in (giant disembodied Tiger Woods’ head, perhaps?), played by the AI, then stream the fights as video and let players bet on the outcome and shout at each other in a chat window. Salty Bet is a love-letter to fighting games, but also it is hate-mail at the same time.

Just go and have a look, ok? http://www.saltybet.com/

The lesson? Make games with core loops that broadly or entirely play themselves, and concentrate on the social and meta-game loops. The individual player experience is (sometimes) not as important as the communal player experience. So try making a game that only has the bigger, broader loops, and doesn’t have any player agency at all in its core. You might learn something valuable/make millions of dollars.

This is where the Facebook/Zynga chimera went most of the way but then stopped short of the final form. The difference between ‘play together’ and ‘be together while playing’. One of the reasons why World of Warcraft did so well is that it’s a great single player game. With chat! Kongregate features games that do exactly this, but so far nothing noteworthy on iOS. It’s an open goal. Snapchat/Whatsapp, the game. Go!

2. Test Your World First

Spent a lot of time and money on creating beautiful art assets or a rich story for your game? Make an eBook. And, now here’s the kicker – release it first. And, maybe this is madness, if you want to find an aesthetic that people like, a world people want to be in, try releasing a few different ones and see what sticks.

Then, not only will you get some money for eBooks and learn about making and releasing such things, you’ll find out which look/world/story/characters people actually like. And maybe even better (sneakier) you’ll also set fans perceptions of value at eBook pricing (not free) rather than game pricing (free).  Or you can give them away free and gain some marketing. Or whatever else you fancy trying. But whatever you do, you’ll be getting much better value out of your art assets and learning new money making techniques to boot.

3. Probably 80s Pop Bands and Detergent Brands

Supercell and GungHo getting into a bunk-up for mutual fun and profit is a clear indication that WORLD DOMINATION is now pretty much the end game for mobile. There are very few games of any sort that have really achieved genuine world-wide success (hey Nintendo!) so how are you, not a billion dollar company, possibly supposed to pull that trick off?

Buy a license to make a game on a subject that no-one believes could possibly work as a game, but is popular the world over. What cultural properties work in the East and West already, don’t have games attached and are weird enough that they could be licensed relatively cheaply? Iron Maiden. I’m going to guess there are quite a few other ones, but you can go check that out yourself.

4. Send Them Down The Mine

My very favourite thing at the moment is Icoplay’s Icominer, which uses spare GPU cycles on users machines to mine Bitcoins for you. (http://icoplay.com/)

I wonder, however, if this isn’t just the first step. What else could you use a users machine for while they’re off enjoying themselves doing, you know, that thing you got them to do with your game? And while we’re at it, what else could users themselves be doing There’s been much coverage of gamers CURING CANCER and IDENTIFYING SPACE THINGS in game designed for the good of humanity and science. But what about if you just want to make money? Can a game bring in money via gameplay that has mechanical turk-like side-effects?

Sure it can.

5. Shamelessly Stealing Stuff Off The Telly

It’s a mystery to me why things that work on TV aren’t immediately turned into games for a mass audience. Because that mass audience has already suggested that this thing is cool and that they like it, so you’re already a long way down the path. Why not make games about – and these are some low-hanging fruit here people -

Running an ad agency in the 1960s

Running an ever growing meth operation

Baking cakes and tarts and that

Judging a ballroom dancing competition

Being a serial killer that only kills other serial killers – and also a cop!

On that note, literally any kind of weird cop or strange detective you can imagine

Please will someone make a game where I get to be Schmidt from New Girl already?

Sure, the joy in a show comes from the writing and performances, not the setting, but the joy of a game comes from the gameplay, not the setting, so why not make life easier for yourself and nick a setting that is simultaneously new to games while being wholly familiar to your target audience ie. everybody.(source:gamesbrief)