作者：Sally Poh

《Swarm of the Dead》是我们的第5款iOS游戏，之前的游戏都未曾像这款僵尸RTS这样获得如此多中国玩家和评论者的青睐，尽管它是针对美国市场进行设计的。

通过《SOTD》的案例研究，我希望在此分享我们的经验以及如何在中国优化独立游戏的性能并提高收益。

Swarm of the Dead（from gamasutra）

有关《SOTD》的一些背景信息

下载

《SOTD》在中国的官方下载次数是美国的5倍（美国拥有第二大下载量）。因为我们在游戏中运行广告，所以这一数字便显得更加重要。

（根据我们的广告网络的分析，来自中国的官方下载只代表当地1/3的实际玩家数量。）

stats（from gamasutra）

（来自www.appannie.com的数据）

收益

在前2周内，IAP收益是美国的两倍，但可能因为IAP黑客，这一数值最终持平。

来自中国的广告收益是其IAP销量的7倍，并且在几个月内都维持着这一数值。

评论和玩家反馈

除了在《SOTD》发行前2周提供给两个中国评论网站一些优惠码外（这并未带来任何回应），我们基本上未做任何宣传。

在发行后12个小时，我们获得了游戏的第一条综合性评论。从整体来看，《SOTD》在前2周内从各种中国网站，包括百度，人人，tgbus等中获得了大约60条评论。

在全盛时期，《SOTD》更是获得“What’s Hot”（策略游戏类别）的推荐，并在发行后一个月排在第9位。游戏已经发行4个月了，在我们瞄准中国玩家更新内容前游戏的排名是78，之后上升到了28。

以下是我们所做出的正确决定，而这可能也是你所想的。

1.语言

《SOTD》被翻译成中文（和日文），并且有一些评论者称赞我们的语言支持。这让玩家能够更轻松地理解教程，特别是对于那些不熟悉游戏类型但却想尝试看看的玩家来说。

2.整合广告

我们总是很难从玩家身上获得盈利，特别是对于中国玩家而言，因为他们1）很精明，2）面对了太多选择，3）这里有许多很出色的黑客（我们是在游戏发行12个小时候便迎来了IAP黑客）。

如果你不能让玩家掏腰包的话，通过广告获取盈利便更有意义。如果能够找到一个中文广告平台就更好了，因为玩家熟悉物质刺激下载是如何运行的，并更加愿意观看预告片/下载免费游戏去换取游戏货币。

根据我们的经验，之所以将中文广告平台整合到《SOTD》不仅不会对英文广告平台产生影响，反而还能带来额外的利益。这可能意味着1）不存在足够的英文广告能够喂饱玩家，或者2）中国人更喜欢使用/观看一些他们所熟悉的内容。

如果你对整合中文广告平台感兴趣，你便需要注意可能不能在英文中获得技术支持（整合SDK以及汇款之类）。尽早对各个部分进行分类，从而避免厌恶或让人失望。

3.发行时间

《SOTD》是在万圣节前1周发行。

尽管在这期间有许多大型游戏推出了各自的万圣节版本，但评论者仍会在这期间不断搜索App Store并编辑他们心中的值得推荐的本季新游戏列表。

我想我们能够突显于其它万圣节出题的应用间是因为发行时间恰到好处。那时候我们已经拥有中文版的关键词，名字和描述。熟悉的语言会更有效地吸引玩家的注意，并且因为《SOTD》并不像是传统的中国游戏，所以会显得更有趣。

4.规格

《SOTD》的规格低于50兆，并且无需连网就能游戏。这在中国市场是一个很大的加分点，因为中国2G和3G网络的覆盖和网速都是一个大问题，而数据计划更是非常昂贵。

5.类型

我们一直与中国广告平台保持交流，他们也与我分享了其网站上一些最赚钱的游戏类型，包括赛车游戏，射击游戏，以及策略游戏—-这些游戏都能让玩家感到兴奋。

我猜僵尸大屠杀也具有同样的模拟效果？

有趣的是，我们所交流的另一个中国发行商建议我们添加“性感的”僵尸女神到游戏中，因为这是他们的玩家最想看到的内容。如果你想吸引中国玩家的注意，也许“性格与暴力”的结合便是值得考虑的选择，因为如今的中国人口中男性比例占多数（游戏邦注：自从实行独生子女政策后）。

并不是说僵尸女神是个糟糕的理念，是因为我们想要“向前走”而不是重新创造一些已经尝试过的内容。

关于中国的Android市场

分散的App Store

在获得iOS版本这些鼓舞人心的数据后，我们更加想要进入中国Android市场，即占据着中国手机用户市场的绝大多数份额。

然而，因为中国有超过200个Android应用商店，所以这便成为一个棘手的问题，每个较受欢迎的商店（游戏邦注：由电信和手机制造商所运行）都有其垂青的广告平台（通常是由姐妹公司所运营的）。

今天，我们已经将《SOTD》移植到Google Play，我们可以期待它所获得的成绩。

付费系统

Android游戏在中国的付费系统也与世界上其它市场的不同，需要定制化并应对个体App Store。如此看来现在的我们还有许多任务要做。

（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）

Get your iOS game noticed in China and increase your App Revenue

by Sally Poh

“Swarm of the Dead” is our 5th iOS game and none of its predecessors have garnered as much attention from the Chinese players and reviewers like this zombie RTS did, even though it was conceptualized and designed for the US market.

Through the case study of “Swarm of the Dead”, I hope to share our experience and generate some discourse about how to optimize an indie games’ performance in China and increase revenue.

Some background info about SOTD

Downloads

Official downloads of SOTD in China is 5 times more than that of US, which has the second most number of downloads. As we are running advertisements in the game, this number becomes very significant.

(According to analytics from our ad networks however, the official downloads from China is only reflecting about 1/3 of the actual number of players in that country.)

(App stats from www.appannie.com )

Revenue

IAP revenue was two times more than that of US in the first 2 weeks, but gradually became on par, possibly due to the IAP hacks.

Ad revenue from China is 7 times more than its IAP sales and is a consistent figure across the months.

Reviews and player feedback

Save for giving out a couple of promo codes 2 weeks prior the launch of SOTD to TWO Chinese review websites, which yielded no response, we basically did nothing.

12 hours following the launch though, we got our first and very comprehensive review of the game. In total, SOTD garnered about 60 game reviews from various Chinese websites, including Baidu, renren, tgbus etc within the first 2 weeks.

At its peak, SOTD was featured under “What’s Hot” (Strategy Games Category), ranking at #9 a month after its release. It’s been 4 months now and we were ranking at #78 before we shot back up to #28 with a content update targeting the Chinese players.

What (we think) we did right… and perhaps you should think about it too.

#1- Language

SOTD was translated into Chinese (and Japanese) and there were a couple of reviewers who commended the language support. It makes the tutorial much easier to understand, especially for players who are not familiar with the game genre but are interested in giving it a try.

#2- Incorporating Ads

It’s difficult to monetize players and it’s even more so with Chinese players because they are 1) shrewd; 2) spoilt for choice (who isn’t these days?) and 3) they have great hackers (Our IAP hacks were available just some 12 hours after launch).

Monetising through ads in this case makes good sense if you cannot get players to pay from their pockets. Better still, find a Chinese ad platform because the players are familiar with how incentivized downloads work and are willing to do watch trailers/ download free games in exchange for game currency.

According to our experience, the Chinese ad platform that was incorporated into SOTD later not only has no effect on the English ad platform but instead generated extra revenue. This could possibly mean that 1) there were not enough English ads to feed the players or 2) the Chinese prefer using/ watching something they are familiar with.

If you are interested in incorporating Chinese Ad platforms, do note that technical support (incorporating SDK and perhaps remittance) may not be readily available in English. Do sort out with the respective parties earlier to avoid delays and disappointments.

#3- Timing of release

SOTD was released a week before Halloween.

While there were many big games with their Halloween version competing for attention, reviewers were also trawling the App Store during this time and compiling their list of new games to feature for the season.

I guess we stood out among the other Halloween theme apps because the timing was good. We had the right keywords, title and description in Chinese at that time. The familiar language made it less daunting to pick up and it’s intriguing because SOTD didn’t look like the typical Chinese game.

#4- Size

SOTD is under 50 MB and does not require an internet connection to play. It’s a huge plus point in China because the speed and coverage of China’s 2G and 3G network is an issue and data plan can be very expensive.

#5- Genre

I was speaking with the Chinese ad platform and they have shared that the top revenue earners on their network consist of racing, shooting, and strategy games– apps that get the adrenalin rushing.

I guess Zombie carnage has the same simulative effect too?

Interestingly, another Chinese publisher whom we spoke with suggested that we include a “sexy and voluptuous” zombie goddess into the game because it’s the kind of thing that their players love to see. If you’re interested in courting the Chinese players, perhaps this “sex-and-violence” combination is something to consider since the Chinese population (after the implementation of the one child policy) is skewed towards the male population.

Anyway, just for your information on our “courtship”– we did update SOTD with Shaolin Kungfu Monks and Chinese Zombies “Jiangshi” to woo the Chinese players. Not that the Zombie goddess was a bad idea, but we wanted to ‘move on” instead of re-doing something that we’ve already put out there.

About China’s Android Market

Fragmented App Store

Following the encouraging figures from the iOS version, we’ve been wanting to tap into the Chinese Android market, which makes up the majority of the Chinese mobile user market share.

However, it’s a tricky issue because China has over 200 Android App stores, and the popular ones (run by Telcos and handset manufacturers themsevles) each has their favored ad platform (usually run by a sister company).

We’ve just ported SOTD to Google Play today and it’ll be interesting to see how it fares.

Payment system

The payment system for Android games in China is also very different from the rest of the world and requires customisation and dealing with the individual App Stores. Sounds like a lot of work which we are not ready to tackle as of now.(source:gamasutra)