作者：Kris Graft

如今，一些最成功的游戏甚至未遭遇“出局”。

这主要归功于付费alphas的发展趋势。尽管一些玩家对那些在游戏“完成”前便进行销售的开发者感到不屑，但这种全新的集资选择却能够让我们在上瘾的用户的帮助下更轻松地将游戏带到世人面前。

在游戏中，Steam Early Access并不是付费alphas的唯一选择，但这却是最重要的选择。我们与一些知名的Early Access开发者就他们的付费alpha经验展开了交谈，以帮助其他开发者更好地思考自己的付费alpha发展方向：

Ben Falcone，Endnight Games—-《The Forest》

Brian Fargo，InXile—-《废土2》

George Mamakos，Keen Software—-《太空工程师》

Adam Overton，Uver Entertainment—-《行星的毁灭》

Adrian Goya和Bob Holtzman，Squad—-《坎巴拉太空计划》

在开发过程中，你是否会决定好你的游戏是否准备作为付费alpha发行？为什么你会觉得时机刚刚好？

Ben Falcone：当我们用光所有钱的时候！有些粉丝一直在催我们赶紧发行游戏，我们的私人投资者也威胁我们要提起诉讼，我们的银行卡里只剩下几百美元了，所以我们觉得是时间准备发行了。

Brian Fargo：我们之所以会面对这种情况是因为我们将通过Steam发送测试副本给所有Kickstarter支持者。尽管我们已经计划在beta测试时使用Steam，但当我们开始开发时却还未出现Early Access。然后便有人想要加入早前的游戏，而我们能够做的便是通过我们的支持者去拓展它。对于我来说最适当的时机便是当我们觉得游戏不错时，这也能够带给我们许多优化的时间。

wasteland2(from gamasutra)

George Mamakos：我们在《太空工程师》的开发起始阶段设定了7个月的开发期限—-同时我们也开始进行原型创造和设计。我们完全不知道在到达截止期限时将准备好多少功能，所以我们便从最重要的内容开始—-即那些能够证实我们的游戏的能力和愿景的内容。

Adam Overton：我们在内部玩游戏并感受到了乐趣。但这并不是迄今为止对于游戏的完整看法，我们还发现了许多稳定性问题。然而，它带有主要的实施策略游戏玩法，加上它整合了一些我们所期待的能够赋予游戏独特性的内容，如在球形行星上游戏。

Adrian Goya：这是我们在一开始就计划好的（一部分），甚至是在我们开始开发前。这是我们的alpha中最重要的机制。你可以创造火箭并控制着它们飞行。当然了，在《坎巴拉太空计划》中并不存在太空，但我们认为这便是这款游戏的核心吸引力。

我们从免费演示版本开始。这只是一次探索。我们必须确保存在用户。下载量不断增加，并且我们清楚并不是只有自己面对着这种情况。当开发开始创造成本时，我们发现自己面对着一个支持“粉丝团”，我们便决定开通一个Paypal账号并接收资助去支持我们游戏的制作。我们身处墨西哥，所以处理资助将需要一大笔费用。

用户保持不断增长，虽然资助出现缩减，但却仍以一种较为可观的比率涌进来。团队不断发展，我们的需求也不断扩大，所以我们便决定转向付费alpha。我们选择了适合游戏内容的价格标签，并从那开始保持发展。

对于你的付费alpha，你对你的用户了解了多少？

Ben Falcone：用户似乎是那些总是会对游戏开发感兴趣的人。我们从那些想要创造与我们一样的游戏的人身上获得了许多热情和评论。我们迫切想要进入Early Access，但我们发现用户真的很棒且带给我们许多支持。

Brian Fargo：在任何创造性作品的开发中最重要的一件事便是获得诚实的反馈。我们的用户对RPG充满热情，他们的输入内容也对游戏质量具有重要的影响作用。比起其它渠道，我从用户身上学到的东西总是更多。在叙述故事和身处开放世界中存在一个平衡点，玩家会不断提醒我们他们的优先选择并基于任何顺序玩游戏。在扩大开放性的过程中我们做了一些改变。一开始，游戏拥有拯救Highpool或Ag Center的选择，但我们的玩家明确指出了，如果有一个区域下降，那么两个区域都该下降，所以我们为玩家编写了另外一个场景以实现他们的目标。

Adam Overton：我们拥有充满热情的用户，他们总是能够想出各种想法。我们同样也发现人们对于实时测量游戏的热情依然存在着。此外，我们将alpha的定价设为90美元以匹配Kickstarter投资者的投资，因为我们并不想破坏这些Kickstarter的价值。这教会了我们仍然存在许多人在购买了alpha后想要支持我们的游戏。

George Mamakos：有些真正的消费者给我们创造了某种压力，所以我们需要确保每周即时跟新，并没有太多漏洞且随时准备好进行测试。没有这些，我们便会终止于无限的理念循环，未完成的试验以及常见的开发问题中。

planetary(from gamasutra)

Bob Holtzman：大多数情况下，我们的用户对于我们的游戏创造总是会感到满足，并相信我们在《坎巴拉太空计划》的开发过程中的专业性。但重要的是你必须牢记，随着用户的增长，你将会听到各种关于游戏的反馈。我们意识到大多数玩家想要知道你是否听取了他们的想法，如果可以的话你最好能够落实他们的反馈。

Adrian Goya：我们发现一个充满热情且忠诚的社区将从最初开始推动我们游戏的发展。最早的粉丝将会因为自己所支持的项目发展到今天的状态，并因为自己一开始就选择了它而感到骄傲。

你的付费alpha的利益是什么？

Ben Falcone：漏洞报告真的很有用。作为一个未拥有QA部门的小团队，我们会漏掉许多事。所以拥有一支较大的群体能够尝试我们的每一次更新并发送各种漏洞报告给我们真的很棒。另外一个重要利益便是现在的我们拥有不仅能够完成游戏，而且能够达到我们的储蓄或私人投资所达不到的标准的资源。

Brian Fargo：有这么多人长达7个月专注于游戏能让我们创造出更具活力的最终产品，实际上我想象不到没有测试程序会是怎样的情况。多亏了这些人的参与，游戏变得更加出色，并且能够为首次游戏的玩家创造出更强大的游戏体验。

反馈能够为我们呈现关于评论趋势的宏观角度，并通过像兼容问题等更加具体的内容而帮助我们。对于我来说，早前玩家的评论能够处理那些游戏发行前所出现的问题，并将它们带向我能够着手的制作过程中。

George Mamakos：首先，我们知道存在一个真正的社区—-人们想要玩我们的游戏。所以比起基于潜行模式致力于游戏，并期待着有一天人们会喜欢它，我们确信人们真的想要这款游戏。之后，我们的社区将帮助我们去塑造游戏。我们会执行社区所需要的各种功能。（当然了，我们也有自己的想法。）

Adam Overton：为持续的游戏开发提供资金是一个巨大的利益。你不可能利用从Kickstarter所获得的220美元就创造出这样的游戏。另外一大利益便是你能拥有一个非常热情的社区，在这里人们会不断地玩你的游戏并提供有帮助的反馈。即使你并未真正执行他们所说的内容，识别某些可考虑的领域也很有帮助。

Adrian Goya：在深受不确定性问题所困扰的产业中，模式能够帮助我们找到我们的游戏是否存在用户。这能帮助我们创造一个不仅沉浸于项目中，同时还会觉得自己是其中的一部分并想要将其传播给所有觉得我们具有潜能的人的社区。不仅如此，我们还能够从中获得许多会对我们的发展方向产生影响的反馈和看法，帮助我们创造许多功能优化，而这些可能只有我们在发行后才能看到。

这里存在什么弊端或最大的挑战？

Ben Falcone：唯一的弊端便是我们必须保持游戏始终是可游戏的。有时候我们会想中断所有内容几天以添加新系统或改变光线什么的。如果游戏不得不在1个月内出现在公众面前2至3次，这便意味着更大的改变会带来更多压力，并且对于时间的要求也更大。

Brian Fargo：这里存在的两大问题便是，你将冒着推出一款未完成游戏的风险，并且它有可能创造长期且糟糕的印象，而Steam上的评论也将是关于不相干的游戏版本（游戏邦注：幸运的是Steam会根据最终版本标记Early Access评论）。大多数人都会希望他们所看到的内容并理解整个过程，但这的确是一大风险。另外一大弊端便是现在的你不仅致力于一个需要更新的产品，同时还需要尝试着去完成游戏。每个月明确面向公共发行的时间很耗时，但再一次地这一代价是值得的。

George Mamakos：我们所面对的主要弊端便是许多玩家以及大多数媒体在提到基于Early Access的游戏购买或报道时仍会犹豫。我们所面临的的最大挑战便是说服他们关于我们游戏的质量以及我们在最初发行时的计划和看法。同样的，基于开发，我们最大的一个挑战便是管理没有太多漏洞或不会破坏代码的新功能执行。

Adam Overton：一大弊端便是拥有一个非常热情的社区，在这里人们会不断玩游戏并提供反馈！说真的，与所有的人保持联系是一项大工程，并且我们也会面对各种噪音。人们可能会一直说一些其它产品上的功能。虽然这是项费力的工作，但却是有价值的。我们同样也因为alpha的高价感到郁闷，但是我们觉得在这一问题上对Kickstarter支持者保持诚实态度非常重要。

Adrian Goya：我们必须遵循与标准游戏完全不同的开发过程。每一次小小的更新或补丁都需要呈现出与之前不同的内容，如此才能确保游戏的独立性。这将提高社区的标准以及我们粉丝的热情，并且你也将拥有关于应对潜在灾难的配方。

Bob Holtzman：最困难的一点便是应对社区成员的期待。KSP的增长意味着我们将拥有许多不同的看法，并需要将其与我们的团队进行分析。对于刚刚了解社区这种情况的开发者来说，消化所有的这些信息并明确哪些是重要的真的很难。其实我们不应该将其说是弊端，但因为Early Access程序仍然较新，所以我们必须提醒玩家我们的程序代表什么以及我们会如何做到不辜负它。

发行一款付费alpha游戏的重要建议？

Ben Falcone：《饥荒》的前景拥有一个关于天数的倒计时，能让玩家准确了解下一次的更新时间。我们认为这是一个很棒的想法。公众的反应也不错。每次当你加载游戏时，你便会知道游戏仍然处于制作中，同时你也会清楚何时会出现新更新的内容。

Brian Fargo：开发者真的需要确保发行的内容能够呈现最终内容的潜能，或者说第一印象非常重要。当你率先发行一款未完成的游戏时，你最好准备好听取别人的看法并接收资源去做出改变。

George Mamakos：它必须包含核心功能。例如在我们的例子中便是实体，体积破坏和建造工具。如果一开始我们提供一款你能够在太空中航行，但却不具有提到的功能的游戏，那么人们便不会获得任何特别的内容，我们也会失去他们对于游戏的兴趣。所以每次的更新我们都需要听取社区的看法。

Adam Overton：你的游戏最好能够包含一些新奇的内容作为alpha版本的奖励。你必须准备好与用户进行互动。确保你能够坚持完成游戏。你的alpha游戏玩家一定会花钱购买完成游戏，并且他们将见证整个创造过程。这就像是一种预购，只有你能够获得一些事先支付的费用。所以你必须确保能够通过与社区的交流而传达一些有价值的内容。

Adrian Goya：保证质量并确保为你的游戏设定一个合适的价格。如果你所设定的价格低于内容的标准，你便需要从项目的未来调用部分资金，并作出妥协。如果定价太高的话你将有可能逐渐疏远那些支持你的人。

测试。不断进行测试。然后确保这些测试是否经过适当测试。大多数玩家将只会给你一次机会，如果你因为漏洞而导致他们的离开，你不仅不能添加其他支持者，同时还会失去那些可能说服其他支持者加入的人。

从开发的起始阶段便制定好设计计划，但也需要留给粉丝们一些反馈空间。你需要记住，你的社区成员将拥有许多你从未想过的看法，但是他们需要作为你的顾问而非向导。如果你尝试着去迎合所有人但却未考虑自己的真正想法，你最终便不可能满足任何人。

Bob Holtzman：对你的社区和你自己保持诚实。你的社区将成为你的游戏成功的理由。如果你不能诚实地面对他们，他们便会将此与好友分享，并不会再邀请好友与自己一起游戏。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转功，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Selling a game before it’s ‘done’: Tips and insight for paid alphas

by Kris Graft

These days, some of the most successful games out there aren’t even “out” yet.

That’s thanks to the rising trend of paid alphas. While some players show disdain toward developers who sell a game before it’s “done,” this new funding option has brought us games that may have never seen the light of day, all with the financial — and creative — help from an engaged audience.

Steam Early Access isn’t the only option for paid alphas in games, but it is certainly the most prominent. We spoke with notable Early Access developers for some insight and tips into their own paid alpha experiences, for developers thinking of going the paid alpha route:

Ben Falcone: Endnight Games – The Forest

Brian Fargo, InXile – Wasteland 2

George Mamakos, Keen Software – Space Engineers

Adam Overton, Uber Entertainment – Planetary Annihilation

Adrian Goya and Bob Holtzman, Squad – Kerbal Space Program

At what point in development did you decide that your game was ready to be released as a paid alpha? Why did you feel that was the appropriate time?

Ben Falcone, Endnight Games: When we ran out of money! Some of the fans were yelling at us to release, our private investors were threatening to sue, and we were down to a few hundred dollars in the bank, so we felt it was time.

Brian Fargo, InXile: Our situation arose out of the fact that we were already going to be sending beta copies out to all of our Kickstarter backers through Steam as per our campaign. Though we had always planned to use Steam for our beta testing, Early Access did not exist when we began development. We then had folks who missed our Kickstarter and wanted to get in on the early playing and all we had to do was flip a switch to broaden it out from our backers. For me the appropriate time was when we could give a good sense of the game, but yet give us plenty of time to modify.

George Mamakos, Keen Software: We set the seven-months development deadline right at the beginning of Space Engineer’s development – in the same moment as we started prototyping and designing. We didn’t know with 100 percent certainty how many features will be ready on the deadline, so we started with the most important ones – mostly those that could demonstrate the capabilities and vision of our game.

Adam Overton, Uber Entertainment: We were playing the game internally and having fun. It wasn’t the complete vision for the game by far, and there were plenty of stability issues. Still, it had the main real-time strategy game play, plus it incorporated some of what we expected would make the game unique, such as playing on a spherical planet.

Adrian Goya, Squad: It was part of our plan from the start, before we even started development. The most important mechanics were present in our (admittedly otherwise limited) alpha. You could build rockets and fly them around. Sure, there was no Space in Kerbal Space Program yet, but what we believed to be our core engagements were there.

We started with a completely free demo. This was simply exploratory. We had to make sure the audience was there. The response was absolutely flooring. The download count kept rising and it made it clear we were not alone. Being as development was starting to generate costs and we found ourselves with a very supportive fanbase, we decided to open a Paypal account and accept donations to fuel the production of our game. We’re in Mexico, so handling the donations was met with deeply substantial fees.

The audience kept growing and growing, donations, while slashed, were coming in at good enough rate. The team grew and our needs expanded as well, so we moved into the paid Alpha territory. We opted for a price tag that we considered was fair for the content in the game, and have been growing ever since.

What have you learned about the audience for your paid alpha?

Ben Falcone, Endnight Games: The audience seems to be a lot of people really excited about game development in general. We get a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of comments from people who say they wanted to make a game just like ours. We were pretty nervous going into Early Access but found the audience to be actually really great and supportive.

Brian Fargo, InXile: One of the things that is important in the development of any creative work is to get good honest feedback along the way. Our audience is very passionate about RPGs and their input has made a major impact on the quality of the game. I learn from my audience more than anything. There is a balancing act between telling a narrative story and being open world, and the players were constantly reminding us of their priorities and playing the game in almost any order. We made quite a few changes in expanding the openness. In the beginning, the game had two choices of saving Highpool or Ag Center, but our players rightly pointed out that if that if one area was going to fall then both should, so we wrote another scenario for the player to accomplish their goals despite allowing those two places to be overrun.

Adam Overton, Uber Entertainment: We have a passionate audience with a tremendous capacity to come up with ideas. We also learned that the excitement for real-time strategy games is still alive. Additionally, we priced the alpha at $90 to be comparable to what Kickstarters paid, because we didn’t want to undermine the value of those Kickstarters. That taught us that there were still a significant number of people who were interested in backing the game after the fact by purchasing the alpha.

George Mamakos, Keen Software: Having real customers adds some kind of pressure on us, so we need to make sure that weekly updates are on time, with as less bugs as possible and ready to be playtested. Without this, we could end up in a never-ending cycle of ideas, unfinished experiments… the usual game development problems.

Bob Holtzman, Squad: Our audience, for the most part, is very satisfied with the work we’re doing on the game and believe we’ve been professional in our development of Kerbal Space Program. But it’s important to understand that as your audience grows, so will the variety of opinions you’ll hear in feedback about the game. We realize most players want to know you’re listening and when possible, using their feedback to take action.

Adrian Goya, Squad: We have found a greatly engaged, passionate and loving community that made our project possible, nurturing it from the very beginning. The earliest adopters also take immense pride in being there from the beginning, knowing that the little project they backed blossomed into what it is today.

What have been the benefits of your paid alpha?

Ben Falcone, Endnight Games: The bug reports are really helpful. As a tiny team without a QA department, lots of small things just get missed. Having a large group of people playing each update and emailing us almost instantly with a list of bugs is an amazing resource. The other major benefit is we now have the resources financially to not only complete the game, but to complete it to a standard that would have been impossible relying only on our own savings or private investment.

Brian Fargo, InXile: Having so many people banging on the game for seven months has allowed us to make a far more robust final product, in fact I can’t imagine not having a beta program in place at this point. The game is better thanks to those who participated and it’s going to make the experience for first time players stronger.

Seeing the feedback gave us a macro viewpoint on the trends of comments and further helped with more specific things like compatilbity issues. For me, comments from early players address issues that would normally come post-ship, moving them up into production where I can do something about it.

George Mamakos, Keen Software: First we know that there’s a real community — people who want to play our game. So instead of working on our game in stealth mode for years and hoping that one day people may enjoy it, we knew for sure that people want it. Later, our community helped us and is still helping shape the game. We implement features that we see are required by the community. (Of course we have our own ideas too.)

Adam Overton, Uber Entertainment: Funding the ongoing development of the game is definitely a huge benefit. You can’t make a game like this with the $2.2 million we got from the Kickstarter. Another benefit is having an enthusiastic community of people who play the game constantly and give feedback. While you don’t take everything they say at face value, it is useful for identifying areas to consider.

Adrian Goya, Squad: In an industry that is plagued by the problem of uncertainty, the model helped us find if there was an audience for our game. It helped us create a community that was not only engaged with the project, but felt like part of it and was willing to evangelize to everyone who would listen about our potential. Not only that, but we have been showered with feedback and opinions that while not affecting our main roadmap for KSP, have helped us make a plethora of modifications and polish features that we would have otherwise only seen as necessary after release.

What have been the drawbacks and biggest challenges?

Ben Falcone, Endnight Games: The only real drawback has been having to always keep the game somewhat playable. There are times where we want to break everything for a few days to get a new system in, or change the lighting. When the game has to go out to the public 2-3 times a month it means bigger changes are a lot more stressful, and have to be more carefully-timed so as to not break the game drastically for everyone.

Brian Fargo, InXile: Well the two big issues are that you take a risk by putting out an unfinished game and that it creates a long-term bad impression, and the Steam reviews stay up based on a version of the game that is not relevant (though fortunately Steam tags the Early Access reviews from the final version). The majority liked what they saw and understood the process, but it is a risk. The other drawback is that you are now simultaneously working on servicing an active product with updates while trying to finish the game. Locking the game down for public release every month or so takes time, but again the tradeoff is worth it.

George Mamakos, Keen Software: The main drawback that we had to face was the fact that a big percentage of players and also the majority of the press are still hesitant when it comes to purchasing or covering games which are in Early Access. The biggest challenges were to convince them about the quality of our game and also about the vision and the plan that we had when we first launched it. Also, in terms of development, one of our biggest challenges was to stay focused on our initial plan and to manage the implementation of new features without having too many bugs and without damaging the code.

Adam Overton, Uber Entertainment: One drawback is having an enthusiastic community of people who play the game constantly and give feedback! Hah! Seriously, keeping up with all that is significant work, and there is substantial noise around the signal. Pet features, things people want from other products, “OMG unit X is OP!!!,” etc. It can be taxing, but it is worth it. Most days, anyway! We also got some grief around having the alpha so high-priced, but we felt staying true to our Kickstarter backers on that issue was too important.

Adrian Goya, Squad: We had to follow a completely different development process from the standard in gaming. Every little update or patch had to represent a noticeable upgrade from the previous, so much so that it could stand on its own or even as the last one. Add to that the rising standards within the community and the passion of our fans and you have a recipe for potential disaster.

Bob Holtzman, Squad: One of the most difficult aspects is managing expectations with your community. And as KSP grew, it meant we were going to have many different voices and opinions being shared with our team. For the developers, who were just learning about this aspect of the community, it was a challenge to digest all of this information and figure out what was important. We wouldn’t necessarily call it a drawback, but as Early Access programs are still new, it’s important to consistently remind players what our program means and how we intend to live up to our end of the program.

What are key pieces of advice for releasing a paid alpha game?

Ben Falcone, Endnight Games: Don’t Starve had a countdown timer for days on the front screen, and let players know exactly when the next update would come. We thought this was an amazing idea and took this a little further and instead added hours, minutes and seconds to how long until next build would be out. I think it’s something the public has responded to really well. Every-time you load the game your reminded as a player that the game is still being worked on, and you know when the new update will be out.

Brian Fargo, InXile: A developer really needs to make sure that what is being released shows the potential of what is to come or that first impression could make a later successful launch impossible. And when you put a game out for early play you better be ready to listen and have the resources to make the changes that no doubt will come in.

George Mamakos, Keen Software: It has to contain the core features. For example in our case it was the physics, volumetric destructions and building tools. If we started with let’s say a game where you can pilot ship in space but with none of the mentioned features, people wouldn’t get anything special, we would lose their interest. Then there are weekly updates and listening to the community.

Adam Overton, Uber Entertainment: It’s really important that your game contain something novel as a reward for being in the alpha. Be prepared to interact with your audience. Make sure you’re likely to be able to follow through and deliver your game. People in your alpha are essentially paying for the full game, plus being able to witness the creation process. It’s like pre-ordering, only you get something for paying early. So make sure you deliver that value by engaging with your community.

Adrian Goya, Squad: Commit yourself to quality and make sure you are charging the right price for your game. If you give your project a lower price than the content within it merits, you’ll take funding from the future of the project and compromise it all. Charge too much and you’ll end up alienating any possible support you could have had.

Test. Test and test and then test some more. Then make sure that those tests were properly tested. Most players will only be willing to give you a single shot, and having them turn away from your game because of a bug that you could have found and fixed means that not only will you have kept yourself from adding another supporter, but you have lost everyone that supporter could have talked into giving you a chance. Do not rush anything.

Have a well designed plan from the beginning of your development to 1.0, but make room for feedback from your fans. Keep in mind though, your community will have a lot of good insights and points of view that you had never ever considered, but they must remain your advisors, not your guide. If you try and please everyone and lose touch with your vision, you will end up pleasing no one.

Bob Holtzman, Squad: Be honest with your community and yourself. Your community is going to be the reason your game succeeds. If you can’t be honest with them, they will share that with their friends and the chances of them asking their friends to play with them is diminished. (source:gamasutra)