作者：James Batchelor

总部位于土耳其的开发商Gram Games创建于2012年，并迅速发行了好几款成功的游戏。

它所发行的手机游戏包括《Railroad Gangs》，《Gran Tower》，《1010》以及全新的《1010 World》。现在这支20人组成的强大团队每天能够通过益智游戏系列《1010》中创造出数千美元，并且在过去几年里共创造了超过110美元的收益。

Develop联系了Gram Games的首席执行官Mehmet Ecevit并与他讨论了《1010》是如何成为该公司的一大突破，他们是如何应对复制游戏，为什么他们使用了广告而不是微交易，以及他们未来有何计划。

你认为《1010》的成功应该归功于谁？

对于《1010》，我们的目标是创造一款专注于简单，有趣，但却难以精通的游戏玩法。我们同样也想创造一种没有时间限制和付费墙的简单的用户体验。我想正是这样的目标成就了《1010》的成功。我们的用户喜欢无限且不间断的游戏回合，清楚且新颖的图像，他们并不喜欢付费墙的存在。他们希望能够随时开始一个快速的游戏回合。我们收到的玩家反馈显示，他们已经玩了《1010》好几周，甚至好几个月了。

你们是如何依靠这一成功？你们又是如何去推动游戏的向前发展？

《1010》的玩家喜欢与朋友或者网上的陌生人竞争去获得更高分数，所以我们创造了一些新功能去帮助玩家分享自己的分数并向朋友展示自己是如何做到的。我们同样也希望能够尽快添加《1010》的多人游戏版本。

1010 (from develop-online)

除了添加全新功能与更新内容外，我们还发行了《1010 World》，这款游戏使用了《1010》独特的游戏玩法并将其应用于冒险类型中。玩家将在游戏中放置组块去解决谜题并朝着下一个关卡前进。根据苹果的App Store Editors，这款游戏最近被选为最可爱的游戏之一。

对于那些你们游戏的复制品，你有何看法？这是否在某种程度上影响了你们的业务？

有句老话说，模仿是奉承的最佳形式。所以我们一方面将复制游戏看做是一种称赞。另一方面它也带给了我们一些挑战。我们花了很多时间和努力去创造人们会喜欢的游戏，但是那些复制品却有可能将我们的玩家带向一个并不优秀的版本。特别是《1010》还是一款完全免费的游戏。

对于复制游戏开发者及其游戏你们会怎么做？

世界上有许多真正优秀的开发者和工作室花了许多时间和努力去创造人们会喜欢的游戏，他们也理应得到相应的奖励。所以我认为我们产业应该尽所能地去突显他们的努力。

制定严格的应用商店指南并认真审查应用商店秩序便是处理这种问题的一大方法，但是这种方法也有可能导致其它非预料的结果。而对于玩家的教育也是解决方法之一。

为什么你们选择了展示广告而不是其它形式的广告？这一选择创造了怎样的结果？

这主要是因为我们专注于提供给用户最佳用户体验。我们非常清楚自己想要创造超级有趣并且不存在回合限制或付费墙的游戏，所以展示广告便是我们的最佳选择。

游戏获得了不错的利益。但是我们却不能公开准确数据，因为这会伤害到那些复制我们游戏的竞争者们，我只能说游戏每天能创造数千英镑。而展示广告的作用占据了该收益的99%，另外的1%则是来自应用内部购买。

对于其他想要使用这种广告形式的开发者你有什么建议吗？

展示广告并不是没有生命，它可是非常有效，但它却不能影响到游戏的用户体验。同时你还应该谨慎地选择合作伙伴，并进行测试去评估成功的可能性。我们非常幸运能够遇到出色的广告合作商，并且在他们的帮助下我们取得了这么好的结果。

为什么不使用微交易呢？你对于这一业务模式有何看法？

微交易是一种非常有效的业务模式，也是我们在之后的游戏中可能会尝试的，但是对于《1010》，我们真正希望的是创造一款拥有出色用户体验的游戏，这里没有时间限制，没有生命，没有付费墙，所以展示广告是最合适的选择。

你们从《1010》前那些较不那么成功的游戏身上学到了什么？你们想要避免什么样的问题？

在《1010》之前我们创造了3款游戏，并且我们也从用户反馈以及事后反思中学到了不少东西。也正是这些经验教训推动了《1010》的成功。

我们之前的游戏主要专注于创造用户需要花较长时间才能理解的复杂游戏机制，所以这很难创造出真正优秀的用户体验。而这便是我们想要避免的情况，所以这次我们专注于创造简单的游戏机制与用户体验。

你们是如何做到在一个月内开发并发行《1010》？快速开发的秘诀是什么？

我们拥有一个固定的原型周三，在这一天整只团队都会专注于一个项目的不同部分。就像我们的一名设计师Cem便在这天分享了《1010》游戏机制的早前版本，我们都非常喜欢。我们便是从这里开始进行完整的游戏开发，并且是由5人组成的团队致力于该项目。当我们全身心地专注于这一项目时，开发进程也就变得很快了。

而真正花时间的还是最佳GUI的选择。在确定最终平面设计之前，我们邀请了朋友和家人帮忙进行了多次测试。我们进行了非常多次的测试才确定了最终的选择。我们也很高兴收到建议我们面向全球市场发行游戏的反馈。因为游戏早前的留存数据很突出，所以我们便知道自己正走在正确的道路上。

而关于快速开发的秘诀便在于组建一支真正出色且充满激情的团队。明确创造一个没有休息时间或生命的游戏机制也是帮助我们加速开发过程的关键，因为我们不需要去应对那些需要花大量时间的游戏设计元素—-如创造所有的关卡以及分配难度。

你们是如何延续《1010》的成功？

不管是《1010 World》还是《1010》的全新功能和更新内容，我们都还处在一款新游戏的早前阶段。我们公司当前的任务是将一款Gram游戏带到世界各地的每一台手机设备上，所以我们不能止步于当下的成功。我们会继续努力创造出更多人们喜欢的游戏。

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

Gram Games on copycats: ‘Imitation is the best form of flattery’

By James Batchelor

Turkey-based developer Gram Games was founded in 2012, and has quickly released a number of successful games.

Its mobile titles include Railroad Gangs, Gran Tower, 1010 and the new 1010 World. The now 20-strong team is making thousands of dollars every day from its puzzle series 1010, and over the years has than $1.1m in funding rounds.

Develop caught up with Gram Games CEO Mehmet Ecevit to discuss how 1010 has become such a breakout hit for the company, how it deals with copycats, why it uses advertising instead of microtransactions and what is plans for the future are.

To what do you attribute the success of 1010?

With 1010 we set out to make a game that focused on a simple gameplay mechanic that was really fun, but hard to master. We also deliberately set out to create a really simple user experience with no time limits or paywalls. Which ultimately led to the success of 1010. Our users love the unlimited and uninterrupted sessions, the clean, crisp graphics and the fact that there are no lives or paywalls. They love that they can pick up and play a quick session and resume whenever they want. We get feedback from fans saying their 1010 game has been going on for weeks or even months at a time.

How are you building on that success? What are you doing to support the game going forward?

1010 players love competing for a higher score against their friends or even strangers online, so we’re working on some new features that will help players share their scores and show their friends exactly how they achieved it. We also hope to add multiplayer version of 1010 very soon.

As well as updates and new features to 1010 we’ve released 1010 World, which takes the distinct gameplay of 1010 and applies it to the adventure genre. Users place the blocks to solve puzzles and progress to the next level. It was recently voted one of the cutest games of all time by Apple’s App Store Editors.

What stance have you taken with the news of copycats and clones of your game? Has it impacted your business in any way?

There’s an old saying, that imitation is the best form of flattery, so on one hand we take copycat games as a compliment. But on the other hand, it creates a challenge for us. We have put a lot of time and effort to create a game that people will love and it is disappointing that copycat games draw users away from our game, to a version that is not as good. Especially when you consider that 1010 is completely free-to-play.

What could/should be done about copycat developers and their games?

There are really good developers and studios all over the world that spend lots of time and effort creating games that people will love and they should be rewarded for their effort. So, we as an industry should definitely do all we can to help stamp it out.

Stricter app store guidelines and scrutiny over what is allowed in the stores is one way to address the problem, but there is a risk that this could have other unintended consequences. Education with gamers also needs to be part of the solution.

Why choose display ads over other forms of advertising? How much does this generate?

It all comes down to our focus on providing the best user experience possible for our users. We were very clear that we wanted to make a game that was super fun and didn’t have any session limits or pay walls, so display advertising became the most obvious choice.

The game is monetising extremely well. We can’t disclose the exact figures because this serves to help copycat competitors, but it generates thousands of pounds per day. Display ads account for 99 per cent of revenue, the other one per cent comes from in-app purchases – to remove ads or change themes.

What advice do you have for other developers considering this form of advertising?

Display advertising is not dead, it can be really effective, but it should not compromise the user experience. The other thing is to choose your partner very carefully and always run a trial campaign and evaluate the success. We have been very lucky to have good advertising partners that help us achieve good results.

Why not use microtransactions? What is your opinion of this business model?

Microtransactions can be a very effective business model and something we may pursue in future titles, but for 1010 we really wanted to make a title that had a great user experience, no time limits, no lives, no paywalls, so display advertising made the most sense for us

What did you learn from the less successful titles released before 1010? What mistakes were you keen to avoid?

We’d made three games prior to 1010 and what we learned from the users feedback and our own reflection. These learnings ultimately contributed to the success of 1010.

Our previous titles were focused on very complex game mechanics that took users a long time to understand, which made it really hard to create a really good user experience. This was something we really wanted to avoid, so set out to focus on a simple gameplay mechanic and user experience.

How were you able to develop and release 1010 within a month? What is the secret to such a quick development time?

We have a regular thing we called prototype Wednesday, where the team focuses on a different project for the day. One of our designers, Cem, shared a really early version of the 1010 game mechanic and we were all hooked. From there we went into full on development, and had a team of five working on it full-time. Once we were all focusing on it, progress was quite quick.

The thing that actually took the most time was deciding on the best GUI. We’d worked on and tested several different variations with friends and family before settling on the clean flat design you see today. From there was test, test, test to make sure everything was right. We were really happy with the feedback that we decided to launch and launch globally. The early retention figures were really good so we knew we were on to something good.

The secret to such a quick development was having a really excellent and passionate team. Our clear vision for a simple gameplay mechanic without session times, levels or lives was really key to help speed up the process, as we didn’t have to solve some of the more time consuming aspects of game design – such as creating all the levels and how to scale the difficulty.

How will you follow the success of 1010?

On top of 1010 World and new features and updates for 1010, we’re in the early stages of a new title. Our company mission is for a Gram game on every mobile device in the world, so we won’t be resting on our laurels. We’ll always strive to create games that people love.（source：develop-online)