作者：James Batchelor

不久前我们我们发布了Develop 100的10周年纪念版，即关于世界范围内最优秀的开发商的排名。

今年我们重新编辑了到今天为止最具综合性的排行名单，即包含了各大手机开发商以及AAA级主机巨作背后的开发团队。从这一列表中我们可以清楚地看到游戏市场不断发生着变化，而如今的最大赢家当属芬兰手机工作室Supercell。

supercell(from develop-online)

因为《卡通农场》，《海岛奇兵》以及最受欢迎的《部落战争》，该公司注定要出现在我们这一列表的最上方。所以它是如何成为世界上最成功的游戏开发商呢？

其首席执行官Ilkka Paananen说道：“这真的是我们的巨大荣幸。如今的游戏领域不断壮大，游戏开发产业似乎已经达到了最佳形态，即出现了许多能够不断创造出色游戏的优秀工作室。”

“我们这群创建了Supercell的成员都相信只有最出色的人才能创造出最佳游戏，并且你应该放手让他们去做事，不要过多干涉。我认为这便是我们想要追求的成功的核心—-你必须让具有创造性的人才去落实自己的想法，即使他们的想法并不是随时都有效。”

“当然了，其中也包含了许多运气元素。”

当我们在2年前访问Paananen时，他刚结束与日本手机游戏巨头GungHo的合作，那时候他说道自己对于工作室的期许便是希望它能成为一家全球化的游戏公司。而成为我们的世界最成功开发商列表首位只是开始，那么他觉得自己离这一目标还有多远的距离呢？

他说道：“这是一个你不可能100%达到的目标。我们总是能够接触到更多人并始终需要投入更多才能长期留住玩家的注意。我们也始终都致力于创造基于同样标准的全新游戏。”

“我们之所以希望成为一家全球化游戏公司是因为我们想要创造能让更多人玩更长时间的游戏—-这才是我们公司的真正目标。并且我们还有很多想做的事。”

毫无疑问，该工作室最大的成功便是《部落战争》。这款手机策略游戏不仅有效吸引了世界各地活跃社区的注意，同时也牢牢留住了这些用户，而这是包括许多复制游戏在内的游戏都难以做到的。

K1-Ilkka(from develop-online)

根据Supercell的首席执行官，他们成功的秘诀在于将游戏的发行作为开始而非结束：“《部落战争》的团队始终都致力于完善并深入发展游戏—-这也是为什么今天的这款游戏与3年前发行时具有很大区别的原因。”

“我认为我们的玩家很喜欢我们的这种做法，并且他们也很高兴看到自己的反馈对这些游戏改变具有切实影响力。《部落战争》拥有一个很强大的社区，我们也始终都会听取他们的意见并询问他们希望能在游戏中看到什么。”

对于许多利用了《部落战争》机制并想要复制这款游戏成功的游戏，Paananen表示他们并未感到受挫或觉得受到了威胁，他们反而认为市场上许多复制游戏“都很讨人喜欢”，尽管他也表示不会太过纠结于这些竞争游戏。

他说道：“我从中吸取的一个经验教训便是如果过多地考虑竞争者的话只会让自己分心，并且这反而会导致你变成别人的追随者而不再是领导者。如果你想要成为真正的领导者，你就必须始终坚持自己的想法以及自己真正想要做的事。”

“我们便始终坚定这一想法，即在Supercell我们始终都专注于我们想做的事并坚持创造能够让玩家玩好几年的优秀游戏，而不去关心其他人在做些什么。”

2015年年初，Supercell发行了他们最新的热门游戏《宝岛奇兵》。即比起战斗策略类型，他们选择尝试与《部落战争》同样的风格，而在一开始这款游戏只是他们热情的结晶。游戏概念只是一些真正让团队感到兴奋的内容，而团队成员们也坚持是Paananen推动他们创造了这一内容。

Supercell的老板引用了游戏的后续成功去证实他们工作室所坚持的结构是对的：在这里每个团队都是独立的，拥有绝对的自由去创造任何自己想要创造的全新游戏项目。而这些独立团队也是该公司成功的关键，并且在未来将继续维持着他们的成功。

Paananen解释道：“你其实应该去问那些负责《部落战争》，《卡通农场》和《宝岛奇兵》的团队对于2016年的计划，因为他们拥有对游戏的完整控制权和责任。我的工作只是去支持他们做这些事。”

“我只知道我们的所有游戏团队都致力于创造长期发展的游戏，如果我们还可以继续沿用他们在过去几年里扩展游戏的方式的话，我们将在2016年里呈现出更多游戏内容。”

他自嘲地说道，Supercell不断致力于全新游戏理念，但是在他们真正确定那是一些特别的理念前是不会将其公开的。这也是算是一种较安全的办法，因为这能确保他们总是能够带给玩家一些真正新鲜的内容。

当然了，也有许多潜在的全新Supercell游戏会在中途被废弃。Supercell也表示他们更愿意在发现某些游戏理念不可能获得成功时果断将其抛弃，即使有些人会认为这是在浪费时间和资源。

Paananen说道：“我认为最浪费时间和资源的是在所有参与者都认为一款游戏不可能获得成功的时候还执着地去开发它。如果开发团队认为最佳决定是抛弃一款游戏并重新开始的话，他们便不会浪费任何东西—-这反倒是学习并获得更好的结果的机遇。”

“在Supercell我们的团队将决定着这种决策的制定，如果他们认为这是对的事，我便会百分百支持他们。我们的唯一目标始终都是创造出能够让玩家玩好几年的游戏。并且在未来我们仍会坚持执行这一目标。”

“而这便需要我们去听取玩家的看法；我不可能跟你说5年或10年内会有怎样的发展，但我能肯定的是我们仍会继续创造游戏。”

所以对于那些想要超越Supercell的成功并且希望在未来能够出现于Develop 100名单中的开发者们Paananen有什么建议呢？

他说道：“我认为人们最常犯的一个错误便是太执着于其它公司所做的事。对于游戏开发者或者任何其它业务来说最重要的便是拥有自己的看法并始终坚持于这一看法。”

“如果你开始考虑其他人在做什么的话，你便很容易变成追随者而不可能成为领导者，你也将只是尝试一些别人所做的事，这便不可能帮助你获得成功。你需要始终相信自己所做的事并不断努力完成它。”

（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）

World’s greatest: Supercell on being a leader, not a follower

By James Batchelor

Earlier today, we published the tenth anniversary edition of the Develop 100, our global ranking of the world’s greatest developers.

This year, we compiled our most comprehensive list to date, encompassing mobile developers as well as the teams behind triple-A console blockbusters. And, in a result that is perhaps truly indicative of how the games market is changing, the big winner was Finnish mobile studio Supercell.

The company was propelled to the top of our list thanks to Hay Day, Boom Beach and, of course, the world-conquering Clash of Clans. So how does it feel to be ranked as the world’s most successful games developer?

“It’s a huge honour,” says CEO Ilkka Paananen (pictured). “Gaming is bigger than ever and the games development industry is probably in the best shape it’s ever been, with so many great studios making fantastic games all the time.

“The group of us who founded Supercell had the pretty simple idea that the best people make the best games, and that you allow them to do that by giving them complete responsibility and staying out of the way. I think that’s really core to the success we’ve been able to achieve – You have to allow creative people to follow their own vision, even if it doesn’t work out every time.

“And, of course, there’s a ton of luck involved.”

When we interviewed Paananen two years ago, fresh from significant investment from Japanese mobile gaming giant GungHo, he said his dream for the studio was for it to become a global games company. Topping our list of the world’s most successful developers is a start, but how close does he feel he is to achieving this?

“It’s a goal you can never 100 per cent achieve,” he says. “There’s always more players we can reach and more we can do to keep our long-term players engaged. And we’re always working on new games that we hold to the same standards.

“We wanted to become a global games company because we want to make games that will be played by as many people as possible for as long possible – that’s the real goal of the company. There’s definitely more we want to do.”

The central pillar to the studio’s success is unarguably Clash of Clans. The mobile strategy game has managed to not only attract but also retain an active community from all over the world in a way that many titles – including countless copycats – have failed to do.

The secret, according to Supercell’s CEO, is treating the game’s launch as the beginning rather than the end goal: “The Clash team are constantly working on ways they can improve and deepen the game – that’s why it looks very different today from the game that launched three years ago.

“I think our players like that and also appreciate the fact that their feedback can have an impact on what these changes are,” he adds. “There is a great community amongst Clash players and we’re always listening to them and asking what they want from the game.”

Far from being frustrated or threatened by the number of apps that lift Clash of Clans mechanics wholesale in an attempt to recreate the game’s success, Paananen actually finds the flood of clones on the market as “very flattering”, although he prefers not to dwell too much on any rival games.

“One lesson I’ve learned is that it can be very distracting to think about competitors and it often only leads to you be a follower instead of a leader,” he says. “If you want to have a chance to become a leader, you should stick to your own vision and what you want to do.

“So following this thinking, at Supercell we try to focus on what we want to do, which is to develop great games that people want to play for years, rather than what anyone else is doing.”

Business is Booming

Earlier this year, Supercell released its latest hit Boom Beach. Rather than targeting the combat strategy genre and trying to work the same magic on it as with Clash of Clans, the game began more as a passion project. The concept was something that “genuinely excited” the team, who insisted that Paananen let them create it.

The Supercell boss actually cites the game’s subsequent success as proof of how well the studio’s structure works: teams operating as independent cells with the freedom to pursue whatever new game projects inspire them. These cells are also responsible for building on that success and maintaining it in future years.

“You’d really have to ask the teams in charge of Clash, Hay Day and Boom Beach what they have planned for 2016 because they have total control and responsibility over their games,” Paananen explains. “My job is just to support them in doing that.

“One thing I do know is that all our game teams are building games for the long-term and, if the way they’ve expanded the games over the past few years is anything to go by, there’ll be a lot more to come from all of our titles in 2016.”

He teases that Supercell is constantly working on new game ideas, but won’t share anything until they know that have something really special. However, it’s a safe bet that a fresh new franchise will emerge from the studio before long.

Of course, many potential new Supercell IPs may be scrapped between now and the launch of the studio’s next big hit. The developer has previously said it is more than willing to abandon game concepts it doesn’t think as successful – even if some might view this as a waste of time and resources.

“I think the biggest waste of time and resources is to continue developing a game when everyone involved doesn’t believe it can be a success,” says Paananen. |If the team think that the best thing is to kill the game and start again, then that’s not a waste of anything – it’s an opportunity to learn and get better.

“At Supercell our teams are in control of this decision and if they think it’s the right thing to do then I always back them 100 per cent. Our only goal has always been simply to make games that people want to play for years and years. And that’s going to continue being our goal in the future.

“It’s about listening to our players; I can’t tell you exactly what that will look like in five or ten years’ time, but I do know that we’ll still be here making games.”

So what advice does Paananen have for developers who hope one day to surpass Supercell’s success, not to mention find a place in future iterations of the Develop 100?

“I think one of the most common mistakes people can make is to get too wrapped-up in what other companies are doing,” he says. “The most important thing for a games developer, or any business for that matter, is to have a vision and stick with it.

“If you start thinking about what everyone else is doing then you can easily become a follower rather than a leader and you won’t be successful trying to be somebody else. You need to believe in what you’re doing and keep working to make it happen.”(source:develop-online)