本文原作者：James Brightman 译者ciel chen

如果上礼拜你有在IOS的APP Store上稍微瞄一眼，你会注意到里面有个醒目的标题“聚焦独立游戏”，除此之外还有99美分下载“精品独立游戏”的活动。终于在今天，独立游戏开发群体出品的游戏有了专属页面。

现在想要在手游市场中脱颖而出是越发地艰难了，真的，很多平台上的数字生态系统都早已人满为患了。近来苹果、谷歌和任天堂先后都为独具创意的游戏做了类型策划推荐栏。最神奇的不是App Store中为独立游戏做的永久界面，而是一个2人游戏开发团队居然可以像Supercell、King和EA这样的游戏巨头一样，通过一个按钮，就让超过10亿的活跃IOS设备看到他们做的游戏。我们在手机游戏的包容性道路上又迈出了新的一步。跟我聊天的独立游戏人都为这个关于APP Store的新闻感到由衷的欣喜。

“我认为苹果在以前就对独立游戏的推动做出了很大贡献，而现在看到他们仍旧朝着这个方向前进真是太好了。通过一礼拜又一礼拜的观察，种种迹象显示苹果对小型游戏团队的曝光率真的是高得夸张，而现在又有了新的独立游戏专题，看来这种趋势会愈演愈烈。”USTWO游戏工作室负责人如此说道（作品：《纪念谷碑》、《遗忘边际》）。

22Cans（作品：《Godus》、《The trail》）的负责人Peter Molyneux插了一嘴说：“为独立游戏开发者提供专栏——这无论对开发者还是消费者都绝对是个超赞的消息。消费者对独特的游戏内容有着迫切需求，而独立游戏开发者不止一次地在证明着：他们愿意不顾一切地去做内容独特大胆的游戏。有了这样一个发行独立游戏APP的专栏，不用再受到发行商和一般APP发行流程的挑挑拣拣，这对于独立游戏人实在是个超大福利。”

后来创建了自己的工作室Mountains的《纪念碑谷》主设计师Ken Wong对此评论道：“‘独立游戏’这个标签在过去几年里变得越发模糊了。但是，作为最大娱乐平台之一的App store,要把那些规模较小、营销开支不足、试验期较长的游戏团队拖出来拉到聚光灯下，这个点子绝对会受到欢迎。”

Untame（作品：《Mushroom 11》）的总裁兼创始人Itay Keren补充说：“这个为独立游戏开创的窗口提供了接触到新兴艺术家和艺术其本身的途径。手机游戏跟艺术并不是真的可以拿来相提并论的，但是真正的创新和创造力确实是独立游戏赋予的。所以，给广大群体继续提供这种接触游戏的机会，意味着你同时也在冶炼玩家的品味，甚至能改变人们对手机游戏的定义…… 苹果对独立游戏的支持不仅仅是一个营销活动，他们看到的是游戏这个行业最需要的东西。”

idea(from nipic)

苹果公司，像很多其他平台运营者一样，他们了解独立游戏开发者能够给游戏生态平衡系统带来怎样的价值。事实上，虽然今天我们通过在APP store的专栏感受到了苹果公司对独立游戏扶持力度的加大，但有开发者告诉我，早在9年前App store首次发行的时候苹果就已经为独立游戏做了很大贡献了。

Spry Fox（代表作《Road Not Taken》和《Bushido Bear》）的CEO，David Edery谈到：“我和苹果的合作经历非常愉快；我们的中间联系人会让我们实时掌握有关IOS的发展动态，他们也会听取我们的反馈并/或帮助我们，确保我们的游戏能被媒体编辑们看到。对此我们总能感到他们恰如其分的支持。可能我们的游戏赚的钱永远没法达到《皇室战争》那么多（甚至连接近都做不到），而苹果似乎知道：像我们这样努力保持游戏的高质量和原创性是多么难能可贵，他们觉得这才是他们要的……因为我们能从大方向上优化游戏生态系统。”

Zach Gage（代表作《Typeshift》、《Ridiculous Fishing》）做了一些说明：“我真的很喜欢IOS的生态系统和用户基础。它当然也会像其他电子商店一样起起落落，但是我认为，如果你好好比较比较它当初发行时的样子跟现在这样大的规模，想想它一步步走到今天经历了多少的成长，你会感到非常讶异——讶异他们直到现在还保留着对坚持特色所持有的包容态度”。现在有非常多的编辑偏爱对独立游戏进行报道，并且似乎每过几个月就会有一部独立游戏巨作受到瞩目。”

“苹果公司日前对独立游戏的推广、偏爱各种稀奇古怪的独立游戏名字、还甚至为他们颁布的年度游戏奖和苹果设计奖，从这些迹象你可以看出来，这几年来苹果对独立游戏表示了很大的期许。很多创新游戏其实是开发者们在自己的卧室里做出来的，苹果知道也尊重这样的事实，苹果看好他们，也将继续支持他们，以此来鼓励更多的独立游戏开发者。”

NimbleBit（代表作《Tiny Towers》、《Bit City》）的David Marsh补充道：“APP Store真的让我们这些小公司发行了很多游戏；我们从2008年就开始为当时刚出道的App Store做游戏。能够拥有这样一个平台，今天你在这个平台上上传游戏，几天后你就可以通过这个平台得到十亿多的潜在用户，而且他们只要按下下载键就能开始游戏之旅，这在那时候看来就已经很令人惊叹了，即使是现在也仍是如此。”

“编辑推荐版块和类型策划推荐栏在APP Store上重磅回归。苹果会根据哪几种不同类型和领域的游戏是玩家喜爱的而重点推荐，但是大部分APP Store的用户可能不会意识到这点，同样地他们也会在社交媒体上展示了很多又酷又有趣的的游戏。当然这些努力也并非万能药，是无法让每个开发者跟每款游戏都能走到聚光灯下的，不过这至少让我们看到了苹果对游戏和游戏开发者多样性的重视，App Store对他们来讲就像家一样温暖。”

独立游戏在App Store受到的重视肯定会给予开发者一种动力，不过那并不表示这样就能对游戏市场来一次乾坤大挪移了。那些经常在手游板块占领导地位的大公司有着雄厚的资源和营销预算。他们在用户获取和保留方面下了大工夫、甚至还在《超级碗》做大屏幕广告。这些独立游戏者可做不到，但是要说的还是那句，他们没什么必要这么做就是了。

Moon Hunters(from gamasutra)

“在我看来，我们竞争的市场不一样。我们首要关注点是我们的游戏是否给玩家留下情感和情绪方面的影响，我们相信，如果我们在这方面成功地让玩家有所感动，自然就也就能赚到钱。我们绝对不会让一个独具创意的游戏决策以赚用户的钱为基础。”Dan Gray这样说道。

“对于一个想要创造精品游戏的开发者来说，我觉得他们最需要的是要有个让游戏必须付费的好点子。你需要让玩家别无选择只能付费来体验这个游戏。对于游戏开发者来说，做一个每章节都有不同建筑风格的2小时游戏，还要让游戏免费玩，这实在是太艰巨了，所以，我们离开了那样的市场。”

Molyneux评论说：“跟游戏巨头竞争难度极其大，毕竟他们有那么大的市场份额。我觉得，如果你想要做出一个比他们‘更好’的同类游戏来跟他们竞争，这注定要输。不过如果你试着做点什么独创有新意的东西，至少你还有机会获得一些消费者的青睐，毕竟他们可能会厌倦了重复相同的游戏机制。”

Marsh对这点相当同意，还补充道：“和像Supercell、King和EA这样的巨头公司争实在是吃力不讨好，不过我从来没把他们看做是直接的竞争对手。我们在各自有各自的游戏使命，互相并没有冲突。我们的工作室就3个人……所以我们不用像他们那么费力来保持续航力。我们把这个当做一种优势，这让我们可以自由地做我们认为有趣的游戏，尽管这样的游戏并不会给我们带来每天上百万美元的收入。”

Armor Games（代表作《Sonny》、《Gem Hunters》）的老板Daniel McNeeley为苹果支持独立游戏的举动深受感动，不过他仍旧担心着小游戏工作室在移动平台上面临的巨大挑战，他说：“是有人可以做出真的了不起的游戏的，但是可能这些游戏永远都火不起来，因为他们通常无法跟那些大公司比营销，毕竟连规模都没人家大。我觉得没有人会去质疑独立游戏开发者做出的努力，但很多时候总感觉成功取决于——有没有刚好在媒体界的人脉或者刚好很有名的朋友帮你宣传，然后你才能从众多游戏中走出来到聚光灯下。也不是说这是全凭运气、徒劳无功的事！只是说大多数情况下，独立游戏开发者甚至得比大公司尽更多的努力来获得成功或突破。”

根据独立游戏开发者给我们的反馈，以前开发者在APP Store或者Google Play两个平台之间选择时往往要小心翼翼，但是现在两个平台都分别对独立游戏群体开发的产品表示了浓厚的兴趣，所以若能你将产品目标平台向IOS和Adroid齐头并进就再好不过了。

“随着手机游戏市场越来越疯狂的竞争，我认为我们作为独立游戏开发者是相对幸运的，因为现在两大主要平台都如此热捧独立游戏。他们是绝对没有必要这么做的，这都是出自他们对独立游戏的期许。”David Edery这么说道。

Dan Gray还评论说：“也许曾经Google由于他们对独立游戏尤其是精品独立游戏的支持而受到指责，而如今就我看来，人们对于他们的做法有了很明显积极的改观。就在上个月他们还策划了一次活动来为独立游戏庆祝并且给开发者们颁奖，所以独立游戏似乎再次成为了付费游戏一个可行性更高的选择。”

David Marsh还补充说：“如果你想让人们玩你的游戏，我认为Google Play和App Store都会是合适你们新颖作品的好平台——因为我认识的每个人都有一把Adroid或者IOS系统手机，甚至连我祖母都会安装我们的新游戏来玩，这放在10年前我根本不敢相信。现在似乎两个平台都在致力于新的管理和整理方法，以便让海量的游戏能在他们的平台上顺利运行。认可独立游戏开发者是让巨型游戏库发挥其多样性的绝佳方式，我们希望这种趋势能继续延续下去！”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Apple ramps up its support for indies

App Store receives permanent section where indies will be spotlighted; indies tell us they’re happy with “renewed focus on editorial and curation”

James Brightman
Editor in Chief

Thursday 16th March 2017

If you’ve peeked at the App Store on iOS in the last week you may have noticed Apple spotlighting “Newly discovered indies” and promoting “Indie greats” for 99 cents. This support has culminated today in a new dedicated page for games from the independent developer community.

While it’s gotten increasingly hard to stand out on mobile – and indeed, on many platforms as more digital ecosystems get too crowded – Apple, Google and Nintendohave all been pushing for more curation of innovative games lately. Giving indies a permanent home on the App Store is not a magic bullet, but when a two-man garage development team can reach over a billion active iOS devices with the click of a button in the same way that giants like Supercell, King and EA can, we’re another step closer at least to democratizing mobile games publishing. Indies I spoke to are rightfully very happy about this latest App Store news.

“I think Apple have done a great job promoting indie style games in the past and it’s great to see them move further in this direction. One look through the featuring week by week shows that a disproportionate amount of exposure is given to smaller teams and now with the new indie section that looks to be continuing,” said Dan Gray, head of studio at ustwo (Monument Valley, Land’s End).

Peter Molyneux, 22Cans (Godus, The Trail), chimed in: “It’s absolutely fantastic news for both developers and consumers that there will be a special place for indie developers. Consumers desperately need unique content and indie developers have proved time and time again that they are willing to throw caution to the wind and develop content that is unique and brave. It’s going to be a huge benefit for indies to have a specific place to launch their apps, and not be diluted with publisher and general app releases.”

Ken Wong, the lead designer of Monument Valley who went on to found Mountains, commented: “The label ‘indie’ has become increasingly vague over the past few years. But if the general idea is for one of largest entertainment platforms to highlight smaller teams, teams without a lot of marketing spend, and more experimental works, then that’s certainly welcome.”

Itay Keren, president and founder of Untame (Mushroom 11), added, “This window to independent work provides exposure to new artists, as well as to the art itself. Mobile gaming has not really been synonymous with art, but the true innovation and creativity has come from the indies. So by providing this ongoing exposure of these games to such a large audience, you’re going to broaden the taste of gamers and possibly even transform the very definition of what mobile games are… Championing indie works is clearly not just a marketing campaign, but an actual view of what’s best for this industry.”

Apple, like more and more platform holders, seems to recognize the value that indie developers can bring to an ecosystem. In fact, while the company is punctuating its support for indies today with a dedicated home on the App Store, developers told me that the company has done a lot to support indies in the nine years since the App Store first launched.

David Edery, CEO of Spry Fox (Road Not Taken, Bushido Bear) remarked, “My experience working with Apple has been great; we have several contacts who help us keep abreast of important iOS-related developments, listen to our feedback and/or help make sure that our games get seen by the editorial group. We’ve always felt reasonably well supported. Our games are probably never going to make the kind of money that Clash of Clans makes (or get even close) and Apple seems to understand that there is nevertheless value in making sure that high quality, original games like ours get their day in the sun… because it makes the ecosystem healthier overall.”

Zach Gage (Typeshift, Ridiculous Fishing) noted, “I really like the iOS ecosystem and user base. It has its ups and downs like every other storefront, but I think if you consider just how large it is and how much it has grown since its inception it’s pretty amazing that they have maintained their democratized stance for what to feature. A large amount of the editor’s picks are indie games and it seems like every few months there’s another huge indie hit getting attention.

“Apple has shown a really strong commitment to indie games over the years, and you can see that through things like the current indie promotion and their proclivity to feature odd indie titles, and even give them Game of the Year and Apple Design Awards. Apple seems to know and respect that a lot of true innovation comes out of the people in their bedrooms, and has set themselves up, and continues to set themselves up structurally to highlight that.”

David Marsh of NimbleBit (Tiny Towers, Bit City) added: “The App Store pretty much launched our little company; we started in 2008 making games for the then newly opened App Store. It was amazing back then and it’s still pretty amazing today that there is a platform where you can upload a game one day and a few days later have a potential audience of a billion people just one tap away from playing.

“There has been a renewed focus on editorial and curation on the App Store. Highlighting different genres and niches that Apple knows many players love – but that the broader App Store audience might not be aware of, as well showcasing lots of cool and interesting games on social media. Those kinds of efforts won’t be a panacea to expose every developer and every game, but it shows that Apple cares about the diversity of games and game developers that make their home on the App Store.”

Being featured on the new indies section of the App Store could certainly give a developer a boost, but it isn’t going to radically alter market dynamics. The big companies that often dominate the mobile charts have huge resources and marketing budget. They focus on user acquisition and retention and even advertise on TV during the Super Bowl. Indies can’t do that, but then again, they don’t necessarily need to.

“In my opinion we aren’t competing in the same industry at all,” said Dan Gray. “Our primary focus is having an impact on players and leaving them with a feeling or emotion, and we believe that if we’re successful in moving people in this way then financial success will follow. One thing we’ll never do is make a creative decision based upon revenue generated per user.

“What I feel is essential for a developer to look at if they’re set on creating premium games is picking an idea that simply isn’t possible using a free-to-play model. You need to give the player no viable free alternative to your experience. It’s incredibly difficult for a developer to create a two-hour game with a different architectural style in each chapter effective from a F2P monetisation perspective – therefore, we’re left in our own niche.”

Molyneux commented, “It’s extremely difficult to compete with the giants, when they have such a massive market share. In my opinion, if you try to compete by making a ‘better’ version of their game you are destined to fail. If, however, you try and make something which is innovative and delightful, you at least have the chance of picking up the consumers which are growing tired of the same game mechanics.”

Marsh was in complete agreement, adding, “Going up against giants like Supercell, King and EA is tough, but I don’t see them as direct competitors. We don’t have the same mission to fulfill with our games that they need to with their games. We have a studio of three people… so we don’t need the huge hits they do in order to keep the lights on. We see that as an advantage, and it frees us to make the games that we think are interesting even if they don’t bring in a million dollars a day.”

Daniel McNeeley, owner of Armor Games (Sonny, Gem Hunters), is heartened by Apple’s growing support of indies, but he still worries about the huge challenge that small studios face on mobile. “Someone can make a game that’s genuinely great, and it may ultimately never end up catching on because they can’t compete with the sheer marketing power of these larger companies, or just the enormous volume in general,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would ever accuse indies of being anything less than incredibly hard working, but it can often feel like it depends on whether the right person in the press or the right viral personality happens to spot you in the sea of content. Which is not to say that it’s all up to chance, or that it’s some impossible Sisyphean task! Just that indies often have to do more to succeed or break even than a big company does.”

Based on the feedback I got from indies, in the past it may have been wise to carefully choose between the App Store or Google Play, but now with each of the platforms showing plenty of interest in what the indie community produces, it’s a good idea to target both iOS and Android if you can.

“As insanely competitive as the mobile landscape is, I think we as indies are relatively lucky that the two major platforms are both so willing to embrace indies. It definitely doesn’t have to be that way; it takes a certain commitment,” noted David Edery.

Dan Gray remarked, “Maybe in the past Google could be criticised for their support of indie and especially premium games but from my perspective there’s been a very clear and welcome shift in their approach. They ran a well curated event in London only last month to celebrate indie games with great rewards for developers, so it’s looking to be a more viable option again for paid games.”

David Marsh added, “I think both Google Play and the App Store are a great place to put your creations if you want people to play them. I don’t know a single person without an iOS or Android device. Even my grandmother can install and play our new games, which I probably wouldn’t have believed 10 years ago. It seems like both platforms are taking approaches to manage and organize the staggering amount of games available on their platforms. Recognizing indie developers is a great way to highlight the diversity in that giant pool of games, and we hope it continues!”

（source：gamesindustry.biz  ）