Micheal Martinez回顾和反思JuiceBox Games的失败

在看原文前，先看看我早先写的一篇小评论

JuiceBox Games：大梦想在大资源加持下的失败

A，明星投资组合

Initial Capital、General Catalyst、Index Ventures、Mavron，以及Zynga 创始团队成员Scott Dale 和前ElectronicArts首席执行官John Riccitiello

还有董事顾问Kristian Segerstrale（Playfish，EA，Supercell和Super Evil Megacorp）

B，明星团队组合

有顶级产品经验，且磨合多年的创始团队组合

三个合伙人，创业前曾共事三年半

CEO，Michael Martinez

CTO，Jason McGuirk

CCO，Zak Pytlak

做出过成功作品

Zynga Poker（现在仍然是Zynga营收的第一支柱）

FarmVille（巅峰期MAU数以亿计的超级产品）

FarmVille 2

C，超级产品梦想

专注Midcore游戏

下一家10亿美元级别的游戏公司

…………………………………

当年，他们就是舍我其谁的那群人

if there was a team that people should invest in or place a bet on it would be us

……………………………………

但这并不足以让他们成功

A，资源很重要

B，团队很重要

C，心态很重要

JuiceBox Games完全具备了以上三大特征

但缺乏另外一块

D，产品视野也很重要

没有好的产品视野，有资源，也是用来做无用功的

never built a great game

才是最致命的症结，普通优秀的产品，在市场上已经没有竞争力了

所以，JuiceBox Games倒闭了

……………………

一般优秀的产品是没有竞争力的，不能探索到用户稍微前瞻一点的需求，就会被格局绞杀，做尽无用功

以下为正式的文章分析

本文原作者：Craig Chapple 译者ciel chen

在开发出第二款游戏的三年半后，由于没有足够的玩家给游戏带来收入，JuiceBox Games这家位于旧金山的手游开发公司于2016年3月停止运营。

该游戏工作室曾经的CEO Micheal Martinez（现EA游戏公司旗下工作室的总经理）在Games First Helsinki 2017活动上发表了讲话，他在演讲中诚恳地聊了他和两个联合创始人是如何运营这家公司但终究还是没能让它继续在游戏市场存活下去的内容。

三位共同创始人在2012年JuiceBox Games成立之前都曾经在Zynga工作过三年半的时间，参与过热门游戏诸如《扑克（pocker）》、《农场小镇（FarmVille）》和《农场小镇2（FarmVille2）》的开发。

宏图计划

曾经工作室计划致力开发以midcore游戏玩家为目标受众的手机游戏。为此，工作室说服了包括Kristian Segerstrale在内等行业高手来支持他们的计划宏图，于是他们筹集到了多达250万美金的资金。

“开口问别人要百万美元感觉很怪，不过感觉更怪的是真的有人愿意给。不过有人能愿意出资真的是太棒了。”Martinez这样说。

尽管JuiceBox在初创的前两个季度就有规划要做3款游戏的发行，直到2014年2月份，他们发行了他们的第一款F2P RPG游戏《荣誉之战》。

这款游戏风格独特，是受到诸如《巴哈姆特之怒》以及《热血兄弟》这类亚洲游戏的启发所开发出来的，希望西方玩家用户能由此被带到游戏时代的“下一个阶段”。

工作室在第一款游戏中取得了一定的成绩。《荣誉之战》上升到美国热门游戏榜的第31名并带来800万美元的收入。这意味着工作室可以继续开发游戏并聘请新员工了——该工作室在旧金山有36名员工。

在2015年10月工作室发行了第二款游戏《暴风之子》，Martinez说团队在发行后三天就知道开发者这下麻烦了，工作室不得不叫停了。

JuiceBox把公司的命运投注在了第二款游戏的成功上。然而尽管《风暴之子》有比《荣誉之战》更好的KPIs，但却只有它10%的安装量，这表明这款游戏不可能运行下去。

哪些方面是做得不错的

Martinez表示他从在JuiceBox工作室的经历中吸取了到的很多经验，知道了它成于何处，败于何处。

说到团队哪些方面做的好的，他提到了团队对成功的许诺。无论是开始那段时间从早上9点到下午5点都在CTO的餐厅赶工，直到后来很快地找到了可以办公的办公地，这都让他们能更好更方便地和投资者交流。

不过另一方面他也认为，开发者要有一种相信自己的工作室一定能成功的“某种疯狂”。在他看来，没有什么问题是不能解决的——他想过更惨的是把团队整个卖掉然后赚好几百万美元，对于他来说这始终“愚蠢的”想法。

另外他觉得不错的方面是团队会着眼于接下来的事。“你可能达成了很多公司想要达成的里程碑，”他说道，不过他补充说这对他们来说不一定是好事，因为当这些里程碑变得不再有意义的时候会让人感觉有一些“震撼”。

很明显团队当然会希望庆祝自己所获的成功，但他提醒说开发者绝对不能在自己所获的荣誉成就面前自我懈怠而停滞不前。

它还表明，尽管最后失败了，但团队还是做到了他们最开始所承诺过的要做的事——团队秉承着“想做就做”的核心价值观，在早期按时地达成了里程碑，这也是团队能得到早期投资的原因。

哪些方面是做的不好的

尽管第一款游戏赚了800万美元，Martinez说他们的团队“没能做出真正的好游戏”——只有真正的好游戏才能变成公司的摇钱树。在他看来，尽管《荣誉之战》在各项指标表现得都不错，但团队仍旧无法在用户获取方面盈利。

其次，终究JuiceBox还是太晚进入市场了。它相信如果工作室在2012年就发行游戏的话也许工作室能撑到今天。

也许最重要的是——他说了一个开发者会失败的原因，就是大多数开发公司都把命运投注在每款游戏上，“这个是非常可怕的心态”。

尽管他觉得团队的把吸取的教训应用在同类游戏上这种策略是合理的，但是当第二款游戏没能成功，那这样的策略以后也就派不上什么用场了。

经验教训

对于Martinez来说，它在JuiceBox的成功和失败里学到的最重要的经验之一就是定好游戏的分销策略。如果有人问你你的分销策略是什么，那你可不能回答说你要开发的游戏要好到让众人皆爱，这样的回答“是不充分的”。

他还补充说如果你打算把自己的游戏推送到APP Store上那是没问题的，“不过这并不足以让你的游戏成功——光推送是靠不住的。”

还有一个教训就是要创办领导一家工作室就要相信自己，因为在办一家公司时你会遇到很多艰难的决定需要由你做出抉择。他说：你不得不面对并接受这些来让公司能往前发展。

尽管工作室关闭了——Martinez说他仍将继续秉持着“勇往直前”的生活理念，并且他为那些想要开始创办自己的公司的人送出了一些鼓励的话语。

“如果你做这些类似的事，就放手做好了。”他如此说道。

“别老想着‘噢，两三年后我会习惯面对这种风险的’，因为这两三年将眨眼即逝，而你也不会从此更舒服地面对风险。这行不通的。”

他引用了前美国总统“泰迪”西奥多罗斯福的话来作为总结：

“那些评论者；那些对强壮之人的跌倒指指点点或对实干者的不足挑三拣四之人一点都不重要。荣誉应该是属于那些战站在舞台上的人，他们的脸覆盖着尘土与血汗，他们勇于抗争；他们勇于犯错，一次又一次地露出短板，因为没有错误和缺点就不会有努力争取；还有那些真正努力的人；那些拥有极大热情与虔诚之心的人；那些想让自己做一些伟大的事情的人；那些在最后知道高成就的胜利的最优秀的人；那些即使失败了但至少真正勇敢的人——这些人是那些既不知道胜利也不知道失败的胆怯的灵魂所永远遥不可及的。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

San Francisco mobile games developer JuiceBox Games shut down in March 2016 after three and a half years following the failure to attract enough players to make money from its second game.

Speaking at Games First Helsinki 2017, the studio’s CEO Michael Martinez, who now works as studio GM at EA, offered a candid talk about how he and two co-founders grew the company but ultimately failed to keep it going.

Founded in 2012, the trio of founders had all worked together at Zynga for three and a half years prior on hit games such as Poker, FarmVille and FarmVille 2.

Big plans

The studio had plans to build mobile games targeting the midcore audience. To that end, after convincing investors like Kristian Segerstrale to back the team’s vision, the developer raised $2.5 million in funding, with Segerstrale also joining the board.

“It’s kind of weird to ask someone for a million dollars, and weirder when they say yes,” said Martinez. “But it’s awesome.”

Despite having startlingly ambitious plans to ship three games in its first two quarters, JuiceBox launched its first game in February 2014; the free-to-play RPG HonorBound.

The project was its own take on titles like Rage of Bahamut and Blood Brothers with the idea to take inspiration from games like these in Asia and take them “to the next level” for a Western audience.

It worked to a degree for the first game. HonorBound peaked as the number 31 grossing game in the US and brought in $8 million. This meant the studio could continue developing and hiring new employees – it worked with over 36 staff at its San Francisco base.

When it launched its second title StormBorn in October 2015 though, Martinez said the team knew after just three days that the developer was in trouble and would probably have to shut down. The called the speed of that realisation “terrifying”.

JuiceBox had bet the company on the second game’s success. Despite generally better KPIs, StormBorn had 10% of the installs of HonorBound, which proved unsustainable.

What went well

Martinez discussed the numerous lessons he learned from his time with JuiceBox, how it succeeded and where it failed.

When it came to what the team did well, he cited the team’s commitment to success. Whether it was working in the CTO’s dining room in the early days from nine to five, or quickly finding an office space and getting to work. This, he said, made it easier to speak with investors.

On the flipside however is he said you have to “be kind of crazy” to believe your studio is going to succeed. In his mind, there was no way things wouldn’t work out – his worse case scenario was selling the team down the line and making millions of dollars. A thought he labelled as “dumb”.

Another thing that went well was the team’s focus on what’s next. “There are a lot of company milestones you hit,” he said, but added that as soon as it would him them, it’s “kind of shocking” how they can become meaningless.

Obviously team’s want to celebrate success, he noted, but you can never rest on your laurels.
He also stated that he team, despite its ultimate closure, did what it said it would do in its early days. It met early milestones on time with a core value of “just do it”, which helped bring about the initial investment.

What went wrong

Despite generating $8 million from its first game, Martinez said the team “never built a great game” – one that could serve as a revenue engine for the company. He felt that while HonorBound had decent metrics, the team wasn’t able to unlock user acquisition spend profitably.

Secondly, JuiceBox was ultimately too late to market. He believes had the studio launched its games earlier in 2012 it would probably still be around toady.

Perhaps most importantly – he said a reason why the developer failed was because it bet the company on each game, “which is a terrifying place to be”.

While he felt the team’s strategy of applying its learnings in the same genre was sound, when it’s second game didn’t succeed, there wasn’t much it could do after.

The lessons

For Martinez, one of the key lessons from JuiceBox’s success and failures was figuring out distribution is key. If someone asks you what your distribution strategy is, you can’t say you’ll build a great product and everyone will know about it because it’s great, he said, “it’s not sufficient”.

He added that stating you’re going to have featuring on the App Stores is good, “but it’s not going to make your business a success. Don’t rely on that”.

Another lesson when founding and leading a studio was to trust yourself, as there will be lots of hard decisions to make when building a company. You have to embrace these to keep the company moving forward, he stated.

Despite the studio’s closure – Martinez said that he still holds the life philosophy to always jump in, and had some encouraging words for others thinking of starting their own company.

“If you’re thinking about doing something like this, do it,” he stated.

“Don’t think ‘oh I’ll be more comfortable with risk two years from now, three years from now’, because those three years will go by in the blink of an eye and you’re not going to be more comfortable with risk later on. That’s not how it works.

“In the future you won’t look back and think ‘I wish I didn’t take that risk’, you always say ‘I wish I did it’.”

He concluded with a quote from a speech by former President of the United States Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defe at.”（source：pocketgamer.biz）