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Supercell开发者谈Clash of Clans上架五周年的演变

发布时间:2017-08-09 16:01:23 Tags:,

原文作者:Matt Suckley,译者:Megan Shieh

Supercell仅成立于2010年,但此后却对手机游戏产业产生了不可小觑的影响。

事实上,它已经在数十亿美元的交易中,被收购了两次,第二次被腾讯以86亿的价格购买。

Supercell最大的成功之一,也是有史以来最成功的手机游戏之一,是《部落冲突》(Clash of Clans),它将于今天(2017年8月2日)庆祝发布五周年。

五年间,很多事情都改变了。但有一件事是不变的:世界各地数以百万计的狂热粉丝仍在玩这个游戏。

Supercell是如何运行这样一个具有象征性的游戏的?它又是如何让这些用户在这么长的时间内,一次又一次回到这个游戏?为了解答这些问题,pocketgamer.biz 对《部落冲突》的资深服务器工程师Jonas Collaros进行了访问。

Clash of Clans(from venturebeat.com)

Clash of Clans(from venturebeat.com)

PocketGamer.biz:《部落冲突》现在已经5岁了,从最初发布到现在,你如何看待它的表现?

Jonas Collaros: 在开发《部落冲突》的这五年里,最超现实的一件事是,尽管这个游戏已经成为了一种文化现象,而且经历了这么多事情,但我们基本上还是用一样的方式在开发它。

我们仍然是一个由大约10到15名热情开发者组成的团队,他们都坐在赫尔辛基一个办公室的角落里,努力让《部落冲突》成为最好的游戏。

当然,这个游戏非常成功,我们将这归功于我们的玩家。《部落冲突》的玩家是行业中最专注和最热情的。尽管我们团队强烈认为还有很多很多的事情要做,但我们很自豪地看到,五年后,《部落冲突》仍以良好的状态继续。

目前《部落冲突》的在线运营(live ops)的团队有多大?

Jonas Collaros: 游戏团队本身仍在努力以一种智能和可再生的方式整合在线运营。这意味着我们直接参与了在线运营工具的开发,以及计划和活动安排。

每个游戏都是不同的,所以我们想要找到最适合我们的在线运营方式,但是以后我们想把这个控制开放给其他的社区,以帮助促进更多的活动与地方相关性。

你认为客户的支持和反馈有多重要?如何得到重要的反馈,比如最近的建造基地更新,有被玩家回应了吗?

Jonas Collaros: 我们认为客户支持是非常重要的。Supercell的客户服务设施是公司中最广泛和最复杂的。这尤其适用于从来没有像《部落冲突》这样做过的游戏。反馈是维持这些游戏寿命的生命之血。

总的来说,新建造基地的回响非常棒,这些支持通道能确保我们找到所有主要的bug和问题,它们对于我们来说是无价的。也就是说,我们通常会更多地关注我们的社区频道,查看玩家对内容和游戏的反馈。

你采取了哪些措施来确保在发布这么久之后,《部落冲突》还能保持一个相当大的活跃玩家基础。

Jonas Collaros: 我们使用的方法和最初是一样的:尽最大的努力把《部落冲突》做成最好的游戏。在我们的行业中,有时很容易忽略这样一个事实:玩家想要的,是找到一个他们可以日复一日地玩的,有趣的、高质量的游戏。

当然,我们可以利用分析,协调营销,使用像在线运营(live ops)这样的工具来帮助我们了解我们的游戏,更好地接触我们的玩家,但是持续为玩家提供他们喜爱的游戏体验这件事,是没有任何东西可以取代的。

不要以为这是一个简单的答案 - 这是我们迄今为止最难的工作。它包括每天沉浸在我们自己的游戏里,不间断地吸收和跟踪玩家的反馈,还有亲自与社区的影响者和顶级玩家接触。

我们必须保持一个大的视角,同时也要对我们所有的游戏运作知根知底,其中包括我们所有玩家的感觉,他们想要什么,以及游戏最需要什么。其他一切都是帮助实现这一目标的工具。

你把《部落冲突》令人印象深刻的成绩归功于什么,你是如何维持这个局面的?

Jonas Collaros:迎合普遍爱好,为可接近性而开发。不断更新让玩家参与进来,让我们的社区尽可能地保持它的广阔和活力,并持续提供他们想要的和喜爱的东西。

你愿意分享任何KPI吗?例如下载量,DAU (日活跃用户) 或保留率。

Jonas Collaros:对于KPI,我们通常比较守口如瓶。我们想先从游戏质量来判断,毕竟我们的玩家是基于游戏的质量来做出决定的。

即便如此,值得注意的是,我们今年已经看到了一些有史以来最高的DAU数据。此外,大约90%的活跃玩家都玩过我们的新建造基地模式。我们对这个数据非常自豪,因为它显示了我们的玩家有多么渴望看到《部落冲突》在新的方向继续发展。

你从《部落冲突》中学到了什么? 你是否还在从《部落冲突》中学习?事后来看,有没有什么现在的你会以不同方式处理的环节?

Jonas Collaros: 对我们来说,一个正在进行中的、巨大的努力是改善开发团队和玩家之间的沟通。

在发展的过程中,我们努力保持玩家的参与。我们希望玩家享受我们的游戏,就像我们享受创作过程一样; 然而,我们已经学会了在与我们的社区交流游戏的变化时,更坦诚布公。

最后,从开发《部落冲突》的经验中,你学到了什么?

Jonas Collaros:开发《部落冲突》的过程是一个既令人谦恭,又有深刻见解的经验。你会认识到一个游戏在开发中心之外是如何生活和呼吸的。你还会发现,一个想让人们玩5年,10年,甚至更长时间的游戏所需的开发方式是多么的不同。

同样,一个热门游戏的开发过程也会被一次一次地神秘化,其中的秘密其实就只是:最大程度地把游戏开发好,并希望它能引起尽可能多人的共鸣。

有些事情在你的控制范围内,也有很多是你无法控制的,你必须学会如何做出最合理、最明智的决定,并希望得到最好的结果。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Supercell was only founded in 2010, but since then it’s made quite the impact on the mobile games industry.

So much of one in fact that it’s been acquired twice in multi-billion dollar deals, the second time by Tencent for $8.6 billion.

One of its biggest successes, and one of the most successful mobile games of all time, is Clash of Clans, which celebrates its fifth anniversary today (August 2nd 2017).

A lot has changed about the game in that time. But one thing remains constant: It’s still being played by millions of avid fans the world over.

To find out how Supercell runs such a signifcant game and how it has kept those users coming back over such a long period of time, PocketGamer.biz caught up with Clash of Clans Senior Server Engineer Jonas Collaros to get the lowdown on the title’s life so far.

PocketGamer.biz: With Clash of Clans now five years old, how do you reflect on its performance – from launch to the mature title it is now?

Jonas Collaros: One of the most surreal things about working on a game like Clash of Clans for five years is that, despite all that has happened and how much of a cultural phenomenon the game has become, we’re still fundamentally developing it the same way.

We are still a group of roughly 10 to 15 passionate developers, all sitting in the same corner of an office in Helsinki, trying to do what we can to make Clash of Clans the best game it can possibly be.

Of course, the game has been very successful and we owe that to our players. Clash players are some of the most dedicated and passionate in the industry. We’re proud to see Clash of Clans still going strong after five years, though the team strongly thinks there are still many more to come.

How big is the team currently handling live ops on Clash of Clans?

The game team itself is still working to integrate live ops in a smart and renewable way. This means that we have been directly involved with developing our live ops tools, as well as the planning and scheduling of events.

Every game is different, so we’re trying to find what approach to live ops works best for us, but we would like to open that control to other community leads later to help spur on more events with more local relevance.

How important do you consider customer support and updates to be? How have significant updates, such as the recent Builder Base update, been responded to by players?

We consider customer support to be incredibly important. Supercell’s customer support infrastructure is the most expansive and intricate in the company. This is especially the case with games that are never done like Clash of Clans. Updates are the life-blood that sustains these games in the long-term.

Altogether, the response to Builder Base has been fantastic, and these support channels are invaluable to ensure we can find all major bugs and issues. That said, we typically look more to our community channels to engage player feedback about content and gameplay.

What steps have you taken to ensure that Clash of Clansmaintains a sizeable and active player base all this time after its launch?

Our approach to this is what it’s been from day one: try to make Clash of Clans the best game we can. In our industry, it can be sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that, for our players, the bottom line is a fun, quality game experience that they can play day after day for years.

Of course we can – and do – leverage analytics, coordinate marketing efforts and use tools like live ops to help us understand our game and reach our players better, but nothing will ever substitute continuing to deliver great game experiences that our players love.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a softball answer, either – this is, by far, the hardest job we have. It involves playing and immersing in our own game every day, relentlessly taking in and following up on player feedback, engaging personally with community influencers and top players.

We must maintain a big-picture perspective, but also a nuts-and-bolts understanding of how all of our game works, how all of our players feel, what they want, and what the game needs the most. Everything else is a toolset to help achieve this goal.

To what do you attribute Clash of Clans’ consistently impressive grossing performance and how do you sustain it?

Develop for universal appeal and approachability, constantly update to keep players engaged, involve our community to keep it as expansive and alive as possible, and keep delivering things they want and love.

Any KPIs such as downloads, DAU or retention you’re willing to share?

We typically are a bit tight-lipped about our KPI’s. We want to be judged on game quality first – that’s how our players make their decisions, after all.

That said, it is noteworthy that we’ve seen some of our highest daily active user figures ever just this year. Also, roughly 90% of our active players have played the new Builder Base mode. That is a figure we’re very proud of as it shows how eager our players are to see Clash of Clans continue to grow in new directions.

What lessons have you learned/are you still learning from Clash of Clans? Is there anything about the game that, in hindsight, you’d now handle differently?

A big and ongoing effort for us has been to improve communication between the development team and players.

We try to keep player engagement at the forefront during development. We want players to enjoy our games as much as we enjoy the creation process; however, we have learned to be more open with our communication regarding game changes.

Finally, how has your experience with Clash of Clans informed where you are/what you’re working on now?

Working on Clash of Clans is both a humbling and insightful experience. You learn how much a game lives and breathes outside of the walls where it is developed. You learn how differently you have to approach developing a single game that you want people to play for five years, 10 years, or longer.

Also, the magic of a hit game becomes a bit demystified as, time and time again, it simply comes down to developing the best game possible and hoping it strikes a chord with as many people as possible.

Some of that is in your control, a lot of it is out of your control, and you have to learn how to just make the soundest, smartest decisions you can and hope for the best.(Source: PocketGamer.biz


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