原文作者： Guest Author 译者：Megan Shieh

（一）游戏体验的早期阶段难度太大

平衡游戏难度是一件非常棘手的事情。由于开发人员对游戏的运作方式有着非常透彻的了解，因此他们常常把难度定得太高。

在beta测试、公测和正式发行的过程中，开发者需要进行大量的思考同时密切监视玩家的行为和进展速度。如果你发现游戏太难或者玩家不是很明白自己该做些什么，因此直接影响到留存的话，就应该要进行适当的调整。

我们时常会看到开发者利用难度峰值作为一种驱动玩家掏钱的手段，这种手法时常发生在游戏体验的早期阶段，尤其是在线性游戏中。在面临挑战之前，玩家得先感受一下游戏的趣味和体验。如果游戏在一开始就很难的话，那么玩家肯定会拍拍屁股走人。

小结：过早地要求玩家掏钱可能会对留存产生重大的不利影响，尤其是用难度在逼玩家花钱的时候。如果不确定的话，就把你的游戏做得简单一点，这样的话会有更多的玩家选择留下来。先找一个地区来做测试发行，使用这些宝贵的玩家数据分析来调整你的游戏，然后再正式发行。

（二）免费资源不够

大多数游戏会通过资源的可用性来限制或促进进度，无论是能源、虚拟货币还是经验值。这些资源通常都与真钱交易紧密联系在一起。

资源管理是游戏中最需要平衡的部分之一。免费资源给得太少会对留存产生不利影响，而太大方的话又会妨碍LTV（生命周期总价值），因为玩家会发现自己根本没有必要花钱。

这其中的关键就是寸步不离地监视玩家的进展，根据玩家的行为将他们分类，然后结合LTV和留存预测对潜在的补救措施进行A/B测试。

小结：谨慎地处理游戏中的资源发放，因为离开了的玩家几乎都不会再回来，更别说回来花钱了。此外你还需要明确一点：花真钱购买资源只是一种加快进阶的方式，而不是完成进阶的必需品。

（三）上手的体验不咋地

我们都有过这种经历：读了评论，看了截图，然后兴奋地下载了这款游戏。你想要沉浸这款游戏中无法自拔，但是游戏中总是有那么一两个常见场景阻止了你这么做。

上手的过程要么既造作又费时间，要么就是几乎/完全没有任何指南。

一些设计师可能会认为他们的受众不需要太多帮助，让他们直接开玩就可以了，这一点我们理解。但是作为开发者我们需要认识到，并非每个玩家都是一样的。

何不提供多种选项，让玩家展现他们的能力或表达他们期望获得的指示程度？

你还可以使用奖励作为诱饵，鼓励所有用户耐心地通过游戏的初级阶段，并且从中学习关于游戏的基本知识。

但是要记住游戏体验的早期阶段必须是好玩的、有趣的，最重要的是要吸引人。没有人原意阅读大量的文字，也不想每学习一个机制都要花上好几分钟。

小结：采用一个出色的任务系统来引导玩家上手，而不是提供一个婆婆妈妈的入门教程。这种做法还可以随着时间的推移逐步揭示游戏的复杂性，并且为玩家的耐心学习提供奖励。

（四）奖励机制不够完善

完成了一项任务或是提高了自身的水平，无疑会为玩家带来满足感；但是除了满足感之外，你还需要为玩家的成就提供其他形式的奖励。

在玩家前进的过程中，为他们提供逐渐增值的奖励，从而保持他们参与的积极性。详细地说明即将到来的奖励，以此来驱动玩家过关斩将的决心。

对于不包含奖励机制的游戏，玩家可能会失去继续游玩的动力，或者优先考虑其他能够提供更多成就感的游戏。

小结：让每一次的成功和奖励都成为一次有趣的经历，这么做能够给玩家带来一种巨大的成就感以及继续游玩的动力。引导玩家去尝试酷炫好玩的新物件，把可以解锁的物品或强化装备摆在显眼的位置从而鼓励玩家去获取这些物件。

（五）差劲的第一印象

第一印象是至关重要的！开发者应该尽早、尽量地展示游戏中将会出现的东西。

新手教程必须极具吸引力，不要用大量的信息去轰炸玩家，使用清晰的指示，最重要的是确保玩家玩得开心。

总结：如果你的游戏中有一些非常酷炫的特性，找对时机将它们展现出来，不要等到90%的玩家都放弃这款游戏以后再把它们展示出来。

（六）缺乏任务系统

任务系统是一个用来引导玩家的极佳方案，让玩家知道他们该做些什么。设计出一系列要求玩家完成的任务，确保玩家永远不会无事可做。

部分任务可以是基于玩家的成就，比如通过X关卡，达到XX分或者尝试某种游戏模式。

而其他任务则可以用来鼓励玩家去探索游戏世界中的不同部分或刚刚引入的新特性。

小结：玩家们应该无时不刻地受到系统的引导，这样他们才能获得奖励货币并且学会如何在游戏中取得进步。将各种任务作为一个持续性的教程系统，通过一个与奖励机制紧密相连的结构来推进玩家进步，保持玩家参与并帮助他们克服难度曲线。

（七）缺乏激励机制

你的游戏里需要有一些能够确保用户会每天回到游戏中的激励机制。给玩家一些值得期待的东西，用具有价值的奖励来回报玩家的参与。

每日奖励、游戏联赛、定期的内容更新、每周的优惠IAP和按期推出的挑战模式都是可以激励玩家频繁回到游戏的好方法。

每日奖励是被一个广泛使用的机制。而且你还可以增加额外的选项，比如说在特定的日子或时间段里提供加倍奖励，给那些选择回归的玩家提供真正的价值。

小结：你的目标是要确保玩家在关掉了游戏以后，还会再次回到游戏中来。一定要在游戏的早期阶段就给玩家提供每日奖励，确保这些奖励能够为玩家提供良好的价值。没有人喜欢那种不痛不痒的小奖励，确保你的奖励会让玩家觉得值得为它再次回到游戏中来。

（八）不好玩！

这一点就不言而喻啦。你需要提供一种会让玩家上瘾的体验。

小结：总的来说，你的游戏应该既好玩又能让玩家获得成就感，同时让他们感觉未来还有更多、更有趣的东西在等着他们。如果一款游戏要求玩家反复地刷任务，但是在奖励方面却又非常吝啬，而且还无法提供成就感，那么玩家基本上是不会回来了。

（九）非原创内容

一定要有一些能够让你的游戏脱颖而出的东西。市面上已经有太多模仿《Flappy Bird》和《部落冲突》的游戏了。

小结：市面上的原创概念其实少之又少，你的游戏需要给人一种新鲜的感觉，而不是简单地复制已经存在的东西。如果你的游戏内容和玩家已经在玩的另一款游戏差不多，那么玩家很有可能会直接回去玩自己已经熟悉的游戏。

（十）缺乏可重玩性

允许玩家以不同的难度等级或目标/任务来重玩游戏中的部分，这是可以提高可重玩性的好方法。

你的游戏应该是永无止境的，而不是制定一个结束点来限制玩家能走多远。正是因为如此，所以叙事游戏很难在F2P领域闯出一片天。最为适合F2P模式的游戏是那些可以一直重复游玩的、简单的街机游戏。

当然啦，也有某些游戏模式本身就可以重复游玩，比如在线PVP和PvE模式。

总结

更好地理解玩家的行为，为每个特定的玩家类型提供个性化服务。根据玩家的游戏习惯，给他们带来更好的游戏体验，同时确保他们一直都有继续玩下去的动力。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Game difficulty isn’t balanced

Balancing the game difficulty is a very tricky situation. Developers often set the difficulty too high as they are very close to the game and have a vast knowledge of how the game plays.
It requires a lot of thought and close monitoring of how your players are progressing through your game during beta, soft and hard launch, with the capacity to make changes to the game if a dip in retention is discovered as a direct result of difficulty or players not fully understanding what to do.

Spiky

We often see, particularly in linear games, that difficulty spikes are used as a means of trying to monetize players and often happen early in their gameplay. Players need to have fun and experience what the game has to offer before feeling challenged. Players will simply leave if they find that a game is too difficult, too early.

So it is essential that you ensure players progress through the game at a steady pace and communicate difficulty clearly.

Top Tip

Pushing too early for payment can have a major adverse impact on retention, especially with difficulty blockers. If in doubt, make your game easier as more players will stick around. Try soft launching in one region and use valuable player data to analyse and fine tune your game before releasing it into the wild.

Running out of resources

Most games limit or enable progress through the availability of resources, whether it’s energy, virtual money or experience. Often these are tightly linked to real money purchases.

Management of resources is one of the most finely balanced parts of a game. Not providing enough resources will adversely affect retention, while being too profligate can hamper LTV, as players find themselves with no need to spend.

The key to this is maintaining a vigil on player progress, segmenting players by behavior and A/B testing potential remedies in combination with LTV and retention forecasting.

Top Tip

Err on the side of caution as lapsed players rarely ever return and monetize. It’s also important to make it clear that spending real money on resources is simply a progression aid, rather than being a necessity for completion.

On-boarding process

We’ve all been there. You’ve read the reviews, seen the screenshots and in a crescendo of excitement downloaded the game. You want to get stuck into the game, but one of two commonly occurring scenarios stops you.

The on-boarding is either too contrived and time consuming, or you are just dumped into the game with little or no guidance.

Don’t force it

We understand some designers may like to think their audience won’t need much help and let players get on with it. However, we need to realise that not every player is the same.

Why not provide options for players to express their ability or desired level of guidance?

Otherwise, use rewarding as a carrot to encourage all users to progress through the onboarding process and learn the fundamentals of your game.

One thing to keep in mind though is to keep the early stages of the game fun, interesting and above all engaging. Nobody wants to sit through reams of text or have their hand held through every step for several minutes.

Top Tip

The use of a good task system to continue the onboarding journey works particularly well, rather than dragging out your tutorial. It’s also a good way to unveil the complexity of your game over time and reward players for learning.

Lack of rewards

There’s innate satisfaction in completing a task or levelling-up, but players also need to be rewarded for their achievements.

Providing players with increasing rewards as they make progress keeps them motivated and detailing upcoming awards can help keep players moving through the levels.

For games that don’t have this mechanism, there is the risk that players will lose the motivation to keep coming back, or they may prioritize other games that give them a greater feeling of success.

Top Tip

Making every success and reward a fun experience will boost morale and give the player a great sense of achievement. Be smart and direct players to cool new items, location unlocks or boosters in a clear way to encourage use of such items or to direct gameplay.

Poor first impressions

First impressions are vital! Ideally the game should give as much of a taste of what there is to offer as soon as possible.

Keep the tutorial engaging, don’t bombard the player with information, use clear signposting and above all, make sure the player has a good time.

Top Tip

If you have some cool gameplay features further into the game, don’t wait until 90% of players have abandoned before showing them off.

Lack of task system

A task system is an extremely good way to help players understand what they need to do to progress. Hosting a selection of tasks to complete at any given time will ensure players are never stuck with nothing to do.

Some of the tasks can be achievement based, such as complete level X, reach Y score or try a certain game mode.

Others can be used to encourage players to explore parts of the interface or to introduce a new feature

Top Tip

Players should always be steered so they are gaining currency and learning how to progress in the game. Use tasks as an ongoing tutorial system, linked to rewarding that progresses players through a structure to keep players engaged and help with the difficulty curve.

Lack of appointment settings

It is important to host incentives to bring players back to your game each day. Give players something to look forward to that offers good value to reward their engagement.

Daily rewards, tournaments, regular content updates, weekly sales and scheduled challenges are all good ways to keep your players coming back on a regular basis.

Daily bonuses are a widely used mechanic to encourage players to come back on a regular basis. However, it is also good practice to add extra options such as specific days or hours where rewards are doubled to give real value to returning players.

Top Tip

The goal is to get your players to remember to return to the game once they have left it. Make daily-rewards explicit on their first session, ensure they offer good value to the player and integrate them into the theme of the game. Nobody likes a generic pop-up with a tiny reward that grants just a few more seconds of gameplay, make it worth coming back for.

Not fun!

This is a no brainer. The game ultimately has to be fun, it needs to make players want to come back and play again.

You need to deliver an experience that players will become addicted to.

Top Tip

Ultimately. the game should be a fun and rewarding experience with a sense of bigger and better things to come. If a game requires an endless task of repetitive grinding with little reward or sense of achievement it’s only going to put your players off coming back.

Unoriginal content

There has to be something that sets your game apart.

We have seen enough Flappy Bird and Clash of Clans clones to last us a lifetime!

Top Tip

There are very few original concepts, you need to make your game feel fresh and not simply a copy of something that is already available. If your game doesn’t differ enough from another that the player already has, then they’ll likely revert back to the original.

Lack of repeat play opportunities

Being able to repeat parts of your game at different difficulty levels, or with new tasks or objectives, is a great way to enhance the replay-ability of your game.

Players who enjoyed a level the first time around will get even more from it by adding a twist or making the level a little harder than before.

Idealy, your game should be endless, as having a defined end limits how far a player can go. This makes it hard for narrative games to become successful in the free to play space. The games that work the best in F2P are simple, arcade games that can be played forever.

Top Tip

Although a larger development effort, multiple game modes, online PvP and PvE lends itself to repeat play

Summary

Of course, the above reasons are largely down to good game design, but if you already have a good game, then there is a real opportunity to improve the in-game experience for all.

Gain a better understanding your players’ behaviors and personalize the gameplay for each specific player segment. This gives players an enhanced experience based on their playing styles and will ensure they stay motivated in-game.

The deltaDNA big data analytics platform allows game designers to maximize player retention and engagement, by using active segmentation and in delivering live in-game engagement campaigns that have been tested and proven to work. （Source：pocketgamer.biz  ）