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以产品体验的角度谈Dragon’s Watch是如何盈利的

发布时间:2018-02-12 09:21:30 Tags:,,

以产品体验的角度谈Dragon’s Watch是如何盈利的

原作者:Matt Suckley 译者:Willow Wu

欢迎回到In-App Purchase Inspector,在这里我们会以消费者的视角,定期测评一些F2P游戏。

每期文章,我们都会考虑游戏中IAP的诱因、压力、它们的感知价值、IAP带来的扩展内容还有整个游戏体验的评估。

最终目的就是看看这游戏究竟值不值得我们砸钱,不花钱的游戏体验是否也能让玩家感到满足。

dragons watch bundles(from pocketgamer.biz)

dragons watch bundles(from pocketgamer.biz)

这次我们测评的是Dragon’s Watch,这是The Secret Police的处女作,它是一个新成立的游戏工作室,位于伦敦。这款团队RPG游戏很大程度上是受日式手游设计的启发。

从东到西

工作室的合伙创始人Ric Moore和Harry Holmwood花了很多时间研究App Store数据。

他们甚至开发出了一种高级工具,能把时下盈利效率最高的游戏筛选出来,集合在一份图表中。

出乎意料的是他们发现表中时不时会出现亚洲RPG手游,尽管这类游戏只对小部分西方玩家的胃口,但是游戏还是获得了非常可观的收益。

但是游戏中仍有些地方被东西方玩家所诟病:下载时间太长、前载剧情又臭又长、新手引导不到位。

怎样才能沿袭这些产品的优势,同时又克服它们的缺点呢?

Dragon’s Watch的目的就是解决这个问题。

完美的平衡?

从一开始,这个想法就在脑中挥之不去。日式团队RPG游戏,核心就是回合制战斗加上收集-合成-抽卡的metagame,Ric Moore和Harry Holmwood没必要再另起炉灶。

但他们确实引入了一个新的游戏特色:开发者们借鉴了iPod的选曲盘设计,在游戏中利用拨盘来控制玩家的6人团队。

派遣队员上前线的同时也可以让部分队员撤到后方蓄力,这就将游戏的战术需求提升了一个层次,但重点是这种直观的单手操作设计非常契合移动平台的特点,便捷、简单。

招募英雄、不断升级,这些机制就跟其他的RPG游戏差不多,玩家应该很熟悉了。

来喝一杯

Dragon’s Watch中有两种主要货币:金币和宝石。金币是游戏中的软货币,角色合成、升级都要用到金币,制作药水也需要。

完成任务或者卖掉英雄都会得到金币。

宝石是以礼包的形式购买,从0.99美元买1个宝石到74.99美元买175个宝石。

5个宝石就可以到神庙召唤一个新英雄——不同的限时促销活动还会提高召唤到某类角色的概率。如果你的团队在战斗中被击溃了,可以用两个宝石让他们满血复活。

非氪金玩家可以在完成任务后得到1个宝石,但是只有初次完成任务时才有。这就意味着你要完成五个任务才能去神庙中召唤英雄,相当于你要挣4.95美元。

除此之外,还有一种用于召唤的特殊货币称作Ale。每完成一个主线任务可以得到20 Ale,完成每日任务、达到成就也可以得到Ale。100 Ale能在酒馆中招募一个英雄。

要得到稀有英雄,你就必须使用稀有召唤券(Rare Summon Tickets),它在游戏的IAP礼包中。

能量礼包

当然,Dragon’s Watch也有常见的新手包:包含10个宝石、5000 Ale、100000金币和3张稀有召唤券,这些只要3.99美元,非常诱人的价格。

当然还有更豪华的礼包:包含70个宝石和200000金币,售价29.99美元。有些令人意外的是玩家不会因为消费而得到每日奖励或者是VIP福利,然而这两种设定在亚洲RPG游戏中可以说是必不可少的。

Dragon’s Watch还是有采用一种常规设定——自动战斗,但玩家必须手动通关所有任务之后才能解锁自动战斗功能。

玩家无需任何操作就能战斗,最高可加速三倍。这样一来玩家就能迅速得到金币和Ale,但是自动战斗也是要消耗能量的。

能量的恢复速度是每3分钟恢复一点,如果是手动玩游戏,大致是不用担心能量会用光,因为这要花费相当长的时间。但如果是自动战斗,能量很容易就会被耗光,恢复能量还需要花费3个宝石。

总的来说,就算不花钱玩,游戏也不会受到很大影响。游戏提供了足够的软货币让玩家召唤新角色,玩家不会因为金币不够而没办法合成、升级英雄,再者能量也是很充足。

这个带有西方滤镜的东方RPG游戏究竟能不能成功,大概只有时间能证明了吧。但是就目前的体验来说,这是一款流畅、有趣的好游戏。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Welcome back to the In-App Purchase Inspector – our regular look at free-to-play games from the consumer’s perspective.

In each instalment, we consider the incentives or pressure applied to make in-app purchases, their perceived value, the expansion offered by IAPs and the overall value of the experience.

The end goal is to see whether the game makes a good enough case for us to part with our cash, or whether players are content – or engaged enough – to ‘freeload’.

This time we’re taking a look at Dragon’s Watch. This squad-based RPG is heavily inspired by Japanese mobile game design and is the debut game from London start-up The Secret Police.

East to West

The studio’s co-founders Ric Moore and Harry Holmwood spent a long time analysing App Store data.

They even developed what Moore referred to as “a fancy tool that makes real-time charts of all the most efficiently monetising games.”

Their discovery was that Asian mobile RPGs appeared in these charts with surprising regularity, racking up impressive revenues despite only catering to relatively small Western audiences.

From playing these games, however, there were elements that frustrated the pair: long initial downloads, tedious front-loaded story elements and generally poor onboarding.

Just what could be possible, then, for a game that understood and channelled the appeal of these titles, with an eye to eliminating their most obvious flaws and churn points?

Dragon’s Watch is the game that aims to answer that question.

A perfect balance?

From the off, the inspiration shines through clearly. A squad-based RPG in the Japanese style, based around turn-based combat and collection-fusion-gacha metagame, it has no need to reinvent the wheel.

But it does introduce one new feature, in the form of an iPod-inspired scroll dial that controls the positioning of the player’s six-unit team.

The ability to let some units recoup while pushing others to the forefront adds another tactical dimension, but above all else it’s just an intuitive one-handed control scheme that suits on-the-go mobile play.

The process of recruiting and upgrading said units, however, remains largely familiar.

Time for a drink

The two primary currencies in Dragon’s Watch are Coins and Gems. The former is the game’s soft currency, required for the fusion and evolution of characters, as well as potion crafting.

Coins are awarded for completing quests and can also be earned by selling heroes.

Gems, meanwhile, come in bundles ranging from $0.99 for one Gem to $74.99 for 175.

Five Gems is enough to recruit one new hero via a temple summon – subject to timed promotions that increase the probability of summoning certain unit types – and two can be used to revive a downed team mid-battle.

For non-spending players, one Gem can be earned for each completed quest – but only for the first time it’s completed. This means that five completed quests earns enough currency – worth $0.99 in real money – for a temple summon.

But along with this, there’s another summon-specific currency called Ale. 20 Ale is awarded for each quest completed, with more up for grabs for clocking daily missions and achievements. 100 is enough to recruit a hero from the tavern.

Then finally, to guarantee a Rare hero, there are Rare Summon Tickets. These are offered as part of some IAP bundle offers.

Bundles of energy

Of course, Dragon’s Watch features the increasingly ubiquitous starter bundle. Its offering consists of 10 Gems, 5,000 Ale, 100,000 Coins and three Rare Summon Tickets, all at an attractive price of $3.99.

For further down the line, a $29.99 bundle offers 70 Gems and 200,000 Coins. It’s somewhat surprising, however, that there is nary a sniff of annuities or VIP rewards – both extremely common in the Asian RPGs from which The Secret Police takes its inspiration.

But one common trait of these games that Dragon’s Watch absolutely does adopt is auto-battle, which is unlocked for all quests that the player first completes manually.

This allows battles to be played out with no player input, at up to three times the normal speed. It allows rewards like Coins and Ale to be generated very quickly, but it also depletes energy.

By simply playing through quests manually, energy – which regenerates at a rate of one every three minutes – would take a long time to deplete. But auto-battle changes all this – and it costs three Gems to restore.

Generally, though, pressure to spend in Dragon’s Watch is low. Free currency provides enough opportunities to summon new characters, Gold flows freely enough to keep fusing and upgrading heroes while energy is relatively plentiful.

Only time will tell whether this distinctly Asian-style RPG, made by industry veterans eyeing the genre through a Western lens, is a successful experiment. But as far as the experience goes, it’s a smooth and enjoyable one.(source:pocketgamer.biz


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