原文作者：Andrei Klubnikin  译者：Megan Shieh

受到《模拟城市（SimCity）》系列游戏的启发，世界各地的开发商们争先恐后地制作了数百款城市建设游戏。可惜的是，这些游戏都没能取得优秀的成绩，很快就被世人遗忘了。那么，制作一款像《模拟城市》这样的手游通常需要投入多少成本？怎么做才能取得商业上的成功？

首先，你的期望值需要符合现实情况，不要异想天开。

最初于1989年推出的《模拟城市》已经进化了成一个复杂的宇宙，一个由人工智能算法驱动的、自给自足的有机体，每一个过程和资源的建模是如此完善，玩家甚至可以观看电能被送到房子里的过程。难怪《模拟城市：建设》(2014年发行的iOS/Android免费游戏)每月仍能获得200万美元的收入。

SimCity BuildIt(from venturebeat.com)

但是，你不应该尝试着去克隆一个《模拟城市》；而是应该制作一款规模类似《The Tribez》的游戏。

为什么？

想象一下。你在玩《模拟城市》，然后决定建一个核电站。一切都很顺利，直到突如其来的地震产生了巨大海啸波。你的核电站因此被夷为平地，核废料污染了土壤和地下水。城市中的居民选择逃离，或死于辐射疾病。城市里的工厂和商店都倒闭了，道路崩塌，你的城市彻底被毁了。

《模拟城市》的引擎可以评估单个事件的后果，并建立合适的场景模型。因此，如果你试图克隆一款《模拟城市》的话，至少需要花费数百万美元。再者，一个新手是绝对不可能有机会打败像《模拟城市》这样的3A级游戏的，所以你应该先将就着做些比较简单的事情。

另一方面，尽管《The Tribez》的玩法相当简单——玩家成为石器时代部落的首领并引领它走向繁荣，但是游戏通过多种建筑和资源的不同升级方式带给玩家一种丰富的视觉享受。

那么，制作一款城市建设手游到底要花多少钱？

图像内容、编码和故事开发最多将会消耗你预算的95%。

游戏图像

虽然城市建设类游戏通常只使用2D平面图像，但是游戏中会有数千个角色、物体和场景。开发者需要给每个角色都配上动画效果，即使这些动画只会沿着8条预设的轨迹移动——比如在剧院里鼓掌，在酒吧里举杯。给每个角色配上30个动画效果、10个视角和10个帧数，需要做的工作就已经多到数不过来了。

此外，为了展现建设、拆除和升级的过程，你应该给建筑物和室外区域注入活力。别忘了，还有包括图标和游戏管理用户界面（UI）在内的静态图像。这样一看，图像内容是不是就多到爆了？

总的来说，高质量视觉效果的制作最多可以花费掉整个游戏开发时间的70%，花费约25-30万美元。

编码与游戏优化

任何一个在城市建设游戏中游玩了几周的用户，最终都会有数百人、一堆建筑物和其他资产，这些资产都是自我管理的。整个城市成为一个自我管理的个体；它应该能够管理自己而不受玩家的干扰，并且消耗尽可能少的处理能力/存储空间。

而这就是“游戏优化”这个术语的意思。

为了提供最好的用户体验，开发人员经常用黑白两色来绘制图像(它们可以减少高达400%的GPU资源消耗)，并将单色调色板限制在15-20种颜色。然后，他们会创建出一个算法，将颜色分配给这些灰色阴影(例如，“灰色10”代表“藏青色”)并相应地渲染图像。

当涉及到实际的编码时，你可以为IOS/Android创建单独的代码库，也可以使用跨平台游戏开发解决方案，比如Unreal或Unity引擎。然而在第二种情况下，你的引擎供应商需要进行一次性能测试，以确定游戏升级的上限(毕竟我们有大量的图像内容)。

移动开发部分占据了城建游戏开发项目时间表的30%，大约会花费10万美元。

故事开发

R-Style Lab工作室的首席技术官（CTO）Pavel Shylenok表示，（任何一款城市建设游戏都是默认的休闲类游戏，）休闲游戏市场每两三年就会发生变化。例如，在2010年代初，用户对奇幻类游戏非常着迷。如今，公众的兴趣已经转向了科幻故事和太空战争。

我们不鼓励你盲目地跟随潮流，相反，你应该事先进行适当的市场调查，找出哪些类型的内容更能吸引你的受众。

Pavel还建议：创建一款具有大众市场吸引力的游戏(并在发行后继续扩大其拓展范围)。

然而，市面上有这么多的城镇建设游戏，你不能推出一款跟《The Tribez》一模一样的游戏，然后坐等收钱。

现在，让我们来聊聊盈利模式战略。

虽然《The Tribez》的用户可以从其他玩家那里获得资源或者在facebook上分享他们的成就，但是城市建设游戏通常不会依赖于多人游戏元素(也称为“竞争精神”)来保持用户的参与。

以下几点可以帮助你获得成功：

-高质量的视觉效果；
-原创(且不断创造新花样的！)情节；
-灵活性(按需参与)。

我们在上文已经解释过了图像内容和游戏情节；那么，“按需参与”是什么意思？

现代模拟游戏通常会包含某些益智/策略游戏元素，使玩家能够解锁新的领地，同时，使用内购物品和模拟货币来构建多个城镇并加速情节解锁。

例如，你建立了一个城镇并且完成了基础设施的构建。到了某个时候，你会意识到自己已经准备好建造新的定居点了；然而，目前的科技发展水平阻止了你乘船旅行或飞往另一个星球。这时你有两个选项：再玩两周，然后自动升级到下一个等级；或者花真钱购买一件物品，给你的船只一个目的地，从而解锁新的地点。

城市建设游戏中还可能包含时间管理或资源规划功能；这些功能应该时刻准备就绪，然后按需出现，否则你将会疏远城建模拟游戏的爱好者。

游戏开发(包括配乐和配音)会另外花费你5万美元。

综上所述，开发一款像《The Tribez》这样的游戏总共要花多少钱？

最后，我们得出了一个惊人的数字：40-45万美元！但这是否意味着除非你的口袋里有50万美元，否则你就不能着手一个游戏开发项目？

只要你能找到一家可靠的安卓/iOS应用开发公司，你就可以在更小的预算(30万美元)上构建一款游戏。一旦游戏上线，你就能收集用户的反馈，决定游戏的功能集和需要加强的地方，并继续进行开发。

制作出一款原创的新颖游戏，并且注重图像质量，成功就会随之而来。

PS.本文引用的成本是根据东欧移动开发商/设计师的平均小时费率计算的。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Inspired by the success of the SimCity franchise, app entrepreneurs craft hundreds of city-building games that barely crack iOS/Android downloads charts and soon pale into oblivion. What is the median mobile game development cost for an app like SimCity and how to make your game a commercial success? Read on to find out!
City-building game development: aligning expectations with reality

Originally launched in 1989, SimCity has evolved into a complex universe, a self-sufficient organism powered by Artificial Intelligence algorithms where every process and resource is modelled to a point where you could watch electricity being delivered to homes. It’s no wonder SimCity BuildIt (a freemium game for iOS/Android which was released in 2014) still generates $ 2 million in monthly revenue.

However, you shouldn’t try to create a SimCity clone in the first place; pull a Tribez instead.

Despite a fairly simple gameplay (you become a chief of a Stone Age tribe and lead it to prosperity), the Tribez is a visually-reach gaming application with multiple upgrade options.

What makes it different from a full-fledged simulation game like SimCity?

Consider this. You’re playing SimCity and decide to put up a nuclear power plant. All goes well until an earthquake generates an enormous tsunami wave. Your plant is demolished, and the nuclear waste contaminates soil and groundwater. The inhabitants of your city leave or succumb to radiation sickness. Factories and shops shut down. The roads crumble. The city falls into ruin.

SimCity’s engines can evaluate the aftermaths of a single event and model appropriate scenarios – and that’s why a SimCity clone would cost you millions. Besides, a newbie doesn’t stand a chance against an AAA-class game like SimCity, so you should make do with something simpler.

How much does it cost to make a city-building game app?

Graphic content, coding and plot development will consume up to 95% of your budget.

Game graphics

Although city-building games typically use 2D images only, they feature thousands of characters, objects and scenes.

Every character should be animated – even if these animations will be limited to moving along 8 preset trajectories, clapping hands in a theatre and raising glasses in a bar. Multiply each character by 30 animations, 10 angles and 10 frames.

Also, you should breathe life into buildings and playing fields in order to illustrate construction, demolition and upgrade processes. Don’t forget about still imagery comprising icons and game admin UIs. Now you see where the overwhelming amount of graphic content comes from.

All in all, the creation of high-quality visuals takes up to 70% of the entire game dev time and costs about $ 250-300 thousand.

Coding and game optimization

Any user who plays a city-building game for a couple of weeks ends up with hundreds of people, buildings and other assets living their own lives. The city becomes a self-organized entity; it should be able to manage itself with little to no interference on a player’s part and consume as little processing power/storage as possible.

And that’s what the “game optimization” term refers to.

In order to deliver the ultimate user experience, developers often draw graphics in black and white (they consume up to 400% less GPU resources) and limit the monochrome palette to just 15-20 colors. Then they create an algorithm which assigns colors to these shades of gray (for instance, “gray 10” will stand for “navy blue”) and render images accordingly.

When it comes to the actual coding, you can either take the native approach and create a separate codebase for iOS/Android or use a cross-platform game dev solution like Unreal Engine or Unity. In the second case, however, your vendor will have to conduct a performance test to determine the upper limits of the game upgrades (we’ve got tons of graphic content after all).

The mobile dev part comprises 30% of a city-building game development project timeline and will cost you some $ 100 thousand.

Story development

According to Pavel Shylenok, CTO at R-Style Lab, the casual games market (any city-building game is casual by default!) changes every two or three years. In the early 2010s, for example, users were going crazy about epic fantasy games taking place in medieval villages inhabited by dwarves, elves and fairies. Today, the general public interest has shifted towards cyberpunk and space wars.

We do not encourage you to follow trends blindly; instead, you should conduct a proper market research beforehand to find out what type of content will resonate with your audience.

Pavel also recommends that you create a gameplay with mass market appeal (and continue to expand its outreach after the release).

With so many town-building games out there, however, you can’t put out another Tribez clone, sit back and relax. And we finally come to your monetization strategy (or lack thereof).

Although the Tribez’ users can receive resources from other players or share their achievements on Facebook, city-building games do not normally rely on the multi-player component (aka “competitive spirit”) to maintain user engagement.

Here’s what will increase your chances of success:

High-quality visuals;

Original (and ever-evolving!) gameplay;

Flexibility (engagement on demand).

We’ve already told you about graphic content and game plot; what does “engagement on demand” mean?

Modern simulation games often incorporate certain puzzle/strategy game elements, enabling players to occupy new territories, simultaneously construct several towns and unlock gameplay faster using artefacts and in-app currency.

For example, you set up a town and develop its infrastructure. At a certain point you realize you’re ready to build new settlements; the current level of tech development, however, prevents you from travelling by sea or flying to another planet. You’ve got two options here: play the game for two more weeks and upgrade to the next level automatically or purchase an artefact giving your ship “a following sea”.

A city-building game may also include time management or resource planning features; however, these features should be available on demand (and probably on a fee) – otherwise you will alienate city simulation game lovers.

Gameplay development (including soundtrack and voice-over work) will cost you another $ 50 thousand.

How much does it cost to develop a game app like Tribez: summing it up

In the end, we’ve arrived at an impressive figure – $ 400-450 thousand! Does it mean you can’t embark on a game dev project unless you have a half a million dollars in your pocket?

Provided you address a reliable Android/iOS app development company, you can build a game on a smaller budget ($ 300 thousand). Once you release it to the market, you’ll be able to gather user feedback, decide on the game’s feature set and upgrades and proceed with the development.

Bring something new to the table and invest in graphic content – and success will follow.

The costs cited in this article are based on the average Eastern European mobile developer/designer hourly rates （Source：gamasutra.com ）