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从媒介和开发者角度看待印度手游市场的发展

发布时间:2018-03-19 09:14:45 Tags:,

从媒介和开发者角度看待印度手游市场的发展

原作者:Matt Suckley 译者:Willow Wu

“印度手游市场收益将会在2020前达到11亿美元。”

这是去年在Nasscom Game Developer Conference上的最引人瞩目的行业报告,还得感谢app数据分析公司App Annie的鼎力相助。

相比其它大会,NGDC 2017的确是缺乏能够吸引媒体的热点话题。但是通过亲身参与大会,你能感受到印度游戏行业正处于健康、稳步的发展状态。

出席人数是体现行业发展现状的指标之一,这次大会吸引了近3000人参加(2016年的参与人数是1800人)。

Unite India大会也是在同一地点同一时期举行,如果你两个活动都想参加,可以购买联合票。毫无疑问,这也是人数增加的原因。

虽说最初宣布联合举办的时候遭到了质疑——人们担心Unity这个大公司会在背后干涉,对势头正好的游戏行业产生不好的影响,但事实并非如此。

“我们很了解Unity那边的人,”Nasscom游戏论坛主席Rajesh Rao说,“他们想举办Unite India,那我就说来吧,我们一起办。这不需要再考虑什么。”

连接

Rao估算了一下,全印度大概有70%的开发者用的就是Unity引擎。

Unity也证实了Rao在开幕式上提到的一项数据:印度是全球下载Unity游戏第三多的国家,2017年一月的时候还排在第九。

是什么原因促使了这种增长?Rao的回答很简单:“4G变得越来越便宜了。”

网络连接通常被视为印度手游发展的主要壁垒,当地运营商Reliance Jio也一直致力于4G推广,而且资费并不高。

india mobile games market(from gamesindustry.biz)

india mobile games market(from gamesindustry.biz)

“大家都在准备打网络战,”Rao补充道,“在Jio成立之前,我在AirTel和Vodafone工作。他们之前的4G网络没有现在这么快、稳定。这种剧烈转变就像是突然打开了水龙头。”

不仅如此,费用上也有很大变化。以前一个月2、3G就收费500-700卢比,这不是什么罕见的事。现在一个月300卢比,你每天都有到1、2G的流量。

Rao说这对于“精打细算”(说白了就是抠门)的印度公共机构来说真的是一个很大的转变。“在以前他们无法接受这种改革,现在他们连考虑都不用,说改就改,”他兴奋地说。

你可以通过数据看出来——印度已经超越中国成为了世界第一的移动流量消费大国。

断开

Zynga游戏部门的前高级副总裁Mark Skaggs现在跳槽到印度班加罗尔的Moonfrog Labs工作,他认为还有些问题尚待解决。

他说印度这个国家更像是一个洲——不同地区的语言不同、文化不同、宗教信仰不同、政治倾向不同,还有科技的发展程度也不同,所以如果你只拿一把刷子去把整个印度都画成一个颜色,这是行不通的。

简单来说,4G还没有在全印度普及。就算普及了,那也只算走了半程。

关于覆盖率问题,Skaggs说:“你所在的地区有4G,流量资费也不高,但如果你连网都连不上,谁还在乎前面那些东西呢?”

除此之外,设备条件限制在印度也是个常见的问题,这就意味着游戏体积不能做太大。

Moonfrog的首款热门手游Teen Patti Gold只有7M,然而近期发行的Baahubali:The Game达到了20M。

“从调查数据来看,我们以后可能还会再做大一点,到30M左右,”Skaggs说,“这对我们来说是容易了一点点。但绝对不能到100M。”

有这种想法的不只是Moonfrog,孟买游戏工作室Photon Tadpole的节奏平台游戏Bollywood Fighter在大会上获得了“最值得期待游戏(Upcoming Game of the Year Awards)”提名,他们的游戏体积目标是10M以下。

本土启发

PocketGamer.biz代表也参与了该奖项的评选,从2015年到现在,参赛作品质量有了显著提升。

独立游戏变得越来越成熟,而且内容越来越丰富,以前这一奖项提名的大部分都是手游,现在变成了PC游戏。

团队规模小并不意味着你就做不出好游戏,就比如班加罗尔的游戏工作室Nukebox,他们的的CEO Amit Hardi就是第一个证明这句话的印度人,由Nukebox开发的手游《餐车厨师:烹饪游戏》(Food Truck Chef)获得了前所未有的成功。NGDC 2017也很乐意为这些小团队所取得的成绩喝彩。对Rajesh Rao来说,这是具有里程碑意义的一刻。

“从西边来了个开发者,由他主导的项目成果非常好”Rao说,“人们可能会想‘他之前呆的地方有一个十分成熟游戏市场,我们可没有那么好的条件’然后就放弃走人,但是你不能逃避这种现状。”

相信过程

不可否认,《餐车厨师:烹饪游戏》的表现非常喜人:100天内达到470万次下载,收益超过130万美元,在32个不同的国家成为盈利最多的100个游戏之一。

Hardi的33人团队都是普通人,他相信的就是精准的玩家数据分析。

“每个人都可以创作出好游戏,这是他们必须相信的,”Hardi解释道,“并不是一定要有某种经验或者是背景才能做到。

“观察人们是否能从错误中学习是一件很有意思的的事,这种学习能力能推进整个印度的游戏生态发展。”

Rajesh Rao提到有些开发者不太认同Hardi这种专注于数据的做法,但他本人完全不这么想。

“有一部分开发者把游戏开发看作是一份艺术性的工作,是一个发挥创意的地方,”Rao告诉PocketGamer.biz,“他们觉得数据会剥夺游戏开发的乐趣。但这是现实。

“聪明的人不仅不会在艺术上妥协,还能数据当成工具。有很多人根本就不看数据,他们也没有把反馈资料好好利用起来。

“数据是非常有用的,如果你把那些助攻的重要元素屏蔽掉,那就是愚蠢了。”

Nukebox的成功来源于他们严谨的工作方式,他们对游戏的各个部分进行了A/B测试,细心打磨,面对宏观问题他们能够用数据解答。而Rao还知道另外一个成功案例。

与Nukebox不同,位于孟买的Gametion只有18人,他们的PvP棋牌手游Ludo King一跃成为大热门游戏,让他们傻了眼。Ludo King的表现的确十分惊人,日活跃用户1000万,每日新增下载有100万次。

Nukebox和Gametion的开发策略不同,目标市场不同,可以说这是两种不同类型的成功,但Rao认为两边都能学到重要的经验。

“他们的游戏是填补市场空白的典型例子,”他说,“他们都对成功感到惊喜,这其中的原因就是他们用了好产品填补市场中的空隙。

“Amit制定的方针非常重要,他引导我们制定计划、优化我们的思维方式。你可以选择一个已经达到饱和状态的游戏类型或者是题材,做出一个好产品,但那会非常难。”

他拿Timuz的Train Simulator 2016举例,它是去年大会上的聚焦点之一,这游戏的成功在很大程度上是也是受益于市场空隙。

Timuz和独立出来开发公司BigCode仍然在往这一方向发展,从Rao的数据可以看出两家公司的月留存率都非常高。

印度还在往前走

现在Rao和Nasscom的最希望的就是印度的开发者们能够借鉴这些成功经历,把本国作为目标市场,印度的移动通信设施不再那么落后了,可以帮助游戏公司走得更好。

至少我们能看见印度在发生转变,Mark Skaggs说:“去年大概有一半的人把目标放在美国市场,而今年,我还没听说有谁打算这么做。大家都在学习,市场正在变化,游戏行业的人大多讨论的是印度。”

Skaggs还把当下的印度手游市场和七年前的中国手游市场做了对比,后者已经迎来了它的转折点,在如今成为了消费规模最大、收益最多的行业之一。

“我们距离那个转折点大概还有18-24个月,”他评估说。

所以NGDC 2017不像是前面几届重点关注的是大项目数量。项目多固然是好,但是过于关注数量很难激发出创作者的热情。

印度游戏行业正在悄无声息地发展,成功的本土游戏产品就在你的手机中,我相信这肯定比直白、毫无生气的洗脑式宣传册更能激励开发者。

这条路漫长而曲折,但是选择走上这条路的人们从没比现在更加坚信它通往的是成功的大门。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

“Indian mobile gaming revenues will reach $1.1 billion by 2020.”

This was the biggest statement to emerge from last year’s Nasscom Game Developer Conference, courtesy of a report published in partnership with app intelligence firm App Annie.

NGDC 2017, by contrast, lacked such a headline-grabbing projection. But from attending the conference, the healthy signs were clear to see.

Turnout at events can be a decent barometer of an industry’s health, and this year’s conference welcomed nearly 3,000 people. For context, the 2016 conference held the previous record at 1,800 attendees.

The inaugural Unite India, held simultaneously in the same Hyderabad venue and accessible through a joint ticket, no doubt contributed to this boost in numbers.

And while the initial announcement brought doubts that the bigger company was unfairly muscling in on a burgeoning space, this does not appear to have been the case.

“That came about because we know the people there very well,” says Rajesh Rao, Chairman of the Nasscom Gaming Forum. “They wanted to do a Unite India, and I said look, let’s do it together. It’s a no-brainer.”

Connected

Indeed, he estimates that around 70% of the country’s developers are currently using the engine.

Unity also provided one of the most intriguing statistics in Rao’s opening address: that India is now third for worldwide Unity game downloads, up from ninth in January.

So what’s caused this dramatic increase? Rao’s answer is simple: “4G becoming super cheap.”

Connectivity has often been referred to as a major barrier to mobile game success in India, but local network Reliance Jio has spearheaded 4G usage with affordable offerings.

“All the others are gearing up for the fight,” adds Rao. “I’ve been on AirTel and Vodafone since before Jio came. Their networks were not as robust and high-speed on 4G before. It’s almost like they turned the tap on.”

The difference in cost is a significant one. It was not uncommon for pre-Jio plans to offer around two to three GB per month at a cost of 500-700 Rupees. A monthly subscription of 300 Rs. can now get you one to two GB per day.

Rao says it’s been a big deal for a “very value-conscious” Indian public. “What they wouldn’t do before, they’re doing now without thinking,” he enthuses.

This is borne out by the data, with India surpassing China to top the worldwide ranks for mobile data consumption.

Disconnected

But for Mark Skaggs, ex-SVP of Games at Zynga and now Director at Bangalore-based studio Moonfrog Labs, there’s still work to be done.

He points out that India is a country that’s more like a continent – with “language differences, culture differences, religious differences, political differences, and then also technology differences” – which makes it “very dangerous to paint with a single brush.”

Simply put, the 4G revolution is not yet country-wide. And even if it were, that’s only half the story.

Skaggs points to coverage issues: “There might be 4G, there might be cheap data, but if you can’t get a connection: who cares?”

For Moonfrog, this – coupled with the limitations of devices still common in India – means that file size remains a consideration.

The firm’s hit game Teen Patti Gold weighs in at seven MB, while its latest title Baahubali: The Game was crammed into 20MB.

“Now, doing a little analysis, we probably would have been alright to go up to 30MB or so,” considers Skaggs. “So it’s easing up a bit. But not 100MB.”

And it’s not just Moonfrog. At the event’s Upcoming Game of the Year Awards, Mumbai studio Photon Tadpole received an honourable mention for its rhythm-based platformer Bollywood Fighter, which is aiming for a sub-10MB file size.

Local inspiration

PocketGamer.biz was represented on the judging panel for that award for the third year running, and the increase in quality from 2015 to now has been a marked one.

A maturing and more diverse indie development scene was also evident, with both the winner and runner-up of the previously mobile-dominated category being PC games.

But small teams have also been making waves with mobile games in the past year, and Nasscom Game Developer Conference 2017 was keen to celebrate these.

Bangalore studio Nukebox developed the breakout hit Food Truck Chef, and the firm’s CEO Amit Hardi became the first Indian to deliver the keynote. This, for Rajesh Rao, was a landmark moment.

“You have a Western dev who comes to give a keynote and is super successful,” says Rao. “Your community could always go away from that saying, ‘well, he’s coming from a mature market, they have a lot of things we don’t have.’ But you can’t run away from this.”

Trust the process

And it’s undeniable that the numbers are impressive for Nukebox’s Food Truck Chef: 4.7 million downloads in 100 days, more than $1.3 million in revenue, and a top 100 grossing position in 32 different countries.

Hardi insisted in his keynote that his 33-person team contained “no celebrities,” but had simply put its trust in a rigorous process of player data analysis.

“They need to believe that anybody can create great games,” Hardi explains. “It’s not that you need a certain kind of experience or background to do that.

“It’ll be very interesting to see if people are able to learn from mistakes we made, and if they are able to create such stories it will be a big boost to the entire Indian ecosystem.”

Rajesh Rao noted that some developers in attendance were uncomfortable with the focus on data in Hardi’s keynote, which is precisely what he’d hoped.

“There is a section of devs who see game development as a very creative, artistic endeavour,” Rao tells PocketGamer.biz. “They see data as taking the joy out of it. But that is reality.

“The smart ones don’t compromise on their artistic endeavour, but they use data. We’ve had a lot of people who didn’t look at data at all, they didn’t even have the basic feedback loops in place.

“Closing the door on obvious things that will help you succeed is foolish – and data is one of those.”

Fill the gap

But while Nukebox’s success came from an ongoing refinement of its funnel, A/B testing a number of aspects and generally using data to answer the big questions, Rao reserves special mention for another, rather different Indian success story.

Smaller than Nukebox at 18 employees, Mumbai studio Gametion has been blindsided by the success of its PvP mobile board game Ludo King. Among the game’s more jaw-dropping stats are a whopping 10 million daily active users, and one million new installs daily.

How Gametion and Nukebox found their success was vastly different, both in terms of development philosophy and target market, but Rao reckons there’s a major lesson to be learned from both.

“Both those games are good examples of filling a gap,” he states. “They are surprised about the success – happy, but also surprised themselves – and the underlying reason for it is that they hit the gap with a good product.

“Getting Amit to do the keynote was very important, to tell people how planning and thinking through things is so important. You could have a very good game in a super saturated genre or style, and it’s going to be very difficult.”

He refers back to Timuz’s Train Simulator 2016, an Indian success story highlighted by last year’s conference, which he says also benefited considerably from finding its own niche.

It’s a philosophy that’s since continued at both Timuz and its spun-out developer BigCode, and Rao reports that both are enjoying “some incredible day 30 retention numbers” as a result.

India marches on

The big hope for Rao and Nasscom is that India’s developers will be able to build upon these positive stories and that, should they choose to target their home territory, the Indian mobile infrastructure is now at a point where it can accommodate successes.

Anecdotally at least, Mark Skaggs sees a shift occurring: “Last year, it was 50/50,” he says. “This year, I haven’t heard anybody talk about being successful in the US. Everybody’s learning, the market’s changing, and a lot of us are talking about India.”

Skaggs also draws parallels between India’s current mobile market and that of China seven years ago, which eventually hit an inflection point and became a market of widespread spending and huge revenues.

“We’re 18-24 months away from that,” he asserts.

So Nasscom Game Developer Conference 2017, unlike the previous year’s event, was not defined by big projected numbers – which are all very well, but ultimately impersonal and rarely evoke real passion.

Instead, there was the quiet assurance of an industry growing in confidence, live evidence of Indian successes on stage or on the show floor rather than being promised in a pamphlet.

The road remains long and winding, but those who have chosen to walk it seem more convinced than ever that it will be worthwhile. And in the absence of anything truly dramatic, there are positive signs all around.(source:pocketgamer.biz

 


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