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从营销角度探讨热门益智游戏6大设计要素

发布时间:2018-07-27 09:13:03 Tags:,

从营销角度探讨热门益智游戏6大设计要素

原作者:Vungle Marketing Team 译者:Vivian Xue

自俄罗斯方块诞生以来,益智游戏一直是移动设备和PC端上最受欢迎的游戏。不过在App Store的热捧下,这类型游戏的热度超乎想象地上升,一度掀起行业内的“淘金热”。

益智游戏乍一看十分简单。将三个相同元素配对、射击泡泡或画条线然后尽情享受糖果般缤纷的视觉体验。不过,一款简单却极具吸引力和乐趣的游戏却并不像表面上那么简单。

在我看来,任何益智游戏想要获得成功应具备6个关键要素。尽管,这6个要素并不能保证成功,因为哪怕其中一点做不好都将阻碍你的游戏到达顶峰。

本文的第一部分分析了设计热门益智游戏时应遵循的规则,第二部分将阐明一些益智游戏更为成功的内在原因。那么让我们开始吧。

规则1:新的解谜机制

对于第一条规则大家想必不会感到惊讶:如果不为玩家提供新的东西,你就无法成功吸引他们。你需要设计出一个真正独特的解谜机制,能够让人们在反复玩时仍能感受到乐趣。要创造一个新的却又熟悉的机制是一件很困难的事,尤其在每一款新的益智游戏成功发行后,这将变得更为艰难。我个人认为没有必要想出一些全新的东西; 事实上,将一个复杂的解谜机制简单化或者在人们所熟悉的解谜机制中创造强大的视觉反馈不失为一个可行的方法。

规则2:回合制玩法

益智手游取得巨大成功的一个关键因素是人们几乎可以随时随地进行游戏。这些游戏基于回合制,不要求人们连续操作或者精准控制,因此非常适合消磨时间。

我认为回合制(与即时制相对)玩法是任何休闲手游设计的一个关键要素,宝开游戏(PopCap)面临的挑战正源于没有遵循这一规则。虽然《宝石迷阵 闪电战》(Bejeweled Blitz)和《植物大战僵尸》(Plants vs Zombies)早期在手游市场中取得了巨大成功,但随着其它回合制游戏的出现,它们再也无法重新恢复往日的辉煌。

plants vs zombies(from gamedev)

plants vs zombies(from gamedev)

规则3:能量机制

毫无疑问,作为玩家的我们都不喜欢游戏中的能量机制。它打断了游戏进程,逼迫我们花钱继续进行游戏,甚至要求我们去骚扰Facebook好友来获取能量。

然而,如果没有能量机制,益智游戏就有可能变得无聊,甚至更糟的是—游戏内容很快会被耗尽:

—没有了能量机制,玩家就没有了闯关的动力。例如,《愤怒的小鸟》(在迭代前)中没有能量机制,因此当玩家第一次或者第二次没投好时,她不会继续投射小鸟完成关卡,而是直接重新开始。其次,没有能量机制,游戏将失去阶段性,没有能量限制,玩家将不断地尝试(并且失败)同一个关卡并最终痛恨游戏。相反,能量机制能够缓和玩家失败后的心情。你不过失败了5次,冷静几个小时等能量恢复,又有了5次尝试的机会。

—第三,能量机制提高了每次尝试的筹码,失败将令你失去能量,获胜便可以继续游戏。

—能量机制同时是一种重要的留存策略,它使玩家暂时远离游戏,目的却在于让他们在一个小时或是能量填满后再回来。

—最后,能量机制通过限制每天的游戏次数来减慢玩家的进度。放慢游戏进度是非常重要的,因为如果没有它,你会发现自己花了一个月时间设计出的20个关卡一天内就能被你的热情玩家们打通关。相信我,我这么干过好几次……

规则4:社交地图

与真人,最好是朋友一起玩游戏对于实现用户留存和盈利来说至关重要。基于级别的社交地图能让玩家在与好友对比中看到自己的进步,从而感觉自己并不是孤单一人。社交地图一个最棒的地方在于,就算玩家的好友很久都没玩游戏也没关系,因为玩家仍能在地图上看到他们。社交地图也是推动盈利的一个重要手段,因为盈利始于竞争,对于玩家来说,这无关乎最好而是如何比别人好。

规则5:付费继续机制

就像古老的街机游戏中那样,付费继续是益智游戏盈利的主要来源,因为这些级别的设计初衷就是要让玩家多次失败。并且这一机制是有效果的。试想一下某个关卡,你已经打了一个星期眼看就要过关了但差了几步。想要付点钱继续通关?我想也是这样。让玩家通过观看一段视频广告来获得继续游戏的机会是另一种有效的方式。

社交地图则是付费继续机制的一个强大辅助,该地图展示对比了玩家和其好友们的进度。当你在地图上看到你的好友通过了某个关卡而你却仍然卡在那里,花一两块钱过关好像也不错。

规则6:等待或支付

在益智游戏中,玩家在通过一定数量的关卡后会面临解锁的问题。有三种解决方法:第一种就是等它自动开启,这意味着几天内都不能玩游戏,第二种选择是通过花费付费货币/真钱来解锁,第三种是通过重玩关卡积攒足够的星星来解锁。

这些障碍是稳固的盈利手段,尽管它们产生的总体收入通常有限,这算起来很简单:与大量激励玩家付费继续的关卡相比,通过解锁盈利的机会要少得多。不过,虽然解锁机制的收入占比不大,它在推动转化率方面却起到很大的作用。一旦玩家们投入到游戏中却被解锁机制打断,他们很有可能会进行第一笔付款。

成功的内在原因

总结一下:一个新的有趣的机制、一个社交地图、一个能量机制、回合制玩法、街机式的付费继续机制和解锁进度是热门益智游戏的先决条件。然而众所周知的是,想成为Top 10,这些是远远不够的。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Ever since Tetris, puzzle games have been the most played games on handheld devices and computers. But it has been the App Store that has popularized puzzle games beyond what seemed to be possible and created a gold rush for the genre.

At a glance puzzle games feel very simple. Match three, shoot a bubble or draw a line and you’ll be showered with candy-like visual feedback. But with something so simple yet so highly engaging and entertaining there’s more than meets the eye.

In my mind there are six key elements that are essential for any casual puzzle game to succeed. Nonetheless, covering all six elements doesn’t guarantee success, since failing at even one of them will prevent the game from reaching the top.

The first part of this series breaks down the rules to follow when designing hit puzzle games. The second part will shed light on the hidden elements that make some puzzle games more successful than others. Let’s get started.

Rule 1: New Puzzle Mechanics

The first rule shouldn’t surprise anyone: you can’t hit a homerun without offering players something new. You need a truly unique puzzle mechanic that is fun to play – over and over again. Creating a new yet familiar mechanic is a tough challenge that gets tougher every time a new successful puzzle game is released. My personal opinion is that the goal is not necessarily to come up with something totally new; in fact a viable option is to take a complex puzzle mechanic and make it more simple or to take a familiar mechanic and innovate around powerful visual feedback.

Rule 2: Turn-based Gameplay

One key element for the tremendous success of puzzle games on mobile is that they can be played practically anywhere, anytime. They don’t demand uninterrupted sessions or precise controls because the action is turn-based. Turn-based gameplay simply makes puzzle games perfect for killing time.

I believe that turn-based gameplay, as opposed to timer-based gameplay, is key for any casual mobile game and the challenges of PopCap are a great example of not following this rule. While games like Bejeweled Blitz and Plants vs. Zombies were first movers on mobile they were never able to capture the same popularity as other turn-based games.

Rule 3: Energy Mechanic

It’s no surprise that we, the players, don’t like energy mechanics. It cuts off sessions, forces us to spend money to continue playing, or even worse, asks us to spam our Facebook friends for energy.

Yet without an energy mechanic, puzzle games bear a risk of becoming boring, or even worse – quickly running out of content:

Without energy there would be no incentive to attempt to finish a level. For example Angry Birds doesn’t have energy (apart from later iteration). So if a player misses her first or second throw; she doesn’t try to finish the level by slinging the other birds. Instead the player simply restarts the level. Secondly, without an energy mechanic, there’s no natural end for a session. If there were no energy mechanic, a player would continue attempting (and failing) a level forever and ever, eventually just hating the game. Instead, the energy mechanic distributes failure. You fail only five times to cool down for a few hours while your energy reloads, and you come back with five more attempts.

Thirdly, energy mechanics increase the stakes of every attempt – fail and you’ll lose energy, win and keep playing.

Energy is also an important retention mechanic as it pushes players away from the game only to get them back in an hour or so after the energy has been refilled.

Finally, an energy mechanic slows down player progress by limiting the amount of games per day. Slowing down progress is extremely important because without it, you’ll work a month on 20 levels only to see your engaged players breeze through them in a day by playing non-stop. Trust me, I’ve been in that content treadmill a few times too many…

Rule 4: Social Map

Playing a game with real people, preferably with one’s friends, is simply essential for retention and monetization. A social level-based map shows a player’s progress in comparison to their friends and gives that nice feeling of not being alone in the game. What’s best about a social map is that it doesn’t matter if a player’s friends haven’t played in ages, as they’ll still see them on the map. A social map is also an important piece of monetization because monetization is driven by competition. It’s not about being the best version of you. It’s about being better than who you’re compared to.

Rule 5: Pay-to-Continue

Just like in good old arcades, pay-to-continue is the main source of monetization in puzzle games simply because the levels are designed for players to fail multiple times. And this mechanic works. You’re about to beat a level that you’ve been trying to pass for a week now and you fall a move short. Want to pay a small sum to for a few extra turns to beat the level? I thought so. We’re seeing mobile video ads come into play here as well, giving users an opportunity to process in the game by watching a quick ad.

The pay-to-continue mechanic is also supercharged through the social map that compares a players’ progress to that of their friends. In a situation where you know, based on the map, that your friend has beaten the level you’re stuck on, spending a coin or two on beating a level doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

Rule 6: Wait-or-Pay Gates

In a puzzle game, a player’s progress is typically halted with a gate after a specific amount of levels. There are three ways to pass the gate. The first one is simply to wait it out, which means not playing for a couple of days. The second option is to open the gate by spending premium currency/real money. And the third option is to replay levels to earn enough stars to unlock the gate.

These hard stops are solid monetization mechanics though the overall revenue from them is generally limited. The limit in revenue is due to simple math; there are only a set amount of these gates that developers can monetize through compared to the large number of levels that all incentivize players to pay-to-continue. But even though the revenue share from gates is small, this mechanic is great in driving conversion. Halting a player’s progress with a gate once she is engaged prompts her to make that important first purchase.

The Hidden Elements of Success

To summarize: a new and fun mechanic, a social map, an energy mechanic, turn-based gameplay, arcade like pay-to-continue mechanics and progress gates are prerequisites for a hit puzzle game. Yet as we all know, crossing off feature prerequisites is never enough for a top ten hit title.(source:Vungle   )


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