Miniclip CEO Robert Small分享职业生涯经验

原作者:Craig Chapple 译者：Willow Wu

Miniclip成立于2000年，尽管游戏市场历经数次变革，在CEO&创始人Robert Small的带领下，他们总能跟上时代的脚步。

Robert Small是在游戏的陪伴下长大的，对游戏的热爱让他毅然决然地扎根在这个行业。不久之后Miniclip就在免费网络游戏领域取得了成功，并在此后一直处于上升趋势。

在公司的早期阶段，你很难找到有谁不是玩着他们的游戏长大的。

他们现在的代表作有畅销手游8 Ball Pool以及Agar.io。当然，成功作品远不止这两个。

Miniclip在各个平台上的月活跃用户已达2亿，手游的下载量早已超过十亿次。

中国巨头发行商腾讯被他们的成就所吸引，在2015年提出并购，最后成为了公司的最大股东。

Small已经在这个行业呆了18年了，正是他对游戏以及公司的热爱让他坚持了这么久。

我们邀请到了这位CEO，让他跟我们分享早期的职业生涯经历，以及作为一个世界顶级游戏发行商，他学到了哪些教训。

Miniclip(from crunchbase.com)

PocketGamer.biz: 你小时候最喜欢什么游戏？

Robert Small: 我十六岁生日时，父母送了我一台128k Spectrum。从那一刻起，我对游戏的热爱就被点燃了。

我最喜欢的是Chucky Egg和Treasure Island Dizzy。大学时期，我沉迷于《帝国时代》和《命令与征服：红色警戒》，在这两个游戏上花了很多时间。

-你什么时候想到要把游戏当成职业的？

我以前会在Spectrum上写程序，但是直到2000年Miniclip成立我才真正看到了一个能将我对游戏的热爱与商业结合起来的机会。

-你在这个行业的第一份工作是什么职位？结果如何？

我的第一份工作就是在Miniclip，鉴于我们还可以在近二十年后活跃于市场，我想这份工作的结果还是挺不错的。

当然，这些年我的工作发生了很大变化。在早期，你事事都亲身参与：游戏开发、客户支持、托管还有发工资。

现在我很幸运能有一个精英团队帮我打理这一切，而且他们比那时的我能干得多。这样，我每周都有时间可以玩玩我们自己的游戏（已发行和未发行的），另外就是确保我对市面上的热门产品有所了解。

-你的第一次重大成就是什么？

我们很幸运，因为公司发行的首批游戏中就有一个收获了巨大反响。Miniclip成立的几周后，我们便开始着手我们的第一款产品，目的就是打响品牌知名度。

George Bush是当时的总统，所以我们就决定让他来当我们的游戏主角，游戏的名字就叫做Dancing Bush。

我们只花了一周的时间来写Flash 1.0的代码，但是游戏迅速就火了起来，成为那个时代最成功的网络产品之一，游戏次数超过了10亿。

-你是什么时候发现手游的潜力？

2005年夏天，我们开始关注移动设备上的游戏。我们网站上的游戏非常多，已经超过了1000个。我觉得我们可以尝试把其中一些游戏移植到移动端上。

但是很遗憾，功能手机只能运行《贪吃蛇》这样的简单游戏。所以直到2007年，Steve Jobs发布初代iPhone之后我们才再次把目光聚焦到移动设备上。

2008年，我们在芬兰公司RedLynx的帮助下发行了Miniclip的第一款手游。它的最终销量达到了380万份，也让我们很快认识到iPhone作为游戏设备有着巨大的市场潜力。

在那之后不久，我们建立了自己的内部手游工作室，从纯粹的发行商变成开发商，这是一个不小的挑战。

-在你看来，手游行业迄今为止最具里程碑意义的事件是什么？

肯定就是2007年6月Steve Jobs推出第一代iPhone。

另外，还有几件事从本质上改变了手游行业：市场主流从付费游戏变为免费游戏，以及安卓系统的诞生。

-最令你自豪的事情是什么？有什么后悔的事情吗？

我对Miniclip过去二十年所获得成果感到非常自豪。

尤其是早些年时，所有人都跟我们说做免费游戏是注定失败的疯狂想法，然后我们用事实证明是他们错了。还有就是跟一些非常优秀的公司合作，制作出了成功的游戏，比如Trials、Runescape、Club Penguin、Agar.io和8 Ball Pool。

这么多年来，我能和这么多才华横溢的人一起工作，我真的感到非常荣幸。当人们告诉我他们是玩Miniclip的游戏长大的或者是现在有在玩我们的手游还是能让我觉得特别高兴。

-最近你最喜欢的是哪个手游？原因是什么？

最近我迷上了Playsport Games的《赛车经理3》（Motorsport Manager 3）。

我是个忠实的赛车迷，在游戏中我能管理、发展自己的赛车团队，我十分享受这种挑战任务，尤其现在正是F1赛季。

-对于手游行业的未来你有怎样的预测？

·AR以及VR在移动平台的未来发展并不会如人们想象的那么大规模

·未来会出现很多山寨Ketchapp、Voodoo旗下产品的超休闲游戏公司。这种随开随停的小游戏将会占据各个榜单的前排位置

·机器学习和人工智能会对拥有成熟商业智能团队的企业发挥更大的作用，就比如Miniclip

·对移动CPI广告网络领域进行整合，并转为“竞价”模式。这会为品牌商提供接触移动广告库存的便利渠道

-你希望未来能在行业中的哪个领域有所作为？

我希望我们能够继续朝着Miniclip的核心目标前进——“释放每个人心中的玩家人格”，通过我们的游戏将来自世界各地的更多人联系起来。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Miniclip was founded back in 2000 and despite major market shifts, has always managed to keep up with the times.

Throughout that period it’s been led by CEO and founder Robert Small.

Growing up with a passion for games, he jumped straight into the deep end with his own company. It wasn’t long before the company found success in free online games and since then has been on an upward trajectory.

You won’t find many people who grew up during the early days of Miniclip that haven’t played one of its titles.

It’s now famous for games such as the top grossing mobile app 8 Ball Pool and the viral hit Agar.io, to name just two titles in its vast portfolio.

Across platforms the company’s portfolio has an audience of 200 million monthly active users, while its mobile games have been downloaded well over one billion times.

Miniclip’s success was enough to attract the overtures of Chinese publishing giant Tencent back in 2015, which forked out for a majority stake in the company.

Small remains 18 years on, such is his love for games and the company he’s led for that entire period.

We caught up with the CEO to discuss the early days of his career and the lessons he’s learned building one of the world’s top games publishers.

PocketGamer.biz: What were your favourite games as a kid?

Robert Small: My parents gave me a 128k Spectrum on my 16th birthday. From that moment onwards, my love of games was ignited.

My favourites were Chucky Egg and Treasure Island Dizzy. At university, I spent an unhealthy amount of time playing Age of Empires and Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

When did you realise you wanted to make games as a career?

I started programming on my Spectrum, but it wasn’t until we founded Miniclip in 2000 that I really saw an opportunity to combine my love of games with business.

What was your first role in the industry? How did that turn out?

My first role was with Miniclip and I guess it turned out pretty well given that we are still thriving almost 20 years later.

Of course, my role at the company has changed dramatically over the years. In the early days you get involved with everything from making the games, managing customer support, hosting and payroll.

I am very lucky that these days I have a hugely talented team around me who are far more skilled than I ever was at dealing with all these aspects of the business. This allows me time each week to play all our current and future games and ensure I remain aware of all the other leading titles in the market.

What do you consider your first significant success?

We were lucky as one of our first games proved to be a huge success. A few weeks after establishing the company, we set about building our first product to put Miniclip on the map.

George Bush was running for the presidency, so we decided to make him the star of our first game: Dancing Bush.

It only took me one week to code in Flash 1.0, but the game went viral and become one of the largest internet success stories of its day, eventually clocking up more than one billion gameplays.

When did the potential for mobile games become apparent to you?

In the summer of 2005 we started looking at games on mobile devices. We had a huge content catalogue of more than 1,000 games on Miniclip.com and thought there could be an opportunity for us to port some of these onto mobile devices.

Sadly, feature phones were not powerful enough to run anything more advanced than Snake. So it wasn’t until 2007, when Steve Jobs announced the launch of the first iPhone, that we decided to take another look at mobile.

We released our first game in 2008 with the help of a Finnish company called RedLynx. The game ended up selling 3.8 million copies and it quickly became obvious to us that the iPhone had huge potential as a gaming device.

Shortly after that we established our own internal mobile games studio and set about the challenge of transitioning from being a purebred publisher to a developer.

What do you think is the most significant event in the mobile games industry to-date?

It has to be June 2007: Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPhone.

Subsequently, there have been several events that have changed the nature of the mobile games industry: the shift from premium to free-to-play and Google releasing Android.

What are you most proud of? Any regrets?

I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved at Miniclip over the last two decades.

Proving all the naysayers wrong, particularly in the early days when everyone kept telling us that giving our products away for free was a crazy business idea. Working with amazing partners and being involved in successes like Trials, Runescape, Club Penguin, Agar.io and 8 Ball Pool.

I feel enormously privileged to have been working in the industry for all these years with so many talented people and I still get a buzz when people tell me they played Miniclip games as a kid on the web or are a current player of our mobile titles.

Which mobile games have you most enjoyed recently and why?

I am currently addicted to Motorsport Manager 3 by Playsport Games.

I am a big motorsport fan and enjoy the challenge of managing and developing my own race team, particularly right now when the F1 season is running.

What are your predictions for the future of mobile games?

Augmented reality and virtual reality won’t be as big on mobile as everyone seems to think

There will be tonnes of copycat hyper-casual games companies all trying to copy Ketchapp and Voodoo. More and more of the top charts will be dominated by these types of disposable games

Machine learning and artificial intelligence will play an even bigger role for companies (like Miniclip) who have mature and sophisticated business intelligence teams

Consolidation in the mobile CPI ad network space and a subsequent move towards “bidding”. This will help brands access mobile ad inventory

In which area of the industry do you hope to make a difference in future?

I hope that we will continue to advance Miniclip’s purpose, which is “to unleash the gamer in everyone” by connecting more and more people around the world through our games.（source：pocketgamer.biz ）