从产品体验的角度聊《饥饿鲨：世界》是如何盈利的

原作者：Borja Vilar Martos 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。

这次我们要测评的是育碧旗下Future Games of London开发的《饥饿鲨：世界》（Hungry Shark World）。

作为育碧/FGOL《饥饿鲨》系列的第五款游戏，《饥饿鲨：世界》继承了前作的大部分核心玩法，但还是有一些不同的地方。

《饥饿鲨：世界》的画风更加卡通化，可能会吸引更多不同的用户群体。但更重要的是它是这个系列中第一个典型的F2P游戏，无论是留存设计还是盈利策略都是以F2P为核心的。

游戏开始时玩家是一头黑鳍鲨，只能吞食小鱼、海龟、螃蟹和游客。总共有17种不同的鲨鱼可以解锁。

至于游戏玩法——就像在自然界一样，如果你遇到体型比你大的生物，长着尖尖的东西或着外观很奇怪，那就避开。不然的话就吃了它！你吃的越多，获得的分数也就越多，存活时间也越长。

hungry-shark(from gamasutra)

通过吞噬其它生物获得经验值，增加游戏中的两种货币：金币（软）和宝石（硬）。

为了给玩家的游戏体验带来更多乐趣，有的生物被吃掉后会掉落金币，它们会慢慢填满屏幕下方的淘金热进度条。当进度条被填满时，玩家就进入了淘金热模式——就是在有限的时间里所有的东西都会变成金色，这就是增加财产的好机会了。

但是，就跟那些无尽游戏一样，鲨鱼的生命条会在某个时刻耗光，除非玩家选择用宝石或者是观看有奖广告（最有可能是Mobile Strike的广告）来继续这一局，否则就是游戏结束。

玩家最多只能观看两个广告视频，除此之外，所需的宝石花费数量也会随着死亡次数而递增。

这就是《饥饿鲨：世界》的核心盈利循环。

当然，如果你想进阶得更快些，你可以到商店中购买金币和宝石。金币的售价从4.99美元买10000金币到99.99美元买330000金币不等。宝石售价从4.99美元买100颗到99.99美元买3300颗不等。

若要解锁体型更大、更具攻击性的鲨鱼，花费宝石真的是高性价比之选。

如果你不想花钱，那么就必须积攒经验，一级一级解锁。游戏中的17种鲨鱼分成了7个等级，从小型（small）到XXL。

然而，砸钱买宝石意味着你可以立即解锁大白鲨——前提是如果你愿意花60美元的话。

但如果这不符合你的做事风格，你可以用收集来的金币慢慢升级鲨鱼，强化它们的速度、咬力、以及爆发力，还可以购买装饰品获得小幅度属性提升。

最棒的就是宠物了——一群《异形战机》（R-Type）风格的小型强化装备，帮助玩家获得更高的分数。

但是你也可以买个粉色假发、草裙、领结、墨西哥阔边帽、激光枪或者是火炬等道具来让你的鲨鱼变得更有个性。

不过，你很容易就能发现随着时间的推移，解锁鲨鱼和购买物品所需的金币或宝石数量会越来越多，而你挣金币的速度已经赶不上了。

这就是游戏的主要氪金点：玩《饥饿鲨：世界》的前几个小时，你会感觉进阶十分快速、顺畅，但是之后你会看到越来越多厉害的鲨鱼，IAP的吸引力也就随之增加了。

这是一种非常有效方式，因为在氪金需求出现之前，玩家早已迷上了这个游戏。

《饥饿鲨：世界》给了一个非常明确的要求：你想得到最厉害的鲨鱼，那就只能增加投入：可以是金钱投入也可以是漫长的时间投入。

但是更进一步思考的话，一旦玩家解锁了最高级别的鲨鱼，还有什么明确的理由能够激励他们继续玩下去？

游戏中虽然有每日任务，但是并不是非常吸引人。

毫无疑问，FGOL正在开发新的游戏内容——新鲨鱼、宠物、环境，但更明显的问题是《饥饿鲨：世界》缺乏竞争机制或者是多人玩法。

至于公会系统或PVP模式要如何在《饥饿鲨：世界》运作，那就是另外一回事了。

尽管如此，在6天内就收获1000万下载量的《饥饿鲨：世界》，我们还是能够称之为育碧和FGOL的成功之作吧。

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 diving into the depths of Hungry Shark World, the latest chomp-’em up in the series from Ubisoft-owned studio Future Games of London.

There’s always a bigger fish

The fifth game in Ubisoft/FGOL’s Hungry Shark series, Hungry Shark World shares most of the core gameplay elements with its predecessors.

But there are some differences.

Its art design is more cartoony – potentially widening its appeal – while, more importantly, it’s the first game in the series to be designed from the ground up with F2P retention and monetisation in mind.

You start off as a blacktip reef shark, only being able to munch on small fish, turtles, crabs and tourists. In total there are 17 different sharks to unlock.

In terms of gameplay – just as in nature – if it’s larger than you, spiky or odd-looking, avoid it. Otherwise, eat it.

The more you eat, the more points you get and the longer you survive.

As you devour other creatures, you’ll also be getting experience, and accumulating the game’s two currencies: gold (softer) and gems (harder).

To bring additional spice to the experience, you’ll come across gold fish to eat, which slowly fill up your gold meter.

When it’s full, you enter the gold rush mode, which is a limited time period when everything is golden – a great opportunity to boost your treasure.

But, as with all endless games, at some point your shark’s life will deplete and it will be game over, unless you spend some gems or watch a rewarded video ad (Mobile Strike most likely!) to regain your life.

There’s a limit of two video revives, and the gem cost increases every time you die.

This is the key monetisation loop for Hungry Shark World.

Sunken treasure

Of course, if you want to progress faster in the meta-game, you can buy gold and gems in the store.

Prices range from 10,000 gold coins for $4.99 to 330,000 for $99.99.

For gems, it’s 100 for $4.99 to 3,300 for $99.99. so you can see that each gem is worth 100 gold.

And gems are the really valuable option in terms of unlocking larger and more aggressive sharks.

If you want to grind to unlock them, you have to gain experience to unlock the next tier: the 17 sharks are arranged in 7 tiers ranging from small to XXL.

Splashing your cash with gems, however, means you could unlock the Great White Shark immediately – at least if you’re happy to spend $60.

But if that’s not your style, you can slowly level up your shark with collected gold, both in terms of speed, bite and boost performance but also with accessories that also provide small improvements.

The best are the pets – small R-Type-style power ups – which increase your points total as you play.

But you can also buy a pink wig, hula skirt, bow tie, sombrero, laser gun or tiki torch amongst many other items to pimp your shark, both visually and in terms of its characteristics.

Baiting the player

Still, it is easy to notice that, as you advance, the number of coins or gems needed to unlock sharks and buy goodies increases more rapidly than the number of gained coins.

This is where the main hook – no pun intended – of the game lies: the first few hours of Hungry Shark World boasts a smooth progression, but as you get to the more powerful sharks, IAPs become more and more compelling.

This is a great way to engage players, as by the time the game gets monetarily demanding, they’re absorbed.

It sets a clear requirement: the way to access the best sharks is through commitment, be it in the form of buying hard currency or many hours of grinding.

What’s the goal?

More speculatively, though, once players have unlocked the top tier of sharks, it’s not clear why they would then stay playing.

There are daily missions but they aren’t particularly engaging.

No doubt FGOL is working on content updates – new sharks, pets, environments – but more significant is the lack of competitive or multiplayer aspects.

Quite how a guild system or PVP mode would work in Hungry Shark World is another matter.

But, at present, basking in the success of 10 million downloads in six days, we can safely call Hungry Shark World a success for FGOL and Ubisoft.（source：pocket gamer ）