Ndemic Creations创始人谈游戏向服务模式的转变

原作者：Matthew Forde 译者：Willow Wu

10年之前，游戏即服务的概念还没有在手游行业得到广泛应用。那时的大家习惯是发行游戏后就直接转到下个项目，而不是持续更新，增加、优化各种各样的内容。

而如今，游戏即服务成为手游行业的主流，热门游戏都是采用这种运营模式。

英国开发商Ndemic Creations旗下的《瘟疫公司》亦是如此，七年过去了，《瘟疫公司》依然很受欢迎，Ndemic Creations也因此蒸蒸日上。

但即使是专注这种模式的开发者也没有将目光局限在当下，Ndemic近期就发行了新作：政治/军事模拟游戏《反叛公司》。

我们采访了Ndemic Creations创始人James Vaughan，谈谈他是如何开始游戏职业生涯以及关于新作的一些消息。

PocketGamer.Biz:你是如何成为一名独立游戏开发者的？

plague Inc vs Pandemic(from ign.com)

James Vaughan: 2011年的时候吧，我利用闲暇时间开发《瘟疫公司》，把它当做一个爱好。

游戏发行后就立即得到了强烈反响，商业上的成功让我可以放弃原来的工作（战略顾问），成为一名全职的游戏开发者，还有就是把Ndemic Creations逐渐发展起来。

-作为独立开发者，你的日常是什么样的？

每天都不一样，《反叛公司》发行之前，我列了一张很长的清单，上面写着我想要调整/优化的内容，然后就去改代码。

接着就会测试，根据效果再次调整，重复这个过程直到我满意为止。

-作为独立开发者，你遇到的最大挑战是什么？

找个优秀的合作伙伴来实现我一个人做不到的事。目前我急需一位游戏设计师搭档。

我希望找到一个有模拟/策略相关开发经验的人，能做类似《瘟疫公司》《反叛公司》这样的算法模拟游戏。

-你是如何定义成功的？

我之前对《瘟疫公司》几乎不抱什么期望。如果能回本，那对我来说就是成功了。

现实是游戏在发行几个小时后就回本了。我们现在没有资金方面的束缚，可以专心开发我想玩的游戏，做出令我自豪的产品，可以说是很幸运吧。

-你认为当下的手游市场对独立开发者而言是怎样的？

非常残酷，尤其是对付费游戏来说。《瘟疫公司》发行的时候市场竞争也是非常激烈，但是年复一年，我们看到残酷是没有上限的。

《瘟疫公司》现在已经有1.2亿玩家，当我们发行新游戏时，他们就是非常强大的武器。虽说仅有这些玩家的支持也难在当下的市场生存下去。

-能跟我们说说工作室最新游戏吗？

《反叛公司》是一款独特、有趣的政治/军事模拟游戏，玩家需要平复一个饱受战争摧残的国家。游戏主要是受阿富汗一系列事件的启发。

游戏开始的背景是战争结束状态，但我们都知道这并不意味着什么。要让国家恢复安定，玩家需要在军事力量和民生民权之间做权衡，赢得民心，同时也要阻止起死回生的叛军夺取政权。

就像《瘟疫公司》一样，《反叛公司》也得到了教育工作者的关注，他们认为这是一个很好的教学工具，可以形象地展示镇压叛乱的复杂性，这让我非常自豪。我已受邀参加几周后的斯德摩尔哥和平与发展论坛，会在大会上介绍这款游戏。

-你目前的未来规划是怎样的？

目前，我们的《瘟疫公司：世界末日》（游戏邦注Plague Inc:Armageddon）正在Kickstarter众筹，这是《瘟疫公司：桌游》的第一个正式扩展包。

桌游在开启直播后的几个小时内就完成了众筹，我们期望能在假期来临之前完成生产，早日送到支持者的手中。《反叛公司》的后续升级我们也有计划，会有新的地图和治理者。除此之外，PC版也在筹划中。

我们之前也承诺过《瘟疫公司》会加入反疫苗的内容，还有另外一些惊喜大家很快就能看到了。

-如果有无限的预算，你最想做什么样的游戏？

我们现在的状态其实可以算是无限预算了，可以毫无顾忌地决定想做什么。

《反叛公司》和《瘟疫公司：桌游》都是“非标准”的商业决策，但无论如何我还是想做。未来，我还是会想做跟现有游戏相似的策略/模拟游戏。

-你有什么建议可以给其他正在努力的独立开发者吗？

很难给出有用的一般性建议，其实没有一个人是真正了解行业当下的现状，这也是我喜欢游戏行业的原因之一。大家都是按自己的解读来做计划，然后突然就有新游戏或者类型爆出，让所有人都震惊不已。以下是我个人觉得有用的建议：

做你想玩的游戏。我开发《反叛公司》《瘟疫公司》是因为App Store里没有类似的游戏。

这就意味着我针对的是一个小众市场，我之前并不知道规模究竟是多大。从另一个角度看，我非常热衷于这类游戏，我就是这个游戏的目标用户，所以我自己能给出游戏反馈。

如果你的游戏成为了热门，赶紧抓住机会。要说服别人安装你的应用已经很难了，所以当他们这么做时，你要把这个产品做得更好。不要又做另一个新游戏，又要费力去争取用户。

我知道在专注某个产品这么久之后你会很想换个方向，但还是要加油继续坚持。如果玩家基础已经有了，那就好好运营你的游戏。

《瘟疫公司》之所以能在七年之后依然常驻榜单前列是因为我们会定期更新，加入新内容。游戏向服务模式的转变真的非常重要。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

10 years ago, games-as-a-service wasn’t really a concept widely-used in the mobile games industry.

Releasing a game and then moving straight on to the next project was generally the preferred practice, rather than the idea of continually updating, adding and improving upon everything

Today, the mobile industry is dominated by games-as-a-service, with the biggest games thriving from this model.

Bristol-based Plague Inc. developer Ndemic Creations, founded by James Vaughan, was built upon the games-as-a-service model. Now seven years on, the studio is thriving due to the continued popularity of the game.

But even developers focused on live operations expand their horizons, and Ndemic released a follow-up to Plague in the shape of political/military simulation Rebel Inc.

As part of our Indie Spotlight series, we spoke with Vaughan about how he got started in games and got the lowdown on Ndemic’s latest release.

PocketGamer.Biz: How did you get started as an indie games developer?

James Vaughan: I started making Plague Inc. in my spare time as a hobby back in 2011.

When the game launched, it instantly became a huge success so I was able to quit my day job as a strategy consultant and focus full-time on Plague Inc., as well as slowly growing Ndemic Creations into a proper company.

What is a typical day in your life as an indie?

Every day is different. When I was working on Rebel Inc. before it launched, I’d have a big list of things I wanted to tweak/improve and then make code changes.

I would then play it to see how it feels and then tweak repeatedly until I was happy with it.

What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far as an indie?

Finding good people to work with to do the stuff that I can’t. Currently, I’m really struggling to find a game designer to work with me.

I’m looking for someone with strategy/simulation experience who can make algorithmic simulation games like Plague Inc. and Rebel Inc.

How do you define ‘success’?

With Plague Inc. I had very low expectations. If it made back its development costs of $5,000, that was a success for me.

As it turned out it made its costs back in a few hours. Now we are in the lucky position that we can work on games without financial constraints and are able to really focus on making the games that I want to play and which I can be proud of.

What is your opinion of the mobile games market for indies right now?

It’s absolutely brutal, especially on the paid side. Back when Plague Inc. launched the market was brutal too, but each year since it’s seemed to get infinitely harder.

Plague Inc. now has over 120 million players and this gives us a powerful weapon to use when releasing new games, though even with the support of Plague Inc. it’s tough.

Could you tell us about the studio’s most recent game?

Rebel Inc. is a unique and engaging political/military simulation that is heavily inspired by events in Afghanistan and sees players needing to stabilise a country ravaged by war.

At the start of Rebel Inc., the war is over but we all know that doesn’t mean anything. To stabilise the country, players need to balance military and civilian priorities to win the hearts and minds of the people, whilst also stopping a resurgent insurgent force from seizing power.

I’m really proud that just like Plague Inc., Rebel Inc. is getting a lot of interest from those involved in education, as they are finding it a useful tool to teach the complexities of counterinsurgency. I’ve even been invited to give a talk about the game at the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development in a few weeks.

What are your current plans for the future?

Right now, we are in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign for Plague Inc: Armageddon – the first major expansion for Plague Inc: The Board Game.

The project was fully funded in its first few hours of going live, and we’re excited to get this manufactured and out to backers in time for the holiday season. We’ve also got plans for more Rebel Inc. updates, with new maps and governors to play through and a PC version of the game too.

Anti-Vaxxers is something that we promised we’d bring to Plague Inc, so we’re working on that, and we have some other fun surprises we’ll be ready to reveal very soon.

If you had an unlimited budget, what game would you most like to make?

We are in the lucky position where we have never had to worry about the budget when deciding what to work on, so I guess you could say we do have an unlimited budget.

Both Rebel Inc. and Plague Inc: The Board Game was ‘non-standard’ business decisions but I wanted to make them anyway. Going forward, I’m keen to keep making intelligent strategy/simulation games in a similar fashion to our existing games.

What advice would you give other developers on ‘making it’ as an indie?

It’s really hard to give useful generic advice. One of the things I love about the games industry is that no one really has a clue what is going on. Everyone makes things up as they go and then suddenly some new game or genre pops out and surprises everyone. The following couple of things have worked well for me:

Make the game you want to play. I made Plague Inc. and Rebel Inc. because there aren’t any games like it on the App Store.

This meant I was automatically targeting a niche, I just didn’t know how big. It also meant I was extremely passionate about the game and I was my own target audience which made feedback easier.

If you get a hit, stick with it. It’s hard enough to get someone to install one of your apps – when they do, double down on it. Don’t make another game which you will have to fight to get them to install.

I know it’s tempting to go and work on something else after focusing hard on something, but fight it. If there’s an audience, keep your game alive.

One of the main reasons that Plague Inc. is still at the top of the charts after seven years is because we regularly update it with new content. Games-as-a-service is a really big thing.

（source:pocket gamer ）