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开发者谈超休闲游戏公司应该为2021年做哪些准备

发布时间:2021-03-15 08:59:32 Tags:,

开发者谈超休闲游戏公司应该为2021年做哪些准备

原作者:Andrey Mikhlin 译者:Willow Wu

手游行业不断创造新的营收纪录,Newzoo的研究报告显示2020年全球手游市场收益预计会超过1740亿美元。

在全球爆发的COVID-19疫情是2020年手游产业蓬勃发展的重要原因之一,世界各地用户的手游消费大大提升,尤其是在中国,印度和巴西市场。

我们Gismart的活跃用户在封城期间增加了两倍,单次游戏时长平均增加了20%。

到2020年年底,手游玩家数量预计会达到25亿,开发者们得跟上需求,确保他们的游戏能够把玩家留得更久。

但是,即使在疫情之前,手游用户的数量增长也是十分迅猛的:根据App Annie的统计,这项数据同比增长了10%,超休闲游戏市场每个月能吸引10亿下载。

Zoic_screenshoot(from gamasutra)

Zoic_screenshoot(from gamasutra)

在保持简单机制的同时,开发者引入了更复杂的主题和游戏玩法,最终让手游变得更加具有吸引力。

这为2020年手游的进一步崛起奠定了基础,创造出了消费者感兴趣的产品。考虑到这一点,我们预计手游能够在明年继续保持强劲的增长势头。

为2021年做准备

iOS 14的IDFA新政

大多数美国(79%)和韩国(85%)超休闲玩家都能理解广告的价值交换,并不会介意通过观看应用内广告而避免内购。

然而,苹果操作系统的最新更新将限制广告商们获取用户的应用使用习惯、消费偏好以及参与度等数据,这意味着他们无法细分用户,游戏也无法产生同等于以往的收益。

载入使用IDFA的应用时,系统会有弹窗提示,征求用户的许可。一般来说,大多数用户这时都会选择退出,这意味着广告商无法通过广告投放找到这些目标用户,Facebook的巨额用户获取投入也很难起到作用。Facebook警告称,这个新政可能会导致发行商在其广告平台上的收入减半,一些发行商对此感到非常担忧。

但是,现实一再地证明,每当我们以为苹果更新会给行业带来重创时,游戏行业总是能够在仅仅几个月后就适应新规。我相信这次也不会例外。

抄袭

近期Voodoo和Rollic之间的诉讼就体现出了剽窃纠纷的严重性:Voodoo认为Rolic的Wood Shop剽窃了他们热门游戏Woodturning的创意,只是多加了抛光和上色。

虽然这样的先例可以起到一定的警示作用,但有时候“撞车”是无法避免的。游戏场景创作通常都是受到真实生活启发的,如果游戏的主题比较简单的话,是有可能跟其它产品雷同。

就比如说,如果两家公司做的都是捏黏土游戏,你很难说这到底是巧合还是抄袭,因为这个主题太常见了。资金较为雄厚、有强大律师团队的一方就能占据优势地位,而小型开发工作室只能处于弱势地位。

抄袭事件在创意产业中是不可避免的,这就是残酷的现实。谁能够更快地扩大游戏规模、吸引更多玩家,谁就是赢家。

用户获取之战

如今,要在市场中突围,做一个好游戏是远远不够的。要是没有出色的营销策略、充足的推广+用户获取预算,超休闲游戏是很难获得商业成功的。

2020年,各个游戏公司都增加了在应用安装广告上的支出,包括能在短时间内带来可观下载量的广告活动,提高应用在应用商店中的排名。

57%的手游玩家会在应用商店中寻找新游戏,这就意味着如果你想定期提升游戏的曝光度,在各大应用商店中占据显眼的位置,那么专门的UA团队和营销团队是必不可少的。

开发商之间的竞争

游戏市场的饱和程度已经越来越高了,想出能够引起广大用户共鸣的新点子越来越难了。

除此之外,你还必须抓紧时间发行游戏,不然的话你的目标用户就会被竞争对手抢走。发行商需要开发内部工具,便于跟开发团队一同分析、改进游戏。

假设这个平台是开发者的理想合作平台,那么就会有大量开发者为特定发行商制作游戏,从而确保他们的成功能延续更长时间。

总结

和2020一样,在2021年游戏开发者可能也会遇到一些意想不到的事件——尽管它们可能不会像全球疫情和封锁那样有那么大的影响力。

此外,产品多样化的需求也会日益增加,你还得紧跟潮流。就比如说我们Gismart,,新的一年我们打算开发两款休闲游戏来丰富我们的产品库。

能够在这种动荡时期继续繁荣发展的公司,他们已经提前规划好未来几年的战略了,致力于打造经得住时间考验的产品,确保自己既有强大的实力也具备灵活性,以适应市场上的任何突发变化。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Andrey Mikhlin is head of Gamedev at Gismart, the hypercasual developer behind games such as Cool Goal!, Domino Smash, VIP Guard, and Foil Turning 3D.

The mobile gaming industry is generating record revenue, with research from Newzoo reporting that the global market is expected to generate more than $174 billion in 2020.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has been a big driver behind the rise of mobile gaming in 2020, leading to greater consumption of mobile products worldwide, especially in the Chinese, Indian and Brazilian markets.

For instance, active users of Gismart apps and games have increased by 200 per cent in lockdown, while the average length of gaming sessions has increased by 20 per cent.

There are expected to be 2.5 billion mobile gamers by the end of 2020, and developers have had to adapt to meet this demand, ensuring they are creating games that enable users to stay engaged for greater lengths of time.

But, even prior to the pandemic, mobile games had been surging in popularity, growing +10 per cent year-on-year and according to App Annie, the hypercasual game market attracting 1 billion monthly downloads.

Whilst often remaining simple mechanically, developers have introduced greater complexity of themes and gameplay, ultimately making mobile games more appealing to consumers.

This has laid the foundations that have enabled mobile games’ impressive rise in 2020, creating a product that consumers are interested in. With this in mind, we expect mobile gaming to continue its impressive growth into next year and this is how developers can ensure they are ready.

Preparing for in 2021

· IDFA changes in iOS 14

The majority of US (79 per cent) and South Korean (85 per cent) hyper-casual players understand the value exchange of ads and are okay with seeing in-app ads instead of in-app purchases.

However, a fresh update to Apple’s operating system ensures that ad networks will no longer be able to define a user’s profile, meaning they will not be able to segment the audience and games will not be able to generate as much money.

When logging onto products that are using IDFA, iOS14 will present users with a pop-up asking for permission to track their activity. Typically, most users will opt-out, meaning that advertisers won’t be able to target those users in their ad campaigns and Facebook will potentially be losing out on a large proportion of user acquisition spend, with Facebook warning the opt-in could halve publishers’ revenues on its advertising platform, while some publishers are loudly concerned.

However, every update from Apple is expected to be something that will cause significant damage, but, as it’s been proven many times, after a few months the industry manages to adapt to the new norm, and this will be no exception.

· Plagiarism

The recent Voodoo/Rollic lawsuit demonstrates the seriousness of plagiarism disputes, with Voodoo successfully suing Rolic for stealing attributes from Voodoo’s popular Woodturning game, namely adding polishing and painting stages, and incorporating them into Rolic’s hyper-casual title Wood Shop.

Whilst such a precedent will protect developers from plagiarism, the reverse is also inevitable. Developers are usually inspired by real-life when creating game scenarios, but when games are built around simple themes, they can become similar to other games.

For example, if two companies were to make a game about modeling clay, it becomes difficult to distinguish whether it’s just a coincidence, because the premise is so broad, or whether it’s plagiarism. The likelihood is that the companies that have more financial resources and more experienced lawyers will benefit most and smaller developers will be left in a more vulnerable position.

Ultimately, and the harsh reality is that plagiarism in the creative industry is inevitable, and the publisher who scales the game faster and attracts the larger following will be the most successful.

· Accelerating battle for users

It’s no longer enough to just make a good game and expect it to become a hit. Hypercasual gaming has less of a chance of commercial success without an effective marketing strategy and a budget for promoting it and acquiring new users.

In 2020, gaming apps boosted their spending on app install ads; these include campaigns that push a bulk of downloads during a short period, increasing the app’s ranking in app stores.

57 per cent of mobile gamers look for new games in the app store, meaning dedicated UA and marketing teams are essential if you want to regularly ensure games are visible on the major app stores.

· More competition among publishers

The market has become increasingly saturated, which has made it more difficult for developers to come up with fresh ideas that will resonate with a wide audience.

You also have to be quick to release games so that your audience is not taken by competing publishers, which can create a feeling of urgency. Publishers will need to develop internal tools so that, in a team with developers, they can analyse and refine the game.

Assuming the platform is desirable for developers to work with, this will create a pool of developers that are generating games for a specific publisher and help to ensure much longer-term success.

Conclusions

As was the case this year, it is likely that 2021 will also have a number of unexpected surprises in store for games developers – although these may not be quite as globally disruptive as the global pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns.

There will also be an increasing need to diversify products in the industry and keep up with the curve. Gismart, for instance, is looking to expand its product portfolio with two new casual games next year.

The companies that will continue to thrive in these volatile times are the ones that are already looking multiple years ahead and working towards future-proofing against any potential challenges, ensuring they are in a strong and flexible position to adapt to any sudden changes in the market.

(source:pocket gamer )


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