social-gaming-revenue(from business insider intelligence)

目前社交游戏主力军仍是35-55岁女性用户，但未来将有更多年轻、硬核游戏玩家加入这一阵营；随着微交易功能的简化和普及，用户付费购买虚拟商品的意愿也将日益提升，而社交游戏广告收益的增长空间更为宽广。

2）据英国《卫报》报道，Facebook最近在欧洲成立社交游戏团队，旨在助欧洲、中东和非洲地区的开发者创造不同于Zynga、EA游戏的产品。Facebook在该地区业务发展主管Christian Hernandez表示，行业目前正经历第三次游戏平台变革，城建类、社交/休闲游戏开始出现合并趋势，Facebook在欧洲将重点关注手机社交游戏市场。

3）eMarketer最新数据显示，谷歌在线广告业务表现优于Facebook在线广告。

display ad revenue(from eMarketer)

Facebook在2011年在线广告销售额高达17.3亿美元，但仅比谷歌多2亿美元，预计2012年Facebook在线广告收益将达25.8亿美元，而谷歌则是25.4亿美元。

growth rate(from eMarketer)

但在2013和2014年，Facebook广告收益将开始下滑，而谷歌广告在这一时期将分别实现近50%和近30%的增长率。

4）法国公司育碧最近将旗下《疯狂兔子》这一热门游戏品牌引进Facebook，这款名为《Rabbids Invasion》的社交游戏提供了标准的城建游戏玩法，但玩家不需要建设城市，而是让兔子“攻占”这些建筑。

Rabbids Invasion(from insidesocialgames)

如果攻占了一个农场，该农场外观就会变成一个巨大的奶牛，如果攻占小木屋，后者就会燃烧成一堆篝火。玩家可付费购买更多兔子以攻占大量建筑，从而获得更多收益和经验值。该游戏上线不到一周就收获1万MAU和5000名DAU。

5）据insidesocialgames报道，在所有Facebook运动类游戏中，足球游戏人气最旺，在该平台前40名最热门运动类游戏中占据一半以上席位。而其中表现最突出者则是塞尔维亚开发商Nordeus（游戏邦注：该公司由三名前微软成员创办）旗下游戏《Top Eleven – Be a Football Manager》，该游戏目前有360万MAU和120万DAU，远超过竞争对手、EA游戏《FIFA Superstars》（MAU为190万，DAU为30万）。

top eleven(from insidesocialgames)

值得注意的是，该游戏不同于一般Facebook游戏（后者一般在发布头6个月实现用户增长），它问世21个月后的用户数量仍在持续增长，自2010年5月上线已来，已推出iOS和Android版本。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Social Gaming Market Will Grow To $5 Billion+ By 2015

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

This market is a disruptive force that will continue to grow rapidly over the next several years.

We forecast that the US social gaming market, including smartphone games, will grow to $5.5 billion by 2011, from $2 billion in 2011.

Why are we forecasting such growth? In a nutshell:

•We think social games will go more mainstream. Right now, social gaming is mostly confined to a specific demographic–women aged 35-55 with a lot of time on their hands–but this is already changing.  We believe new kinds of gamers, including males, especially young people and hardcore gamers, will start to use new types of social games.

•We think monetization will improve dramatically. We are still in the early days of monetization. Micropayments are getting easier, and users are becoming more accustomed to paying for virtual goods. In advertising, the scope for improvement is even bigger: right now, most of the advertising revenue comes from bargain-rate banner ads. As forms of advertising like interstitial ads and branded virtual goods grow, so will revenue per user. （source:business insider）

2）Facebook wants to work with European social game developers, too

by Joe Osborne

U.S. game makers like Zynga, PopCap and Playdom aren’t the only pioneers in the social games world, you know. There are plenty of social game creators in Europe and abroad that give American

Facebook games a run for their money … literally. And Facebook doesn’t want to merely recognize top 10 social game makers like Wooga, King.com and Nordeus.

The multibillion-dollar social network wants to make sure it continues to be smooth sailing for them. The Guardian reports that Facebook has started a social games team in Europe designed to represent the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). The move to create a team that mirrors the U.S. was spurred by the visible success of companies like Wooga and King,com reached by creating games that are somewhat different from what your Zynga’s and EA’s offer.

“We’re in the third evolution of the gaming platform, as the world-building and social/casual space has begun to consolidate,” Facebook’s EMEA director of business development and partnerships

Christian Hernandez told The Guardian. “Newer players are coming into untapped areas and satisfying new types of users, who don’t want to play FarmVille but might want to play strategy or shooter games, or free games around jackpot, slots or blackjack. This is the fastest growing and most interesting area.”

According to The Guardian, Hernandez thinks that Europe is “the most interesting region in terms of the innovation” when it comes to Facebook games. Mobile social games will be a large focus for Facebook Europe, so don’t be surprised to see more mobile games come from the Diamond Dash and Bubble Witch Saga houses.（source:games）

3）Google’s Diversifying Display Ad Business Could Pass Facebook’s, eMarketer Guesses

Eric Eldon

Research firm eMarketer has put together a few interesting data points that show Google doing better in display ads than you might have realized. That is, by growing this business across properties and networks that it at some point acquired — YouTube, DoubleClick, and mobile (AdMob) — it’s set to pass Facebook’s own display business.

The social network had the highest online ad sales of any company in the U.S. last year, at $1.73 billion. But that was a mere $200 million or so above Google. This year, eMarketer expects a similar story, with Facebook bringing in $2.58 billion versus Google’s $2.54 billion. Things change in 2013 and 2014, further off from what the data can tell us accurately.

The firm thinks Facebook’s growth rate is going to plummet after this year, down to 13 percent in 2014, while Google’s is going to continue at nearly 50 percent through 2013 and still at nearly 30 percent in 2014.（source:techcrunch）

4） Ubisoft brings the Rabbids’ insanity to Facebook

Pete Davison

Ubisoft’s Rabbids series — originally a spinoff from the company’s Rayman franchise — is well-known for its irreverent, lavatorial humor and has invaded a wide variety of platforms over the course of the last few years. The small, insane, rabbit-like creatures have finally hit Facebook this month in the form of Rabbids Invasion.

Rabbids Invasion offers a twist on standard citybuilding gameplay: the city is already there. However, the city in question was built by humans and as such, the Rabbids are unable to avail themselves of all its facilities. In order to do so, the Rabbids must “invade” the existing buildings and take them over. In doing so, the drab, brown art becomes wildly colorful and often takes on humorous, surreal characteristics. Invading a house, for example, might cover it in toilet paper. Invading a farmhouse might redesign it to look like a giant cow. And invading a log cabin simply burns it down and turns it into an enormous bonfire.

Rabbids Invasion currently has 10,000 monthly active users and 5,000 daily active users, but has only been available for less than a week at the time of writing. The Rabbids series is a well known brand among casual gamers, and Ubisoft is likely counting on this to assist with user acquisition, along with the game’s frictionless wall posting facility for virality. To follow the game’s progress, check out AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.（source:insidesocialgames）

5）How bootstrapped Serbian startup Nordeus beat EA’s FIFA at its own Facebook game

Kathleen De Vere

Of all the sports games on Facebook, soccer-themed games reign supreme, accounting for more than half of the 40 most popular sports games on the platform.

The leader of the pack is Nordeus — a bootstrapped Serbian developer founded by three former Microsoft employees. Its game, Top Eleven – Be a Football Manager is a detailed football management

sim, and despite its complexity, has 3.6 million monthly active users and 1.2 million daily active users, far above its closest competitor, the officially licensed title EA’s FIFA Superstars which currently has 1.9 million MAU and 300,000 DAU according to AppData.

However, what may be most interesting about Top Eleven is the game’s slow burn. Unlike the average Facebook game, which typically sees most of its growth in the first six months, Top Eleven is still adding players 21 months in and is the most popular its ever been. Since the game’s launch in May 2010, Nordeus has taken Top Eleven cross-platform to iOS and to Android and introduced a raft of new features and updates, but has so far been silent about upcoming projects.（source:insidesocialgames）

mozilla(from muycomputer.com)

该应用商店主要锁定基于HTML5、JavaScript和CSS等开放网页技术的应用，同时还创建了一个与用户而非特定移动设备或平台绑定的身份系统。

2）据China Times报道，亚马逊准备推出10英寸平板电脑，其设备制造商是富士康，新款Kindle Fire或将于5、6月份问世。

Kindle Fire(from pocketgamer)

IHS iSuppli曾在2011年10月份报告指出，亚马逊每售一部Kindle Fire就要倒贴11美元，但该公司可通过其在线服务和亚马逊Appstore实现盈利。

3）据gamezebo报道，Halfbrick旗下热门游戏《水果忍者》（游戏邦注：下载量已超过1.3亿次）将推出包括钥匙扣、贴纸、毛绒玩具、桌游、水果零食、手机套和内衣等一系列周边产品。这些商品预计于本周上架，并将在今年陆续推出新产品。

fruit ninja plushies(from nineoverten.com)

据称芬兰开发商Rovio已通过《愤怒的小鸟》周边产品在2010年创收1000万美元，2011年则增长至1亿美元。

4）据techcrunch报道，俄罗斯工作室ZeptoLab日前宣布将发布《割绳子》Mac版本（该游戏手机版本下载量已突破1亿次），据该公司创始人所称，他们认为Mac App Store市场覆盖率不及手机版 App Store，其市场竞争也不如后者激烈，因此拥有较多发展机遇。尽管《愤怒的小鸟》、《植物大战僵尸》已经登陆Mac平台，但《水果忍者》、《Words With Friends》和《Where’s My Water》等游戏仍未入驻该平台。

cut the rope(from redmondpie.com)

5）俄罗斯游戏发行商Game Insight日前宣布成立一个新美国工作室，将总部设于旧金山，以便通过北美开发团队扩展全球业务。

my country(from cyberdevilz.net)

该公司由Alisa Chumachenko成立于2009年，目前已有14家开发工作室和260多名员工，已向Facebook、Orkut、iOS和Android平台发布24款社交游戏，代表作包括Android游戏《My Country》和《Paradise Island》。

6）开发商Jagex首席执行官Mark Gerhard最近公开表示，他认为移动领域的泡沫将在今年爆破，开发者根本无法从中盈利，只有苹果和用户才是市场赢家。

他称开发一款高质量的iOS游戏会面临入不敷出的情况，例如Jagex旗下四款位居iPhone榜单前列的游戏每月仅创收3000或4000英磅。在他看来，苹果固件升级（例如iPhone 5和iPad 3）只会恶化这种情况，并最终“搞垮整个App Store”。

7）insidemobileapps总结的2011年已上市主流手机游戏公司财报内容显示：

Glu Mobile freemium revenue(from Glu Mobile)

Glu Mobile第四季度智能手机业务收益为1010万美元，比去年同期增加3倍；其2011年智能手机业务总收益为3510万美元，同比上年增长3倍以上（2010年收益为987万美元）；该公司目前市值为2.395亿美元。

Capcom earnings(from insidemobileapps)

Capcom第四季度智能手机及社交游戏业务收益为1780万美元，2011年该业务总收益为7070万美元，公司目前市值为14.2亿美元，低于原来的18.2亿美元。

Gamevil revenue(from insidemobileapps)

Gamevil第四季度智能手机业务收益达1280万美元，比上年同期增加5倍以上，该业务2011全年收益达2770万美元，公司市值为3.579亿美元，低于之前的3.78亿美元。

EA revenue(from insidemobileapps)

EA第四季度手机业务（包括智能手机）收益为7000万美元，同比上年增长19%，全年手机业务收益达2.52亿美元，公司市值为57亿美元，低于原先的76亿美元。

Gameloft revenue(from insidemobileapps)

Gameloft第四季度总体&智能手机业务收益为4700万欧元（约6220万美元），同比上年增长64%（游戏邦注：据称其智能手机、平板电脑业务销售额占比41%），全年智能手机业务收益达7430万美元，市值达5.146亿美元，高于之前的4.21亿美元。

Zynga bookings & revenue(from insidemobileapps)

Zynga并未区分手机游戏收益，全年总体收益达11.4亿美元，市值为91.1亿美元。

DeNA net sales(from DeNA)

DeNA该季度净销售额同比增长16%，达到342亿日元（4.48亿美元），净收益下滑25%，达60.8亿日元（7920万美元），全年净销售额为17亿美元；市值为47.3亿美元，低于之前的52.9亿美元。

GREE profit(from GREE)

GREE该时期净收益同比增长3倍，达127亿日元（1.58亿美元），净销售额达415亿日元（5.169亿美元），全年净销售额为13.7亿美元。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Mozilla opens HTML5 app marketplace

by Tim Green

Open source browser firm targets developers of web apps.

The Mozilla Marketplace is based on the Mozilla Web Apps platform, and therefore comprises a device-independent market for apps based on open Web technologies like HTML5, JavaScript and CSS.

It’s also building Mozilla-proposed APIs that will be submitted to the W3C for standardisation and an identity system that ties apps to the user and not the device or platform.

The Mozilla Marketplace will open for developers to submit apps next week and will open to consumers later this year.

It adds more spice to the whole apps revolution and brings another player in the the web apps space that’s seeking to break apart the walled gardens erected by device makers.

Mozilla will therefore line up alongside Amazon, Opera and others in trying to become a partner for developers and a destination for consumers.（source:mobile-ent）

2）10-inch Kindle Fire to launch in Q2 2012, reports China Times

by Chris James

Just as the 7-inch tablet market is becoming more successful, so Amazon is reportedly preparing a 10-inch follow up to its existing Kindle Fire.

China Times claims Amazon is looking to build on the success its tablet has amassed with a larger, and cheaper to make successor – though the exact design is yet to finalised.

Cost cutting

A 10-inch variant – manufactured by Foxconn – is the mooted option, with the switch of ODM enabling Amazon to have more control over components.

In October 2011, IHS iSuppli estimated Amazon would lose almost $11 on every Kindle Fire sold, with the firm expecting to recoup such losses through its online services and the sale of apps through Appstore for Android.

It’s suggested that, with Q1 sales having hit an estimated 6 million, Amazon is now looking to turn on profit on hardware alone, sourcing cheaper parts to reduce its expenses.

The site claims the new Kindle Fire will go into mass production in May or June, before being unleashed upon the buying public at the end of Q2 2012.（source:pocketgamer）

3）Halfbrick going all-out with Fruit Ninja merchandise

By Brad Hilderbrand

Halfbrick’s slash-a-thon game Fruit Ninja is seriously having a moment. The game, which has surpassed 130 million downloads already and whose success inspired a Kinect-enabled console version, is about to come blasting out of the digital world and launch a full-on invasion into meatspace. Today Halfbrick announced new partnerships with a slew of partners that will spawn all manner of new Fruit Ninja themed merchandise.

The “fruits” of these new partnerships (see what I did there?) will include tchotchkes like keychains, stickers and plushies, to card and board games, fruit snacks, phone cases and even underwear. If Halfbrick introduces a thong with the Sensei on it, I’m buying 12.

The products are scheduled to start appearing on store shelves this week, and new stuff will continue to be launched through the year and into 2013. Sadly we haven’t had the opportunity to see any of the products in person yet, but that’s probably for the best since we’d just try to slash them in half anyway.

Halfbrick’s moves very closely mirror those of Angry Birds, another megafranchise which has made the leap from mobile screens into the real world. Rovio managed to grow profits of the franchise from $10 million in 2010 to $100 million in 2011, largely thanks to brisk sales of branded merchandise. No doubt that Halfbrick took a look at those numbers and, once they wiped up the drool and saw a doctor about their eyeballs suddenly turning into dollar signs, went to sign up some partners themselves.（source:gamezebo）

4）Why Mobile Game Devs Should Port To Mac OS -Advice From Cut The Rope’s ZeptoLab

Josh Constine

Last week, a Mountain Lion roared “Mac is the next big gaming platform.” Apple is bringing Game Center to Mac, it will support cross-platform iPhone vs. Mac play, and the Mac App Store will likely become more prominent. It’s time for mobile developers to decide if they’ll bring their games to Mac OS, and how they’ll port their controls and levels. Otherwise they risk having to claw their way up much more competitive charts.

Tomorrow, after 100 million downloads across platforms, ZeptoLab will release its hit Cut The Rope for Mac OS. After hooking me up with a pre-release download, the Moscow-based founders gave me the low down on the biggest challenges of porting to Mac OS, and why they think it’s critical that mobile developers don’t get left behind on the small screen.

[Update: Cut The Rope is now available on the Mac OS App Store]
Why Port?

“We see opportunity with the Mac App Store because it’s not as occupied as the mobile App Store. There are several quite nice games, but the competition is not as huge” said ZeptoLab’s twin brother founders Semyon and Efim Voinov. Angry Birds and Plants Vs. Zombies are already available, but other staples like Fruit Ninja, Words With Friends, and Where’s My Water are absent. Without these apps occupying the charts, there are places for other developers to swoop in and get discovered.

As expensive console and PC games like Call Of Duty and Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic appear in the store as well, paid apps ported from mobile may be able to get away with charging higher prices. On a phone $5 may seem steep, but the bigger screen size and history of $50 disc-based games may make $5 appear cheap on the Mac App Store.

“We started quite a while ago doing this in-house. It took a bit longer than we expected, but from a technical standpoint the process of porting to Mac was pretty straightforward. The tools are pretty good. The majority of work was on the design and art side.”（source:techcrunch）

5）Fast growing Russian social mobile company Game Insight sets up San Francisco publishing office

by Jon Jordan

Rising star of Android social gaming, Russian publisher Game Insight has announced it’s setting up a new arm in the US.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Game Insight Publishing will enable it better access to North American development teams as it looks to expand its global operations.

Riding the wave

Originally set up by Alisa Chumachenko in 2009 as a games investment company, Game Insight now consists of 14 development studios and over 260 staff.

It’s released 24 social games, including on Facebook, Orkut, iOS and especially Android, where free-to-play games such as My Country and Paradise Island have been top grossing. （source:pocketgamer）

6）Jagex CEO believes new Apple hardware could ‘kill the App Store’

by James Gilmour

Mark Gerhard, COE of developer Jagex, has made some doom-laden predictions regarding the future of the App Store.

Speaking at a BAFTA-chaired Games Question Time, Gerhard spoke of how advancements in browser technology will lure developers away from closed platforms.

“This is controversial, but the mobile bubble will burst this year,” Gehard said.

“There just isn’t the money there. The only people that are winning right now are Apple and consumers.”

The price of success

Gerhard believes that the cost of developing a highly-polished profit-making game for the App Store doesn’t justify the return, revealing that Jagex’s four chart-topping iPhone games only generate £3,000 or £4,000 profit a month.

Going further still, he declared that Apple hardware updates like the iPhone 5 and the iPad 3 could make the situation worse, and ultimately “kill the App Store”.

“I think that fundamentally, bar a handful of winners that Apple is keeping, nobody makes money on their platform. It’s great for consumers, not good for developers, and that’s going to be the death of it,” Gerhard continued.（source:pocketgamer）

7）Android, iOS revenues of publicly-traded gaming companies came in between $25-75M last year

Kim-Mai Cutler

It’s that time of year again. Now that all of the gaming companies have reported earnings, we’ve made our quarterly cheat sheet for industry observers summarizing smartphone earnings and growth.

We’ve also added in annual earnings too.

For the whole of 2011, revenues on Android and iOS came in at between $25 and 75 million for publicly-traded companies that I could tease out smartphone earnings from. Quarter-over-quarter growth

accelerated following the iPhone 4S launch and during the holidays, as it typically does. This year, we’ll probably see a few companies comfortably cross the $100 million in revenues on Android and iOS.

Publicly-Traded Gaming Companies

There are a few publicly-traded companies like Sega, Take Two Interactive (which owns Grand Theft Auto-maker Rockstar Games), and Caesar’s (which owns Playtika), that we didn’t include because they don’t break out mobile earnings at all.

Glu Mobile:

Fourth-quarter smartphone revenue: $10.1 million, up threefold from the same quarter a year ago when it earned $3.1 million in the fourth quarter. But quarter-over-quarter growth continues to slow with just a $400,000 increase over the previous quarter. The chart below Glu shared below is based on non-GAAP revenue, which isn’t in line with generally accepted accounting principles.

Smartphone revenue for all of 2011: $35.1 million, more than triple the $9.87 million Glu earned the year before.

Market capitalization: $239.5 million, up from $205.3 million the last time we published this sheet.

Hits: Contract Killer and Gun Bros continue to perform well, contributing $1.9 and $1.5 million respectively in the holiday quarter. But one of the new titles, Stardom, seems to be performing well on the grossing charts as well.

Capcom’s Mobile Unit (also known as Beeline Interactive):

Revenue (Smartphone & Social Networking Sites): We calculated that Capcom’s mobile and social gaming unit pulled in $17.8 million in the quarter ending in December. The company had said the unit had earned $50.1 million in the first nine months of their fiscal year (which starts in March) and then in a previous statement, it said the unit made $32.3 million in the first half. It’s not clear how much of that came from the Facebook version versus the iOS version of the Smurf’s Village, Monster Pet Shop or Snoopy’s Street Fair.

Mobile & social gaming revenue for all of 2011: $70.7 million and Capcom expects to see $75 million for the full fiscal year ending on March 31.

Market Capitalization: $1.42 billion, down from $1.82 billion the last time we did this sheet.

Hits: Snoopy’s Street Fair, Smurf’s Village

Gamevil:

Smartphone Revenue: $12.8 million this quarter, up by more than fivefold from a year ago. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, that’s almost twice what it was in the third quarter, when smartphone revenues were $7 million.

Smartphone gaming revenue for all of 2011: $27.7 million

Market Capitalization: $357.9 million, down from $378 million the last time we did this sheet.

Hits: Zenonia, Baseball Superstars

Electronic Arts:

Mobile revenue (includes feature phones): $70 million last quarter, up 19 percent year-over-year. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, mobile revenue is up $15 million.

Annual mobile revenue (includes feature phones): $252 million

Market Capitalization: $5.7 billion, down from $7.6 billion the last time we did this sheet

Hits: Monopoly Hotels, Plants vs. Zombies, NBA Jam, Tetris

Gameloft:

Overall & Smartphone Revenues: Gameloft did 47 million euros ($62.2 million) in the fourth quarter. It said smartphone and tablet-related sales were 41 percent of total sales, or 19.3 million euros ($25.5 million). That’s up 64 percent year-over-year.

Smartphone gaming revenue for all of 2011: $74.3 million

Market Capitalization: $514.6 million, up from $421 million when we last did this sheet.

Hits: Gangstar Rio: City of Saints, The Oregon Trail, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, Modern Combat 3

Zynga:

Revenue: Overall third quarter revenue was $311.3 million. Zynga does not break out mobile revenue, but it did say that it had 15 million daily active users on iOS and Android. Total annual

revenues were $1.14 billion.

Hits: Words With Friends, Zynga Poker, Dream Zoo

Market capitalization: $9.11 billion

The Japanese Mobile Gaming Platforms That Are Trying to Crack The West

DeNA:

Net Sales & Income: The Japanese company, which is trying to make headway into Western and Chinese markets with its Mobage platform, said net sales rose 16 percent year-over-year to 34.2 billion yen ($448 million). But net income declined by 25 percent to 6.08 billion yen ($79.2 million) as additional headcount ate into the company’s margins.

Net sales for all of 2011: $1.7 billion

Market Capitalization: $4.73 billion, down from $5.29 billion the last time we did this sheet.

GREE:

Net Sales & Income: GREE has a pretty remarkable quarter with after more than tripling its net income from a year earlier to 12.7 billion yen ($158 million). It nearly did the same for its overall revenue with net sales reaching 41.5 billion yen ($516.9 million).

Annual net sales: $1.37 billion

Market Capitalization: $6.93 billion, down from $8.22 billion the last time we did the earnings sheet.（source:insidemobileapps）

原文发表于《程序员》杂志2012年2月刊

当然在目前的条件下，不管是用户的游戏需求还是开发者的游戏发行布局，Beau Hindman的设想更多还只是相对理想的状况。

平台和分裂性问题

当前的状况下，开发者可能遇到的分裂问题包括：发行平台困扰；不同系统平台的技术障碍；不同平台的审核差异和限制差异；跨平台的人力成本和运维成本；平台用户调研和适度改编。

第一个问题，发行平台困扰。不同的操作系统，不同的用户定位形成了不同的商业生态圈，对于开发者来讲IOS、Symbian、RIM、J2ME、Android、WebOS和Windows Mobile就成为必需要面对的选项，要么选择自己合适的站队，要么在不同的平台之间游走，至于哪一种方式能够更好，只有特定的开发者自己能够明白。但事实上，更多的开发者选择兼顾各种平台和用户，特别是现在更具主导性价值的苹果App Store、Google的Android Market和微软的Windows Phone Marketplace；苹果App Store以将近30亿美元的年度营收成为开发者的首选，而Google的Android Market则以超级日激活量，Windows Phone Marketplace则以游戏的名义再加上和Nokia联姻的方式获得市场的认可。

第二个问题，不同系统平台的技术障碍。技术语言之间的开发障碍相当明显，IOS应用需要Objective-C语言，Android应用则需要兼具java和C语言，Symbian应用需要C++语言，而Windows Phone应用则需要C#语言。Anat Resnick在解析这个问题的时候认为这种技术语言之间的超级跨度、游戏测试跨度给游戏的平台匹配度等带来各种困难，类似Rovio将一款Angry Birds做得极致在不同平台之间广泛布局同样不是一件容易的事情，在App Store受到用户的青睐并不意味着在Nokia Ovi Store也能春风得意（特别是如何保持应用的高质量）。

第三个问题，不同平台的审核差异和限制差异。不同的平台对应用的审核标准（适用性、受众适宜度、是否有攻击成分）、审核流程时间、繁琐度等都存在差异，苹果App Store的审核相对更有效率，如果只是更新版本可能更快一些，甚至被拒绝的情况都会给出相关问题的解释；而像Android Market的审核性可能弱一些，只要提交的应用符合要求即可生效（根据手机操作系统版本、API范围来划分支持运行的手机平台），但Google可以对上线应用进行远程操控，出现问题就会被下架。这样的问题对于开发者而言，同样一款产品，哪怕只是一次更新都需要在不同的应用商店之间不断重复提交、重复审核。

第四个问题是跨平台的人力成本和运维成本。就像前文提到的，不同的技术语言门槛和不同的发行渠道就需要更多的专职人才负责打点不同的APP方向，这对于开发团队来讲是个很耗人力的行为；此外，因为平台的障碍和分裂，也为应用的运维带来了各种不必要的重复劳动，再加上不同市场有不同的定位和用户属性，这种技术和人为区隔也将给产品的运营带来各种不确定性。这就是我们需要提到的管理方面的风险，如果选择了错误的平台或者缺乏市场渗透性或者缺乏市场回报率，给开发者带来的就可能是失败的打击。这层困惑是很明显的，没有充分的数据分析导致开发者只能凭借感觉判断哪些游戏适合投放的平台，而缺乏实力的小型开发者在强者林立的市场获得更合适的平台机会则渺茫许多。

第五个问题，平台用户调研和适度改编。从Xyologic和Distimo以及Flurry监测到的数据可以很明显看到不同平台之间用户对应用的选择倾向性还是相当明显，比如Android Market的App下载更多而App Store的游戏应用下载更多，即便是同一款游戏应用在App Store和Android Market也因为用户付费环境和支付便捷性等问题而产生极大的差异，Flurry的数据认为同一款应用在App Store的营收能力一般是Android Market的4倍，这就意味着说在IOS和Android激活量越来越接近的现在，如何权衡好用户的直接需求才是开发者需要关注的重点，而平台之间的这种差异直接导致了开发者在开发问题上存在更多的权衡因素。

HTML5(from sleekdesignstudio.com)

中间工具和Html5技术

其实开发者并不单纯只是根据不同的平台单个实现解决，我们看市场上出现的各种中间解决方案就知道了，开发者并不想在跨平台的问题上耗尽太多的心力。在目前面向开发者的各种中间解决方案中可能包括Zipline 、Moblyng、Epic、MoMinis、Ansca Mobile、Sibblingz、GameSalad、Unity Android或者Cocos2D-X。

另外一个可能是最近一段时间以来最具关注点的Html5，脱离App束缚成为应用研发最偷懒的方式。Ben Savage曾经做出2012年关于Html5的14个预言，其中就包括基于Html5的应用将大规模出现，此外用户体验可能将慢慢向iphone应用看齐，而另外一个可能同样利好的是各种浏览器都在支持这项技术（Chrome、IE、Safari、Mozilla、Opera等），尽管目前还只是适用于高级别的浏览器版本，但随着浏览器的各种升级，这个用户受众面的困局也将迎刃而解。

所以早些时候Appcelerator和IDG联手做的关于开发者平台选择的调查（取样2160名开发者）就显示Html5的开发者选项为为66%，和Android Tablet的68%相当，甚至高于WP7的38% 、Blackberry Phone的21%，当然在现阶段的开发者热情还并不能和91%支持率的iphone、88%支持率的ipad和83%支持率的 Android Phone相提并论。现在整体市场所观望的除了技术标准和规范不够成熟外，最大的盼头就是出现一款重磅作品给这个市场打入强心剂，虽然有磊友、Spil或者Facebook在推荐这个趋势，但是市场再好的盘算都不如一款有说服力的游戏来得有价值。

Funzio的Jamil Moledina几乎代表了这种观望心态，他认为开发者并不会和某种技术捆绑，而会根据面向用户的需求做多重选择（优选方案），同样Google+的Todd Kerpelman也认为Flash和HTML5之争并非零和游戏。Zynga的Html5游戏Mafia Wars Atlantic City最后为Mafia Wars Shakedown所取代，并未能有力佐证这一市场的价值，现在Popcap也推出Html5游戏Bejeweled（Chome Web Store）、Gameloft也向Google+平台发布基于HTML5的3D赛车游戏GT Racing: Motor Academy，这些举动或许能够慢慢和早先的Angry Birds（只针对Google Chrome）、Chain Reaction、Sand Trap一起带动全新的希望。

Zynga负责移动端的高级副总裁David Ko认为Html5是Zynga在手机端拓展社交游戏的一个重要途径，而Popcap的Giordano Bruno Contestabile则在GDC Online上称Html5或许是突破平台割据局面的希望（HTML5 might be the hope）。

至于情况能如何，至少李开复和磊友对Html5的未来充满信心，他在HTML5 in China分享会议的开场致辞就称HTML5所支持的兼容精神将在未来获得更大的展示空间。其实大部分人对于Html5最大的底气不是来自于对技术的预测，而是来自于行业分析数据的支撑，就比如ABI Research认为到2016年全球将有21亿部手机（占手机总数的30%）支持Html5浏览运行支持，在手机操作系统的战局中，Html5将以中间调和者的姿态迅速获得发展。

当然更有一些人看起来超级乐观，比如Chrome操作系统项目主管Sundar Pichai就认为Html5最终会超越原版手机应用模式（Spil games首席执行官 Peter Driessen认为应该不会超过三年的时间）；Mike Rowehl则认为这种趋势会让用户和开发者忘记自己是经过了原版应用时代，才走上了移动网络之路。

至于Html5技术支持的应用最理想化的状况应该是什么样子的，恐怕还只能在继续探索中被挖掘。Scott Hyman认为应该是在制作完善的作品中，多数玩家都不会察觉内容是基于浏览器。

HTML5的技术差异特征理解

Matt Marshall在How HTML5 will kill the native app一文中曾仔细探索过Html5的相关技术内涵。

其一，Touch/gestural interfaces，据称图片轮播、scrolling lists、disclosure panels和相关小部件等需通过触摸、划动手指来控制的UI组件，均可在HTML5网页上实现。Keith Stuart在Touchscreens, smartphones and the haptic future of games一文中认为触屏技术将是未来游戏发展的动向。

其二，HTML5已可根据屏幕大小、图片大小和分辨率的情况，提供Visual Scale的用户体验。

其三，在Graphics & FX问题上原生应用可能更胜一筹，在图像质量要求较高的内容上尤其如此，高图象质量的游戏在HTML5上的渲染效果暂时还比不上原版应用（从目前现有的Html5游戏看，画质本身还是一个问题）。

其四，Html5在Accelerometer access问题上也能够有效实现。

其五，关于游戏的离线运行功能。在这个问题上，Dan Rowinski曾进行过解析，Html5应用能够在未联网的情况下继续运作。离线缓存的概念相当新颖，是有待网页应用深入挖掘的HTML5重要性能，拓展空间很大，其主要优点是让网页应用能够在未连网的情况下继续运作。这可能是很多人认为这是令原生应用走向消亡的一大原因。换句话说，如果得到了用户许可， html5可以通过application cache API向用户提供离线存储功能，让HTML5网页应用在离线状态下运行。早在两年前，Google就通过Html5技术实现了离线Google Map和Gmail（无需接入网络的浏览体验）。游戏邦曾编译过Alex Kessinger的文章，就是以俄罗斯方块（Tetris）为例解析如何制作ios离线游戏应用，具体可以参阅：

http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/html5-iphone-app/ 。

其六，关于屏幕和各种游戏的适配问题。Dan Rowinski提到了响应式设计，这种让游戏或者应用内容自动去适配设备屏幕尺寸可以有效处理尺寸问题。Epic Games公司Tim Sweeney曾称谷歌Android平台（分裂）无法满足游戏相关开发者为手机设备提供无差别体验的需求，就是出于这个原因（Android本身的分裂和不同平台之间的差异是相似的）。Baird Research的开发者取样调查也显示了开发者的这种顾虑，这和我们在前文提到的问题相似，跨平台除了技术门槛，屏幕适配也同样是个难题。Daniel Cook认为这种情况将给没有跨平台投放经验带来困扰，特别是缺少商务运营积累或者过度重视引擎技术（一劳永逸的）以及缺乏盈利解决方案的公司将更具压力。

其七，中间过渡手段。Ron Perry提到了过渡阶段的混合应用，就是开发过程既采纳了原生应用功能，同时也融合了更具前瞻性的HTML5技术，但是这种混合应用仍然需要依靠应用商店下载，但是因为有部分或者所有用户界面植入了浏览器元素的程序，对开发者来说，就意味着他们无需针对各个手机操作系统重新编写应用，而是可以选择用HTML、CSS和JavaScript编写其中一部分代码，并在多个平台上运行应用程序。除此之外，混合应用的另一个特点在于，它与网页应用又有共通之处。混合应用并不像原生应用那样，直接使用手机操作系统所支持的图像API和UI，其多数页面采用的是浏览器的渲染引擎，这与网页应用一致。

事情的发展可能就会如EA Sports高级副总裁Andrew Wilson所说的，未来的游戏概念是Game3.0，那些收获巨大的胜者将是那些成功创造跨平台游戏体验的公司。因为一切都处于用户便捷性的考量范畴中，以用户体验的名义一切都处于Creative Destruction（创造性破坏）的局面，惯常的思维正在慢慢滞后于需求的探索，在往后的体验中，跨平台的服务将成为全新的界定Gaming 3.0，回到我们前文说的就是Beau Hindman所谓的用户希望能够在随时有游戏意愿的情况下在就近能获取的设备上进行游戏，而浏览器模式则无障碍地实现了这一趋势。去年差不多这个时候，Moblyng首席执行官Stewart Putney就宣称HTML5是社交游戏（特别是手机社交游戏）发展的未来，Heyzap联合创始人Jude Gomilla也称HTML5在整个社交游戏/手机社交游戏上将具有重要的影响力。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com原创专稿，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

最近，许多开发者进驻手机领域，小团队也能够构想出优秀和独特的想法，使用业余时间便足够来开发应用。

每个开发循环迟早到会走到应用几近完成这个点。接下来要做什么呢？你可曾听说过“用户体验”这个词？以下这10个技巧能够使新手机应用在发布前提升质量，最大化发掘该应用的潜力，从而最小化用户差评和低下载量这种不良结果。

1、首次开启体验

优秀的网站和手机应用有诸多相似之处。这两者都能够迅速吸引用户或访问者。如果没有做到这点，用户很可能会转而寻找其他替代品。多数用户不愿意浪费时间来弄清楚要如何运行应用或阅读复杂的教程。他们会选择放弃该应用。

首次开启应用时，每个人的脑中都会浮现出相同的3个问题：我在哪里？我现在能够做什么？我接下来能够做什么？

努力使应用立即对这些问题做出回答。如果你能够在前数秒的时间里告诉用户这是款适合他们的产品，那么他们势必会进行更深层次的发掘。

gowalla(from phandroid)

（Gowalla有着良好的首次开启体验。护照缓缓打开，让你可以立即查看个人信息、即时建议以及更多的动作和通知。）

2、便捷的输入方式

想想看你是如何使用手机设备的：开发者的手机安静地躺在平坦的桌面上，连接到配有大型键盘的PC上，或许还完全打开背光功能。现在，想想其他人如何使用他们的智能手机：走在熙熙攘攘的大街上，一手拿着杯咖啡，另一手拿着设备，努力弄清楚他们最喜欢球队的表现情况。

在多数时间里，人们只使用1个拇指来执行应用的导航。不要执拗于多点触摸以及类似的复杂输入方法，要多考虑滚动和触摸方式。让人们可以迅速地完成屏幕和信息间的切换和导航。让他们可以快速获得所需的信息，珍惜用户每次的输入操作。

Tasko(from phandroid)

（你只需要简单的触碰和输入文字就可以给Taskos应用添加新任务。当然，你还可以修改许多设置，但这些都只是可选操作。）

3、对比度

你的开发环境或许是有着大型屏幕且光照适当的房间，但用户使用应用的环境可能并非如此。尽管我们不愿意，但是我们确实常需要在阳光强烈的环境下使用手机设备。这种情况会对我们观

看屏幕产生很大的影响，界面设计时应当考虑到这点。在上述不佳条件下，可能会导致细节丢失，颜色分辨不清，某些元素因阳光反射而完全消失。

这并不意味着你只能将界面设计成黑白样式，抛弃UI设计中所有漂亮的细节。这仅仅意味着，重要元素应当有足够的对比度，使之在此类条件下能轻易识别。如果你想要给代码元素上色，那么要添加简单文字标签之类的选项。如果你想用小细节和信息来改善应用外观，这也是可以的，只是要确保你的UI没有这些元素时依然能够运转。

为界面设置清晰的等级，大而明亮地呈现最有价值的功能，将任何不重要的内容完全移除。

soundhound(from phandroid)

（虽然SoundHound的屏幕上有着许多选项，但是主要功能用明亮和加粗的字体清晰地呈现在界面顶部。）

4、不要让用户等待

没有人喜欢等待，在移动领域中尤其如此。我们将设备带上火车，在汽车上快速回复邮件，或者在走出屋子的时候查看天气预报。我们利用时间间隙来做这些小事情，来换取更多时间做真正喜欢做的事。不要让人们等待你的应用做某件事情。提升应用表现，改变UI，让用户所需结果的呈现变得更快。

当然，所有人都能够理解，有些任务需要花一定时间来执行，或者应用需要从网络上下载某些容量较大的数据包。但是不要让用户毫无意义地等待。要让他们感觉到任务正在执行中。为按键添加“选择”或“按动”的状态，加载时间较短时可以添加旋转符号，加载时间较长时可以使用进度条。但是，绝不要让用户面对空无一物的屏幕。

等待总是令人苦恼的。至少要让用户知道他们还需要等待多长时间。

Google Reader--waiting(from phandroid)

（Google Reader应用在设备顶端显示一个小的旋转符号，每当应用在后台加载内容时这个符号就会出现，这样你就会意识到自己或许需要等待一段时间。）

5、不要忘记横向呈现方式

有时，你或许会忘记手机设备不只有单一的纵向呈现。虽然多数人能够适应只支持纵向模式的应用，但确实有某些人喜欢横向使用他们的设备，尤其是那些有着实体键盘的设备。随着Android平板电脑的流行，这类用户的数量可能会逐渐增加。

不要认为横向模式只需简单地加宽应用界面。横向使用设备有着完全不同的用户体验。在这种情况下，你可以用两个拇指与屏幕互动。输入变得更为简单，而且多数情况下你会由左向右阅读，不是由上向下。事实上，如果你的应用需要大量的阅读和文字输入，那么绝对要有良好的横向模式。

对用户来说，横向体验是完全不同的。你可以利用这种更宽的布局，以完全不同的方式呈现信息。比如，之前位于屏幕上方的按键可以移动到屏幕一侧。利用更宽的屏幕，地图、图表和图片可以呈现新的信息。

youtube app(from phandroid)

（先构建和改善一种屏幕方向，然后再制作另一种。注意每种布局的利弊，睿智地加以利用和改良。YouToube应用官方版本为不同的方向模式设计了不同的布局，两者都在各自的纵横比下完美地运转。）

6、应用生态系统

尽管你能够设计出为用户多种不同目标服务的独特应用，但它永远都只是整个动作系列的一个步骤。

想想看你的智能手机所具备的功能：电话记录、联系人、短信息、邮件、浏览器、拍摄照片和视频、GPS和地图等。利用这些功能。对于所有这些已构建的模块，你无需自行制作。用户已经很熟悉这些标准工具，不要在这些内容上浪费精力。

以下是个简单但极为普遍的动作流程：接到邀请你前往某个地点的电话。查看时间。查看天气。用Google Maps搜索该地点。用Foursquare签到。那么，你的应用要同整个流程中的哪个部分绑定呢？

没有用户会单纯为了你的应用而摆弄自己的手机设备。但是如果你成功制作了一款优秀的软件，他们会愿意将其整合到日常的手机使用流程中。让用户能够便捷地使用分享或在网络上搜索有趣信息等功能，使他们交替使用你的应用和其他应用。

share(from phandroid)

（许多应用会直接绑定Android的分享机制。你可以将此作为应用的优势。）

7、让你的应用更为独特

目前，Android Market上有数十万款应用。你或许会时常问自己，如何从如此多的同类应用中突出重围。如果你想要构建的又是一款无聊的黑白数独游戏，或者是基于官方代码范例的记录应用，那就很难获得可观的下载量。

不要认为目前市场上已经没有优秀应用的发展空间。用户偏好的应用类型各不相同。有些人偏爱几乎能够做所有事情的记录应用，有些人需要的只是带有同步功能的文本编辑应用，还有些人只是想要个有着清楚UI的记录应用。

无论你选择的是哪个方向，要构建带有一定特征的应用。操作系统和核心应用已经为用户提供了所有基本功能。制作某些能够用内置解决方案吸引用户使用产品，这样才能够脱颖而出。将你的应用视为住在智能手机中的小机器人。它与你交流，告诉你有趣的事情，帮助你完成日常事务。你希望自己的机器人聪明专业，还是精明可爱，抑或是滑稽搞笑？

在应用构建的开始就要记住这一点。人们喜欢与他们的个性相符的应用。如果你想要构建照片分享应用，可以为其添加各种主题和徽章。如果想要构建的是款定位服务应用，可以考虑将其简化成只具有最基本的功能，让所有内容自动化完成。应用设计愿景的微小改变可能会改变整个应用以及用户的使用方式。

Feedly engadget(from phandroid)

（Feedly也是款整合Google Reader的新闻阅读器，但是它使用类似于杂志的呈现方式和清晰的界面设计，这就是该应用与其他阅读器的不同之处。）

8、遵守平台指导原则

尽管你的目标是制作出独特的应用，但是并非意味着应用的每个部分都要完全与众不同。谷歌就Android应用的设计和开发提供了许多指导性原则。熟悉这些原则。人们能够用来研究现代智能手机的时间比你想象的要少。不要让应用中遍布自定义互动元素，这会让他们的操作更为困难。

学习使用Android设备需要用户适应触摸、输入、摇动甚至不时按动硬件按键等操作。他们需要识别输入区域、选择框、模式对话框和菜单等样式。你真的还想给他们增加更多的负担吗？

使用简单和直观的列表。在应用开启屏幕中，用大图标来呈现主要功能。添加标题作为最常用功能的入口，让用户能够随时返回开启屏幕。如果你无法显著提升某些操作的功能，那么就保持原样。人们会认同应用和整个操作系统的一致性。

认真研究谷歌的界面和决策。熟悉整个原则，并在开发应用时用上这些原则。但是，不可过于死板。如果你能够改良某些元素，而且你确信自己的做法比原则建议的更好，那么就勇敢去做！

catch notes(from phandroid)

（Catch Notes用户的多数动作可利用应用中的大图标功能实现，这款应用遵从了基本原则，因而运转良好。）

9、测试

所有的用户都各不相同，我们必须正视这个问题。你可以在应用中投入尽可能多的精力，但是你不可能令所有人满意。甚至连将应用制作成适合多数人的需求都是件很困难的事情。

不要误解我的说法。你在发布应用前，必须考虑到不同人可能会有不同的使用方式。你需要不同的人来测试应用，由此找出最恼人的问题和漏洞。大公司往往耗资数千美元进行可用性研究，在昂贵的实验室中让数百名不同类型的用户测试应用。

虽然这是个提升应用UI的绝妙方法，但多数独立和小型开发商无法承担如此多的费用。但是，也不要以此为借口而放弃应用测试。你可以开展成本低廉的测试，寻找不同的用户群体，由此来大幅改善你的应用，让其能够满足更多用户的需求。

将应用原型安装到你的开发设备上，花点钱购买些小礼物，开展应用测试。先从同事和好友开始，然后再以你从未见过的陌生人为对象。多数人都愿意花点时间来体验全新的东西，只要你足够礼貌甚至愿意为他们费时测试应用提供奖励。

让他们像你预期那样使用应用，然后细致地观察他们的使用过程。告诉他们目标是什么，但要尽量少提供帮助，但也别让他们卡在某个地方。很快，你就会发现应用的纰漏和瓶颈。

10、发布到市场上

你已经制作完成了自己的首个应用。感觉很棒，不是吗？

不要犯许多开发者犯下的某些错误。诚然，你想要将应用发布到市场上，看看用户会有何评价。但是，最后这几个步骤会让你的首次发布更为成功。

确认完成对应用的测试后，我们还需要考虑些小问题。

你上传到Android Market的应用还应该带有以下4种资产：

（1）应用功能描述

（2）高清应用图标

（3）呈现在Android Market上的小型推广条幅

（4）显示在网页版市场中应用旁边的较大“推荐”图像

不要低估这些资产中的任何一项。精心撰写的介绍和清晰且设计精美的图像会让你的应用显得鹤立鸡群。用户会察觉到你额外投入的这些精力。

如果制作清晰精美的图像或撰写介绍不是你所擅长的事情，可以寻求设计师和撰稿人的帮助。额外付出一些金钱会对应用的成功有所帮助，而且这些只需几个小时便可完成。

如果你想要在应用发布前就开始对其进行推广，可以注册Twitter账户，制作外观精美的登陆页面，开始宣传应用。对于营销而言，多早开始都不为过。培养人们对应用的兴趣，他们会在应用完工前就开始传播。

Android Market(from phandroid)

（Android Market网络版使用高清版本的应用图标和大型功能图像。）

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2011年5月11日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

10 Tips For Android UI Design

Guenther Beyer

These days many developers are jumping on the mobile train for fame and fortune – and they are right in doing so – there isn’t a market growing as quickly. Great, unique ideas are emerging from small teams. Apps are built at work on lunch breaks.

Sooner or later every development cycle gets to the point where the app is almost done. Now what? Heard of the two magic words “User Experience”? Well, you better, because the mobile world has its own set of patterns and rules of which you might not be aware. Here are 10 tips to improve your new mobile application prior to launch, maximizing your potential and minimizing your frustration due to bad reviews and low download counts.

1. First launch experience

Good websites and mobile apps have quite some similarities. Both need to connect to the user or visitor instantly. If they fail, the next best alternative is just a couple of clicks away. Most users will not waste their time trying to figure out how to use your app or read a complicated manual. They will simply move on.

At first launch, everybody will have the same three questions on their mind: Where am I? What can I do here? What can I do further?

Try to answer these questions instantly. If you can convince your user that this is the right app for them in the first couple of seconds, they will surely dive deeper.

(Gowalla has a beautiful first start experience. A passport opens slowly, giving you instant access to your personal information, instant suggestions and further actions and notifications.)

2. Every input is valuable

Think for a moment about how you really use your mobile device: a developer’s phone is safely sitting in its dock on a plain table, connected to a PC with a large keyboard, probably with full backlight turned on. Now think about how everybody else is using their smartphone: walking over a crowded street with a cup of coffee in one hand and his shaking device in the other, trying to figure out how their favorite team played, between the last meeting and the next one.

Most of the time people just have one (big) thumb to navigate through your app. Forget about multitouch and similar complex input methods – scroll, flip and touch are your friends. Let people navigate from screen to screen and information to information quickly, without the need to stretch their arms first. And let them get there quick. Every input counts.

(You can add a new task to Taskos with just one simple touch (and some typing, obviously). Right after that many settings can be configured, but these are all optional.)

3. Contrast

While your development environment might be a big, beautiful screen in a nicely shaded room, the place where your users use your app might not be. We need to use our mobile devices more frequently in bright sunlight than we would like to. This has a big influence on how we view the screen and how the interface should be designed.

Details get lost, colors can’t be distinguished from one another. Some elements completely vanish due to the reflections.

This does not mean that you have to design only in black and white and throw out every beautiful detail of your UI design. It just means that important elements should have enough contrast to be recognized as such under more stressed conditions. If you want to color code elements, add a fallback option like simple text labels. And if you want to improve your app’s appearance with small details and bits of information, that’s fine. Just make sure that your UI even works without those.

Give your interface a clear hierarchy by displaying the most valuable features largely and brightly. Remove anything unimportant completely from your app.

(While there are many options presented on the SoundHound screen, the main function is clearly displayed bright and bold at the top of the interface.)

4. Don’t let them wait

Nobody wants to wait, especially in a mobile world. We carry our devices on the train, answer a quick mail on the bus, or check the weather while walking out of the house. We do all these small things on the go, to gain a little bit of more free time for the things we really like to do. Don’t let people wait for your app to do a certain thing. Improve the performance of your app and tweak the UI to get to relevant results faster.

Certainly everybody will understand that there are tasks that require some heavy performance from your app or some large packages of data that need to be pulled from the web. But never let your users wait for anything to happen. Let them feel that something is working in the background. Add “selected” and “pressed” states to your buttons, add spinners for short loading times and progress bars to longer ones. But never, never, never confront a user with a black screen.

Waiting is always annoying. At least let your users know how long they will have to wait.

(The Google Reader app shows a small spinner in the top, every time some loading happens in the background, so you are always aware that you might have to wait a second or two.)

5. Don’t forget the landscape

Sometimes you just forget that your mobile Android device has more than one basic phone orientation. While most people are comfortable with their apps working only in portrait mode, some really prefer to use their device in landscape mode, especially the ones with physical keyboards. This group of user will probably grow with the widespread adoption of Android tablets.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking of the landscape orientation as a wider view of your lists. Using the device in landscape mode is a totally different user experience. Now you have two thumbs to interact with the screen. Typing is much easier and you mostly tend to read from left to right, not top to bottom. In fact, if your app is heavy on reading and writing you absolutely need to support a good landscape mode.

Landscape orientation can also feature a totally different experience to the users. You can use the wider layout to display information in a completely alternative way. For example buttons could be moved to a side that were previously sitting at the top of the screen. Maps, charts and graphs can display new pieces of information when shown on a wider scale.

(Start to build and improve one screen orientation. Then create the second one. Be aware of the pros and cons of each layout and use them wisely. The official YouTube app uses two different layouts for the two orientations, that both work perfectly at their respective ratios.)

6. App Ecosystem

While you can design the most unique and special app that might serve a lot of different purposes, it will always be just one step in a chain of actions.

Think about what your smartphone can do out of the box: phone calls, contacts, texting, mails, browser, taking photos and videos, GPS and maps – the list goes on. Use this as an advantage. You don’t have to create all these building blocks on your own. Users are familiar with the standard toolset – don’t try to reinvent the wheel.

At the same time this will also spare you a lot of coding work.

Here’s a very short but very common chain of action: Get a call that invites you to a certain location. Check the time. Check the weather. Head out, searching the place with Google Maps. Check in with Foursquare. So where does your app tie in the workflow here?

No user will ever use his mobile device just for your application alone. But if you manage to create a great piece of software, they will incorporate it into their mobile workflow on a daily basis. Give them easy access to further features like sharing or looking up interesting information on the web, and let them jump fluidly between your app and others.

(Many apps can hook directly into the Android’s sharing mechanism. Use this to your advantage.)

7. Make your app unique

There are more than 200,000 apps on the Android Market. You might ask yourself how to stand out between all the quite similar offerings. If you set out to build the next boring Sudoku game in black and white or the next note-taking-app based on the official code example, you will have a hard time getting some decent download numbers.

Don’t assume that there’s no room for another great app that is already covered in one way or another. People always prefer different things. There is no Jack of all trades. Some prefer a note-taking-app that can do almost everything. Some need just a simple text editor with syncing capabilities. And there are others that just want a clean UI.

Either way you go, build an app with character. All basic features are already covered by the OS and the core apps. Stand out by creating something that users will prefer to use over the built-in solutions. Think of your app as a small robot living inside your smartphone. It communicates with you, tells you interesting things and helps you with your daily tasks. Do you want your robot to be smart and professional, or cute and lovely, maybe even cheeky and funny?

Keep that in mind when building a great app from the ground up. People with character enjoy apps that fit their personality. Want to build a photosharing app? Add a paparazzi like theme to it, with badges to earn. Another location service? Strip it down to the most basic features and automate everything. Take a problem with an already well known solution. Now think about, how a slight change of perspective could change the whole application and how users work with it.

And don’t let me get started with good UI design …

(Feedly is just another news reader with Google Reader integration, but it uses a magazine like presentation and very clean design to distinguish itself from other readers.)

8. Stick to the guidelines (as long as possible)

While you want to create an unique app, that stands out, you don’t want every piece of your app to be totally special. Google suggests a lot of guidelines for Android app design and development. Get familiar with the guidelines. People have a much harder time to dive into the complexity of a modern smartphone than you think. Don’t make it even harder for them by implementing custom interaction elements all over.

Learning to work with an Android device need a user to get comfortable with touching, typing, swiping, shaking and even pressing hardware buttons from time to time.

They need to recognise patterns like input fields, select boxes, modal dialogs and long presses for contextual menus. Do you really want to throw more at them?

Go with simple, straight forward lists. Start your app with a dashboard consisting of big icons for the main functions. Add a header that provides access to the most common feature and let users go back to the start when they get lost. If you can’t improve these metaphors dramatically, don’t change them. People will value consistency within your app and the whole operating system.

Study Google’s interfaces and decisions carefully. Get familiar with the whole experience, and try to create your app with Android’s guidelines in mind. But don’t take this literally – If you can improve certain elements, and you are absolutely sure about that – then for God’s sake, do it!

(Frequent actions in the title bar, big simple, icons on the body. Catch Notes works great by sticking to the basics.)

9. Guerrilla testing

Let’s face it – all users are different. You can try as hard as you want to, you’ll never satisfy everybody. Even trying to get your app right for the majority of people is very hard.

Don’t get me wrong here. This is no excuse to ship your app without considering the different approaches of how people will use the app. You need different people to test-run your app and iron out at least the most annoying problems and bugs. Big companies spend thousands of dollars on usability experts, that test hundreds of different users in very expensive labs to get their software right.

While this is a great way to improve any app’s UI, it is hardly affordable for most independent and small developers. Don’t let this be an excuse, either. You can do some very cheap and swift guerrilla testing, to massively improve your app and make it more accessible to a larger userbase.

Grab your developer device with the app’s prototype, spend some money on small gifts like buttons or stickers, and head out. Start with colleagues and friends, and progress to strangers you never saw before. Most people will gladly spend a little time with something brand new, as long as you are polite and even provide a small reward for their time.

Let them use your app like you intended to, and watch carefully. Tell them what their goal is, but provide as little help as possible. But don’t let them get stuck either. You’ll figure out your apps pitfalls and bottlenecks in no time.

10. Publishing to the Market

Well, you did it. You’ve built your first app. Congratulations. It feels great, doesn’t it?

Now don’t make the mistakes many do. Sure, you want to get the app out to the masses and hear what they are saying about it. But taking a couple of last steps will give you a much better first launch.

You’re sure you did some proper testing? Different devices, hdpi, mdpi and ldpi? Alright. Let’s take care of the small things.

Google wants you to upload your app to the Market with 4 additional assets:

A description of your application’s features

The app’s icon in high resolution

A small promotional banner that will be displayed on the Android Market

And another larger “features” graphic that will go alongside your app on the web-version of the market.

Don’t make the mistake and underestimate one of these additional assets. A well written introduction to your great app coupled with some clean and well designed graphics can make the difference to all your other 500 contenders on the Market. Users will notice the extra mile you took, transcending over to the level of detail and care you put into your application.

If creating some nice and clean graphics or writing some lines of good copy isn’t really your cup of tea, ask a designer and/or writer. The extra money should be well worth your apps success, and it should take only a couple of hours.

If you even want to take your promotion a little further prior to launch, get a fitting Twitter account, create a beautiful landing page and start the buzz. You can’t start marketing too early. Let people get excited. They will spread the word for you long before your app is finally available.

(The Android Market online uses the high-resolution version of your app’s icon and the large feature graphic.) (Source: Phandroid)

棋盘游戏和卡牌游戏所存在的根本功能差异是什么？我不清楚此问题在游戏玩家看来重要性如何，但这在游戏设计师眼中显然颇为重要（游戏邦注：即便是电子游戏设计师）。显而易见的实体格式非常重要，但如今我们已能够将非电子游戏转变成电子格式，因此二者的界限就变得不那么明显。更重要的是，各类型游戏都着眼于不同的挑战和玩法内容，姑且不论它们采用什么实体格式。

此外，我们还可以参考某款采用特定格式的游戏，然后通过另一格式设计出内容相似的作品。我以此设计出一款地牢探索游戏，我甚至还运用卡牌制作出《Britannia》的原型版本。我相信这种情况时常出现在欧式风格的游戏中。例如，《San Juan》是款以《Puerto Rico》为基础的卡牌游戏，《Race for the Galaxy》亦是采用相同模式。但我们会发现，欧式棋盘游戏并未有按照传统方式将棋盘用于调遣或定位目的，相反它们通过棋盘追踪其他信息。那么什么是传统方式？

两类游戏的最大差别在于，卡牌游戏是基于隐藏信息的游戏，而棋盘游戏则是涉及调遣及位置元素的游戏（我这里的位置是指棋子的实际位置，“位置”意味着调遣或配置）。

Britannia from armchairgeneral.com

卡牌游戏

卡牌本身就很容易隐藏信息。信息通常不为玩家所知，但在卡牌游戏中，玩家通常会持有某些其他玩家所不知晓的信息：玩家手中的牌、纸牌的用途及作用。玩过许多卡牌游戏的玩家会反复遇到这种情况。

这里也有例外情况。传统卡牌游戏《Bridge》就截然不同，因为竞价后，玩家的纸牌就会完全显现出来。这让玩家的伙伴得以获悉对手们所持有的纸牌，虽然他无法因此获悉各个对手的具体牌况。同样在《德州扑克》中，游戏会向所有玩家公开多数纸牌信息，每位只会隐藏两张纸牌。但在《五张抽牌》中，游戏就隐藏所有纸牌信息，有时这甚至会持续到游戏结束。

诸如《Bang!》、《Atlantic Storm》、《Brawling Battleships》和《失落的城市》之类的卡牌游戏就融入众多的纸牌，但有些位于桌面上，所以它们会影响游戏中的所有玩家。

棋盘游戏

传统棋盘游戏包括定位和调遣模式的非洲棋、国际象棋、九子琪、巴棋戏、西洋双陆棋戏及围棋和中国/日本象棋。这些游戏有些只涉及棋子的移动，例如围棋。而在有些游戏中，棋子的初始位置已预先设定，游戏完全围绕棋子的调遣，如国际象棋或西洋棋。很少游戏既涉及配置，又涉及调遣元素。

注意这些传统游戏的鲜少运用骰子。骰子会带来不确定性，属于隐藏信息（游戏邦注：但这里的隐藏信息和卡牌游戏的不同）。植入骰子机制是在游戏未融入纸牌元素的情况下呈现不确定性的典型方式。14世纪末手工卡牌首次在欧洲出现。标准盒装纸牌的制作技术直到发明印刷术后才出现，所以真正的传统游戏都没有采用纸牌元素。

卡牌游戏之所以比棋盘游戏更受欢迎，是出于如下几点原因。第一，它们相对比较便宜；第二，它们的体验时间更短；第三，它们比棋盘游戏更丰富多彩，因为每张纸牌都呈现丰富的图像。更重要的是，隐藏信息通过引入不确定性因素令熟练玩家无法主宰游戏体验，同时让表现平平的玩家能够在小部分情况下胜出。换而言之，相比全信息游戏，休闲玩家在隐藏信息的游戏中更有机会获胜，多数传统棋盘游戏都属于全信息型游戏。

融合二者的游戏

我们完全可能基于纸牌制作出相当于棋盘游戏的内容，但游戏融入的是棋盘游戏而非卡牌游戏的功能元素。我将此方式运用至两个游戏原型的制作中，我的目标是制作只以纸牌作为组成要素的游戏，但我希望融入调遣和位置元素。如今许多基于纸牌方格制作桌面棋盘的游戏都曾出于相同的目的融入纸牌元素。虽然我们会将有些视作棋盘游戏，例如《卡坦岛拓荒者》和《Betrayal at House on the Hill》，但它们其实也能够基于纸牌制作内容，例如在后款游戏中，方格隐藏信息的方式和纸牌被抽取前隐藏信息的相同。《Tikal》和《Carcassonne》也采用类似方式。拓荒者将棋盘用于配置目的，Betrayal将棋盘运用至调遣，而Carcassonne则将“棋盘”用作配置单元，而不是将棋子放置于棋盘上。

在棋盘游戏中，位置和调遣元素通常主导玩法。国际象棋、西洋棋、西洋双陆棋戏，甚至是巴棋戏都属于调遣型的游戏。Hex and Counter（六角格）机制的战棋游戏是典型的调遣游戏，虽然我们也融入战斗和掷骰子机制中的机会元素。而《Monopoly》则不属于调遣游戏，因为玩家无法控制自己的前进方向，但游戏有涉及位置元素。在《一字棋》中，玩家在将棋子放置于棋盘后就无需进行移动，但棋子的放置位置非常重要。

赛车游戏通常涉及调遣和位置元素，但速度竞赛内容则就没有。

当然你可以在棋盘游戏中引入隐藏信息元素。这并不是什么新策略。早在1个多世纪前，人类就设计出国际象棋的变体内容——军棋游戏，其中每位玩家只会看到自己的棋子，当对手消灭玩家的棋子或将玩家的军时，裁判会告知玩家。虽然“方块游戏”这一词会让人联想到Columbia Games发行的桌面战旗游戏，但其中涉及的玩法策略（至少可以追溯到《L’Attaque》）直到1909年才申请专利，这其实更多体现在复制作品《脑力挑战赛》中。Columbia games在游戏中融入骰子及更复杂的棋盘，但最重要的是隐藏若干通常会在棋盘游戏中公开呈现的信息。

和典型棋盘游戏相反，许多欧式游戏所引入的是，不是基于调遣或定位目的的棋盘。棋盘用于追踪其他类型的信息。用于追踪大量虚拟商品的玩家版图都是小棋盘。但即便是在包含更大棋盘的游戏中，棋盘也并不是用于代表定位或调遣机会。《国王堡》就是个典型例子。

此外，真正的战争游戏是隐藏信息和调遣元素的结合体。鉴于调遣元素在战争游戏中占据重要位置，棋盘战棋游戏比卡牌游戏更受欢迎就不足为奇。

二者之外的游戏类型

Puerto Rico from blog.metagames.co.uk

有许多游戏既不是隐藏信息类型的游戏，也不是定位或调遣游戏。融入众多零件、纸牌和棋盘元素的欧式游戏有些属于资源管理游戏（游戏邦注：例如《Puerto Rico》）。这些游戏既未融入调遣元素，也没有涉及众多隐藏信息，虽然其中存在不确定性。资源管理取决于隐藏信息和不确定因素。不确定性源自很多地方，但主要来自于玩家、隐藏信息、掷骰子或其他随机元素。

拍卖游戏也不属于这两种类型，虽然相对定位和调遣元素，它们更多着眼于隐藏信息。可以这么说，资源管理归根结底就是进行配套收集，拍卖游戏也是如此。

除此之外，我们还有演绎型游戏（这主要涉及隐藏信息，虽然《妙探寻凶》也有融入定位和调遣元素）。假若我们能够将所有游戏都具体分成“隐藏信息”、“资源管理”、“定位和调遣”及“拍卖”类型，那就再好不过。但我觉得这不切实际，至少目前我就能够列举出许多上述类型的特殊例子。

可收集卡牌游戏主要围绕隐藏信息，虽然有些和传统纸牌游戏一样涉及定位元素。

桌面RPG游戏广泛融入调遣及隐藏信息元素。相比棋盘或是纸牌游戏，它们更接近电子游戏的模式。

棋盘和卡牌游戏中的竞争元素

桌面游戏行业倾向制作能够减少玩家直接冲突的“欧式”游戏。它们通常更像是转变成速度竞赛的谜题，“多人纸牌游戏”是我们对许多桌面游戏的一般描述。但桌面战棋游戏更注重竞争和对抗。

Mark Johnson在最近的“Mark Johnson”（游戏学）播客中表示，卡牌游戏融入的竞争性元素比棋盘游戏少。是否真的这样，为什么呢？我觉得确实如此。因为棋盘游戏通常涉及调遣和定位元素，它们会比纸牌游戏融入更直接的互动模式，而纸牌游戏玩家则可以在不给其他玩家带来任何影响的情况下出牌。传统棋盘游戏通常采用消灭对手的模式，而不是将自己变得更强大，玩家在游戏开始时通常会持有一定数量的棋子，然后随着游戏的发展，这些棋子会逐步减少。围棋则和其他传统棋盘游戏不太相同。传统卡牌游戏通常涉及强化设置或及技巧。这类游戏的玩家通常只围绕一定数量的纸牌开始游戏，然后逐步强化自己的地位。

在多人棋盘游戏中，调遣和定位机制通常意味着你无法攻击/阻止所有对手，因为有些处在很远的位置。在多人卡牌游戏中，你的左右两侧都有玩家，游戏规则只允许你攻击这些玩家，或“任何玩家”。

电子游戏

那么相比卡牌和棋盘游戏，电子游戏的特点究竟是什么？首先，要制作一款向玩家隐藏多数信息的电脑游戏非常简单，这是卡牌游戏的特点所在。当你给电子游戏设定程序时，你需要向玩家呈现信息，否则他们就会一无所知。

这些信息会呈现在类似于棋盘的平面中，虽然此棋盘可能会比实际的棋盘复杂很多。《吃豆人》是调遣类型游戏的典范，《太空入侵者》也是其中之一。《文明》也融入棋盘元素，《文明IV》植入方格网，而《文明V》则是融入六边形网格。

许多“策略”电子游戏都属于调遣类型的游戏，例如《星际争霸》和《文明》。这类游戏的隐藏信息元素也非常突出。但其中也涉及众多制作和技术层面的元素，因此这些游戏更多属于资源管理类型，而不是调遣或隐藏信息类型。若将其缩小成简单版社交网络游戏，《文明》就完全是款资源管理类型的游戏。

电子平台游戏属于调遣型游戏。而传统的文本探险游戏则属于隐藏信息类型。这两类游戏的代表还有很多，尤其是传统探险游戏，但上述两类是最典型的代表。

抽象游戏《俄罗斯方块》更多属于调遣类型，而不是隐藏信息。《宝石迷阵》属于定位和调遣类型，因为玩家需要移动珠宝，从而让成串的珠宝一同消失。射击游戏既属于定位和调遣类型，也属于隐藏信息。

和射击或即时/回合策略游戏一样，电子游戏非常擅于将棋盘和卡牌游戏的元素结合起来。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Fundamental Differences between Board and Card Games and How Video Games Tend to Combine Both Functions

by Lewis Pulsipher

What are the fundamental functional differences between boardgames and card games?  I’m not sure how important this question is from a game player’s point of view but it’s certainly important for game designers (even for video game designers).  The obvious physical format is important, but now that we can convert physical non-electronic games to electronic formats the lines are less clear.  More importantly, each type of game emphasizes or encourages different kinds of challenges and gameplay, regardless of the physical format.

It’s also possible to take a game that originated in one format and make something like it in the other format.  I have done this with a dungeon delving game and even made a prototype version of Britannia using cards.  I believe this happens a fair bit in the Eurostyle games.  For example, San Juan is a card game based on Puerto Rico, and so is Race for the Galaxy.  But as we’ll see many Eurostyle boardgames do not use a board in the traditional way, for maneuver and location, instead they use the board to keep track of other information.  So what is the traditional way?

The most important difference between the two kinds of games is that card games are inherently games of hidden information and boardgames are inherently games of maneuver and location. (When I say location I mean the location of actual pieces, not a representation of some virtual commodity such as the amount of money you have or the amount of victory points.  “Location” implies maneuver or placement.)

Card Games

By their nature cards make it easy to hide information.  The information is often hidden from all the players, but commonly in card games one player has some information that none of the other players can access: the cards in his hand and what they can be used for and what they can do.  Anyone who has played many card games has encountered this usage again and again.

There are exceptions.  The traditional card game Bridge is unusual insofar as, after bidding, one player’s cards are revealed (the dummy).  And this tells the Dummy’s partner what cards his opponents have, though not which individual opponent has which cards.  Texas Hold ‘em is another card game where some of the information is revealed to everyone and only two cards per player are hidden from the other players.  But Five Card Draw poker hides all the cards, sometimes even after the game ends.

Hobby card games such as Bang!, Atlantic Storm, Brawling Battleships, and Lost Cities have hands of cards but some cards are placed on the table so that they can affect everyone in the game.

Boardgames

Most really old traditional board games are games location and maneuver-mancala, chess, checkers, Nine Men’s Morris, Parcheesi, backgammon, Go, and Japanese/Chinese forms of chess.  In some of these games there is only placement (and removal) of pieces, for example in Go.  In others the initial placement is predetermined and the game is all about maneuver, as in chess or checkers.  There are few games that include both placement and maneuver.

Notice that few of these old games use dice.  Dice provide uncertainty within a range of possibilities, a kind of hidden information but not the same kind as we get with cards.  Dice were the typical way to provide uncertainty before games could include cards.  Handmade playing cards first entered Europe in the late 14th century. The technology to make uniform decks of cards did not exist until the invention of printing, so the really old traditional games do not use cards.

Card games are probably more popular than boardgames for a variety of reasons.  First they’re less expensive, second they tend to take less time to play, third they can be more colorful than boardgames because of the artwork on each card. Most important perhaps, the hidden information tends to make it harder for a planner-style player to dominate play, introducing elements of uncertainty and chance that make it possible for a less calculating player, or perhaps I should say one who is less a classical/planner player, to win a minority of the time.  Another way to put this is that casual players have a better chance of winning in hidden information games than in games of perfect information, most traditional boardgames being perfect information games.

Hybrids

It is possible to use cards to create the equivalent of a board, but then we have something that is functionally a boardgame not a card game.  I have done this in two prototypes were my objective was to make a game with only cards as components (to simplify production), yet I wanted to have maneuver and location.  Many games that now use cardboard tiles to create a board on the table would once have used cards for the same purpose.  While we might think of these as boardgames, such as Settlers of Catan and Betrayal at House on the Hill, they could have been produced with cards, and in the latter game the tiles are used to hide information in the same way that cards hide information before they are drawn from a deck.  Tikal and Carcassonne do the same kind of thing.  Settlers uses the board for placement, Betrayal uses it for maneuver, Carcassonne uses the “board” as the unit of placement rather than placing pieces on a board.

In a boardgame location and maneuver tend to dominate play.  Chess, checkers, backgammon, even Parcheesi, are games of maneuver.  Hex and counter wargames are typically games of maneuver, though we also have combat and chance elements in dice rolling.  Monopoly is not a game of maneuver because you have no control over where you go, but there is the element of location.  In Tic-Tac-Toe (Noughts and Crosses) you don’t actually move pieces once you put them on the board but where you put them is vitally important.

Race games (getting to a finish line before anyone else) are generally about maneuver and location, whereas speed contests (something is timed individually and best time wins) are not.

You can introduce an element of hidden information into boardgames, of course.  This is not new. More than a century ago we had a variation of chess called Kriegspiel where each player could only see his own pieces and a referee told a player when an opposing piece took his piece or checked his King.  While the phrase “block games” tends to put one in mind of the wargames published by Columbia Games, the technique goes back at least to the game L’Attaque patented in 1909, more familiar in the copycat game Stratego.  The Columbia games add dice and more complex boards to the equation but the key element is hiding some of the information that normally is exposed everyone in a boardgame.
Flat (cardboard/chipboard) pieces that are placed face down introduce another element of hidden information.

In contrast to typical boardgames, many Eurostyle games include boards that are not used for maneuver or even for location.  The board is used to help keep track of other kinds of information.  Player layouts for tracking amounts of virtual commodities are small boards.  But even in games with larger boards, the board may not represent location or present opportunities for maneuver.  Kingsburg is an example.

Actual warfare is a combination of hidden information and maneuver, among other things.  Given the prominence of maneuver in warfare, it’s not surprising that board wargames are much more common than card wargames.

Games that are neither type

There are many games that are not primarily either hidden information games or location and maneuver games. Some Euro games that have lots of parts and cards and boards are primarily games of resource management– Puerto Rico for example.  There is neither maneuver nor much hidden information, though there is uncertainty.  Resource management depends on hidden information and uncertainty.  Uncertainty can come from many places, but mainly comes from the players, hidden information, or dice or other random elements (which cards can also provide).

Auction games aren’t really either type, though they lean toward hidden information more than location and maneuver.  You can argue that resource management comes down to set collection, just as auction games do.

Further afield we have games of deduction (which is largely about hidden information, though Clue/Cluedo includes location and maneuver as well).  It might be nice if we could pigeonhole all games into a very few slots like “hidden information”, “resource management”, “location and maneuver”, and “auctions”.  But I don’t think this is practical, at any rate I see too many exceptions to almost any set of categories at this point.

Collectible card games are largely about hidden information, though some have an element of location (cards face up on the table) just as some traditional card games do.

Tabletop RPGs involve both maneuver and hidden information in abundance.  They are closer to video games than to either board or cardgames.

Competition in board and card games

It’s fashionable in the hobby tabletop game industry to produce “Eurostyle” games that reduce direct conflict between players to a minimum.  They are often more like puzzles that have been turned into speed contests, not games, and “multi-player solitaire” is a common description of many tabletop games.  Wargames, on the other hand, emphasize competition and confrontation, of course.

Mark Johnson suggested in a recent “Ludology” podcast that card games are less competitive than boardgames.  Is that so, and why?  I think it is.  Because boardgames are naturally about maneuver and location, they tend to involve more direct interaction than cards, where you can play cards onto the table and do very little to affect other players.  Traditional boardgames tend to involve tearing down the opposition, not building up, you start with some pieces and lose them as the game goes along.  (Even in Go, where you add pieces to the board, you’re taking your opponent’s pieces as well.  Go is not much like other traditional boardgames, in any case.)  Traditional card games usually involve building up sets or tricks.  You start with nothing but a hand of cards and gradually build up your position.

In more-than-two-sided boardgames the system of maneuver and location often means that you are not able to attack/hinder all the opponents, because some are too far away.  In more-than-two-sided card games you do have a player on your right and on your left, and the rules may allow you to attack only those players, or “anyone”.

Video Games

We can ask what the nature of video games is in comparison to card and boardgames.  First, it’s relatively easy to make a computer game where most of the information is hidden from the player or players, a card game characteristic.  When you program a video game you have to deliberately decide to show information to the player, or he’ll know nothing.

That information can be shown on the equivalent of a board, though the board can be rather more complex than a physical board.  Pac-Man is a quintessential game of maneuver, as is Space Invaders.  Civilization uses a board, a square grid through Civilization IV and a hex grid in Civilization V (version V generally exhibits a greater influence from board wargames).

Many “strategy” video games appear to be games of maneuver, for example Starcraft and Civilization. Hidden information is also quite dominant.  But there are so many layers of production and technology involved that these games are more about resource management than either maneuver or hidden information.  When cut down to a simple version as a social network game, Civilization becomes almost entirely a resource management game.

A video platformer is a game of maneuver.  An old-style text adventure game is a game of hidden information.  Yes there is more to both, especially to the old-style adventures, but these are the major delineations.

The abstract game Tetris is a game of maneuver much more than a game of hidden information.  Bejeweled is a game of location and maneuver insofar as you move gems in order to cause groups of gems to disappear.  Shooters are games of location and maneuver as well as games of hidden information.
What video games are particularly good at is combining the two major elements of board and card games together as in shooters and real-time or turn-based strategy games.（Source：gamasutra）

DeNA、GREE以及400多家日本第三方社交游戏开发商之所以能够实现巨大收益的一大因素便是“gacha”，这也是我们可以在几乎任何一款日本社交游戏中找到的独特元素。

我们将通过下文解释“gacha”的含义：

1）背景

维基百科对现实世界中的“gacha”的解释是（概括）：

扭蛋（gashapon），也称转蛋（gachapon），它是Bandai注册商标（广泛覆盖其胶囊玩具产品）。Gashapon和gachapon都是日文发音，由两个音节构成，分别是“gasha”或“gacha”意指转动玩具贩售机的的曲柄，而“pon”则是胶囊玩具落入贩售机时所发出的声音。

这两个单词也都能够代表贩售机和机器中的玩具。

扭蛋机就像是杂货店或者其它国家零售商店外的投币式玩具自动贩售机。

2）社交游戏中的“gacha”机制

日本社交游戏公司在不久前开始将这种现实生活中的玩具自动贩售机融入社交游戏机制。而今天，虚拟“gacha”机制已经成为Mobage，GREE以及Mixi旗下游戏的重要组成部分。

以Konami的《Dragon Collection》为例。这款游戏将“gacha”实体化，而在此贩售的虚拟道具则是一些卡片（游戏邦注：因为《Dragon Collection》是一款卡牌战斗类社交游戏），如下图：

gacha machines(from serkantoto)

发现“gacha”这一理念的大受欢迎后，很多游戏公司开始在现有的游戏中整合“gacha”机制。

当Popcap游戏《宝石迷阵闪电战》针对日本市场进行本土化处理时，他们也采用了这一机制。

3）定价和评论

不同类型的玩具价格也不同：有些扭蛋转动一次要价100日元，也有些要价300日元。而最贵的“gacha”可能是一些非常稀有的卡片，并且也需要参合一定的运气元素。

很多开发者每天在游戏中提供一次免费的“gacha”机会，一方面想以此吸引玩家，另一方面也希望能够提高用户留存率/登录游戏的用户数量。除此之外，开发者也会推出一些优惠活动（如特别促销活动）或提供限量版道具（如只在圣诞节或万圣节进行销售）。

事实证明“gacha”具有显著的功效，有些游戏开发者甚至表示，他们至少有50%的收益来自这种机器。因为用户总是会忍不住为玩下一轮游戏而花钱（支付虚拟货币或代币）。

有些游戏设计有意让玩家只能通过“gacha”获得一些特定的道具。这便是这种机制在日本招致非议的一大原因，有些人认为这种行为与赌博无异。有一些持批评意见的记者要求规范日本社交游戏产业，对“gacha”进行有效整治。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Gacha: Explaining Japan’s Top Money-Making Social Game Mechanism [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

One of the main reasons DeNA, GREE and (some of) the 400+ third-party social game makers in Japan are raking in as much money as they do is “gacha”, a special element found in almost every social game in this country.

I created a quick guide to explain the gacha phenomenon:

I) BACKGROUND

Wikipedia explains gacha in the real world like this (shortened):

Gashapon is a Bandai brand trademark widely used throughout the world for their capsule toys. It is also referred to as gachapon. Both gashapon and gachapon are Japanese onomatopoeia, made up of two sounds: “gasha” or “gacha” for the turning of a crank on a toy vending machine, and “pon” for the sound of the toy capsule dropping into the receptacle.

It is used to describe both the machines themselves, and any toy obtained from them.

Gashapon machines are similar to the coin-operated toy vending machines seen outside of grocery stores and other retailers in other countries.

II) GACHA MECHANISM IN SOCIAL GAMES

A while ago, Japanese social game providers started turning those little toy vending machines found in real life into a social game mechanic – today, virtual gacha are an integral part of nearly every title on Mobage, GREE, and Mixi.

Take Konami’s Dragon Collection, for example. In this game, the gacha machine is visualized as a statue, and the virtual item to be obtained is a card (Dragon Collection is a social card battle game):

Some companies started implementing virtual gacha machines into existing games, after realizing how popular the concept is.

When Popcap localized Bejeweled Blitz for the Japanese marketed, they implemented gacha, too: in a puzzle game of all genres.

III) Pricing and criticism

Pricing varies depending on the title: some games charge 100 Yen per turn, others 300 yen. The more expensive gacha contain particularly rare cards, but the element of luck is always there.

A lot of makers offer playing gacha once per day for free in order to a) get users “addicted” and b) to boost retention/the number of log-ins. Makers also offer discounts (for example during a special sales campaign), or limited-edition items (for example during seasonal events like Christmas or Halloween).

And gacha work well – extremely well: from some makers, I am hearing that up to 50% of their overall sales come from these machines. People just can’t stop paying money (in the form of paid virtual coins or tokens) to be able to go for another round.

Games can be designed in a way that players can receive certain rare items only through playing gacha. This is one of the reasons why the mechanic is subject to some (still relatively mild) criticism in Japan, where it is likened with gambling by some voices.

There are critical journalists, for example, demanding the social gaming industry in Japan as a whole to be regulated – gacha are often cited as one of the main arguments.

IV) Video

Here is a video I took that shows the gacha mechanism in action (direct link to video)(source:serkantoto)

这篇文章主要关注的是RPG游戏中的PvE战斗模式，但也可以运用于PvP战斗或其他类型的游戏中。

角色扮演游戏中有着大量的内容，每项内容都有着多个决定它们在战斗中所发挥作用的参数，比如剑的伤害、使用技能造成的额外伤害和23级强盗的总生命值等。

当你观测某个游戏区域或固定角色等级时，调整内容并不会太困难。你可以测试该区域并修改数值，直到游戏状态感觉良好为止。但是，假如大型游戏世界中有上百个关卡内容和多个职业，那么调整这种游戏的数值就要复杂得多。

如何在不进行游戏测试以及调整每个关卡中每种角色的前提下设置RPG内容数值呢？

character stats(from osodavid.blogspot.com)

有种计算方法可以帮助你迅速生成如此多内容的首批恰当数值。这种方法计算的是每项内容对角色战斗效能的影响，以通用单位来呈现影响力。

这使你能够以相同的标准来比较各种不同类型的内容，让你实现下述目标：

1、比较不同职业，并做出相应调整。

2、识别可能导致不平衡的道具或能力。

3、确定哪种类型的敌人将成为玩家角色的挑战。

4、得出技能或道具的参数值，让它体现出应有的强大之处。

最后一点特别重要，不是猜测，而是计算得出（游戏邦注：随后进行应有的修改）。

《暗黑破坏神3》角色升级(from gamasutra)

（在暴雪作品《暗黑破坏神》之类的游戏中，随着角色的升级，有许多因素会导致角色能力的提升。）

这不是个严谨的过程，需要进行大量的近似估算，而且对某些类型的内容并不适用。但是，对于其能够发挥作用的方面，你可以用它迅速生成参数值，而且准确率接近80%。

方法

步骤如下：

1、执行核心游戏玩法。如果游戏与你的愿景不符，那么也就没必要制作其他内容，因为修改核心游戏玩法会导致内容返工。要先制作出核心玩法符合愿景的游戏。

2、设计确定X等级角色的“基础能力”属性。“基础能力”由随角色升级而稳步提升的属性来决定，不受任何玩家选择的影响，包括生命值、基础攻击力、预期护甲或THAC0（零级命中值）。

3、识别其他随角色升级而加强其战斗效能的游戏内容。这样的系统有道具修改器、技能、《魔兽世界》的技能雕文和《英雄联盟》的符文。这些东西结合起来，形成了角色的“总能力”。

4、对于每项内容，以角色基础能力百分比来表达其数值。比如，2%的攻击加成就使角色的能力增加2%。“基础能力加成百分比”便是你将用来比较不同种类内容的通用单位。

5、要确定自己所期望的每种内容随角色升级对角色总能力产生的影响或效果。比如，每个技能点使角色的基础能力提升5%，那么在花费20个技能点后角色的能力就将是原来的两倍。

6、以每项内容的预期效能为基础，计算其参数。如果你知道某项内容对基础能力的加成，而且知道如何通过参数来计算其能力，那么你也可以反向计算出其参数。

基础能力

确定基础能力是件难事，因为每款游戏情况各不相同。我所见过的最好的确定方法是，随着角色等级的提升，所有角色属性自动增加，无需玩家做出选择。

《龙与地下城》中的角色生命值和THAC0便属此例。《魔兽世界》中的角色在升级时获得的属性提升是固定的，技能效能同样稳步提升。

预期秒伤和护甲也属于基础能力。虽然这些不会自动增加（游戏邦注：玩家必须找到新装备才能使其增加），但在设计游戏内容时，需要考虑到玩家装备的更新。

《魔兽世界》等游戏在设计内容时假设玩家正在使用的是适合该等级且带有基础属性的道具，因而无法更改的道具属性也成为基础能力的一部分。

能力加成器

能力加成器是能够更改角色战斗中基础能力的内容。随着角色等级的提升，它们对角色整体能力的重要性逐渐增加。以下这些均属能力加成器：

1、技能点或天赋点。每点使角色能力增加1%。

2、诸多RPG中的道具加成器。等级越高，它们的数量和重要性提升。

3、《最终幻想7》中的Materia。随着玩家在游戏中的进展，玩家会获得更多强大的Materia，一次性能够使用的数量更多。

《最终幻想》中的Materia(from gamasutra)

（随着玩家获得更多slots和Materia，Materia对《最终幻想7》中角色能力的影响逐渐增加。）

通常情况下，玩家会选择他们想要用来定制角色的能力加成器，而且不同职业使用的能力加成器也有所不同。做好职业间平衡的关键就在于，确保他们可用的能力加成器拥有平等的效能。

将能力加成器数值表示为基础能力的百分比

将能力加成器的数值以角色基础能力百分比的形式来表示。“基础能力加成百分比”是用来比较不同类型加成的通用单位。

因为所有的能力加成器都以基础能力为基准，所以我将各等级的基础能力设为1，也就是100%。未经加成的等级1角色的基础能力为1.0，等级54的角色的基础能力也是如此。如果某个能力加成器使角色的效能提升5%，那么其值就为0.05。

要将加成转化为效能，就要计算此加成器对角色在战斗死亡前所提升的伤害。假如某个加成器让角色的持续战斗时间延长1倍，那么也就相当于角色的效能变为原来的两倍，那么加成值就为1.0（游戏邦注：加成比例为100%）。

各能力加成器往往在特定的等级才可用，而且会设计为适合该等级角色使用。比如，在《暗黑破坏神2》的道具设计中，以角色当前等级的基础属性为参照来决定道具加成的百分比值。举几个例子：

百分比伤害加成

假设某个技能能够使角色的群伤提升1%。这个技能是针对群伤角色而设计的，假设他们总是能够从这项技能中获益，那么其值就为0.01。

条件伤害加成

一把剑有5%的机率使攻击伤害提升30点。那么，平均每次攻击伤害提升为1.5。如果每次攻击的基础伤害为100，那么其值就为0.015。

百分比生命加成

10%的生命值加成会使角色的存活时间提升10%，从而时他在战斗中造成的伤害总量增加10%，所以其值为0.1。

护甲加成

假设某护甲加成能够使角色的抵抗性从承受75%的攻击伤害提升到仅需承受72%的攻击伤害。也就是说，他承受的攻击伤害是之前的96%，存活时间是原本的1.04倍。因而，加成值为0.04。

总能力

角色获得的每项能力加成器都会提升其在战斗中的效能。他的总能力等于基础能力和所有加成器的总和：

总能力=基础能力+所有能力加成器

能力与角色等级存在一定联系，所以更精确的公式应当是：

等级X的总能力=等级X的基础能力+等级X的所有能力加成器

记住，所有等级的基础能力都被定为1.0。因而，所计算出的角色在等级X时的总能力的数值是与未加成前基础能力的比值。

总能力的进展

在调整怪物等玩家敌对势力的内容属性时，设计师需要关注的是总能力。作为设计师，需要对游戏过程中各种能力加成器对角色效能的提升数值做出决定。

各系统对能力的加成率有所不同。技能系统可能在每个等级中对总能力的加成是1%。解锁新能力或许会让总能力获得质的飞跃。玩家会将大部分注意力放在能够对其能力产生最大化影响的内容上，所以系统数值的分配就以该系统对游戏设计的重要性为基础。

以下是一个总能力进展的实例。在等级1时，没有能够发挥作用的能力加成器，所以总能力等于基础能力：

等级1总能力=1.0

在等级10时，玩家有9个技能点数，每个的价值为0.01。他还获得了来自道具加成器的加成，能力提升5%。

等级10总能力=1.0+0.09+0.05=1.14

在等级25时，玩家有24个技能点数，其道具加成器的值约为27%，而且他解锁了超级能力，使能力又提升了20%：

等级25总能力=1.0+0.24+0.27+0.2=1.71

换句话说， 普通等级25的角色的能力是无加成装备、不使用技能点数和不使用超级能力的25级角色的1.71倍。角色的总能力随时间提升的情况如下图所示：

Power_Progression(from gamasutra)

在这个图形中，技能提供的是线性能力加成，道具加成器提供的是二次方程式加成，能力解锁提供的是每数个关卡的能力大幅提升。紫线显示角色在每个等级时的总能力，设计师需要根据此曲线来设计怪物。

计算能力加成器的值

现在，你已经确定了角色在游戏中的预期能力进展，你可以由此来计算各内容的能力加成值。比如，如果等级X角色应当从道具加成器处获得0.05的加成，而且在该等级下角色可能获得10个加成器，那么该等级下加成器对能力的提升应当是0.005。

计算出特定内容的能力加成值后，就可以得出能够赋予该内容特定能力的参数值。以下是两个实例：

1、条件伤害加成

10级剑有5%的几率使角色的攻击伤害提升X点。假设10级修改器的能力提升为0.06，每次攻击的基础伤害为100。这样，平均每次攻击伤害加成为0.06X100=6。用伤害加成除以概率就可以得出X。X=6/0.05=120点伤害。

2、护甲加成

10级头盔拥有能够提升护甲的加成器。10级加成器的预设能力加成为0.06。从护甲加成的角度来看，这意味着角色的存活时间应当是原本的1.06倍。因而，他承受的伤害应当是原来的1/1.06=0.94倍。假设在基础条件下，角色需要承受的75%的攻击伤害，那么在修改器条件下角色所承受的伤害应当是0.94X75=70.5%。

不适用该方法的情况

这种方法最适合用于RPG游戏中的PVE战斗。尽管它也能够被运用到其他类型的游戏中，但它与某些游戏设计无法兼容。

比如，在动作游戏中运用这种方法就显得较为困难，因为这种游戏中，根据玩家所使用技能的不同，伤害也会发生很大的变化。如果在某款RPG游戏中，战斗中会频繁出现将敌人撞飞的情况，那么可能也同样无法精确地估算加成值。

对于那些无法简单计算数值的游戏内容，使用这种方法同样很困难，比如对武器射程或咒语范围、移动速度、治疗能力和总魔法值的加成。

在设计上述加成元素时，要么通过复杂的数学模型来估算出数值，要么通过猜测和测试来找到恰当的数值。这两种方法都能够很好地发挥作用。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The craft of game systems: Tuning RPG content

Daniel Achterman

This article primarily focuses on Player versus Environment combat in RPGs, though its methods can be applied to Player versus Player or other types of games.

Role-playing games have a tremendous amount of content, each piece with multiple parameters that define what they do in combat. Damage dealt by a sword, bonus granted by a skill, total health of a level 23 bandit, etc.

It’s not too hard to tune content when you look at a single game zone or a fixed character level – you can playtest that area and tweak values until the game feels right. However, trying to tune values for a giant world with 100 levels of content and multiple classes is much more complicated.

How do you choose values for RPG content without playtesting and brute force tuning every type of character at every level?

A computational approach can help you quickly generate first pass values for these massive amounts of content. The method is to calculate how each piece of content affects a character’s effectiveness in combat and express that “power” in terms of a universal unit.

That allows you to compare very different types of content in a mostly apples-to-apples way, enabling you to do a variety of powerful things:

Compare different classes and tune them relative to each other.

Identify items or abilities that are likely to be unbalanced.

Determine what stats enemies need to be a good challenges for characters.

Solve for the parameter values of a skill or item to make it as powerful as it should be.

That last one is especially important. Not guessing. Solving (then tweaking).

(Many factors increase character power as they level up in games like Blizzard’s Diablo III.)

It’s not an exact process. It requires a lot of estimating and approximating, and it can’t be done for certain types of content. However, where it does work, you can use it to rapidly generate parameter values that will be about 80 percent. right.

The Method

Here are the steps:

Implement your core minute-to-minute gameplay. Creating a progression of content won’t help if the game doesn’t play the way you want it to, and you’ll have to redo the work after you fix your core gameplay. Create a vertical slice of your game that plays the way you want.

Design the stats that define the “base power” of a character of level X. “Base power” is defined by the stats that improve steadily as a character levels up and which are not influenced by player choice, such as health, base damage, expected armor, or THAC0.

Identify other game content that magnifies a character’s combat effectiveness as he levels up. This can include systems like item modifiers, skills, World of Warcraft’s ability glyphs, or League of Legends’ runes. These combine to give the character’s “total power.”

For each piece of content, determine how to express its value as a percentage modifier to a character’s base power. For instance, a 2 percent damage bonus increases a character’s power by 2 percent. “Percentage bonus to base power” is the universal unit you’ll use to compare different types of content.

Choose what impact you would like each type of content to have on total character power as the character levels up. Should each skill point increase a character’s base power by 5 percent., so they’re twice as powerful after spending 20 points?

Given each piece of content’s intended effectiveness, solve for its parameters. If you know the intended bonus to base power you want a piece of content to grant, and you know how to calculate its power from its parameters, you can work backward to solve for its parameters.

Base Power

Defining base power is something I struggle with because it’s so specific to each game. The best definition I’ve found is that it’s the combination of all character stats that increase automatically as a character levels up, without involving any choice by a player.

Examples include things like character health or THAC0 in D&D. WoW characters get a fixed set of stat points when they level up, and skills increase steadily in effectiveness.

Expected damage per second and armor are also part of base power. Though these don’t increase automatically (the player has to find new gear), game content tends to be designed with the expectation that players are maintaining up-to-date gear.

Games like WoW assume that players are using items with base stats that are appropriate for their level, so unmodified item stats are part of base power.

Power Magnifiers

Power magnifiers are pieces of content that modify a character’s base power in combat. Their significance to his overall power generally grows as he levels up. Here are some examples:

Skill Points or Talent Points. Each point increases character power by a percentage.

Item Modifiers in tons of RPGS. They get more numerous / significant at higher levels.

Materia in Final Fantasy VII. Players get more powerful Materia and can use more at once as they progress through the game.

(The impact of Materia on FFVII character power increases as they gain more slots and more powerful Materia.)

Players generally get to choose which power magnifiers they want to take to customize their character, and different classes use different power magnifiers. They key to balancing classes against each other is to ensure their available power magnifiers have equivalent effectiveness.

Power Magnifier Value as a Percentage of Base Power

Express the value of a power magnifier as a percentage of a character’s base power. “Percentage bonus to base power” is the universal unit to use to compare different types of bonuses.

Since all power modifiers are relative to base power, I like to define base power at any level as 1.0, for 100 percent. An unmodified level 1 character has a base power of 1.0, and so does an unmodified level 54 character. If a power magnifier increased a character’s effectiveness by 5 percent, it would have a value of 0.05.

To translate a bonus to “effectiveness,” calculate how much it increases the damage a character does in a fight before he is killed. So, a bonus that keeps him in a fight twice as long would double his effectiveness and have a value of 1.0 (because it is a bonus of 100 percent).

A particular power magnifier generally becomes available at a certain level, and is tuned to be appropriate for that level. For instance, see the “Affix Level” values in this chart of Diablo II item affixes. Determine its percentage value relative a character’s base stats at the level it is intended for. Some examples:

Percentage Damage Bonus

Imagine a skill that increases character melee damage by 1 percent. Since this is presumably a skill for melee characters, assume they always get its benefit; so it has a value of 0.01.

Conditional Damage Bonus

A sword has a modifier that gives it a 5 percent chance to deal 30 bonus damage on an attack. This is an average of 1.5 damage per attack. If base damage per attack is 100, then its value is 0.015.

Percentage Health Bonus

A 10 percent bonus to health increases the time that a character stays alive by 10 percent, thus increasing the damage he does in a fight by 10 percent, so it has a value of 0.1.

Armor Bonus

Say an armor bonus would improve a character’s damage resistance from taking 75 percent damage from an attack to taking 72 percent. This means he is taking 72 / 75 = 96 percent as much damage as he was before, multiplying his survival time by 1 / 0.96 = 1.04 times. Thus, the bonus value is 0.04.

Total Power

Each power magnifier that a character gets adds to his base effectiveness in combat. His total power is equal to the sum of his base power and all those magnifiers:

Total Power = Base Power + All Power Magnifiers

Power is relative to character level, so it’s more precise to write:

Total Power at Level X = Base Power at Level X + All Power Magnifiers at Level X

Remember, base power at any level is defined as 1.0. Thus, a level X character’s total power is the number of times more powerful he is than an unmodified level X character.

Planning a Progression of Total Power

Total power is what designers care about when tuning stats for content that opposes players, like monsters. As a designer, choose what value you want your game’s various power magnifiers to add to character effectiveness over the course of the game.

Systems can add power at different rates. A skill system might add 1 percent to total power each level. Unlocking a new ability might add a big chunk at a specific milestone. Players will focus most on content that has the biggest impact on their power, so assign systems value based on how central they are to your game design.

Here’s an example of how a total power progression could look. At level 1, no power magnifiers are in effect, so total power is equal to base power:

Total Power at Level 1 = 1.0

At level 10, the player has 9 skill points, each worth 0.01. He also has bonuses from item modifiers that increase his power by a total of 5 percent.

Total Power at Level 10 = 1.0 + 0.09 + 0.05 = 1.14

At level 25, the player now has 24 skill points, his item modifiers are now worth about 27 percent., and he’s unlocked a super power that increases power by another 20 percent:

Total Power at Level 25 = 1.0 + 0.24 + 0.27 + 0.2 = 1.71

In other words, a normal level 25 character is 1.71 times as powerful as a level 25 character with unmodified gear, no skill points spent, and who doesn’t use his super power. We can even chart out his total power over time:

In this chart, skills add a linear bonus to power, item modifiers add a gradual quadratic bonus, and ability unlocks add chunks of power every few levels. The purple line shows the total power of a character at each level, and that’s what monsters should be tuned against.

Solving for the Value of a Power Magnifier

Now that you’ve defined the expected power progression for characters in your game, you can look up the intended power value of any particular piece of content. For instance, if a level X character should get a 0.05 * X bonus in power from item modifiers, and is likely to have 10 modifiers on his equipment, then a level X modifier should increase power by 0.005 * X.

Once you know the intended power of a piece of content, do the math backwards to solve for parameter values that will give the content the intended power. Here are two examples:

Conditional Damage Bonus

A level 10 sword has a modifier that gives it a 5 percent chance to deal X bonus damage on an attack. Say the intended power of a level 10 modifier is 0.06, and the base damage per attack is 100. Thus, it should deal an average of 0.06 * 100 = 6 bonus damage per attack. Divide by the chance of dealing damage to find X. X = 6 / 0.05 = 120 damage.

Armor Bonus

A level 10 helmet has a modifier that increases armor. The intended power of a level 10 modifier is 0.06. For an armor bonus, this means the character should survive 1.06 times as long. Therefore, he should take 1 / 1.06 = 0.94 times as much damage with the modifier as without. Assuming a base character takes 75 percent damage from an attack, the modifier should be high enough to reduce damage taken to 0.94 * 75 = 70.5 percent.

Caveats / Where Doesn’t This Method Work?

This method is best suited for PvE combat in RPGs. Though it can be applied to other types of games, there are some game designs for which it’s simply not a good fit.

For example, it would be difficult to apply to action games where damage taken and received vary dramatically with player skill. Imagine an RPG where combat is based on regularly stunning or knocking away foes. It may not be possible to make sufficiently accurate value estimations in those games.

It can also be difficult to apply this method to game content whose value is not easily enumerated. Examples include bonuses to: Projectile weapon or spell range; Movement speed; Healing power;
Total mana.

In the case of bonuses like the above, you can either make a sophisticated mathematical model to get an accurate value estimate, or just guess and test, and go with what feels right. Either method can work great. (Source: Gamasutra)

blackwood-and-bell-french-quarter(from games)

2）EA旗下休闲游戏公司PopCap Games最近发布老虎机模式社交游戏《Lucky Gem Casino》，这款Facebook游戏是PopCap首款博彩类作品，其中含有《宝石迷阵》、《Bookworm》和《祖玛》等其他PopCap游戏角色。

lucky gem(from gamezebo.com)

该游戏支持Facebook用户独立玩游戏，或邀请好友共同参与。玩家可相互比较成就，与好友在线聊天，体验迷你游戏和分享游戏内容，并使用Facebook Credit购买游戏虚拟货币。

3）日本社交平台GREE日前宣布与育碧达成合作，将后者旗下的《刺客信条》引进其手机社交游戏平台。

据GREE所称，手机社交版《刺客信条》将于今年12月份发布，届时将向iOS和Android移动设备发布英语和日语版，但并未公布该项目其他细节。

gang-domination-gree(from serkantoto)

4）GREE近日宣布将与法国游戏公司Gameloft合作推出新款社交游戏《Gang Domination》，该游戏将于6月份登陆其全球手机社交游戏平台。

《Gang Domination》是Gameloft开发的首款社交卡牌战斗游戏，这款黑帮主题的游戏届时将推出仅投放于智能手机平台的英语和日语版本。

5）土耳其社交游戏公司Peak Games最近收购沙特开发商Kammelna Games，并计划通过这项交易建立公司在中东和北非地区的市场影响力。

据Peak Games所称，沙特阿拉伯是全球社交游戏ARPU值最高的地区之一，该地区有三分之二的网民是在线游戏玩家，而Kammelna玩家每次游戏平均时长超过了1小时。

Kammelna-Baloot(from socialgamesobserver.com)

Kammelna代表作是《Baloot》这款在中东地区甚为热门的网页卡牌游戏，Peak计划把该游戏引进Facebook和手机平台。Peak旗下热门游戏包括Halfquest推出的阿拉伯语版《开心农场》（游戏邦注：目前在Facebook的MAU达680万），该公司在上个季度用户增长25%，活跃用户超过2000万。

Peak Games总部位于伊斯坦布尔，在安卡拉、巴塞罗纳、柏林和旧金山也设有工作室，为开发硬核题材的社交游戏，Peak不久前收购了两家土耳其策略游戏开发商Umaykut和Erlikhan。

6）市场调研公司Newzoo报告显示，2011年使用信用卡购买游戏虚拟商品的玩家比例降至20%（2010年的这一比例为26%）。而据MCV报道，使用预付卡的英国用户在游戏中的消费额已从2010年的9000万英磅增长至2011年的1.25亿英磅。

credit card(from games)

预付卡服务供应商Ukash的报告也发现，每10名Ukash用户中就9人优先选择现金而非信用卡支付方式。

7）Zynga品牌广告全球主管Manny Anekal最近离职加入移动广告初创企业Kiip（游戏邦注：该公司由当时年仅19岁的Brian Wong创立），担任后者首席运营官。

Manny Anekal(from venturebeat)

Anekal已在Zynga任职两年，曾负责监管Zynga游戏内置广告和品牌营销等业务，他与Barry Cottle、John Schappert一样也是EA元老，曾任EA游戏广告高管。据Zynga第四季度财报显示，Zynga该时期广告收益为2730万美元，同比上年增长230%。目前尚不知Zynga将指派谁接替其职位。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Blackwood & Bell Mysteries on Facebook puts a magnifier on story

by Joe Osborne

Playdom helped jump start the hidden-object genre on Facebook, and now it looks to keep it rolling. The Disney-owned developer announced Blackwood & Bell Mysteries on Facebook, its next seek-and-find game on the platform set to launch on Feb. 22. Blackwood & Bell aims to evolve the hidden-object genre by injecting more story into the play with a “darker Victorian mood,”according to Playdom.

The game follows two detectives in that era, James Blackwood and Catherine Bell, as they team up to solve various mysteries and wicked crimes. (The former is British while the latter is American, which we imagine will somehow play into the story.) Across four chapters initially, players will piece together the objects they find and recreate the scenes of the crimes in their evidence yard, which looks similar to to property management hook in Gardens of Time.

Players will venture deep into abandoned ghost ships and haunted Victorian mansions to–what else?–find hidden objects. But with features like an evidence yard, we imagine players will use said objects as clues to solve the crimes at hand. Like games in the genre before it, players can send challenges to one another. But Playdom claims to offer a wide variety of play modes in the Headquarters tab of Blackwood & Bell.

Zynga’s recently echoed the hidden-object trend on Facebook with Hidden Chronicles, which is now the third most popular game on the network. That said, it’s tough not to see Blackwood &

Bell as Playdom and Disney’s attempt to reinstate its position as top hidden-object game developer on Facebook. See for yourself whether that’s the case starting Feb. 22.（source:games）

2）PopCap Releases its First Casino-Themed Game on Facebook

By Regina Leuwer

EA-owned casual game developer PopCap Games today launched a slot-based social game Lucky Gem Casino. Exclusively available on Facebook, Lucky Gem Casino is PopCap’s first casino-themed title and will initially house seven custom-created luck-based games. The slot machine-style games available at launch are free to play with payouts occurring only in virtual currency and feature imagery and characters from other PopCap games including Bejeweled, Bookworm, Chuzzle, and Zuma.

“Casino-themed social games are one of the fastest growing genres on Facebook”, said Dennis Ryan, vice president of worldwide publishing at PopCap in a press statement. He continued:

“The strength of PopCap’s game brands and the quality of the Lucky Gem product combined with our experience in luck-based games outside of Facebook means we are perfectly positioned to deliver the ultimate online free casino game experience – PopCap style.”

Lucky Gem Casino allows Facebook users to play alone or with friends. Players can compare their winnings, chat in real-time with friends, play mini-games and share game content. The games are free to play and players may purchase virtual currency in the form of Facebook Credits. All payouts are in virtual coins, which are not redeemable or transferable for cash.

Founded in 2000, PopCap was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2011. The company has a worldwide staff of more than 600 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin, Seoul,Shanghai and Tokyo.（source:socialgamesobserver）

3）GREE Gets Exclusive Assassin’s Creed Mobile Game – In December [Social Games]
Written on February 21, 2012 by Dr. Serkan Toto in Social Games In Japan Nice win for GREE today: the company announced a deal that has the potential to be worth more than DeNA scoring the rights for the Infinity Blade social game.

GREE is teaming up with Ubisoft to bring Assassin’s Creed, one of the most successful video game franchise of the last years (38 million units sold globally), to their global platform.

According to GREE, the mobile social version of Assassin’s Creed will be launched in December this year. I personally think it’s a bit early to try to drum up interest for a title whose release is ten months away, but the company apparently wants to convince other developers of how attractive their platform is even for names like Ubisoft.

The December launch also means that Ubisoft clearly misses the launch GREE’s globally integrated gaming platform between April and June.

Needless to say, GREE can’t say anything about the game itself at this point (including what the game will be called), other than it will be available in English and Japanese and exclusively offered on GREE for iOS and Android.（source:serkantoto）

4）GREE And Gameloft Announce Gang Domination For GREE’s Global Platform [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

GREE today announced the release of a new social game called Gang Domination for their globally integrated platform, which is scheduled to launch between April and June this year.

GREE partnered up with French gaming company Gameloft to develop the title, which will be released in English and Japan (and on smartphones only) in June this year.

It will be Gameloft’s first social card battle game, a genre that’s currently wildly successful in Japan.

According to GREE, Gang Domination will be “a mob-themed card game offering” that “will allow players to cooperate and battle each other as they try to form the most powerful gang”.（source:serkantoto）

5）Peak focuses on Arabic social games with Saudi studio acquisition

by Eric Caoili

Peak Games (Happy Farm), which specializes in publishing social games for Turkey and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, has purchased Saudi developer Kammelna Games.

Peak specializes in delivering localized and culturally-specific social games to the underserved but lucrative MENA territory, which it expects to have as many as 400 million social game players by 2015. The company believes this Kammelna acquisition will help establish its dominance in that market.

The publisher claims that Saudi Arabia has one of the highest average revenue per user (ARPU) numbers for social games in the world, and that more than two-thirds of internet users in the country play games online. Kammelna users in particular play an average of more than one hour per session.

Essam Alzamel, who founded Kammelna, will continue to run the studio in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Peak says that along with its office in Jordan, the company can extend its reach across the Arabian Peninsula, which includes other countries like Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Kammelna’s flagship product is Baloot, a browser-based title based on the popular Middle Eastern card game of the same name. Peak intends to bring Baloot to new platforms like Facebook and mobile, while the studio continues to launch new Arabic card, board, and tabletop games online.

Peak’s catalog of social titles includes Halfquest’s Arabic language farming sim Happy Farm, which has 6.8 million monthly users on Facebook. The publisher’s entire lineup attracts a worldwide audience that’s grown by 25 percent in the last quarter to more than 20 million active players.

Peak Games is headquartered in Istanbul, and also has studios and offices in Ankara, Barcelona, Berlin and San Francisco. It’s so far raised $19 million in funding, and recently acquired two Turkish strategy game developers, Umaykut and Erlikhan, to create core-targeted social games.（source:gamasutra）

6）Poll: How do you pay up for your favorite social and casual games?

by Joe Osborne

Paying for games or for goodies within games using plastic isn’t so popular anymore. (Well, at least personal plastic.) A study by research firm NewZoo found that consumers paying up for games with credit cards fell to 20 percent last year. In 2010, 26 percent of gamers used a credit card to pay for new games. MCV reports that the amount spent on prepaid cards, at least in the UK, had jumped from £90m in 2010 to £125m in 2011.

And Ukash, a prepaid card specialist, came to a similar conclusion. The prepayment provider found that nine out of 10 of its customers preferred cash alternatives over credit when buying things. While you’d expect the customers of such a service to prefer that method, it does raise an interesting question: Just how do you pay for your games and in-game content (i.e. virtual goods, like energy or power-ups)?（source:games）

7）Zynga’s ad leader Anekal departs for mobile advertising company Kiip

Kathleen De Vere

Manny Anekal, Zynga’s Global Director of Brand Advertising, has left the company to help lead reward-based mobile advertising startup Kiip as its new chief operating officer.

During his two years at Zynga, Anekal lead the company’s in-game advertising and brand integration efforts in its main titles, and was behind some of Zynga’s biggest in-game promotions, like Lady Gaga’s “GagaVille” promotion for her album Born this Way, as well as recent deals with Farmers Insurance.

Like his peers Barry Cottle and John Schappert, Anekal came to Zynga from EA, where he worked as the company’s senior manager of in game advertising and its global director of ad operations before leaving to join the social gaming giant. According to Zynga’s fourth quarter earnings results, the company earned $27.3 million from advertising revenue, a 230 percent increase year-on-year. It is not yet known who will replace Anekal at Zynga.

Kiip made its debut last April and works with more than 65 mobile developers to incorporate advertising into a game’s existing achievement system. Founded by then 19-year-old Digg alumni Brian Wong, the company has so far received $4 million in funding from Hummer Windblad Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital and True Ventures. In December, the company unveiled its latest product, limited-time promotional tournaments called Swarm campaigns.（source:insidesocialgames）

如今现代游戏开发者所享受到的资源，无论是在易用性、简单性，还是在专业性方面都达到空前水平。现在，基于Unity和UDK等预制引擎所制作的游戏在视觉效果上已同髙预算的AAA游戏不相上下，而脚本语言和逻辑创建替代方式则令这些作品实现类似水平的可访问性。从表面来看，似乎只要出于正确动机，有抱负的开发者就能够在没有任何外部援助或编程知识的情况下制作出一款完整的游戏。但游戏开发还涉及一个常被忽略的“关键要素”：人工智能（AI）。你将如何设置游戏的交互性？除非你的项目无需互动逻辑，否则你就会在开发过程中碰壁。本文将协助你找到AI问题的解决方案，让你制作出令自己满意的作品。

学会思考

AI from gamasutra.com

所以首先：什么是AI？简而言之，就是接收空间信息，做出相应决策，然后落实决策，将此反馈给游戏空间的“智能代理人”。着手学习AI的一个很好渠道就是免费网站www.ai-class.com，其中包含众多视频、小测试及讲座，能够让你充分把握AI的完整概念。研究在线课程一小段时候后你就会发现，你的传统AI概念有些狭隘。AI不只是NPC的大脑，它是整个游戏逻辑内容的组成要素，甚至还是游戏互动内容的核心元素。这可能会令雄心勃勃的开发者颇感沮丧，因为他们缺少相关知识及编程技能；更糟的是，这可能会使你产生“我不想再制作这类内容”的想法。幸运的是，我们可以将处理AI元素这项艰难的任务变得更直观，激发你积极应对游戏开发中的这一艰难挑战。

若你开始查看ai-class.com，那么你就逐步朝AI设计师的思维模式转变——这并不是视觉方面的直观进展。相反，这是设计互动机制的深思过程。一个不错的方案就是直观呈现AI逻辑，或是基于某些通俗易懂的目录机制；例如，你可以在游戏中植入名称是Joe的NPC，然后附上他的系列合理输入内容及行为操作，具体样式如下：

diagram from gamasutra.com

此图表能够让你把握AI机制的具体运作内容，你的预期反应内容及其要如何同其他游戏活动进行互动。显然，随着你编程和AI设计知识的增多，此图表会变得越发复杂；例如，“Player Hits ‘Action’”就会被描述成，出自玩家的光束是“Action”引出结果行为的必要条件。虽然你的编程/AI机制创建知识依然相当匮乏，但在你和AI设计师搭档或自己学习此设计过程时，这些组织方式将给予你很大帮助。

选择工具层出不穷

学习AI对于雄心勃勃的游戏开发者来说，无疑是最为棘手的内容，这其实就是通过落实代码，对NPC及游戏反馈机制等元素进行控制。多年来，这部分都属于简单的编程内容，但对那些不熟悉编程的开发者而言，这块内容则就非常棘手。如今由于游戏开发技术的发展，我们享有更多选择，但遗憾的是，AI的执行依然是个相当艰难的过程。一个常见问题是：为什么这部分的开发内容没有像其他内容那样直观？很多人都提供有关“Photoshop of AI”的输入内容；或者是向非编程人员提供处理AI的通俗解决方案。Michael Mateas教授曾发表有关游戏AI的重要演讲。他的主要观点是，关于AI互动方式的选择多种多样，因此我们根本无法通过单个工具完成所有相关工作。例如，若上述图表瞄准的是运动游戏，其输入内容和行为元素就会截然不同；游戏之间的不一致性会让设计所有选择变得有些多余。

话虽如此，目前行业依然持续出现众多能够充当开发者和引擎桥梁的选择工具，进而降低直接进行编程的必要性。

xaitcontrol precondition and postcommands from gamasutra.com

AI设计涉及众多知识

AI制作同其他游戏开发内容的最大区别在于，软件不会帮你完成额外的工作。你可以在Photoshop中运用毛刷，在canva上进行拖曳，最终获得你无法事前进行规划的最终结果；同样，你可以在Unity中调节物理背景，发现新的互动机制。但要进行AI设计，开发者所掌握的知识要比工具软件更胜一筹——你脑中要浮现所有想法，然后通过代码/中间设备实现这些目标。这一根本差异清楚说明，为什么你无法轻率对待AI工具（游戏邦注：而若是运用Unity、UDK或Source等其他游戏软件，你就能够这么做）。简而言之，你所具备的知识不能只局限于某款具体的游戏，只有这样你才能制作出令人满意的AI互动内容；这也许会是你游戏开发过程中的一大障碍，但若你全心投入其中，你将掌握设计游戏AI的所有知识。若你分身乏术，不妨尝试同其他更擅长编程的人士合作——只是你得确保清楚传递自己的目标和想法，忠于自己的原始构思。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Teaching Your Games To Think: An Introduction To Artificial Intelligence

by Pat Flannery

The resources available to modern game developers are unparalleled in their ease-of-use, simplicity, and professional results. Games built in premade engines like Unity and UDK can now visually compete with big-budget AAA titles, and scripting languages and alternative means of building logic (visual scripting) have brought gameplay into the same realm of accessibility. On the surface it appears that, given the right motivation, an aspiring developer could create an entire game without any outside assistance or knowledge of coding. However, there is one ‘sticking point’ left in the game development pipeline that is often overlooked: artificial intelligence. How will you configure the interactivity within your game? Unless your project specifically doesn’t require interactive logic, you’re eventually going to hit a brick wall in your development process. Let this article guide you towards a solution for your artificial intelligence woes, and help you finish a game that you’re proud of.

Learning to Think

So first off: what is artificial intelligence? In short, it’s when an “intelligent agent” receives information from its environment, makes a decision, and acts its decision back out on the environment. A great place to start learning about AI is through the free project www.ai-class.com, which is a series of videos, quizzes, and lectures that can take you from baseline to a pretty complete understanding of the concepts of artificial intelligence. After just a short time exploring the online classes, you’ll begin to realize that your traditional understanding of AI is probably a bit narrow. Rather than AI being just the brain of an NPC, it’s really an integral part of your entire game’s logic and probably the most important part of making your game something that can be interacted with. This might leave aspiring developers a bit frustrated with their own lack of knowledge and programming ability; even worse, it could be yet another reason for you to say “I don’t feel like making this anymore.” Hopefully we can make the daunting task of approaching artificial intelligence a bit more tangible, and get you motivated to face another tough, but entirely conquerable challenge in the game dev process.

So if you’ve started checking out ai-class.com, you’re beginning to get into the mindset of an AI developer – this isn’t the instantly-gratifying realm of visual arts. Rather, it is a thoughtful process of designing interacting systems. A great idea is to represent your AI’s logic visually or through some sort of easily accessible list system; for example, you might have an entity called Joe the NPC, along with a detailed list of his possible inputs and behaviors, looking something like this:

This type of diagram can help you wrap your mind around what’s going on within your AI system, what kinds of reactions you want to create, and how it all interacts with other events within the game. Clearly, as you build out your knowledge of coding and AI design, this diagram will become more complex; for example, “Player Hits ‘Action’” would be clarified to include that a raycast from the player would be required for “Action” to cue the resultant behavior. Even if your knowledge of programming/building an AI system is still next to nothing, these methods of organization will help you greatly when you either pair up with an AI-minded programmer, or learn the process yourself.

It’s Alive! It’s Alive!!

The part of learning AI that is undoubtedly the trickiest for aspiring game developers is actually implementing the code to control your NPCs, game feedback systems, etc. For years, this part of the process has been a straightforward case of programming and, for those unfamiliar with coding, difficult. Now, thanks to the advancements in game development technology, there are more options…but unfortunately implementation of your AI is still a tough process. A common question is: Why hasn’t this part of development been made as intuitive as other aspects of the pipeline? Many people have offered their input on what Chris Hecker described as “the Photoshop of AI”; or an easily accessible solution for non-programmers to work with artificial intelligence. An important talk by Professor Michael Mateas about this concept is available exclusively here (http://www.design3.com/industry-insight/item/2404-michael-mateas-presentation-revisiting-the-Photoshop-of-ai-debate), in which he spells out the problems with the idea of a “Photoshop of AI” and why artificial intelligence may never have an easy-to-use option. The gist of his argument is that because the options for AI interactions are nearly endless, a tool that took most of the work out for you cannot exist. For example, if our diagram above were instead for a sports game, the inputs and behaviors would be 100% different; the lack of consistency between games makes designing for all options redundant.

That being said, there are numerous options being developed to act as middleware between you and your engine to reduce the amount of direct coding required. An extensive list of resources can be found at the end of this article, and there may be even more that we overlooked (feel free to add in the comments section). In essence, these pieces of software are not intended to be the end-all “Photoshop of AI” – rather, they do what they can to make your interaction with AI systems more tangible, easy to understand, and intuitive. Commonly this involves removing the need for in-depth coding and replacing it with a modular, visually-driven interface; these systems (like the Xaitment suite shown below) intend to allow more intuitive adjustments to be made by designers without complex engineering to the underlying system. In effect they abstract the programmatic connections to a simplified visual interface. Most of these middleware programs are not free, and require the user to learn and develop additional skills specific to the software, but in doing so can offer a much easier (and faster) way to control your game’s AI processes.

The Pupil Must Become The Teacher

The most extreme difference between AI authoring and all other aspects of game development is that the software will not do extra work for you. You might apply a brush in Photoshop, drag it across the canvas, and achieve an end result that you couldn’t have planned on; similarly, you can tweak physics settings in Unity and discover new interactive dynamics. However, AI design requires that you know more than the software knows – you must have all your ideas in your head and use the code/middleware to achieve it. This fundamental difference explains why you haven’t ever found yourself ‘playing’ with AI tools as you might with Unity, UDK, Source or the variety of software used throughout the pipeline. In short, you must know more than your game in order for your AI interactions to be satisfactory; this might prove to be a difficult hurdle in your game development race, but if you truly dedicate to it, you can master the art of designing artificial intelligence in your games. If your time is spread too thin, don’t feel embarrassed to join up with someone more adept at programming – just make sure you get your intentions and ideas across clearly, and stay true to your original vision. No matter what choice you make, start looking into AI more deeply today to begin reaping the benefits it can offer to your game development projects.（Source：gamasutra）

独立游戏开发商FableLabs在能够自主创造游戏之前也借鉴了许多前人的理念。我们起初只是想利用别人的理念并添加我们自己的想法而创造出完全不同的产品，但是话说回来，这不正是游戏产业中所有人的想法吗？在这个产业里，模仿行为的存在已经有一段时间了，尽管有人预见随着游戏难度的增加，模仿行为将会逐渐减少，但是最近却仍涌现出一些关于游戏克隆的诉讼案件，分别是来自Spry Fox，Buffalo Studios和NimbleBit。

我开始好奇创造者是如何看待灵感与复制之间的矛盾，以及我们该如何为自己迈进这一“灰色地带”找理由。为什么同样是模仿游戏，《愤怒的小鸟》（游戏邦注：仿效了《Crush the Castle》）获得了大多数开发者的赞赏，但是《Dream Heights》或《YetiTown》却遭到了众人的轻视？更重要的是，我们应该如何保护自己的游戏和IP？

用户并不关心发明者(他们所在乎的是表达)

Steve & Dennis(from gamasutra)

上图是两位对人类社会做出巨大贡献的人(游戏邦注：他们在同一个月离世），乔布斯是众所周知的名人，而Dennis却始终默默无闻（仅有一小部程序员获知他的死讯）。用户不会去关心什么是C++，他们只在乎这种语言是如何呈现在自己眼前。他们并不在乎Palm创造了智能手机类型，他们关心的是乔布斯以及苹果是如何将智能手机表达方式发挥到极致并广泛普及。

单纯的发明并不能直接影响用户，能够改善人们生活的通常是多个发明的合体。对于游戏来说亦是如此，玩家并不关心是谁提出了一个新的游戏机制，他们只在乎游戏是如何表达这种游戏机制，并且谁能够实践这些机制。

玩家并不关心自己是如何获得游戏

现在你已经创造了一款具有吸引力的游戏，并且你能够独立控制这款游戏。除此之外你也已经证实了目标市场的合理性——这是最具有挑战性的一部分。那接下来呢？你要清楚用户希望你能够马上为其呈现最佳游戏版本，并且让他们能够以最低价格享受游戏。

也许这一刻玩家还在为你的游戏欢呼，但下一秒如果出现了其它能够吸引他们的新游戏，他们便会毫不留情地抛弃你辛苦创造出的产品。这些玩家不知道你进行了多少测试才完成这款游戏，不知道你创造了多少纸上原型才最终证实了自己的理念，也不知道你在游戏内容/发行商身上投入了多少成本才能最终发行游戏，且更重要的是，他们甚至根本不想知道这些过程。

玩家并不关心：

《黑帮战争》模仿了David Maestri的《Mob Wars》

《FarmVille》模仿了Slashkey的《Farmtown》

《Words With Friends》模仿EA/Hasbro的《Scrabble》

《亚瑟王国》在Facebook平台上模仿了《Evony》

《愤怒的小鸟》只是将《Crush the Castle》改头换面

用户也许会在渴望拥有最棒的游戏体验与奖励创造者之间感到矛盾，但是不管怎么样，他们永远会将自己的利益摆在首位。我们希望论坛上的所有玩家能够更深刻地体谅我们作为开发者的苦心，并给予我们更多时间去编写功能，修改漏洞并平衡游戏玩法，但是我们却在此看到了各种对于游戏的抱怨，包括1）太贵了，2）太不稳定，以及3）缺少有趣的功能。过去我会投入大量时间跟这些玩家解释我们的资源有限，但是后来我意识到这么做完全是徒劳的。这并不是一种慈善事业，游戏产业并非“通过网上支付进行捐赠”的商业模式。

缺少发行渠道的创造并没有价值

很多人都认为任何发明都需要给予一段时间以备发布产品。专利便是基于这一目的而诞生的，但是大多数企业家却认为申请专利的过程太过曲折并且将会阻碍产品的进一步发展（例如亚马逊的“one-click”功能以及苹果的“pinch to zoom”手势专利的申请便历经艰辛）。创造者并不是非要确保自己的想法不可侵犯，他们只是害怕别人神速的复制行为。为何竞争者的快速复制行为就要遭到谴责？

想象你偶然发现了一片布满珍宝（有利可图的市场）的荒地（你的游戏），并且你知道随后将会到来由747运载而来的游客（Zynga）。这时候你便会贪婪地开始收集这些珍宝（心里喊着“这些都是我的！”），或者你也可以选择雇佣个体（员工）或公司（VC或发行商）而分给他们一定的战利品（收益分享/股值/工资）。如果你希望能够好好把握一分一秒，就不要抱怨必须与别人分享自己的战利品，否则最终的结果便是会出现更多游客去瓜分你的财宝。

it's all mine(from gamasutra)

你当然可以一整天抱怨着别人如何窃取你独一无二的理念，但是这能怪谁呢？为何不好好珍惜这些有价值的内容而给别人留下可趁之机》你应该先验证游戏理念，然后筹集资金，并使用这些资金明确有价值的目标用户而发行游戏。你不应该只拥有创造优秀游戏的技巧，同时还应该具有发行游戏或者与别人建立合作关系的技巧。

如果你不知道如何将创造物传达给目标用户，别人便会很快取代你，而最终用户的感谢对象也不可能是你。

如果你未拥有发行游戏的技能，关系或资本，那么即使是具有创造性的游戏也不能体现出自身价值。

基于服务vs.表达的模式

游戏总是包含各种内容，游戏机制和技术。根据下图从下至上的发展而能够创造出一种表达形式：

Expression Definition(from gamasutra)

版权只能够保护游戏的表达但却不能够保护游戏机制和技术。为什么只有内容能够得到保护？难道用户体验设计师没有投入足够的努力去进行游戏的病毒式传播吗？并不是这样。他们投入了大量心血而最终获得了一些实用案例，分离测试，分析方法以及解决方案。游戏代码编程员难道就缺乏创造性？那些认为编程代码不具有创造性的人可能从未接触到真正的难题。那些能够提出一些看似并不明显的解决方案的人们也参与了创造过程，但是我们却只为理念被复制而不快。而这种不一致性主要取决于该应用是“基于服务”还是“基于表达”。

Service Model(from gamasutra)

基于服务的网络应用应该具有相似的解决方法，而基于表达的应用则趋于寻找更多独特的解决方法（不是更好而是不同）。我们发现很少有仿制游戏是基于服务型模式，因为这类型商业模式缺少相似结果。例如人们进行在线支付的途径非常有限。这就是为何出现了越来越多在线商店跟亚马逊极为相似，甚至很多商店都直接采用亚马逊的支付流程。像《战地3》和《现代战争3》这类型军事主题第一人称射击游戏便属于多人游戏服务平台，能够让玩家与玩家进行相互对抗。这两者的表达方式几乎完全相同，采用了相似的控制方式，现实现界的枪支，现实物理机制以及烽火满地的战场。

基于表达的模式具有无限可能性

尽管可供选择的技术和游戏机制数量有限，但是它们却能够一起创造出无限的表达可能性。

Expression Model(from gamasutra)

让我们以人类的社交互动作为例子：我们希望别人能够以相同语言回应我们的交流（单一的解决方法）。我们希望别人能够通过握手，口头问候，亲吻脸颊或拥抱等形式介绍自己。但是对于Facebook的个人资料页面，我们则希望能够尽可能地凸显独特性（无限的解决方法）。

考虑到基于表达的模式可能会创造出无限的组合体，开发者必须使用相同的游戏机制去尝试不同的组合内容，并从中挖掘游戏乐趣。《Crush the Castle》是Armor Games旗下一款非常优秀的游戏，但是不幸的是他们却不能有效地向目标用户传达游戏的乐趣。Armor Games未能有效地改进自己的引擎，从而让Rovio有了可趁之机。通过改变相同游戏机制的表达方式，Rovio创造出一个更能够吸引玩家的理念，也就是《愤怒的小鸟》。

在这里，所有的表达方式都可视为一种衍生物，并且这些表达也与最初表达存在一定距离（即差异）——我们总能根据后者创造出更多不同类型的表达方式。

distance(from gamasutra)

*合法距离——你必须确保玩家不会认为他们在玩另一家公司的游戏

*优等距离——距离较远，更有利于开发者创造游戏

*理想的收益距离——允许两个有价值的IP共存，并且不需要为了对方而改变自己。就像任天堂本来可以保守地创造2个类似的角色，但是最终他们却创造了两个个性鲜明的IP

如果竞争对手的表达方式与我们过于相近，我们自然会感到不舒服。就像是在一个空荡的厕所里（社交/手机游戏产业），整面墙上都安着小便池（可能性），你从中选择了一格，但是却有一些人故意选择你的右边那格。

这真的是件让人毛骨悚然的事，但是我们却对此无能为力。

应对山寨现象的方法

如果你获得了成功，那么肯定有人会开始复制你的游戏，并且你难以获得实际的追索权。而我希望你们能够接受这个现实并实践以下3种方法：

1）要么做大要么撤出

找不到用户的发明物就没有价值。你必须找到最合适的渠道去发布产品。如果你能够尽可能地向更多用户呈现你的创造力，并将其最大程度地渗透到市场中，那么竞争者的复制行为也就不能对你构成多大威胁。你可以通过融资或寻找可信赖的发行商去支持你的业务。如果每个用户的终身价值是3美元，那么你应该继续投入市场营销成本，直至该成本上升为2.9美元，只留给竞争者0.1美元的空间。

在竞争者进入市场之前，最大限度地服务有价值的用户，这种焦土策略（游戏邦注：比如军队撤退时销毁一切敌军可利用之物）能够让他们的复制行为变成是一种无价值的风险。Groupon便是将这种策略发挥到极致，从而清扫了诸多克隆产品。

2）创建最佳版本的机制

如果你的游戏是基于服务的模式，那么你就应该创建最优秀的版本。Popcap的《宝石迷阵》击退了许多复制游戏，并且始终保持着最佳标准的地位。Popcap花费了大量时间在优化游戏；并让玩家感受到射击“幻幻球”的乐趣。他们用好几年的时间不断地完善游戏。复制者常常忘记的一个事实是，游戏不只是关于机制本身，还具有更多重要的内容和用户体验。

暴雪及其竞争者不管在RTS还是MMO领域的理念都极为相似。但是前者的优化更加明显。也许这就早该公司保护游戏的重要策略，“彻底完工才算完工”。

3）创造独特的内容

如果你的游戏是基于表达的模式，那么你就需要重视内容的创造。创造属于自己的独特游戏内容，并尝试各种变化。现实中已经有许多科幻故事，吸血鬼故事，僵尸蔓延，城镇之类的内容，而以下作品则是众多复制者都很难超越的内容（但是他们也可以进行尝试）：

一只老鼠梦想着成为一名厨师：《料理鼠王》

一位老人希望用热气球承载房子来到一个新的养老圣地：《飞屋环游记》

一个害怕成为无用之物的机器人并最终被一个新版本的自己取而代之：《机器人总动员》

植物和活死人的激烈战斗：《植物大战僵尸》

神风敢死队鸟群向占据家园的绿猪发动攻击：《愤怒的小鸟》

总结

只有原创者会关心复制与创造性的争辩。如果你拥有一个绝妙的观点，其他人有可能会复制你的想法并占据你的市场，而别人却永远不会体谅你的处境。我们FableLabs团队认为出现克隆者意味着我们确实找到了一些有趣的点子，并且我们也会先发制人地创造差异化内容来保护游戏和IP。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Whose Expression Is It Anyway?

by Tommy Wu on 02/16/12

As an indie developer, FableLabs has borrowed more from those who came before us than we have been able to contribute back (thus far).  We’d like to think that we remix old ideas, add our own and produce wholly different products, but then again… isn’t that what we all think? Mimicry in our industry is nothing new and while many had foretold this activity would decline due to the rising complexity of games, there has been a spate of recent accusations:

Spry Fox

Buffalo Studios

NimbleBit

I began wondering about the inconsistencies of what creators consider inspiration vs. imitation and how we rationalize what is arguably a grey area.  Why is Angry Birds highly regarded by most creators despite being a clone of Crush the Castle (which has it’s own inspirations) and yet Dream Heights / YetiTown are universally despised by creators?  More importantly, how do we realistically defend ourselves?  Down the slippery slope we go!

Consumers Don’t Care About Inventors

…they care about expressions

I’m sure many of you have seen this picture circulating:

Two amazing contributors to society but one is a few orders of magnitude more recognizable. Most consumers don’t care about C++, they care about what C++ canEXPRESS to them. They don’t care that Palm invented the smart phone category.  They do care that Steve Jobs and Apple assembled the most beautiful EXPRESSION of a smart phone and made it ubiquitous.

Rarely are standalone inventions able to affect consumers directly.  It is usually combinations of these inventions that improve lives.  What this means for games is that our fans will rarely care or know who came up with a new game mechanic (outlier: Minecraft), they only care about what that game mechanic is able to express and who was able to get it into their hands.

Users Don’t Care Where They Get Their Drugs

So you’ve created an addiction to an amazing drug that you alone control.  You’ve proven product/market fit and that’s generally the most challenging part.  Now what?  Your users now want the best version of your drug, they want it now, and they want it as cheaply as possible.

Time is ticking my friend.  Your fans might be cheering you now but as soon as someone else comes along that can satisfy their addiction, you and your hard work will be but a faint memory. In fact, not only do they not know how many ideas you had to test to come up with this one, how many paper prototypes you had to create to validate what you had, and how much of your life savings you had to spend on content / contractors to get to a viable product, more importantly they do not care.

Users didn’t care that:

Mafia Wars was a clone of David Maestri’s Mob Wars

Farmville was a clone of Slashkey’s Farmtown

Words With Friends is a clone of EA/Hasbro’s Scrabble

Kingdoms of Camelot is a clone of Evony but on Facebook

Angry Bird is a reskin of Crush the Castle

Users *might* seem conflicted in their desire to have the absolute best experience for themselves with a desire to reward creative work, but make no mistake, they will put their own interests ahead of creators every time.  For every customer in our forums that tells everyone to go easy on the developers and give us more time to code features, fix bugs, and balance gameplay, there are 10 who complain our games should be 1) cheaper, 2) more stable, and 3) have cool feature X, Y, Z.  I used to spend a fair amount of time in the forums trying to reason with users by letting them know we’re resource constrained but I soon realized it’s a losing proposition. This isn’t a charity. As an industry we’ve moved beyond the “Donate via Paypal” business model.

Inventions Have No Value With No Distribution

Many seem to believe that those that invent should be given a period of time to distribute their own inventions. Patents were originally designed for this very purpose but most entrepreneurs would agree that patents are laborious to obtain and have the side effect of limiting progress (e.g. Amazon’s one-click checkout or Apple’s pinch to zoom).  Creators aren’t expecting their ideas to be sacred, rather it’s the speed in which they are cloned that is upsetting. But why should competitors be blamed for doing their jobs quickly?

Imagine you stumbled across a deserted island (your game) filled with treasures (addressable market) and you know there’s a 747 cargo of tourists (Zynga) coming soon. You can either be greedy and try to slowly carry all the treasure back by yourself (“it’s mine, ALL MINE!”), or you can hire individuals (employees) or firms (VCs/publishers) and give them a cut (rev share/equity/salary) of the spoils.  If you want to take your time, just don’t complain you had to share your booty when you run out of time and are overrun by hordes of tourists.

You can cry all day long about someone else taking advantage of your unique snowflake ideas but you have only yourself to blame if you leave value on the table for someone else to pick up.  Validate the concept, generate or raise the capital, and use the capital to effectively distribute your product to users where it actually has value.  Instead of merely developing skills to create great games, also develop skills to distribute your products or form partnerships with others that can.

Or run your company as a lifestyle business and generate ideas for others to borrow from heavily. If you can’t figure out how to get your invention in front of the users who want it, someone else will and the users will be thankful to them, not you.

Creating innovative games without having the skills, partnerships, or capital to distribute them is like bringing your virtual spoon to a knife fight.

Service vs. Expression Based Models

Games are made up of varying components of content, game mechanics and technology. Expression is created as we move up the diagram below

Copyrights protect the expression of a game but not the game mechanics and technology. Why are only content creators protected?  Did it take less effort for a user experience designer to come up with a viral flow?  They spend blood, sweat and tears coming up with use cases, split tests, analytics, and solutions.  Was architecting the game codebase any less creative in nature?  Anyone who disagrees that coding is a creative endeavor isn’t working on hard enough problems. Those who are able to come up with non-obvious solutions are engaging in creative activity, yet we only seem to react when expression is copied.  This inconsistency lies in whether the application is primarily “Service Based” or Expression Based”.

Service based web applications tend to gravitate towards similar solutions while expression based ones tend to find an array of solutions (not better just different).  The topic of cloning rarely comes up in service based models as we recognize the lack of parallel outcomes in these business models.  For example, there are only a few right answers on how an online purchase should flow. This is why most online stores look increasingly like Amazon and some have even outsourced the checkout process itself to Amazon.  Military themed first person shooters such as Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 are multiplayer service platforms for gamers to challenge other gamers. Their expressions are nearly identical with similar controls, real world guns, real world physics, and war torn battlegrounds.

Expression Based Models Have Infinite Possibilities

While there is a limited set of technology and game mechanics to choose from, together they help enable a near infinite set of expression possibilities.

There is no right answer in expression which is why entities (individuals, companies, projects) are expected to find their own identity.

If we take human social interaction as an example: We expect people to communicate with us in the language we communicate with them (one solution).  We expect people to introduce themselves with a handshake, verbal greeting, kiss on the cheek, or a hug (few solutions). But we expect people’s Facebook profile page to be unique (infinite solutions).

Given the amount of combinations possible in expression based models, developers often need to try different combinations of content with the same game mechanic to find their hit game (assuming their game mechanic is fun). Crush the Castle was a great game by Armor Games but unfortunately not a mass market expression.  By not reskinning their engine, Armor Games left a huge opportunity on the table for Rovio to fill.  By changing the expression of the same mechanic, Rovio was able to bring a fun concept to a user base greater than 2 orders of magnitude (Angry Birds).

All expression might be considered derivative at this point but I think we can agree there is some distance from the original expression which can allow multiple expressions to flourish. This debate on cloning is really a reflection of how close competing studios choose to place their bets on games that are expression based models.

Let’s take our friend Link on the left here.

There’s a Legal Distance, where the rule of thumb is that you cannot mislead players into thinking they are playing a competitors’ game

There is a Classy Distance, which is a bit further, and more palatable to creators

Lastly, there is a Revenue Optimal Distance that allows 2 valuable pieces of IP to co-exist without cannibalizing each other. Nintendo could have chosen to play it safe and create 2 similar characters but instead ended up with 2 of the most recognizable pieces of IP

When a rival picks an expression too close to comfort, I imagine it is similar to being in a empty airport bathroom (social/mobile gaming industry) with an entire wall of urinals (possibilities) you can choose from and some guy chooses the one right next to you.

We can all agree it’s creepy, however there’s not much you can do about it.

Defense Against the Dark Arts

If you’re successful, your product will be cloned and there is no pragmatic recourse. My suggestion is that you accept this reality and focus on these 3 actionables:

1) Go Big or Go Home

Inventions without users are useless.  It’s your responsibility to find a way to distribute your beautiful creations.  If you are able to bring your invention to the largest possible audience, it will not make business sense for competitors to clone as you should have saturated the market. Raise capital or find a publisher you TRUST to support your business. If the lifetime value for each user in your game is $3.00, run your marketing spend until you are paying up to $2.90.  Leave a dime for your competitors.

This Scorched Earth policy of serving valuable users before your competitors can market to them will discourage clones by making it an unprofitable venture.  Groupon used this tactic to great effect and consequently took out the majority of the clones.

2) Build the Best Version of the Mechanic

If your game resembles a Service Based Model, build the best version of that model. Popcap’s Bejeweled fought off numerous clones and remains the gold standard for match 3 games. Popcap takes an extraordinary amount of time to polish their games.  Feel how delightful it is to shoot a Peggle ball. They’ve dedicated years to perfecting what they have. Hackers often forget it’s not just enough to have the mechanic itself, the content and user experience are just as important.

Blizzard and its competitors have fairly similar ideas in the RTS and MMO space.  However, the amount of polish in a Blizzard game is palpable. Perhaps there is something to their anti-MVP development process, “done when it’s done”.

3) Create Unique Content

If your game resembles an Expression Based Model, remember that content is protection. Build a skin of the game that is uniquely yours and try many variations. There is no shortage of generic fantasy tales, vampire stories, zombie epidemics, and -Villes, but it is difficult to successfully clone the following content without infringing (doesn’t stop them from trying):

A mouse who dreams of becoming a chef one day: Ratatouille

An old man who yearns of moving his house via balloons to a new retirement location: Up

A robot who fears of being irrelevant and replaced by a newer version of himself:Wall-E

An epic battle between flora and the undead: Plants vs. Zombies

Kamikaze birds that attack elitist pigs in their homes: Angry Birds

Conclusion

The only people who care about this debate on imitation vs. innovation are the creators.  If you’re onto a good idea, you will be cloned and the majority of your addressable market will not know nor care about your situation. At FableLabs, we believe cloners will be a signal that we’re onto something interesting and we’ve preemptively chosen to use differentiated content to protect our games and IP.(GAMASUTRA)