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锁定硬核游戏玩家,《Auto Hustle》登陆Facebook平台

发布时间:2011-04-22 14:53:57 Tags:,,,

游戏开发商MetroGames去年10月就推出了一款风格类似《侠盗猎车手》的游戏《Auto Hustle》,但最近才正式宣布将其投放Facebook平台,据AppData数据显示,该游戏目前在Facebook的MAU(月活跃用户)是9.3万,DAU是1.3万。

玩家在这款游戏中要扮演街头的黑帮角色,他们要以第三人称视角观察游戏界面,并像体验传统PC游戏一样,通过键盘输入来控制人物角色,点击鼠标向目标开火或者加入混战。这款游戏去年的故事元素并不十分明显,从该游戏数次更新版本中的一个视频截图来看,玩家只有接受并完成一项任务才能开启新的任务,其游戏任务菜单充满血腥和暴力元素(如下图所示)。

Auto Hustle

Auto Hustle

MetroGames首席设计师Joe Gatling在最近的媒体访谈中,介绍了这款硬核风格游戏在Facebook平台的发展愿景,及其如何在硬核用户并不占优势的Facebook平台虏获玩家的计划。

据他所言,MetroGames打算从头开始培养游戏玩家群体,“Facebook平台的犯罪游戏概念非常广泛,我们已经知道这种主题的游戏会很有市场。问题就在于,同时兼具这种主题和玩法的游戏究竟能否受到欢迎,所以对我们来说,成功吸引这类玩家群体确实是一个有趣的挑战。”

因为Facebook限制游戏通过用户墙、好友邀请功能进行传播,所以MetroGames只能寄希望于通过该平台硕果仅存的几种传播渠道推广游戏。但由于《Auto Hustle》的游戏设置与该公司其他游戏截然不同,所以它并不适合采用交叉推广方式。Gatling表示公司正考虑通过Facebook平台之外的病毒式传播渠道找到大量用户,“我们正尝试通过有效方式解决这个问题。”

不过Facebook Credits的“好友团购”功能Buy wih Friends却可为这款游戏创造有利的传播渠道,因为这款游戏使用的付费虚拟货币正是Facebook Credits,MetroGames还通过该货币的折扣系统,向用户提供了特价游戏道具。除此之外,Facebook的无障碍支付功能“Frictionless Credits”(游戏邦注:该功能支持用户在无需退出游戏界面的情况下,直接点击完成3美元以下的交易),也是能该游戏创收渠道兼容的选项。例如,玩家失手被警方拘捕时,就可以交出2个Credits贿赂警察以躲过牢狱之灾,这样也就不会导致任务失败。

Gatling称他们会想方设法让道具交易更加方便快捷,但目前来看,Facebook Credits的支付流程还是有点不理想,因为它只能在Facebook自己的窗口中执行操作,这一点与游戏的视觉风格很不协调。所以他们如果可以简化支付流程,就能够更好地创造收益,他们会认真考虑Frictionless Credits和Buy wih Friends这两种功能。

由此看来,MetroGames似乎打算以游戏的独特性为卖点来获得关注,Gatling表示他原来预测游戏的暴力风格可能会引起用户反弹,但目前为止,他们还没有听到任何有可能吸引用户关注这款游戏的争议。他希望用户只会把这款游戏与《侠盗猎车手》进行对比,而不是和其他Facebook游戏相比较,因为掌机游戏与Facebook游戏之间差别很大,不存在实际可比性。

据他所称,“我们认为自己锁定的用户群体在此之前,可能没有玩过太多的Facebook游戏,许多Facebook游戏都还不具备《Auto Hustle》所提供的这种交互性。”

MetroGames目前在Facebook平台的16款游戏的MAU是430万,DAU是63.6万,其影响力最大的游戏是《Fashion World》,它的MAU是190万,DAU为31.1万。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

MetroGames’ Auto Hustle Builds on Facebook Mafia Theme, Looks for Hardcore Gamers

MetroGames’ Grand Theft Auto homage, Auto Hustle, debuted last October and only just now seems to be hitting its stride on Facebook as the developer announces the game’s official “launch” today. According to our social game traffic tracking service, AppData, Auto Hustle already enjoys 93,000 monthly active users and 13,000 daily active users.

The game puts players in the role of a gangster in a grimy city setting. Gameplay is structured around missions played in a top-down third person view where players control their characters with keyboard inputs similar to traditional PC games and with mouse clicks to fire weapons or use melee attacks. In our early look at the title last year, the story element of the game wasn’t readily apparent, but one of the many updates to the game appears to be story cut scenes that player unlock both by accepting and completing missions. Artwork in menus also looks like it got a makeover with some extremely visceral weapon effect animations (see below).

We spoke with MetroGames Lead Designer Joe Gatling about Auto Hustle’s prospects on Facebook given its hardcore game angle and evolutions within the Facebook games platform. In particular, we asked Gatling to explain how Auto Hustle would find its hardcore gamer audience when, traditionally, the Facebook audience doesn’t appear to host them.

“We are going to have to build a player base from scratch,” Gatling told us. “The concept of crime games on Facebook is pretty big, so we already know there is a market for the theme. The question is whether or not there is a market for both the theme and the gameplay. So attracting those players is going to be an interesting challenge.”

As it stands, MetroGames is hoping to leverage what few viral growth options Facebook has left developers with after clamping down on wall posts and friend invites. Cross-promotion wouldn’t work well for Auto Hustle given that it’s completely unlike other games in MetroGames’ portfolio. So, Gatling says, the developer is thinking of going off Facebook to search for viral growth among the audience it hopes to attract. “We’re still trying to work out how we can do that in an effective way,” he said.

It may be that Facebook Credits restores some virality to Auto Hustle in the form of features like Buy With Friends. Because Auto Hustle uses Credits as its premium currency, MetroGames has the option of using the discount system for some of its in-game items. Additionally, some of the game’s existing monetization methods would work well with Frictionless Credits, which would allow players to make purchases under $3 without having to leave the game. For example, the game allows you to bribe a police officer with two Credits when being arrested mid-mission to avoid jail, which would result in a failed mission.

“Anything that we can do to make the transactions more simple is definitely [our goal],” Gatling said. “Right now, the Facebook Credit process is a little bit jarring since it involves using Facebook’s own windows, which don’t fit with the visual style of the game. So anything we can do to simplify the process is going to help monetization. We’re definitely looking into Frictionless Credits and Buy With Friends.”

For now, it looks as though Auto Hustle hopes to cash in on its uniqueness as a means to get attention. Gatling says he was actually expecting some backlash on the level of violence in the game, but so far hasn’t heard anything that would generate the kind of controversy that could ultimately drive users toward the game. His only real concern, he said, is that people who compare Auto Hustle only to Grand Theft Auto and not to other Facebook games might come away disappointed because of the disparity between console games and Facebook games.

“We definitely think that the audience that we’re targeting may not have played that many Facebook games before since there aren’t that many Facebook games that offer the level of interaction that Auto Hustle does,” Gatling said.

MetroGames currently has 4.3 million monthly active users and 636,000 daily active users across all 16 of its Facebook games according to AppData. Fashion World is easily its largest title to date at 1.9 MAU and 311,000 DAU.(source:insidesocialgames


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