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每日观察:关注社交游戏的品牌植入慈善活动(5.6)

发布时间:2011-05-06 16:37:43 Tags:,,

1)热门iOS游戏《Trade Nations》在美国iPhone综合应用榜单上位列第17名,在iPad平台则是第14名,最近还移植到了Facebook平台。该游戏的Facebook版本由加拿大工作室Bight Games开发,其iOS版本则由西雅图的Z2Live发行,这两家公司原先曾因版权问题而争执不下(游戏邦注:Z2Live称他们雇用了Bight Games作为外包商,帮忙完成游戏美工和设计玩法),最终双方各让一步,Z2Live拥有该游戏的iOS版权,而Bight Games则享有Facebook版本的所有权。

Trade-Nations

Trade-Nations

2)当世界头号恐怖分子本拉登已死的消息曝光数小时后,热门在线游戏网站Newgrounds随即出现一款名为《圣战者组织》(Mujahedin)的免费Flash游戏。该游戏首先会出现一个本拉登欢迎你的界面,而作为新晋成员的玩家则会开始自己的塔利班集训,游戏任务就是走进一个军事基地并将其炸毁,然后就算是完成游戏任务,并可赢得集训营的证书。当然玩家也可以选择中途退出游戏,并按下回车键赞扬真主安拉(也就是让自己立即被枪决)。

该游戏仅持续10秒左右,并不能算是真正意义上的游戏,其创建者声称自己只是借此讽刺基地组织。

Mujahedin

Mujahedin

3)据Boston.com报道,位于波士顿的社交游戏开发公司Hangout因运营不善于日前宣布倒闭,而当地另一家工作室Ayeah因其首款社交游戏《FanSwarm》出师不利,也在最近关闭了该项目。

Hangout之前曾获得多家风险投资机构的1200万美元支持,推出了一个失败的3D虚拟世界项目,以及社交游戏《Fashion City》,该公司实际上在2008年开始就已经呈现发展颓势,并从当时起开始裁员。而Ayeah的首款游戏《FanSwarm》总共仅收获了3.5万名玩家,该公司创始人表示他们目前还在寻找其他出路。有观察者认为,这两家公司的创始人均来自企业科技而非电子游戏行业,这一点也许正是其失败的重要原因之一。

4)社交游戏发行商Pixonic日前面向开发者推出了《社交游戏开发指南》(Social Games Cookbook)一书,针对开发者创建游戏过程中遇到的普遍问题,传授了打造成功社交游戏项目的要诀,其主要内容包括如何制作具有吸引力的视觉效果、创建友好的用户界面等各种内容。该公司的分析团队计划持续更新该书内容。

Hospitopia

Hospitopia

5)社交游戏《Hospitopia》携手儿童奇迹网络医院(Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals)展开慈善活动,据该游戏开发商CausePlay公司所称,他们已和毛绒玩具公司JUMBiES合作,在游戏中植入了一个“迷你JUMBiES游戏”以及其他与该公司相关的游戏元素。玩家即日起可选择任何一家儿童奇迹网络医院名单中的医院体验游戏,并为该医院的儿童捐赠50个JUMBiES,整个推广活动期间玩家捐赠JUMBiES的总数将达250个。

CausePlay公司表示他们为各个赞助商提供了在游戏中无缝植入品牌的服务,并将这种技术称为Cause Integration,并称这种做法将变革现有的广告植入模式,使用户黏性和品牌塑造实现重大突破。

6)GDC欧洲专场的活动组织者日前宣布,Playdom、Playfish和NetherRealm等社交游戏开发商代表将出席该大会的社交游戏峰会(游戏邦注:该大会举办日期是8月15至17日)。

该大会今年关注的话题包括Facebook游戏、MMO游戏、网页在线游戏等。Playdom全球发行副总裁Paul LaFontaine将发布“社交游戏不再局限于Facebook平台”的重要演讲,旨在为开发商指点迷津,引导他们看清Odnaklassniki.ru和腾讯QQ.com等海外平台所带来的发展机遇。

除了社交游戏峰会之外,GDC欧洲专场还将举办独立游戏峰会、智能手机及平板电脑游戏峰会、玩家社群管理峰会等各种活动。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

1)Trade Nations Comes To Facebook Following Success on iOSMay 5th, 2011

Medieval city building game Trade Nations has enjoyed success on iOS, clocking over 200 million game sessions in four months and now it looks to bring the experience to Facebook with a newly launched port. It is currently ranked as the 17th highest grossing app for iPhones in the U.S. and 14th highest grossing for iPads.

Trade Nations on Facebook was developed by Bight Games. It was originally published on iOS by another studio, Seattle’s Z2Live, which hired Canada’s Bight Games as a contractor to design artwork and gameplay for the title. Both subsequently had a small dispute where they each claimed ownership of the intellectual property behind the game.

They came to an agreement, with Z2Live telling our sister site Inside Mobile Apps that it owns the rights to distribute Trade Nations in perpetuity on iOS while Bight is free to do what they want with the Facebook title.(source:insidesocialgames

2)Osama bin Laden game: Searing satire or totally tasteless?

On Sunday, the world was disrupted by the news that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden is dead. A few hours after the fact, a free Flash game — called Mujahedin — appeared on the popular online game site Newgrounds.

The game opens with a pixelated bin Laden welcoming you — a new recruit — to the first online Taliban training program (see image above). Your mission: To simply walk into a military base and blow it up. Once the task is done — it’s game over, and you will earn your training camp diploma. You also have the option during the game to stop and to hit ‘Enter’ to praise Allah (which will get you shot immediately).

The whole experience lasts all of 10 seconds and isn’t really much of a game, which leads me to believe creator GroggyLobster, when s/he says Muhahedin is “supposed to be satire.”(source: games

3)Sometimes, social games aren’t all rainbows and pools filled with green papers adorned with old Benjamin Franklin’s mug. For some, like Boston-based developers Ayeah and Hangout, it can be a rough time. According to Boston.com, Hangout has been shut down while Ayeah shuttered its only game, FanSwarm.

Hangout closed its doors completely after raising $12 million from various venture capital firms, launching an unsuccessful 3D virtual world and later Fashion City. The game allowed players to run virtual fashion shows with clothing from real-life designers.

According to Boston.com, Hangout’s decline was a slow one, as the layoffs came as early as 2008 and continued well into 2010. Now, the company has ceased all communication: no phone, no website, nada.

As for Ayeah, the company is reevaluating its situation after FanSwarm, the first “social reality” game on Facebook, according to the company. The game allowed players to predict the success of up-and-coming celebrities as if they were Hollywood talent agents. After attracting just about 35 thousand players, Ayeah founder Doug Levin told Boston.com that the game has officially been taken down.

“We’re trying to figure out what to do with it,” Levin said. “There were significant challenges getting the game’s monetization to meet our customer acquisition cost.” According to Boston.com, the two company chiefs, Levin and Hangout’s Pano Anthos, have extensive backgrounds in enterprise technology–not video games. Perhaps that’s what makes the difference.(source:games

4)Pixonic has Released a Cookbook for Successful Social Games Development

Pixonic, social network games publisher, has released a cookbook for game developers. Social Games Cookbook is neither a manual nor a strict set of rules but rather a recipe book on how to make hits.

There are over 1,000 professional game development studios all over the world, and it’s exactly for them that Pixonic team, who use their own PixAPI platform to publish games in social networks, have revealed the secrets of successful game development in their new cookbook. It contains answers to the developers’ hottest questions, practical recommendations and Pixonic team’s know-hows.

“When we decided to publish the book, we learned, to our surprise, that no one had ever done anything like that before,” says Elena Masolova, Pixonic CEO. “The studios and developers that we work with publish their games in social networks all over the world. However, they usually face similar problems, make the same mistakes, and ask our producers the same things. We decided to put all the recipes together to help those who want to make their own hit games.”

The book contains a lot of recipes on how to make attractive graphics and a comfortable, user-friendly interface of social games; it describes what the first game session should look like, why quests are important, and what makes an ideal social game so different. All the recommendations are written in a plain and clear language.

“Plan the first session ahead for the players and reward them for all the good choices – take them by the hand. Reward them through quests or by balancing experience for each level,” the authors suggest. “Any energy spending has to be rewarded. If you don’t know how to reward players, give them experience.”

The recommendations suggest that the game developers don’t ask players to count or compare numbers, give reasons why players shouldn’t be given an opportunity to make bad choices, and explain that the most important things about the game are an intriguing plot start and respect for the player’s gaming regime.(source:prnewswire

5)Hospitopia and JUMBiES Play Social Games for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals

A revolution in social gaming has just arrived via a new game called Hospitopia. Perched at the intersection of social games and social good, Hospitopia launched on Facebook in 2011 in partnership with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. The cause-based social game helps raise funds through social gaming.

“We believe with the sheer numbers of people playing games in the social space, creating games that generate funds for worthy causes will revolutionize the way people support and give to the causes they hold dear,” said Jonas Hudson, founding partner and President of CausePlay, the company behind Hospitopia.

Hospitopia has partnered with JUMBiES, a plush toy company that has integrated a “mini-JUMBiES game” in Hospitopia as well as other game components. Players for the next five months starting today will be able to choose a CMNH hospital to play for and earn a donation of 50 JUMBiES for the kids in the preferred hospital! A grand total of 250 JUMBiES will be donated during the run of the promotion.(source:prweb

Within each game, CausePlay will offer sponsors the ability to seamlessly integrate their brand into the Hospitopia game. CausePlay calls the technique Cause Integration, and it promises to revolutionize product placement, consumer engagement and brand building.

6)GDC Europe 2011 Debuts Playfish, Mortal Kombat, Playdom Talks

GDC Europe organizers have announced new lectures for the August show, including Social Games Summit talks by Playdom and Playfish, and NetherRealm on creating Mortal Kombat’s cinematics.

Taking place Monday through Wednesday, August 15-17, 2011 at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost, GDC Europe 2011 — alongside the major gamescom trade show — will again provide the essential pan-

European perspective of game development and business trends.

New to the conference this year is the Social Games Summit, which will feature panels and lectures from some of the most influential figures in the social space, on topics including Facebook games, persistent MMOs, web-based online titles, and much more.

As part of the Social Games Summit, Playdom’s VP of global distribution Paul LaFontaine will host a talk dubbed “Social Gaming is no Long Just Facebook,” during which he will help developers prioritize which platforms to develop for among the ever-growing sea of regional and specialized social networks like Odnaklassniki.ru and QQ.com.

Many more GDC Europe Main Conference sessions are due to be revealed over the next few weeks for the event — part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website. In addition to the Social Games Summit, GDC Europe has added a notable Summit on indie games, as well as a Summit on smartphone and tablet games and the Community Management Summit to the existing line-up of learning and inspiration.(source:gamasutra


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